inspired by Light

clicking about the site at the end of this link from Mr Gaiman's blog, i came across this article:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/book-burnings-potter-tech-media_cz_ds_books06_1201burn.html

of course, the bit i found most interesting was the idea that William Tyndale 'coined' the phrase 'Let there be Light.'

trusty ol' wikipedia has this to say:

In translating the Bible, Tyndale introduced new words into the English language:

• Jehovah (from a transliterated Hebrew construction in the Old Testament; composed from the tetragrammaton YHWH and the vowels of adonai: YaHoWaH)
• Passover (as the name for the Jewish holiday, Pesach or Pesah),
• Atonement (= at + onement), which goes beyond mere "reconciliation" to mean "to unite" or "to cover", which springs from the Hebrew kippur, the Old Testament version of kippur being the covering of doorposts with blood, or "Day of Atonement".
• scapegoat (the goat that bears the sins and iniquities of the people in Leviticus Chapter 16)

He also coined such familiar phrases as:

• let there be light
• the powers that be
• my brother's keeper
• the salt of the earth
• a law unto themselves

Is [sic] should also be noted that Tyndale's translation was notoriously bad. St. Thomas More commented that searching for errors in the Tyndale Bible was similar to searching for water in the sea. Tyndale translated the term baptism into "washing;" Scripture into "writing;" Holy Ghost into "Holy Wind," Bishop into "Overseer," Priest into "Elder," Deacon into "Minister;" heresy into "choice;" martyr into "witness;" evangelist into "bearer of good news;" etc., etc. Many of his footnotes were vicious. For instance, Tyndale referred to the occupant of the Chair of Peter, as "that great idol, the whore of Babylon, the anti-Christ of Rome."

(here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale.)

admittedly, i myself never imagined the Whore of Babylon as looking anything like Pope Benedict XVI. on that note, 'that great idol' brings someone more like this to mind (yes, that was rather gratuitous, wasn't it? at least i chose a relatively 'family-friendly' link, so don't go burning blogs just yet, there's a good chap).

then again, what do i know, yeah? (definitely not, prior to some more clicking about the nifty ol' interweb, this.)

it should, however, be noted that ultimately it is Steven Colbert who has dibs on the Word.