The Gove Bible

I've now had an opportunity to handle one of the copies of the Bible that the present Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has caused to sent to every school in the land, including primary schools. It is a beautiful object, bound in red, the pages with silvered edges, protected by a sturdy slip case, and some philanthopists have had to fork out a bob or two to meet the £375,000 bill.


But what edition of the Bible is it, you are entitled to ask. One in simple English appropriate for schoolchildren of all ages, with the juicier bits of the Song of Solomon discreetly reworded?


Is it eckerslike. It's a facsimile of the 401-year-old King James Bible, complete with the archaisms of the English of that period (modern editions of the King James Bible update spellings and character substitutions in the interests of greater readability.) As a bonus it also includes earlier forms of the lectionary, prescribing the readings for every day of the year.


It would be a marvellous tool for scholars - but for primary school kids? Even their teachers would be struggling with the orthography.


The clue is in the press release that went with the distribution. Apparently the King James Bible is an icon, in the debased set of resonances that that word now carries ('iconic' is used at least eight times in any single early evening TV news programme, so that it now means roughly 'mildly interesting'.)


An education secretary who compounds a bungled project with the language of spin is inviting ridicule when he makes portentous statements about the English of the KJV.