16世紀イングランドでは，ルネサンスと宗教改革は奇妙な形で共存していました．ルネサンスに伴う知識の爆発はラテン語やギリシア語への憧れを生み出し，英語はそこから大量の単語を借用することで語彙を格段に豊かにしました．一方，宗教改革に伴う自国語意識の高まりから，英語そのものの評価も高まりました．このような相矛盾する言語文化の中で英訳聖書が誕生することになりました．英語がいよいよ輝きを増してきた時代に焦点を当てます．
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| ルネサンス | 宗教改革 | |
|---|---|---|
| 時系列 | 先 | 後 |
| 全般的性格 | 普遍的 | 個別的 |
| 地理 | 南欧的 | 北欧的 |
| 語派 | イタリック語派 | ゲルマン語派 |
| 尊重される言語 | 古典語（ラテン語，ギリシア語） | 自国語（英語） |
| 権力の基盤 | 教皇 | 国王 |
| 重視される信仰対象 | 贖宥状（免罪状），聖遺物，聖画像など | 聖書 |
| 文化 | 聖界文化，エリート文化 | 世俗文化，大衆文化 |
| 活版印刷術の利用 | 消極的 | 積極的 |
| 暦 | グレゴリウス暦 | ユリウス暦 |
altar, Anthony, assault, author, comptroller, debt, delight, doubt, falcon, fault, indict, island, language, perfect, phantom, psalm, realm, receipt, salmon, salvation, scholar, school, scissors, soldier, subject, subtle, throne, victual (cf. #1187)
A Table Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true vvriting, and vnderstanding of hard vsuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French. &c. With the interpretation thereof by plaine English words, gathered for the benefit & helpe of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or any other vnskilfull persons.
Actus Quartus.
Enter the Pedant, Curate and Dull.
Ped. Satis quid sufficit.
Cur. I praise God for you sir, your reasons at dinner haue beene sharpe & sententious: pleasant without scurrillity, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresie: I did conuerse this quondam day with a companion of the Kings, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Dom Adriano de Armatha.
Ped. Noui hominum tanquam te, His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptorie: his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate maiesticall, and his generall behauiour vaine, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, to affected, too odde, as it were, too peregrinat, as I may call it.
Cur. A most singular and choise Epithat,
Draw out his Table-booke,
Ped. He draweth out the thred of his verbositie, finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such phnaticall phantasims, such insociable and poynt deuise companions, such rackers of ortagriphie, as to speake dout fine, when he should say doubt; det, when he shold pronounce debt; d e b t, not det: he clepeth a Calf, Caufe: halfe, hawfe; neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh abreuiated ne: this is abhominable, which he would call abhominable: it insinuateth me of infamie: ne inteligis domine, to make franticke, lunaticke?
Cur. Laus deo, bene intelligo.
Ped. Bome boon for boon prescian, a little scratched, ’twill serue.
(cf. #4475)
Authorized Version (1611)
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to an other, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us city and tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there con found their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
新共同訳
世界中は同じ言葉を使って，同じように話していた．東の方から移動してきた人々は，シンアルの地に平野を見つけ，そこに住み着いた．彼らは，「れんがを作り，それをよく焼こう」と話し合った．石の代わりにれんがを，しっくいの代わりにアスファルトを用いた．彼らは，「さあ，天まで届く塔のある町を建て，有名になろう．そして，全地に散らされることのないようにしよう」と言った．主は降って来て，人の子らが建てた，塔のあるこの町を見て，言われた．「彼らは一つの民で，皆一つの言葉を話しているから，このようなことをし始めたのだ．これでは，彼らが何を企てても，妨げることはできない．我々は降って行って，直ちに彼らの言葉を混乱させ，互いの言葉が聞き分けられぬようにしてしまおう．」主は彼らをそこから全地に散らされたので，彼らはこの町の建設をやめた．こういうわけで，この町の名はバベルと呼ばれた．主がそこで全地の言葉を混乱（バラル）させ，また，主がそこから彼らを全地に散らされたからである．
