Influential English Translations of the Bible in the Sixteenth Century

Ｋ：】Ｓｅｒｖｅｒ／四国大学紀要／２０１６年／人文・社会科学編（第４６号）／横組／平歩 2016.07.19 16.43.46 Page 16 四国大学紀要，!A４６：１６１－１７３，２０１６ View metadata, citationBull. and Shikokusimilar papers Univ. !A at４６ core.ac.uk：１６１－１７３，２０１６ brought to you by CORE 研究ノート Influential English Translations of the Bible in the Sixteenth Century Ayumi HIRA １．Introduction period（1500-1900）. The remarkable events during the period of Old English were the settlement of the This paper aims to provide an overview of the Germanic tribes such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes history of English Bibles as part of a preliminary in the middle of the fifth century, Christianization in study of the linguistic impact of the Geneva Bible the seventh century, and the invasions by Vikings, during the reign of Elizabeth I（1533-1603 ; Queen of the Danes, dating back to the eighth century England and Ireland 1558-1603）. The Christian Bible （Nakao, 2008）２. Before the Anglo-Saxon settlers consists of the Old Testament, written primarily in became dominant in England, it is most likely that Hebrew, and the New Testament, written in Greek. the earliest inhabitants of Britain were the Celts The first complete English translation of the Bible from Europe in the sixth to fifth century BC. Then, appeared in the late fourteenth century, affecting the Roman invasion in 55 BC and 54 BC, known as other renderings in the following centuries（See part of the Gallic Wars waged by Julius Caesar（100 ２．２．１）. This paper focuses on the influential BC-44 BC）began, and the occupation lasted roughly English translations of the Bible in the sixteenth for４００years between 55 BC and AD 410. As Old century, which is the first active period of Bible English is also called Anglo-Saxon, it was basically a translation in the context of the English Refor- language of Germanic tribes, still maintaining basic mation : Tyndale’sTranslation（1525）,Joye’sTra- words and grammar in English today, with the nslation, Coverdale’s Bible（1535, 1537）, Matthew’s influence of Latin, Celtic languages, and Old Norse３. Bible（1537）, the Great Bible（1539, 1540）,the After 250 brutal years of destruction and violence, Geneva Bible（1560）, and the Bishops’Bible（1568）１. Cnut the Great（c. 995-1035）, Danish himself, ruled England rather peacefully from 1016 to 1035（Nakao, ２．History of the English Language 2008）. Before discussing each English Bible, it would ２．２ Middle English Period（１１００-１５００） be of help to overview the history of the English The historic turning point in English history Language focusing on historical events and atti- between the Old English period and the Middle tudes towards English rather than the development English period was the Norman Conquest of of English itself. In addition, the first influential England. In 1066, Duke William II of Normandy, English Bible, Wycliffe Bible, will be referred to. France, and his military invaded and began their rule of England, which transformed English society ２．１ Old English Period（４５０-１１００） from Germanic to Romantic with the introduction of The history of English falls into three periods : feudalism. As one of the major impacts of the the Old English period（450-1100）, the Middle conquest, Anglo-Norman French, a variety of nor- English period（1100-1500）, and the Modern English thern French dialects, became the official language ―１６１― Ｋ：】Ｓｅｒｖｅｒ／四国大学紀要／２０１６年／人文・社会科学編（第４６号）／横組／平歩 2016.07.19 16.43.46 Page 16 Ayumi HIRA of upper classes for the affairs of royal court, tten by Geoffrey Chaucer（c. 1343-1400）, known as government and education. In those days, English the“Father of English Poetry”, is one of the re- was used among common people, though most of presentative works composed in Middle English. He them were illiterate, and Latin was a written lan- left works written in Middle English, a language for guage for scholars and clergy in Church. Hence, a common people, neither in French for upper classes triplex structure of language existed in England４. nor Latin in Church. The influence of the Renaissan- In 1204, John（King of England 1199-1216）, ce in Europe had already come to England, albeit only originally from the lands of Anjou in France, lost slightly through Italy and France in the fourteenth the territory of Normandy and his other French century. It is assumed that Chaucer was influenced possessions to King Philip II of France, after which by Dante Alighieri（1265-1321）, the greatest Italian some Normans left for France and others remained poet, who defended use of vernacular tongues in England５. This is thought to have created aware- instead of Latin in literary forms as seen in his ness of English among Normans in England. The masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. In his definition of Hundred Years’ War between the House of Planta- the ‘vernacular’, one of the qualities was ‘illustrious’, genet in England and the House of Valois in France that meant a speech“which belongs to all the towns from 1337 to 1453 also heightened the growing in Italy but does not appear to belong to any one of public sentiment towards the French language as them（”Habib, 2007, p. 190）. In the beginning of the the enemy’s language（See 2. 