Original surpassed

“… Although the exact meaning of a writer must always suffer some detriment by the translation of his thoughts into a language different from that in which they were first conceived and expressed, yet probably there is no book in the world which has lost less in translation than the Bible. This is more especially true of our English [AV] translation. The more delicate shades of meaning sometimes disappear, no doubt, in the English translation of the Bible, as they must in the translation of any book; but the beauty of the original is rivaled, is often indeed surpassed, by the beauty of the translation. And this is not surprising, when we consider that the Greek of the New Testament, and, though only in some portions and in a less degree, the Hebrew of the Old Testament, belong to periods when those languages were in a state of decadence; whereas the English of the translation represents the golden era of our national tongue, the era of its greatest fertility, and vigour, and grandeur — the era of Spenser, Shakespeare, and of Hooker.”

Rev. W.R.W. Stephens, Prebendary of Chichester,
Christianity and Islam, Four Lectures
London, Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1877