The History of the English Language Bible
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DISCOVER TheThe HistoryHistory ofof thethe EnglishEnglish LanguageLanguage BibleBible Presbyterian Heritage Center Learning Initiatives Booklets, Presentations, DVDs Learning Initiatives Series The Presbyterian Heritage Center (PHC) creates new exhibits each year from its archives and artifact collections, as well as from loans of materials from individuals and institutions. Onsite, we utilize many different techniques to educate, including the displays, videos, touch screen kiosks and more. To reach young people, we conduct Confirmation Classes (history), Collegiate Studies & Visitations, Supplemental Club Programs, Youth Conference Related Exhibits, Online & Hands On Activities and Youth Sunday School Lessons for all Presbyterian denominations. In addition to these limited-time exhibits, the PHC seeks to provide accompanying educational materials, such as learning booklets, online downloadable materials and DVD resource disks for adults and young people. The Presbyterian Heritage Center (PHC) believes that learning can be exciting, inspiring and transformational. The PHC has a responsibility to future generations to promote strong learning skills and an awareness of their role as participants and guardians of the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage. The PHC seeks to serve youth and adults through this ever expanding educational series. For more information, go online to www.phcmontreat.org or call 828.669.6556. Front cover photo shows title pages of a 1611 first-edition King James Version of the Bible, with insets left-to-right of a Wycliffe manuscript Bible (c. 1388), Queen Elizabeth’s Bishops Bible (1568) and a Geneva Bible (1560). Copyright © 2016. Presbyterian Heritage Center. PO Box 207, Montreat, NC. 800.669.6556 www.phcmontreat.org [email protected] Permission is granted for use in non-profit, educational & religious activities. Table of Contents 2 Preface 13 King James Version of the Bible Six teams of translators worked for five 3 The Pre-Reformation years on the King James Version. From early Anglo-Saxon translations 14 Fifteen Rules for KJV Translators 5 Think About It 15 Think About It 6 The Dawn of the Reformation — 16 Comparisons of Selected Individual Efforts Translations Individual translators between 1526 — A look at Genesis I and Psalm 23 in vari- 1540s led the English translations effort. ous Bible translations from Wycliffe to 6 William Tyndale the King James Version, as well as familiar 7 Myles Coverdale sayings coined by William Tyndale. 8 John Rogers & The Matthews Bible 17 Think About It 9 The Great Bible 9 Think About It 18 18th - 20th Century Translations More than 100 new translations were cre- 10 Teams of Translators — ated for a variety of reasons. Geneva, Bishops & King James 18 Think About It Scholarly teams tackled newly discovered original sources to produce Bibles for 19 A New Illuminated Bible in the Presbyterians, Pilgrims, Anglicans and 21st Century Catholics. The first illuminated manuscript Bible in 10 The Geneva Bible over 500 years was completed in 2011. 11 The Bishops’ Bible 19 Think About It 12 Rheims-Douai Bible 12 Think About It 20 Glossary & Index Source: Presbyterian Heritage Center 1 Preface Remaining true to our goal to be independent, Michael Morgan, Richard Ray, Kay Stockdale, innovative and interactive, we are using many and others. different techniques to engage our onsite and Artifacts, archival documents, photos and online visitors. These techniques include films more were donated or lent for the History of playing on a large screen television, touch screen the English language Bible exhibit by many, kiosks and this educational discussion guide. including: And sometimes, we use the low-tech approach, Michael Morgan such as displaying these rare Bibles to trace the The British Library history of English-language translations and Saint John’s University influences over the centuries. The collection of the Presbyterian Heritage This guide is intended to provide additional Center provided numerous Bibles from the materials for the exhibit, while teaching compre- 18th through 20th centuries, as well as images, hension skills for young people. Among the skills woodcuts and other graphics. are analytical, explanatory, research, writing, gen- A special thank you is offered to our eralization, reasoning, summarization and more. financial contributors in the past, in the I’d like to thank Michael Morgan, Lisa Harrold, present and the hopefully in the future. Lucy Dusthimer, Betsy Neville, Ann Vinson and Diana Sanderson for their invaluable contributions to this exhibit, as well as the Montreat Conference Center for arranging the Saint John’s Bible. Ronald W. Vinson We also are grateful to the exhibit advisory PHC Executive Director committee of John Akers, Nancy McGuirk, 2 Source: Presbyterian Heritage Center The Pre-Reformation How to save souls? There was a long debate during the latter portion of the Middle Ages among clerics about reforms needed to convert more people to Christianity. Early