Enoch is wrong
Sir: J. Enoch Powell in his review of Tyn- dale's Bible (Books, 19/26 December) says that the translators of the Authorised Ver- sion relied 'heavily and without acknowl- edgment upon earlier versions'.
On the contrary, their 'Translators' Note to the Reader', printed in the earliest edi- tions, acknowledged fully their reliance upon their predecessors:
Trudy (Good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that wee should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, but to make good one better, or out of many good ones, one principall good one, not justly to bee exepted against.
If we building upon the foundation that went before us, and being holped by their labours, doe endeavour to make that better which they left so good, no man, wee are sure, bath cause to mislike us . . . The same will shine as gold more brightly, being rubbed and pol- ished.
Mark Blackett-Ord
2 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London WC2
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