Introduction
Welcome to the final class of our series on apologetics. Tonight, we will conclude with our history of how we got the English Bible. When we concluded last week, the political winds under King Henry VIII had turned and the king had assigned his head of state, Thomas Cromwell, to produce an officially sanctioned English Bible.
Miles Coverdale
Cromwell was a reform-minded man and had already discussed the idea of a new translation with Miles Coverdale, who had already helped Tyndale complete his translation of the Pentateuch. Coverdale was overjoyed with the idea.
Do you know anyone that has no patience to start a new project? Coverdale felt that way about this translation project and got started well before he had official license from the king.
Cromwell officially told him to start in 1535 and Coverdale already had the work done by October of that year.
Coverdale Bible
The sheets were printed at either Zurich or Antwerp, then shipped to England where they were bound up and republished with an amended title page and a dedication to the king.
This was the first complete Bible ever to be published in English. The Old Testament books were ordered according to the Vulgate rather than the Hebrew and the order of the New Testament was according to Luther’s German rather than Erasmus’ Greek edition.
Baruch was placed among the prophets next to Jeremiah “because he was his scribe.” 1 and 2 Samuel were called Kings 1 and 2. Nehemiah was called 2 Esdras. Hebrews and James were placed between 3 John and Jude. This put the text into clear parts:
- Pentateuch
- Historical books (Joshua to Esther)
- Poetical books (Job to Song of Solomon)
- Prophets (Isaiah to Malachi)
- The Apocrypha
- New Testament
The chapter headings were removed, and chapter summaries put in instead. Some of the ecclesiastical terms that Tyndale had removed (such as “penance”) were put back. Contentious marginal notes were taken out. Coverdale tried hard not to take shots at any particular sect.
Coverdale knew Latin well, but very little Hebrew and Greek, so much of his translation was based on the work of others, especially Tyndale and St. Jerome, Sanctus Pagninus (a learned Dominican who had published a new Latin translation in 1528), and German translations by Luther, and the Zurich Bible (from Ulrich Zwingli and Leo Juda).
Coverdale Bible, part 2
Examples of Coverdale’s turns of phrase: p. 145
- “the pride of life” 1 John 2:16
- “the world passeth away” I John 2:17
- “enter thou into the joy of the lord” Matthew 25:21, 23
- “and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” Matthew 6:12
- Tyndale’s version: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
- “tender mercies”
- “respect of persons”
- “lovingkindness”
- “valley of the shadow of death” - Psalm 23
- “better is a mess of potage with love, than a fat ox with evil will” - Proverbs 15:17 (this one didn’t stick)
Odd renderings from Coverdale:
- “the beer shall be bitter to them that drink it” - Isaiah 24:9
- “Thou shalt not need to be afraid for any bugs by night.” - Psalm 91:5
- Everybody noticed this one and so this translation was called the “Bugs Bible” colloquially.
Sample of the Coverdale Bible
Faith is a sure confidence of thinges which are hoped for, and a certaynte of thinges which are not sene. By it ye Elders were well reported of. Thorow faith we vnderstonde, that the worlde and all the thinges which are sene, were made of naughte by the worde of God. By faith offered Abell vnto God a more plenteous sacrifice: by the which he optayned wytnesse, that he was righteous: God testifyenge of his giftes, by the which also he beynge deed, yet speaketh. By faith was Enoch take awaye, that he shulde not se death: and was not founde, because God had taken him awaye. For afore he was taken awaye, he had recorde that he pleased God. But without faith it is vnpossible to please God. For he that commeth vnto God, must beleue that God is, & yt he is a rewarder of them that seke him.
- Hebrews 11:1-6, Coverdale Bible, 1535
Source: https://textusreceptusbibles.com/Coverdale
Reception by Henry
When the Bible was ready, Cromwell turned it over the Henry for review. Henry sent it to the bishops for review, but they didn’t like the idea of an English Bible and were very slow to give their review. They said the translation had many faults. Henry finally asked if there was any heresy in it and demanded an answer. The bishops reluctantly said no, so Henry put the Bible into limited circulation. Anne Boleyn laid a copy of it on a desk at court for everyone to read.