reformers (i.e., challengers to the west- ern Roman Catholic Church) often focused on one goal — translating the Latin Bible or portions of the Bible into the common spoken tongue of the country so the populace could more easily read it. Originally the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, with a Latin translation attributed to St. Jerome (c. 347 - 420 A.D., also known as Eusebius Sophronius Hierony- mus before sainthood was conferred) made in the late 4th century. This Vulgate (“commonly used”) Latin Bible became the standard used by the Roman Catholic Church for a 1,000 years. Efforts to translate the Bible into Old English (i.e., Anglo-Saxon) began in the 8th century when Bishop Aldhelm (639 - 709 A.D.) trans- Tower of Babel Illustration lated the Psalms. A monk named Bede (673 - Old English Hexateuch (c. 1035 A.D.) 735 A.D., also known as Venerable Bede) trans- Image courtesy of The British Library lated the Gospel of John, which was lost. MS Cotton Claudius B.iv., f. 19 In the 9th century, King Alfred (849 - 899 A.D.) translated “The Ten Commandments,” ing the late 10th and early 11th century. probably the But the Norman Invasion of England in Psalms and some 1066 brought a temporary end to Anglo-Saxon other Biblical translation efforts. segments. Toward the end of the 1300s, Oxford teacher Later, English and priest John Wycliffe and his followers began Abbot Ælfric of translation work on the first complete Bible in Eynsham Middle English. These manuscript Bibles were (c. 955 - c. suppressed. And the next major translation ef- 1010) and oth- fort would wait until the 1520s and 1530s. ers translated the beginning books Medieval England Aelfric of Eynsham of the Bible dur- One of the earliest vernacular translations — 3 the language spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region — of the first six books of the Old Testament into the English language was probably compiled in the second quarter of the 11th century at St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, circa 1035 A.D. This text of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua was richly illuminated in a manuscript called The Old English Hexateuch or Old English Illustrated Hexateuch. The Tower of Babel Illustration from the manuscript accompanies this article on the preceding page. The Old English Hexateuch manuscript con- sists of translations and a preface by Ælfric of Eynsham, while the remaining parts were car- ried out by anonymous authors. Another copy of the text, without lavish illustrations but including a translation of the Book of Judges instead of Joshua (hence also called the Old English Hexateuch), is found in the Bodleian Library in Oxford University. It is notable that in his translations, Ælfric 1395 Wycliffe Manuscript Bible in Middle English did not translate it word for word from the Latin, often paraphrasing to better convey the He also preached that the Eucharist was sym- meaning. bolic. Wycliffe’s followers were derisively called Lol- Wycliffe & Lollards lards, or “mutterers,” by the Catholic Church. John Wycliffe (c. 1324 - December 1384), Wycliffe declared that every Christian had also spelled Wyclif, Wycliff, Wiclef, Wicliffe, or the right to read the Bible, and that the Bible Wickliffe, was a reformer. enabled every Christian to learn the importance A priest and an educator of Christ as salvation, without the trappings of at Oxford, he was a critic pilgrimages, performed good works and the of some of the church’s Latin Mass. practices. In his latter years, Among Wycliffe’s followers, Nicholas of Wycliffe increasingly pro- Hereford apparently finished the Wycliffe Bible moted the need to have manuscript in Middle English about 1384. An the Scriptures in the ver- improved second edition was translated by nacular. He challenged the Wycliffe’s secretary, John Purvey, about 1395. church’s hierarchy and John Wycliffe These Bibles collectively are known as Wycliffe luxurious living of bishops. Bibles, even though Wycliffe did not do the 4 final translations. Nearly 200 copies of these two manuscript versions have survived. When John Purvey made his 1395 revision, there were three dialects existing in Middle English. Purvey chose Midland English, the dialect of London, which was also used by Chaucer, a contemporary of Wycliffe. The Wycliffe or Lollard movement was effec- tively suppressed in England. But his writings migrated to Bohemia through students who had studied under Wycliffe at Oxford. His cause and teachings were taken up by John Hus. Forty-four years after Wycliffe’s death (in Forty-four years after Wycliffe’s death, the church 1428), the Catholic Church showed its linger- condemned him for heresy in promoting transla- ing displeasure with Wycliffe and his followers tion of the Bible and exhumed his body, burned it by disinterring Wycliffe’s bones, burning them and scattered his ashes in a river. and dumping the ashes into a river. The act is depicted in the accompanying illustration from The followers of Hus religious teachings Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, PHC Collection.