St. Paul from the Trenches

While in the trenches during active service with the Somerset Light Infantry during World War One, Gerald Warre Cornish wrote his own version of St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians and Ephesians, translated using the King James Bible and a Greek New Testament. 


Brought to you today almost 100 years later, the translation still seems to give forth its racy freshness from the old mud-stained copybook in which it was written in the trenches. Its abrupt ending is sufficient evidence that the task upon which the author embarked was never completed.


It is not difficult to imagine how Cornish made use of the long hours he spent waiting in the trenches for battle. With comrades and rats for company, he read and reread the King James Bible that was issued to him. There, with pencil in hand, he set about re-translating some of the most powerful words in the English language.


Like any translator Cornish wrote against the backdrop of his day and drew on the vivid images he had to hand. This is where St Paul from the Trenches is at its best, providing a powerful new perspective on Scripture from the vantage point of suffering and war.