<< I vaguely remember somewhere reading about the bowdlerizing of (what
to us today would be) the word "n-word" in the King James version of
the Bible, converting it to some obscure word instead. I can't
remember where I read it --- was it the recent Gore Vidal review of
the Thurnstrom's? Was it in Counterpunch?? Where oh where did I see
this?
Does anyone know where this might have appeared, or know anything
about what I'm talking about?
Bill >>
Yes, it was from Gore Vidal's recent article about the Thernstroms in the Nation. GV was referring to a notorious statement by Maimonides that blacks were among those primitive outlanders who were unable to receive the word of God. Turn of the century translators bowdlerized Maimonidies by translating "blacks" as "Kushites," Kush being the biblical term for Ethiopia.
Dan Lazare.