He, therefore, made a new word, or put
two old words together to express exactly what he thought the Greek
word meant. The word _beautiful_ may not have been actually invented
by the translator, William Tyndale, but it is not found in any book
earlier than his translation of the New Testament. It seems a very
natural and necessary word to us now. It was Tyndale who first used
the words _peacemaker_ and _scapegoat_ and the compound word
_long-suffering_; and another famous translator, Miles Coverdale, who
invented the expressions _loving-kindness_ and _tender mercy_.

But the great effect which the Bible has had on the English language
is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. Its chief
effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have
passed into everyday use, so that people often use Biblical phrases
without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the
case with many phrases taken from Shakespeare's works.

Every one knows the expression to _cast pearls before swine_, and its
meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to
appreciate them." This expression, taken from the Gospel of St.
Matthew, has now become an ordinary English expression. The same is
the case with the expression, _the eleventh hour_, meaning "just in
time." But perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes
from the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, though, of course,
most people would.

Other common Biblical expressions are, _a labour of love_, _to hope
against hope_, _the shadow of death_, and so on. When a child is
described as the _Benjamin_ of the family, we know that this means the
youngest and best loved, because the story of Jacob's love for
Benjamin is familiar to every one. Again, when a person is described
as a _Pharisee_ no one needs to have a description of his qualities,
for every one knows the story of the Pharisee and the Publican.

The Bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most
vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the
everyday speech of Englishmen has been most important in the
development of the English language. Without the Bible, which is full
of the richness and colour of Eastern things and early peoples, the
English language might have been much duller and less expressive.

But the religious writers of the Reformation period gave us another
kind of word besides those found in the translations