Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Corinthians 5:17)
I'm stuck on the use of are become here. Is it grammatical or is it just old English?
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related– cornbread ninja 麵包忍者Jun 14, 2012 at 15:14
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1Not Old English, but older English, namely Early Modern English which was the variety that KJV was written in.– MitchJun 14, 2012 at 16:40
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Possible duplicate of Is it acceptable to use "is become" instead of "has become"?– user50720Jul 3, 2018 at 4:05
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1 Answer
It's archaic, but it was entirely grammatical when it was written.
Some English verbs used to be conjugated with "to be" rather like French verbs of motion still are. Modern English would use "have become". This also applies to "are passed away" in your quote.
Because it's archaic, it's occasionally still used now, particularly in Church liturgies, which tend to ossify language.
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answered Jun 14, 2012 at 15:06
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