3）. This probably gave fifteenth century, the Chancery Standard of written impetus to ideas of French and English nationalism. English based on the East Midlands-influenced Then, a parliament was conducted with an opening London dialect developed, accompanied with the in- speech in English after the Pleading in English Act troduction of printing press by William Caxton（See 1362 was issued at the threshold of the complaint 2. 3）. that common people would not understand French in court, known as“Law French”（Jespersen, 1982）. ２．２．１ Wycliffe Bible（１３８０） This means that English officially replaced French During the Middle English period, the first as an official language of England while English was complete English Bible was produced by John still immature in terms of vocabulary. Therefore, Wycliffe（c. 1330-84）. He was an influential theolo- English had to borrow French and Latin political gian and religious reformer, known as the“Morning and legal terminology thereafter. Star of the Reformation.”Because of his criticism of Prior to the fourteenth century, there were five worldly corruption of prelates in Church, which was regional dialects, but no common language of both governed by the Pope from Rome and had privile- spoken and written English（Nakao, 2008）.From ged status in England, Wycliffe was displaced from the fourteenth century, a migration flow from the any public position. Wycliffe advocated that Chris- East Midlands to London accelerated, and a new tians should follow the Bible as the main authority London dialect developed based on the dialects of of Christian faith, suggesting the necessity of easy the East Midlands and some other regions. In access to a vernacular Bible. This also encouraged addition, the disappearance of case endings led to individual interpretations of the Bible rather than fixed word order, which contributed to simplifica- Church interpretations. tion of the English language at the grammatical Wycliffe commenced a rendering of the Bible level during this period. The Canterbury Tales wri- from the Vulgate into Middle English. The Vulgate ―１６２― Ｋ：】Ｓｅｒｖｅｒ／四国大学紀要／２０１６年／人文・社会科学編（第４６号）／横組／平歩 2016.07.19 16.43.46 Page 16 Influential English Translations of the Bible in the Sixteenth Century is a Latin translation of the New and Old Testaments, which attests to the impact of this version on the fo- which is assumed to be the work of St. Jerome（c. llowing English Bibles as well as literature（Gilmore, 342-420）. The Vulgate was the only authorized 2000）６. To sum up, Wycliffe Bible was the first version of the Christian Bible in the West for more complete English Bible as well as the most influen- than a thousand years. Wycliffe completed the tra- tial English Bible transcribed in handwriting, prece- nslation of the New Testament in 1380, and further ding the introduction of printing press in England. the whole Bible including the Old Testament in 1382（Terasawa, et al., 1975）. Yet, it remains un- ２．３ In the Sixteenth Century known how much of the translation he did himself. The Middle English period is followed by the In fact, it is thought that most of the Old Testament Early Modern English period（1500-1700）,which was translated by Nicholas of Hereford（unknown- coincides with the Tudor dynasty（1485-1603）.This 1420）, a friend of Wycliffe（Gilmore, 2000）. includes the Elizabethan Era（1558-1603）, referred Wycliffe organised itinerant preachers, the Lollards, to as the“Golden Age”, the height of the English which disseminated his teachings by reading the Renaissance. After the Hundred Years’ War（See 2. 2）, English Bible aloud to common people surrepti- there was the Wars of the Roses, which was an tiously in barns, caves and underground, which was English civil war between the two royal houses, the perceived as a seditious threat to church authorities Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. （George, 2003）. The movement led by Wycliffe is The Wars of the Roses began in 1455 and lasted considered as the precursor of the Protestant Refor- until the death of Richard III（reigned 1483-1485）, mation, influencing the religious thought of Jan Hus Yorkist King, at the Battle of Bosworth in １４８５. （c. 1369-1415）in Bohemia, whose teachings, in turn, Then, Henry VII（reigned 1485-1509）, Lancastrian had a significant influence on Martin Luther（1483- King, established the Tudor dynasty, which impo- 1546）.

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