Afterward, the bishops held a convocation and complained that there were movements in the general public to abolish all church ceremonies that were not found in the Bible. Imagine!
The Matthew Bible
Another officially sanctioned Bible translation was underway by John Rogers, who Tyndale had given his prison translation of part of the Old Testament. Rogers put Tyndale’s NT and OT together, completed by adding Coverdale’s OT and Apocrypha. Rogers made a few changes and corrections (like renumbering the Psalms to match the Hebrew) and included 200 illustrations along with book introductions, chapter summaries, and marginal notes. Tyndale’s initials were inserted in ornamental letters at the end of the OT, but not his full name for political reasons. John Rogers published the work as Thomas Matthew, a pseudonym.
The Matthew Bible was printed and shown to King Henry, who approved it for publication by royal decree.
Within 12 months of Tyndale’s death, the translation that had been “denounced, proscribed, and repeatedly burned at St. Paul’s Cross, had now, under an assumed name, been formally approved by the king, and published under the shelter of a royal license and proclamation.”
The Great Bible
The Matthew Bible had all of Tyndale’s notes, which were seen as abrasive by the clergy, so Cromwell had Coverdale make a new version of the Matthew Bible without these marginal notes.
The new Bible was due to be printed in Paris because the printing technology used by Francois Regnault was much better than English printers. But the Inquisition soon intervened, and Inquisitors were breathing down Regnault’s neck. As a precaution, Coverdale took some of the finished sheets to the English ambassador for safekeeping. He had barely gotten this done when the rest of the sheets were seized. A bribe was used to get the sheets back, which were stashed in “four great dry vats” and sold as wastepaper to a haberdasher, who resold them to Cromwell’s agents, who got them out of France. Cromwell then bought up the standing type, printing press, and Regnault’s entire staff of compositors and shipped the entire operation to England.
1539: First edition of the Great Bible (lavish in size and adornment) was printed in London. Each page was 11 x 16.5 inches!
By royal decree, the Lord’s Prayer and Ten Commandments were to be taught on Sunday and on holy days and a sermon on the Gospel was to be preached at least once a quarter. (!!!) Preaching emphasis was to be on works of mercy rather than “pilgrimages, relics, or the saying over of beads.” Every church building England was to have at least one copy of the Bible that was in an accessible place for all to read. Bibles were soon chained to lecterns all over England. Six Bibles were in St. Paul’s church alone.
People were still advised to avoid contention over their discussion of Biblical passages, but they ignored this completely. People showed great joy in being able to read the word for themselves. Everyone that could buy a Bible did so. If they could not read, they had it read to them. Others learned to read on purpose. Even little boys flocked to hear the Bible read out loud.
The stock of Great Bible prints was soon bought up and more editions were published. Seven editions were printed between 1539-1541 and it would be the standard for nearly 30 years. Parts of it (the Prayer Book) are still used in the Church of England.
Cromwell and Cuthbert
Cromwell was responsible for establishing the Reformation in England in the king’s name. England was “flooded” with English Bibles.
In the meantime, Anne Boleyn failed to give King Henry a male heir, so she was sent to the block and Henry married Jane Seymour, Anne’s lady-in-waiting. Jane bore a son to Henry but died soon after from complications of the childbirth.
Cromwell urged King Henry to marry the Lutheran princess Anne of Cleves, but Henry detested her. Apparently Henry had requested portraits of both Anne and her sister Amelia before deciding which to marry. He thought Anne was more attractive and decided on her. But when she arrived, she looked nothing like her portrait.
This caused anti-Cromwell feelings to swell, and Henry had him arrested as a heretic and traitor, condemned without a trial, and beheaded on July 28, 1540.
