[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

More pre-1611 quotes to go with the 8 in post 30. One looks like a second quote from John King. These may be the two mentioned in this thread. We have more than enough that all the details are now less important.

1583
GREENE Mamillia II. B3b,
Most vniustly straining at a gnat, and letting passe an elephant.

And this is covered in some extra depth at:
http://tinyurl.com/63q7dj
Dictionary of Christianity by Jean C. Cooper
Where Mamillia is given as evidence of established usage at the time.

1594
J. KING On Jonas (1599) 284
They have verified the olde proverbe in strayning at gnats and swallowing downe camells.

To a reasoning mind, this group of quotes (now at 10) would even be by themselves (without the translator notes or the absolute consistency in KJB editions) virtual proof positive that there was no misprint or printer error, simply a translation decision that "strain at a gnat" was the superior translation. The three aspects together are proof positive.

From my notes, I wasn't sure the exact source of these, however for one we have one of the few actual discussions of the phrase history:

http://www.dountoothers.org/curious42507-4.html
to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel

TO MAKE A FUSS OVER TRIFLES BUT ACCEPT GREAT FAULTS WITHOUT COMPLAINT. This, as are many others, is a Biblical expression. It is found in Matthew xxiii, 24-26 : “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess . Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” But the translators of the King James Bible of 1611 were already familiar with this figure of speech. It had appeared in Lectures upon Jonas by Bishop John King, first printed in 1594, reprinted in 1599, in which the bishop himself said, “They have verified the olde proverbe in strayning at gnats and swallowing downe camells.”

And we now also have:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qQMfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA102
The Literature of Roguery:
Defence of Conny-Catching (1592)
You "would straine a gnat, and lette passe an elephant;"

And google shows more in:

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journ...3.3kumaran.pdf
Robert Greene's Martinist Transformation in 1590
a Gnat, and lette passe an Elephant: that would touch small scapes, ... bert’s charge that Greene ‘‘strain[s] a Gnat and let[s] passe an Elephant’’ ...

So this was clearly a regular usage at the time of the King James Bible.

Shalom,
Steven