THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH

A brief history - Part One

In the early days of the English Church there was no need for a Bible in the English language. The clergy and the upper classes were trained in Latin and so could read the Latin versions, while the hoi polloi, the ordinary people, were illiterate, and so couldn't have read it even if one was available in English. What bibles there were were hand-made manuscript copies, and so even those able to read Latin probably never saw one. For the majority of people, their knowledge of bible stories came from the clergy and through the images presented in stone and the painted glass in church windows. Some translations into English of some portions of the Bible were made; these included short explanations of Latin texts and longer, sometimes poetic version of whole books. Most of these were apparently created for the use of monks and nuns, and there is little indication that they were available to the lay population. Again, these were manuscripts copied by hand, and their circulation, even among clergy, was limited.

The rise of Protestantism, with its greater emphasis on individual access to God, inevitably led to attempts to create an English Bible. After all, if each individual was equally able to interpret God's law without mediation from the church, then 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 produced a very literal English translation of the Latin Vulgate which was circulated in manuscript copies. This translation, for some reason, preserved Latin constructions and word order even when this was contrary to English usage. A revised version appeared after Wycliffe's death, and this, probably created by Wycliffe's secretary, John Purvey, used English idiom and syntax. Neither translation was in any way heretical,and introductions and notes suggested the theological bias of the translators. Both Purvey and Nicholas of Hereford, a contributor to the early version, were imprisoned for their activities. They were the lucky ones - some of their associates were executed. And manuscripts of the translation, without the notes of course, were to be found in many Catholic homes, even after a synod of clergy at Oxford in 1408 forbade anyone to translate, or even read, an English version of the Bible without the approval of a diocesan bishop or a provincial council.

But all this was to change. In 1448, Johann Gutenberg borrowed some money and set up his newly-invented movable-type printing press. The first dated printed book was a Latin Psalter which appeared in 1454, and the first major work, what is known as the Gutenberg Bible, became available in 1456. This was followed by a complete Hebrew Bible in 1488. A Greek New Testament was printed in 1514 but not issued until later, so that the edition produced by Erasmus in 1516 was the first published New Testament in Greek. These and other printings enabled translators to work from the original languages rather than from the Latin Vulgate translation on which other English versions had been based. Luther's German New Testament was printed in 1522.

Then came William Tyndale. He was in born in Gloucestershire in 1494 or 1495 and educated at Oxford. He then went to Cambridge which had a reputation as a centre of Greek study which Erasmus had helped to establish. As a tutor, he translated an early work by Erasmus, which brought him to the attention of some ecclesiastical authorities who charged him with heresy. Fortunately for Tyndale the charge 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 an English translation from the original Greek. To do this legally he needed church approval. In the summer of 1523, he sought consent from the Bishop of London to carry out this work. Permission was refused. Eventually, he decided to go abroad to work on his translation, and in 1525 he went to Cologne to start work.

Printing of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, based on Erasmus's Greek edition, was completed by the end of February, 1526. He revised it in 1534 and 1535, but it was the 1534 version that became the definitive one. By 1530, he had translated and published the first five books of the Old Testament, and a year later an edition of Jonah appeared. He also completed a translation of the Old Testament books from Joshua to the Second Book of Chronicles, though this was not published at the time. Tyndale's translation of the Old Testament was the first to be made directly from the Hebrew rather than from the Latin Vulgate. Most educated men of the period could read some Greek and Latin, but few knew Hebrew, and Tyndale spent many years studying the language before making his translation, which is very idiomatic. In the story of Adam and Eve, for example, when Eve said that if she ate the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden she would die, the snake replies "Tush, ye shall not die". Elsewhere we are told that Joseph was a 'lucky fellow' and that pharaoh's 'jolly captains' drown in the Red Sea. But the real importance of this version was that it was small enough to be carried in a pocket, so that anyone could carry one and read it on their own without the need of the clergy.

This, then, was the beginning - the start of a story which has its ups and downs, a story of religious persecution culminating in executions. But that must wait until next month.

BILL HUTCHINGS