Why are English Bible and Torah verses still heavily Germanised to this day?

by Slipperyseashell

I was just came across a few of each and noticed how they still use the second person singular "thou" along with the verb conjugations.

For example:

19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

When English might have been spoken this way, we didn't even decide on how each word should be spelled either. So it's like they're using modern spellings with pre- and early-modern grammar.

As a side note: I believe works by Shakespeare are admissable in using older grammar because the original Shakespeare plays were written using this sort of English. The Bible, on the other hand, is being translated from Greek.

WelfOnTheShelf

Your example is Deuteronomy 11:19 in the King James Version, which was published in 1611, i.e. in Shakespeare's lifetime when this is what English looked like. It hasn't been "Germanized", it's just how Early Modern English looks! The KJV translated from the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, but the translators also consulted the Latin Vulgate as well as various other English translations, such as John Wycliff's from the 14th century and William Tyndale's from the 16th century, among others (there were already several English versions before the KJV).

More recent translations don't use the old-timey grammar and vocabulary. For example in two popular translations from the 1970s and 80s:

New International Version: "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

New Revised Standard Version: "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise."

So, that's really the short and simple answer...the version you quoted is from 1611!