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“Zeal to Promote the Common Good” the Story of the King James Bible1 Michael A

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“Zeal to Promote the Common Good” the Story of the King James Bible1 Michael A “Zeal to Promote the Common Good” The Story of the King James Bible1 Michael A. G. Haykin he sixteenth century was one of the great eras many good ones, one principal good one.”3 And of Tof English Bible translation. Between 1526, those many good versions that preceded the KJV, when William Tyndale’s superlative rendition of two especially deserve mention in any sketch of the the New Testament was printed, and 1611, when history of the KJV: Tyndale’s New Testament and the King James Bible (KJV), or Authorized Ver- the Geneva Bible. sion, appeared, no less than ten English-language Bible versions were published.2 The WILLIAM TYNDALE AND HIS DUTY Michael A. G. Haykin is translators of the KJV were quite “Widely acknowledged as the most formative Professor of Church History and 4 Biblical Spirituality at The Southern conscious of their deep indebted- influence on the text of the King James Bible,” Baptist Theological Seminary. He ness to this beehive of translation the New Testament of William Tyndale (c.1494- is also Adjunct Professor of Church activity that preceded their work. 1536) comprises some four-fifths of the KJV New History and Spirituality at Toronto As they noted in the “Preface” of 5 Baptist Seminary in Ontario, Testament. Tyndale’s deep-rooted conviction, Canada. Dr. Haykin is the author the KJV, drawn up by the Puritan formed by the early 1520s, that the Scriptures of many books, including “At the Miles Smith (1554-1624), who had were essential to the reformation of the church Pure Fountain of Thy Word”: Andrew been among those responsible for in England had led him ultimately to Germany, Fuller As an Apologist (Paternoster Press, 2004), Jonathan Edwards: The the translation of the Old Testa- where, a competent die-cutter and printer, Peter Holy Spirit in Revival (Evangelical ment prophets and who had also Schöffer the younger, published the Tyndale New Press, 2005), The God Who Draws taken part in the final revision of Testament in 1526 at his print-shop in Worms. Near: An Introduction to Biblical the entirety of the Old Testament, Schöffer initially ran off a print-run of either three (Evangelical Press, Spirituality 6 2007), and Rediscovering the Church they had not sought to “make a or six thousand copies. The seven hundred or Fathers: Who They Were and How new translation.” Rather, it had so pages of text of this New Testament was in a They Shaped the Church (Crossway, been their “endeavor” or “mark” to black-letter or Gothic font and printed in a com- 2011). “make a good one better, or out of pact octavo format, clearly designed to be carried 18 SBJT 15.4 (2011): 18-29. with ease. There were no verse divisions, which did New Testament he prepared to accompany his edi- not come into vogue until the Geneva New Testa- tions of the Greek text from 1516 onwards.11 ment of 1557, but only simple chapter breaks. It Today it is clear that Tyndale had a solid handle was devoid of prologue and marginal notes, both on the Greek language, its grammar and idioms, of which would be found in later editions of the shades of meaning and idiosyncrasies. A further Tyndale New Testament and other later Tudor example of his knowledge of Greek is found in Phi- Bibles. Only three copies survive today: an imper- lemon 7, which Tyndale rightly translates, “For by fect one in the library of St. Paul’s Cathedral that thee (brother) the saints’ hearts are comforted.”12 is lacking the first seventy-one leaves; a copy that The KJV translators later rendered this verse as was owned by Bristol Baptist College, the oldest “the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, Baptist seminary in the world, since the mid-eigh- brother,” taking the Greek word splanchna liter- teenth century and that was sold in 1994 to the ally as “bowels.” But Tyndale rightly recognized British Library for over a million pounds to be the that splanchna is a metaphor for “heart” and thus centerpiece of a celebratory exhibit on the life of should not be translated literally. Tyndale; and a third copy recently discovered in Equally important was Tyndale’s impressive the Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, Germany.7 grasp of the words and rhythms of the spoken As Henry Wansbrough has noted, Tyndale’s English of his day. He knew how to render the translation is “a staggering achievement,” for he Scriptures into the English vernacular so that translated the entirety of the Greek New Testa- they spoke with verve and power. In fact, as David ment into English, without any access to other Daniell notes, what strikes a present-day