How Reliable is Our Bible (4)

Last week, we discussed that due to centuries of copying by hand, errors have gradually crept into Bible manuscripts. As a result a highly developed science called Textual Criticism has come about. We also took a look at the different “text types” and concluded by attempting to answer “which Greek text best represents the original reading.” In this article, we wish to examine the development of the English Bible.

For a millennium or more, Latin dominated western Europe as the “language of the learned.” This meant that the early Bibles in England were not in English, but Latin. For the most part, 10-11 centuries went by without the common man having access to God’s word. By the late 1300’s this slowly began to change.

The Wycliffe Bible

In 1382—John Wycliffe and his assistants translated the Scriptures from Latin into English. This is the first translation of the complete Bible made in English. In 1388, John Purvey, a close friend of Wycliffe revised the 1382 version—and “this held sway until the sixteenth century.” (Lightfoot, p. 65) Wycliffe’s translation circulated illegally for almost 150 years before the first printed English Bible appeared. Today, about 170 manuscript copies (hand written) of Wycliffe's Bible have survived. For more than a century, The Wycliffe Bible was the only vernacular edition available, it was never printed until 1850.

During the early 1500’s William Tyndale would come on the scene and play a significant role in getting the bible into the hands of the common man. He is quoted as saying to one of his opponents, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” Due to constant threats from the Catholic church Tyndale fled to Belgium. Between 1534 & 36 he translated the entire Bible into English. Over 15,000 copies of his translation were printed. They were all smuggled into England, hidden in bales of cotton, sacks of flour, and bundles of flax. Bishops were buying up whole editions to be burned. His work created an appetite for the Bible in English. Tyndale was imprisoned and later strangled and burned at the stake crying, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

After Tyndale’s death many more English versions of the Bible would come out. With the publication of the Great Bible by Miles Coverdale in 1539, Henry VIII made a decree that this bible “should go abroad among the people.” Soon, copies of the Great Bible were placed in every church in the land. Lightfoot has observed, “People flocked eagerly to the churches to see the Bibles which had been set up for reading, and at times the preachers complained because the people chose rather to read the Bible than listen to their sermons.” (p.67) The Great Bible was so named because of its great size. The later years of Henry VIII were marked by a serious reaction against the Reform movement. In 1543 Parliament passed an act to ban the use of Tyndale’s NT, and it became a crime for reading it publicly to others. This situation did not improve with the brief reign of Edward VI. In 1553, the accession of Mary Tudor resulted in hundreds of Protestants losing their lives, including John Rogers and Thomas Cranmer. Coverdale escaped to Europe, while English Reformers escaped to Geneva, one being John Calvin. In 1557 William Wittingham produced the first English NT printed in roman type and with text divided into verses.

In 1560, the Geneva Bible was released. This would become the most popular Bible of the sixteenth century. It was printed in legible type, in small form, and was complete with illustrations. This version printed each verse as a paragraph and put words in italics not represented in the original texts. “The Geneva Bible was the Bible of Shakespeare and of the Pilgrims who journeyed to America.” (Lightfoot, p. 67)

In 1604, King James called a meeting of representatives of diverse religious groups together to discuss religious toleration. Here, a suggestion of a new translation was made. The king was agreeable and soon laid out the main requirements which were to be followed. (One of the main rules was that there were to be no notes of comment except what was essential in translating the text. The Geneva Bible presented the views of John Calvin and of the reformation.)

Work on the King James translation began in 1607. Their task was not to make a new translation but to revise the 1602 edition of the Bishop’s Bible. In fact, they drew on all of the previously published English translations, some Latin versions, and even on Luther's German translation and consulted the Hebrew and Greek texts available to them. The work was greatly influenced by William Tyndale's New Testament. One third of the text was carried over from Tyndale's translation. 48 Greek & Hebrew scholars were chosen and were divided into six companies. Each company was only to work on selected books—which was reviewed by the other companies. This continued almost three years. In 1611—the new version came off the press. Since 1611, several revisions of the King James Version have been made, most notably in 1613 where over 400 corrections were made from the original printing. Other revisions were made in 1616, 1617, 1629, 1638, 1743, 1762, and 1769.

The King James Version became the most widely used translation in the English-speaking world. It was never officially sanctioned by the king or parliament.

See also a History of the English Bible.

(to be continued…)