Cromwell’s heraldic arms had originally appeared on the title page of the Great Bible, but they were removed after his death. Instead, words were added to say the Bible was overseen by Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham and Nicolas, Bishop of Rochester. This Cuthbert was Cuthbert Tunstall, formerly bishop of London who had refused hospitality to Tyndale and burned the book on which this translation was based. How the tides had turned! (p.157)
Henry’s successors
Henry was succeeded by his son Edward (the son of Jane Seymour), who was only nine years old at Henry’s death. Edward was raised Protestant, and his guardian (his uncle, Edward Seymour) was very reform minded. An English Bible was even carried in procession before Edward at his coronation. Great Bibles were legally required in every vestibule in every church building. Henry’s Act of Six Articles was repealed, so priests were now allowed to marry, and images were removed from church buildings. Many new English translations followed.
1552: Cranmer drafted the 42 Articles, which provided the Church of England with its first creed. This made it official that all services were to be done in the vernacular. No more veneration of saints. Some religious paintings in churches were whitewashed and stained-glass windows were smashed.
Unfortunately, Edward was in feeble health and died of tuberculosis at age 15. His elder sister Mary ascended to the throne.
Mary tried to reverse things, reinstating some Catholic bishops (including Tunstall) and imprisoning a number of reformers in the Tower. Printing of Bibles in English was again forbidden.
John Rogers, compiler of Matthew’s Bible was the first to die (and did so bravely).
Cranmer was also tried and burned at the stake.
The inquisition was a catastrophe for Mary because it showed the whole world that English Protestants were willing to die for their cause. The Catholics were also appalled at the methods their own group had been using.
Mary died on November 17, 1558, grief-stricken, sick, and exhausted by a string of false pregnancies. She was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth, the child of Anne Boleyn.
The Geneva Bible
During Queen Mary’s rule, a number of reformers had gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. They worked to produce a new translation called the Geneva Bible.
The translation was based on the Great Bible for the Old Testament and Tyndale’s New Testament.
It paid meticulous attention to the Greek and Hebrew originals and made use of the best of the most recent translations into Latin and French (p.175).
The Geneva Bible was the most scholarly, well-annotated, and accurate English Bible yet. Words added by the translators were printed in italics and for the first time in English, chapter and verse divisions were included. “There were also maps, woodcuts, elaborate tables, an appendix of metrical psalms, and a running commentary of explanatory notes.” The margins of the NT alone also had 2000 alternate readings and 725 literal renderings.
The Geneva Bible became the household Bible of English Protestants. It was the Bible that Shakespeare was raised on. It went through 140 revisions in the next 85 years.
Turns of phrase from the Geneva Bible:
- “vanity of vanities”
- “except a man be born again”
- “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth”
- “Solomon in all his glory”
- “My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
- “a cloud of witnesses”
- “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”
The Geneva Bible completely overtook the Great Bible, but it was a problem for Church authorities. It had many marginal notes that angered Church authorities in both England and Rome. In the marginal notes, almost anything involving elaborate ritual was dismissed as superstition worthy of the pope and Rome itself was identified as a type of Sodom and Gomorrah where “falsehood and ungodliness” reigned. (p.176)
The Bishops’ Bible
Because of this, bishops worked together to produce another new translation based on the Great Bible. This became known as the Bishops’ Bible. Unfortunately, it was not particularly well done and never caught on with the general public despite being the official Bible for the Church of England for a number of years.
Archbishop Parker had not done a particularly good job assembling the work of the various translators into a unified whole. Some renderings that stuck:
- Matthew 3:3 - “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”
- Matthew 5:10 - “persecuted for righteousness’ sake”
- Romans 12:21 - “overcome evil with good”
Others were just bad or wrong:
- “Cast thy bread upon the waters” became “Lay thy bread upon wet faces”
- “Speak not evil of one another” became “Backbite not one another”
King James I
In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and selected James VI of Scotland to succeed her.