reader similar English-language translations, for there is how modern Tyndale’s translation seems.13 were none.8 However, when Tyndale’s version For instance, in contrast to the KJV rendering of appeared in England, it received vitriolic criticism Romans 5:2—“we have access by faith”—Tyndale by such literary and ecclesial figures as Thomas has the much more modern sounding “we have a More (1478-1535) and Cuthbert Tunstall (1474- way in through faith.”14 “It is a sure thing” (Phil 1559), the Bishop of London, who said that it 3:1)15 is far more contemporary an expression than was “naughtily translated.”9 More, for example, “it is safe” (KJV). Or consider his punchy version criticized Tyndale for translating presbuteros by of 2 Kings 4:28—he began to work on the Old the term “elder” or “senior” instead of “priest” Testament in early 1530s—“thou shouldest not and for rendering ekklēsia as “congregation” and bring me in a fool’s paradise.” The KJV version is not “church.” The English term “priest” actually quite sedate in comparison, “do not deceive me.”16 derives from the Greek presbuteros and is there- In 1528 Tyndale allowed his name to appear fore not at all a translation of the Greek word. in print for the first time with the publication in Moreover, embedded in it is the idea of one who Antwerp of his exposition of Luke 16:1-12, The performs sacrifice, which is hardly an associated Parable of the Wicked Mammon.17 In his prologue idea of presbuteros. As for the use of congregation “To the Reader” Tyndale noted that some people instead of church as a translation of ekklēsia, the asked him why he had bothered writing the book latter had become a technical term in ecclesiasti- since his Roman Catholic opponents would burn cal jargon, which was hardly the case with regard it, “seeing they burnt the gospel [that is, the New to ekklēsia in the New Testament era.10 Moreover, Testament],” a reference to the burning of a sig- Tyndale was also following the example of Desid- nificant quantity of the 1526 Worms New Testa- erius Erasmus (1466-1536), a friend of both Tun- ment by Cuthbert Tunstall. Tyndale’s response stall and More, who sometimes renders ekklēsia as takes us to the very heart of his understanding of congregatio in his own Latin rendition of the Greek his calling to be a translator: “In burning the New 19 Testament they did none other thing than that I the Geneva Bible. Like all of the English Bibles looked for: no more shall they do, if they burn me of this era, except for that of Tyndale, it was the also, if it be God’s will it shall so be. Nevertheless, joint product of a group of scholars. in translating the New Testament I did my duty.”18 The main translator and editor appears to have The impact of Tyndale’s duty is well seen in an been William Whittingham c.( 1524-1579), a fel- event that took place nearly thirty years after he low of All Souls College, Oxford, who was one of wrote these words. One of his friends, John Rog- the most competent Greek linguists of the day and ers (1500-1555), who played the central role in also fluent in both French and German.24 Among the 1537 publication of “Matthew’s Bible” that the sources that Whittingham used was the 1553 included much of Tyndale’s translation work, was edition of the French Bible of Pierre Olivétain on trial for heresy. It was during the reign of Mary (1506-1538), whose New Testament had been cor- I (1516-1558), known to history as “bloody Mary” rected by Olivétain’s cousin, the great Reformer because of her brutal execution of nearly three John Calvin (1509-1564).25 It is not clear whether hundred Protestants in a misguided attempt to Whittingham was responsible for the translation take the evangelical Church of England back to of the Old Testament. What is certain, according Rome.19 Rogers’s case was being heard by Stephen to David Daniell, is that the Geneva Bible’s Old Gardiner (d.1555), Mary I’s Lord Chancellor. At Testament has a “wonderful richness” and “Britain one point, Gardiner told Rogers, “thou canst prove was truly blessed in the men who made it.”26 nothing by the Scripture, the Scripture is dead: Along with its superb translation of the Old and it must have a lively [i.e. living] expositor.” “No,” New Testaments, the Geneva Bible contained a Rogers replied, “the Scripture is alive.”20 Undoubt- running commentary on the whole Bible in the edly Rogers is thinking of Hebrews 4:12, but his form of marginal notes, what Patrick Collinson has conviction is also rooted in the fact that Tyndale’s called a “portable library of divinity.”27 As shall be rendering of the Scriptures in “English plain seen, some of these marginal notes would infuriate style”21 had played a key role, by God’s grace, in King James I and bias him against this version.
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