The Legacy of the King James Version by Leland Ryken

My college literature professor has written a very well-documented treatment of the influence of the KJV. He also accesses and explains its beauty and power.

His case is strong and persuasive. I am less satisfied with his view of translation, which is simplistic and anglocentric. He of all people, steeped in the ways of allegory and metaphor and idiom, should know that these are so culturally based that translation across very different cultures must address the meaning of phrases in their cultural context. He calls this 'dynamic equivalence,' and as he uses it, it is pejorative. I think the brilliant King James translators did this far more than he realizes.