When King James took power, the religious situation in England was very unsettled. The Church of England was essentially Catholic in organization but was not tied directly to the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. This angered both the Catholics and the Protestants. There were also the Puritans, who wanted to “purify” the church of “popish” practices. They wanted to remove things like the use of the cross at baptism, the ring in marriage, bowing at the name of Jesus, liturgical vestments like the cap and surplice, and certain procedures in the ecclesiastical courts, which they viewed as despotic. In general, they wanted to move away from ceremony and toward preaching and prayer.
James was not interested in rocking the boat as far as the Church of England was concerned, but he did have the Puritans to deal with. He was presented with the Millenary Petition (so named because it was signed by almost a thousand Puritan ministers), which enumerated a number of grievances against the Church of England.
To address this, James set up a 3-day conference to discuss things.
Background of James I
James’ mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, was a Catholic, but he had been raised a Presbyterian Calvinist. (p.204)
James’ idea of kingship was the divine right of kings. He was repelled by the Puritan idea of self-government based on their congregational form of worship. He also knew the Puritans were a major force and he needed to hear them out.
James was a student of the Bible in almost all its languages. By the age of 8, he was able to translate any chapter of the Bible chosen at random into French, then from French to English.
Despite his great learning, James had a terrible childhood, living under four different regents and had been closely confined for his own safety in Stirling Castle. He had never known his father, Lord Darnley. This had an effect on him. He was left with a “tottering gait” (due to childhood rickets) and sometimes waddled like a duck in thick, stiff pants he wore due to fear of assassins. He also had a kind of speech impediment.
James believed in the power of the devil and sometimes blamed evil spirits for the troubles in his life. After his ship was nearly wrecked in the North Sea, he was convinced that some witches had thrown black cats into the sea to create the storm. He condemned witchcraft above murder as a crime.
By the time he was king of England, he had been King of Scotland for 37 years. Despite his odd thinking on some subjects, he was a shrewd and discerning ruler.
Conference with the Puritans
During the first day of the conference, King James came down hard on what he saw as corruption in the Church of England, criticizing it for “five solid hours.” On the second day of the conference, four Puritan ministers were brought in, and James heard their complaints.
On the third day, James and the high churchmen discussed the complaints from the Puritans. James allowed some small changes in the Book of Common Prayer, but otherwise refused their requests.
There was something big that came out of this conference, though. On the second day, John Reynolds (one of the four Puritans brought in) asked for a new translation of the Bible “because those that were allowed in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the original.” James liked this idea immediately. (p.214)
It was a good time to consider a new translation because a new one had not been done since the Bishops’ Bible of 1568 and Greek and Hebrew studies had progressed significantly since then. Over 150 Hebrew grammars were now available, as well as the Hebrew scriptures themselves in a number of editions. Knowledge of Aramaic and Syriac was also growing. The Geneva Bible was still by far the favorite, despite the Church of England’s attempts to make the Bishops’ Bible the standard.
Before becoming King of England, James already had ideas about a new translation to address issues he saw in the Geneva Bible. Now that he was king of England, he saw this as something he had real power to do. It also flattered his vanity.
Translation work begins
The new translation project was set up quickly. All outstanding biblical scholars in the kingdom were sought out. By July 1604, James had approved a list of 54 translators arranged into 6 companies, two each at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge. Both universities were instructed to enlist any other biblical scholars that were capable if needed.
The split across three locations was a wise political move: Oxford was traditionally associated with High Church and royalist sentiments, Cambridge was associated with dissidents, and Westminster represented the clerical and legal aspects of the project (all officials there were appointed by the crown). Oxford and Cambridge were still, strictly speaking, secular institutions.
Most translators were middle-aged men (about age 50), some were married, and all but one were ordained. All were academically distinguished and belonged to the established church. About 1/4 had Puritan leanings. All had tremendous knowledge of languages and biblical scholarship. They were deliberately anonymous as a group, and we know extremely little about exactly what each man contributed.
The OT was given to three panels, NT to one, and Apocrypha to one.
