The Bible in English: A brief history
by Kathleen Campbell
Early English translations
Since the clergy and the upper classes were trained
in Latin and much of the rest of the population was illiterate, there was
for many years little need for translations of the Bible into English.
With written material available only in manuscript, even those able to
read Latin had little access to the Biblical text. The lay population received
instruction from the clergy and through the images presented in stone and
glass on the great cathedrals.
A few translations were made of portions of the
Bible; these included short glosses to Latin texts and longer, sometimes
poetic version of whole books. Some of these were apparently created for
the use of monks and nuns; there is little indication they were available
to the lay population. As manuscripts, their circulation, even among clergy,
was limited.
The rise of Protestantism, with its greater emphasis
on individual access to God, led, perhaps inevitably, to attempts to create
an English Bible. If each individual was equally able to interpret God's
law without mediation from the church, than each individual should have
access to the word of God as recorded in the Bible. Sometime between 1380
and 1384 friends and colleagues of John Wycliffe (1330-1384) produced a
very literal English translation of the Latin Vulgate which was circulated
in manuscript copies.
This translation preserved Latin constructions
and word order even when they conflicted with English usage. A revised
version, circulated after Wycliffe's death and probably created by Wycliffe's
secretary, John Purvey, used English idiom and syntax. While there was
nothing heretical about either translation, accompanying introductions
and notes suggested the theological bias of the translators, which the
Catholic hierarchy associated with the Lollards, a sect of reformers associated
with John Wycliffe. Both Purvey and Nicholas of Hereford, a contributor
to the early version, were imprisoned for their activities and some of
their associates were executed. Despite this condemnation, manuscripts
of the translation, minus the incriminating notes, remained in many Catholic
homes, even after a synod of clergy at Oxford in 1408 forbade anyone to
translate, even to read, a vernacular version of the Bible without the
approval of a diocesan bishop or a provincial council.
Early Printed Bibles
The advent of printing had a far-reaching effect
on the creation of an English Bible. The first dated printed book was a
Latin Psalter (1454), and the first major work was the Gutenberg Bible
(1456). A complete Hebrew Bible was printed by 1488. A Greek New Testament
was printed in 1514 but not published until later, making Eramus's 1516
edition the first published New Testament in Greek. These and other printings
made it possible for translators to work from the original languages rather
than from the Latin Vulgate translation on which other English versions
had been based. Erasmus's edition was the basis for Luther's German New
Testament, printed in 1522, and the first English New Testament, translated
by William Tyndale and first printed in 1525.
Tyndale's Translation
Tyndale was born in 1494 or 1495 and educated
at Oxford and Cambridge. As a tutor, he translated an early work by Erasmus
and came to the attention of county ecclesiastical authorities who charged
him with heresy, a charge that was not sustained. Tyndale became
convinced that much of the confusion concerning various matters then under
debate was the general ignorance of the Bible, even among the clergy, and
determined to make a vernacular English translation from the original Greek.
He could not do so legally in England, however, without church approval.
In the summer of 1523, he sought permission for the endeavor from the Bishop
of London but did not receive it. Eventually, he decided to go abroad to
work on his translation.
Printing of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament,
based on Erasmus's Greek edition, was completed by the end of February,
1526. Tyndale revised his New testament in 1534 and 1535; the 1534 version
became the definitive one. By 1530, Tyndale had published his translation
of the first five books of the Old Testament; a year later he published
an edition of Jonah. He also completed a translation of the Old Testament
books from Joshua to Second Chronicles although it was not published until
it was incorporated into "Matthew's Bible," in 1537. Many of Tyndale's
readings found their way into the Authorized Version of 1611 (eventually
known
as the King James Version).
Tyndale's Old Testament translation was the first
to be rendered directly from the Hebrew rather than from the Latin Vulgate.
While most educated men of the period read some Greek and Latin, few knew
Hebrew, and Tyndale spent many years studying the language before making
his translation. The Tyndale Old Testament, is idiomatic and surprisingly
fresh. In Genesis 3, for example, the snake replies to Eve's protests with
"Tush, ye shall not die." Elsewhere we read that Joseph was a "lucky fellow"
and that pharaoh's "jolly captains" drown in the red sea. Not only was
this an English Old Testament, the volume was small enough to fit in a
pocket; anyone could carry and read these books on their own, without the
mediation of the clergy.
A Complete English Bible
By the time of Tyndale's death, a version of
the complete Bible, in English and drawing largely on Tyndale's work, was
being circulated. This Bible was the work of Miles Coverdale, an Augustinian
friar who left his order under the influence of the Reformation movement
and sought safety on the continent. There, he worked as Tyndale's assistant
and proof reader before returning to England in 1535. For much of the rest
of his life, he alternated between periods of English residence and exile,
escaping death under Mary Tudor only because of the intervention of the
King of Denmark, but finally settling in England permanently in 1559.
