“Ancient Words, Ever True” – 10

 

                                                                             

                              THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH

 

 

1.                  Three very practical things made the development of the English Bible possible between the late 1300's and the early 1600's.

 

a.                   One was the growth of English as a language from the language of Chaucer to the language of Shakespeare to the language of the King James Version of the Bible.

 

b.                  Another was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1453, which made it possible for books to be produced and distributed widely.

 

c.                   The third, which resulted from the one just mentioned, was the availability of a Greek text (not Latin or some other version) which could be translated into English.

i.                    Between 1514 and 1522 (when it was actually circulated), Cardinal Ximenes issued the first printed Greek Bible.

(1)               It was called the Complutensian Polyglot because it was done in Complutium, Spain and it was done in a number of different languages.

(2)               What Greek manuscripts he used have not been determined for certain.

ii.                  Erasmus, a reformer who wanted to the text to be available to everyone, became the first to publish a Greek New Testament in 1516.

(1)               He did it hurriedly to get ahead of Ximenes, and as a result the product contained some printing errors.

(2)               Since he could not find a manuscript which contained the entire Greek Testament, he made use of several which were available to him for various parts of the New Testament.

(3)               Where no Greek text was available to him (for example, the last few verses of Revelation), he produced one by translating the Latin Vulgate into Greek.  Some statements (like 1 John 5:7) may have been included in order to get the work done.

(4)               Though his work was not perfect, it was important and subsequent translators made use of it.

(5)               His work became part of the basis for what came to be called “the Received Text.”

iii.                Stephanus printed a Geek text in 1546 at Paris.

(1)               It was based on editions of the two we have mentioned plus about fifteen other manuscripts, and it influenced later translations.

(2)               His third edition, printed in 1550, was the first to include notations about variant textual readings.

(3)               The fourth edition of it in 1551 was the first to have verse divisions, which were to be incorporated into English translations.

iv.                Theodore Beza produced several editions (at least nine) of the Greek N.T. in Geneva between 1565 and 1611.

(1)               He was a leader of the Geneva community after John Calvin.

(2)               His work was to exercise influence on the Geneva Bible, and through it on the King James Version.

v.                  The Elzevir brothers issued a Greek text in 1629.

(1)               In the preface of their 1633 edition of it they wrote, “Therefore you have the text now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted.”

(2)               The Latin for the “text received” is Textus Receptus.  This term and this type of text became the standard for many years.

 

2.                  While these factors were developing, so was a strong desire to make the scriptures available to common English-speaking people in their own language.  The first example of this was the work of John Wycliffe, who along with his associates became the first to give a complete Bible to the English public about 1384.

 

a.                   He believed that everybody had a right to read the Bible for himself, and said, “No man is so rude a scholar but that he can learn the words of the gospel according to his simplicity.”

 

b.                  Wycliffe did not know Greek, and his Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate.

 

c.                   A contemporary of Chaucer, Wycliffe and his associates produced one very literal translation and one which was in idiomatic English.

 

d.                  His translation and the revisions that were later made grew in popularity.

i.                    Copies of it were very expensive, but its influence was strong.

ii.                  Some expressions found in it are still familiar to us: “strait gate,” “make whole,” “compass land and sea,” “son of perdition,” “enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” “the mote” and “beam.”

 

e.                   Wycliffe’s efforts were strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church.

i.                    A synod that met in 1382 condemned his opinions about everyone reading the Bible for himself, and a synod in 1408 prohibited the circulation of his translation.

ii.                  In 1414 a law was enacted that said anybody found reading his writings should “forfeit land, catel, lif, and goods from their heyres for ever.”

iii.                Wycliffe was so hated by the Catholic church that the Council of Constance in 1415 ordered his body to be dug up, burned, and the ashes thrown in the river Swift.  He had been dead for more than thirty years.

 

3.                  Nearly 150 years after Wycliffe’s work, another crucial step was taken when William Tyndale’s printed English New Testament appeared in 1525 and 1535.