- Westminster:
- Panel 1: Genesis - 2 Kings
- Panel 2: Romans - Jude
- Oxford:
- Panel 1: Isaiah - Malachi
- Panel 2: Gospels, Acts, Revelation
- Cambridge:
- Panel 1: 1 Chronicles - Song of Solomon
- Panel 2: Apocrypha
The translators’ directions were:
- Should not be a new translation. Should be based on Bishops’ Bible, altered as little as truth would permit.
- Time honored rendering of certain ecclesiastical terms kept (“church”, “charity”, etc.).
- Marginal notes only to be used for the citation of parallel passages or alternate readings.
- Chapters were to have new headings. Existing chapter and verse divisions to be kept.
- The spelling of names should be standardized and given in their most familiar form.
- Words not in the original but necessary to complete the sense to be rendered in distinctive type.
The translators pored over all known text, commentaries, and translations they could find.
All the translators were given unbound copies of the Bishops’ Bible to work from. They amended each verse as they saw fit. Once a book was complete, it was sent to all other groups for suggestion and review. In this way, every word passed through the hands of the whole group. When the work was done, each of the three translation heads sent an amended copy of the Bishops’ Bible to the General Committee for review. The General Committee (made up of members from each company) then worked to generate one complete copy from the three, which then went to press. The work took about 6 years to complete.
Translation comparisons
2 Samuel 1:27:
- Tyndale: “How were the mighty overthrown.”
- KJV: “How are the mighty fallen.” (This has now become proverbial in English.)
Psalms 23
- Bishops’ Bible: “God is my shepherd, therefore I can lose nothing; he will cause me to repose myself in pastures full of grass, and he will lead me unto calm waters.”
- KJV: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
The translators were very careful to both avoid Catholic latinate terms and the scrupulous languages the Puritans wanted to use.
Samples from John 1:1-10
In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darknesse, and the darknesse comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was Iohn. The same came for a witnesse, to beare witnesse of the light, that all men through him might beleeue. Hee was not that light, but was sent to beare witnesse of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth euery man that commeth into the world. Hee was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
King James Version, first edition
In the first edition of the KVJ, there was a typographical error every 10 pages of text. The first version became known as the “He” Bible because of an error in Ruth 3:15 which read, “and he went into the city,” instead of “she.”
The new edition was physically beautiful, though, and included many helps for the reader: almanac, a table of holy days, a guide to the order of Psalms and lessons to be read at morning and evening prayer, and a calendar guide to calculating the date of Easter “forever.” Some copies also contained a map of the Holy Land and a long 38-page genealogy with an illustrated family tree from Adam to Christ. The text itself was in Gothic type in double columns. Verses were numbered and notes and cross references were included in the margins. (p.253)
Impact of the King James Version
Much of the Bible’s success was due to James’ enthusiasm for it. But it took time to become popular. The Puritans initially did not like it. They thought the Geneva Bible was just fine and thought the KJV version “smacked too much of the king, the bishops, and the Church establishment.” Many people had come to depend on the notes in the Geneva Bible, saying that without them they could not understand the text. Several attempts were made to bring these notes forward to the KJV, but it never took.
Over time, the KJV became more and more accepted. It became the Vulgate of the English-speaking world.
Because the translators were told to revise an existing translation than create a new one, they kept some expressions that were already a bit archaic in 1611 like “verily” and “it came to pass.” They were kept because they had become familiar, and they seemed to endow the text with a certain “antique rightness.”
The KJV had a tremendous impact on English and American literature. It was called the KJV in America, but the Authorized Version in England. It was never technically “authorized” except that it was appointed to be read in churches and replaced the Bishops’ Bible. It was mostly “authorized” in the sense of general acclaim.
The King James Version went through a number of changes over the years, with large updates in 1796 to modernize the spelling and again in 2016.
The KJV was followed by a number of modern English translations of varying qualities.
Conclusion
God has seen fit to make Himself known through the Bible.
Through various twists and turns, He has worked to make the Bible available to us.
We now have this great resource freely available. Let us use it well!