Coverdale's Bible was printed in 1535 and imported
into England, a dedication to the Henry VIII being added to the imported
copies. Henry had earlier directed Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, to
produce an English Bible. When Coverdale's Bible appeared, the clergy reviewed
it for heresy and, finding none, recommended it to Henry, who approved
its circulation. Unlike Tyndale, Coverdale was unable to work from the
original Hebrew and Greek. Instead he created his version by consulting
German and Latin translations. He clearly also consulted Tyndale's translations:
his Old Testament relies on Tyndale's work for those books
Tyndale had published before his imprisonment
and his New Testament is essentially Tyndale's with some revision based
on other tests. Coverdale never identified himself with Lutheranism to
the extent Tyndale did; because of this his work met with greater acceptance,
even among a court that, while no longer Catholic, was strongly anti-Lutheran.
Its acceptance was due at least in part to the patronage of Anne Boleyn.
Soon after Coverdale's Bible was printed, a version
known as "Matthew's Bible" appeared. Again owing a great debt to Tyndaleand
probably edited by his assistant John Rogers using the pseudonym Thomas
Matthew, this 1537 edition was licensed by the king.
A 1537 edition of Coverdale's Bible, printed in
England (the first complete Bible to be printed there) also received the
king's license. The Great Bible of 1539, claimed to be the product of the
efforts of diverse scholars, is essentially Coverdale's revision of Matthew's
Bible (which was principally a revision of Tyndale's work). The Great Bible
became the official Bible of the Church of England and in 1543, Parliament
banned Tyndale's translation. Ironically, this act also forbade any unlicensed
person to read the Bible or explain it to others publicly and for the lower
classes to read it privately. In 1546, Henry explicitly banned both Tyndale's
and Coverdale's versions, despite the fact that the Great Bible combined
the work of both men.
Controversies concerning Biblical translation
continued through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I.
After the conservative reaction at the end of Henry's reign, the Reformation
movement flourished under Edward, only to be suppressed again under Mary
Tudor. Some closely associated with the work of Biblical translation, including
John Rogers and Thomas Cranmer, were executed; others, including Coverdale,
fled the continent. The Great Bible, however, remained the official English
Bible during these years, but when Elizabeth I ordered that each parish
church should have a copy of the Bible in English a new version was available.
First printed in 1560, the Geneva Bible, produced by a group of English
exiles in Geneva and strongly influenced by John Calvin, quickly became
the most widely used English Bible.
The Geneva Bible was again a revision of the Great
Bible and thus highly dependent on Tyndale's work. For the first time,
however, those books of the Old Testament that Tyndale had not translated
were revised with attention to the Hebrew originals. The Geneva Bible contained
extensive notes, many of them strongly Calvinist in content. In reaction
to this Calvinist bias, a group of English bishops, under the direction
of Matthew Parker, revised once again the Great Bible, producing a version,
published in 1568, that eliminated any offensive notes, but it never gained
widespread popularity.
The Authorized Version of 1611
After James I became king in 1603, a conference
of churchmen recommended that a new translation of the Bible be created,
without any marginal notes, for use in the services of the Church of England.
James, who particularly disliked the Geneva Bible, welcomed the proposal
and supervised the organization of the project. Six panels of forty-seven
men, including most of the leading Biblical scholars of the time, divided
the work of the initial translation. The resulting draft was then submitted
to a smaller group, including representatives from each panel, for review;
the resulting text was printed in 1611. The translators agreed upon rules
that may have been drawn up by James himself: the Bishop's Bible was to
serve as the basis for the new version; the most commonly used version
of proper names was to be used; the old version of disputed words was to
be used ("church" instead of "congregation"); marginal notes would be used
only to explain Greek or Hebrew words or to point to parallel passages;
existing chapter and verse division would be kept but new headings would
be created for the chapters. Although commonly called the Authorized Version,
it was never officially authorized by either church or state. James's active
participation in its creation, however, did much to recommend it and this
version, popularly known in the United States as the King James version,
became the most widely used Protestant English Bible.
The Douai Bible
The development of an English Bible was not entirely
a Protestant undertaking. At the same time that English exiles in cities
such as Antwerp and Geneva worked on a Protestant Bible, another group
of exiles in northern France worked on a Catholic Bible. The English College
at Douai was founded in 1568 by William Allen, moved to Rheims in 1578
and back to Douai five years later.
During the time it was located in Rheims one of
its professors, Gregory Martin, produced a Bible in English, translated
from the Latin Vulgate. The New Testament was published in Rheims
in 1582 and the Old Testament in Douai in 1609-10. Together these books
form the Douai Bible, the principal English Catholic Bible until the creation
of the Jerusalem Bible in the mid-twentieth century.