 

a.                   Common English-speaking people still had little or no access to the Bible because the position of the authorities was that Latin was the proper medium for religious expression, and that if the Bible was handed over to the common man mistaken teachings would result.

 

b.                  Tyndale was convinced that the languages of the Bible could be translated into English than into Latin and that ordinary people could know the Scriptures better than most of the authorities did.

 

c.                   The availability of the printing press and the spirit of the Renaissance (which stressed returning to the sources of truth) made the time for his work right.

 

d.                  Tyndale’s New Testament was based on Erasmus’ early Greek texts and was translated directly from the original language.

i.                    He had to go to Germany to do it because the opposition was so strong.

ii.                  Copies of his printed Bible were smuggled into England in shipments of grain and cloth.

iii.                It is estimated that as many as 50,000 copies of his N.T. were in circulation before he died in 1536.

iv.                Many familiar phrases came into the English Bible through his work: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt. 6:24), “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow” (Mt. 6:18), “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country” (Mt. 13:57), “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20), “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), “The unsearchable riches of Christ,” (Eph. 3:8), “Forgive us of our trespasses, even as we forgive our trespasses” (Mt. 6:12).

 

e.                   Tyndale was finally betrayed by a friend for doing his unauthorized work.

i.                    He was imprisoned and executed (strangled and burned at the stake) near Brussels in 1536.

ii.                  His last words were, “Lord, open thou the King of England’s eyes.” 

iii.                Copies of his work were bought and burned.

 

f.                   About the same time he was doing his work, Martin Luther had been producing the first German translation based on the original Hebrew and Greek.  The process of making the Bible available in languages other than Latin was not going to be stopped.

 

4.                  Miles Coverdale issued the first complete printed English Bible in 1535.

 

a.                   It was the same year Henry VIII had repudiated papal authority and had become the supreme head of the church in Britain, and Coverdale’s Bible was dedicated to him.

 

b.                  This Bible was a translation from various existing ones (Tyndale, Luther, the Vulgate and others) rather than the Hebrew and Greek.

 

c.                   Several phrases Coverdale’s Bible have influenced the wording of the English Bible in a lasting way: “Man goeth to his long home” (Eccl. 12:5), “the pride of life” (1 Jn. 2:16), “the world passeth away” (1 Jn. 2:17), “loving-kindness” or “tender mercy,” “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills” (Ps. 121:1), “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11), “Is there no balm in Gilead” (Jer. 8:22), and “swaddling clothes” (Lk. 2:7).

 

d.                  The king had not authorized Coverdale’s work, but he permitted it.  The religious atmosphere was changing in England.

 

5.                  Once the doors were open, the printing press made it possible for many versions of the English Bible to appear.

 

a.                   Matthew’s Bible, a revision of Tyndale and Coverdale, was done by Thomas Matthew in 1537.  Though he also died at the stake, this Bible was the first “authorized version” in England.  The preface read in part, “Set forth with the kinges most gracyous lycence.”

 

b.                  Richard Taverner issued a Bible in 1539.  It was based on the text of Matthew’s Bible and it was one of the first to be completely printed in England.  It first used the word “parable.”

 

c.                   The Great Bible (called this because of its size) appeared in 1540.  Overseen by Coverdale, it was the first official Bible of the Church of England.  It bore the inscription “Appointed to be read in Churches,” and each parish was ordered to buy a copy and set it up for all to use.

 

d.                  The Geneva Bible, a revision of the Great Bible, was issued in 1560.  It was the first English Bible to be divided into Stephanus’ numbered verses.  It was produced by a group of Puritan refugees in Switzerland and has been called the Bible of the Reformers.  It was the one read in homes and the one Pilgrims brought with them on the Mayflower, so the influence of this translation has touched our own country.

 

e.                   The Bishops’ Bible, another revision of the Great Bible, became available in 1568.  The authority for it came from Queen Elizabeth and the church of England. It contained notes which were intended to counteract the Puritan notes in the Geneva Bible.  The main importance of the Bishops’ Bible is that the men who worked on the King James Version were mandated to use it as a starting point.