Strata: The Bible in the News

In the world of modern Bible translation, my cup “runneth over” (from Psalm 23:5) only in the King James Version. Elsewhere, for the most part, it overflows (as in such diverse versions as the NASB, NRSV, NIV, NAB and CEV^b). Exceptions—such as the NJV’s “brims over” or The Message’s “brims with”—are rare. For poetic evocation, you can count me as a “traditionalist” on this: Nothing quite gets the point across as well as the KJV. And, so it would seem, the popular press agrees: “my cup runneth over” and over in countless stories, especially in the headlines.

The qualms expressed by a correspondent for The Irish Times reflect one category of “cups”: “Week two of the World Cup and my cup runneth over with irritation: gaping, pitch-sized holes in the TV schedules and the incessant buzz of speculation, despair and schadenfreude as, one by one, overpaid thoroughbreds in knee-socks go head to head with the opposition only to be stretchered off again five minutes later, metatarsals twanging and kneecaps popping.”