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See also:BIBLE, See also:ENGLISH . The See also:history of the See also:vernacular Bible of the English See also:race resolves itself into two distinctly marked periods—the one being that of See also:Manuscript Bibles, which were See also:direct See also:translations from the Latin See also:Vulgate, the other that of Printed Bibles, which were, more or less completely, translations from the See also:original See also:Hebrew and See also:Greek of the Old and New Testaments.
1. The Manuscript Bible.—The first essays in Biblical See also:translation, or rather paraphrasing, assumed in English, as in many cadmon. other See also:languages, a poetical See also:form. Even in the 7th
See also:century, according to the testimony of See also:Bede (Hist. Eccl. iv. 24), Cmdmon sang " de creatione mundi et origine humani generis, et tota See also:Genesis historia, de egressu See also:Israel ex Aegypto et ingressu in terram repromissionis, de aliis plurimis sacrae Scripturae histories, de incarnatione See also:Dominica, passione, resurrectione et ascensione in coelum, de Spiritus Sancti adventu, et apostolorum doctrina." It is, however, doubtful whether any of the See also:poetry which has been ascribed to him can claim to be regarded as his genuine See also:work.
The first See also:prose rendering of any See also:part of the Bible—and with these we are mainly concerned in the See also:present inquiry—Bede. originated in all See also:probability in the 8th century, when
Bede, the eminent See also:scholar and churchman, translated the first portion (chs. i.-vi. 9) of the See also:Gospel of St See also: The 9th century is characterized by interlinear glosses on the See also:Book of See also:Psalms, and towards its See also:close by a few attempts at 9th and See also:independent translation. Of these " glossed Psalters " loth cen- twelve See also:MSS. are known to exist, and they may be tary ranged into two See also:groups according to the Latin See also:text glosses. they represent. The See also:Roman Psalter is glossed in the following MSS.: (I) See also:Cotton Vesp. A. 1 (See also:Vespasian Psalter); (2) Bodl. See also:Junius 27; (3) Univ. Libr. Camb. Ff. 1. 23; (4) Brit. See also:Mus. Reg. 2. B. 5; (5) Trin. See also:Coll. Camb. R. 17. I (Eadwine's Psalter); (6) Brit. Mus. Add. 37517. The Gallican Psalter in the following: (1) Brit. Mus. See also:Stowe 2 (See also:Spelman's text); (2) Cotton Vitell. E. 18; (3) Cotton Tib. C. 16; (4) See also:Lambeth 48; (5) See also:Arundel 6o; (6) See also:Salisbury Cath. 150.1 The See also:oldest arid most important of these MSS. is the so-called Vespasian Psalter, which was written in See also:Mercia in the first See also:half of the 9th century. It was in all probability the original from which all the above-mentioned Old English glosses were derived, though in several instances changes and modifications were introduced by successive See also:scribes. The first See also:verse of See also:Psalm c. (Vulg. xcix. 2) may serve as a specimen of these glosses. Roman Text. Gallican Text. MS. Vespasian. A. 1. MS. Stowe. 2, Wynsumial gode, all eorbe Drymab drihtne, eall eorbe; biowiad Dryhtne in blisse; Z'eowiab drihtne on blisse; inga6 in gesihbe his in infarab on gesyhbe hys wynsumnisse. on blibnysse. Jubilate Deo, omnis terra; Jubilate Domino, omnis terra; service Domino in laetitia; servile Domino in laetitia; intrate in conspectu eius in introite in conspectu eius exultatione. in exultatione. To the See also:late 9th or See also:early loth century a work may be assigned which is in so far an advance upon preceding efforts as to be a real translation, not a mer^ See also:gloss corresponding word for word with the Latin original. This is the famous See also:Paris Psalter,' a rendering of the first fifty Psalms (Vulg. i.–l. 1o), contained in the unique MS. See also:lat. 8824 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The authorship of this version is doubtful, being by some scholars attributed to See also: 950) by one See also:Aldred, whom Dr See also: S. See also:Cook, Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers, with an introduction on Old English Biblical Versions (See also:London, 1898–1903), vol.i.pp.See also:xxvi. ff. ; H. Sweet, The Vespasian Psalter in " Oldest English Texts " (E.E.T.S., No. 83, London, 1885) ; F. Harsle , Eadwine's See also:Canterbury Psalter (E.E.T.S., No. 92, London, 1892; John Spelman, Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum Vetus (London, 164o) ; Fr. Roeder, Der altengl. Regius Psalter (Reg. II. B. 5), See also:Halle, 1904). 2 See also:Benjamin See also:Thorpe, Libri Psalmorum versio See also:Antigua See also:Latina cum paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonica (See also:Oxford, 1835) ; cf. J. D. See also:Bruce, The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms . . . known as the Paris Psalter (See also:Baltimore, 1894). ' K. W. See also:Bouterwek, See also:Die vier Evangelien in alt-nordh. Sprache (See also:Gutersloh, 1857), id. Screadunga (See also:Elberfeld, 1858, prefaces to the Gospels) ; J. See also:Stevenson and E. Waring, The Lindisfarne and See also:Rush-See also:worth Gospels (See also:Surtees See also:Soc., 1854–1865) ; W. W. See also:Skeat, The See also:Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian Versions (See also:Cambridge, 1871–1887). Lindisfarne Gospels. Of a somewhat later date is the celebrated See also:Rushworth Version of the Gospels (MS. Bodl. Auct. D. ii. 9), which contains an independent translation of the Gospel of St Matthew, i u h version. sloa. and a gloss on those of St See also:Mark, St See also:Luke and St John, founded upon the Lindisfarne glosses. From a See also:note in the manuscript we learn that two men, Farman and Owun, made the version. Fserman was a See also:priest at Harewood, or Harwood, in the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire, and to him the best part of the work is due. He translated the whole of St Matthew, and wrote the gloss of St Mark i.–ii. 15, and St John xviii. 1-3. The remaining part, a See also:mere transcript, is Owun's work. The See also:dialect of the translation of St Matthew is Mercian.'
A further testimony to the activity which prevailed in the
See also: According to his own statement in De vetere testamento, written about ioio, he had at that See also:period translated the See also:Pentateuch, See also:Joshua, See also:Judges, See also:Kings, See also:Job, See also:Esther, See also:Judith and the See also:Maccabees.' His rendering is clear and idiomatic, and though he frequently abridges, the omissions never obscure the meaning or hinder the easy flow of the narrative. See also:Dietrich, JElfric's most competent biographer (Niedner's, Zeitschrift far historische Theologie, 1855–1856), looks upon the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges as a continuation of his Lives of See also:Saints, including as they do in a See also:series of narratives the Old Testament saints. Genesis is but slightly abridged, but Job, Kings, Judges, Esther and Judith as well as the Maccabees are mere homilies epitomized from the corresponding Old Testament books. Judith is metrical in form. The 11th century, with its See also:political See also:convulsions, resulting in the See also:establishment of an See also:alien See also:rule and the partial suppression of the See also:language of the conquered race, was unfavourable to See also:literary efforts of any See also:kind in the vernacular. With the exception of fElfric's late See also:works at the very See also:dawn of the century, we can only See also:record two transcripts of the West-Saxon Gospels as coming at all within the See also:scope of our inquiry. In the 12th century the same gospels were again copied by pious hands into the Kentish dialect of the period. The 13th century, from the point of view of Biblical renderings into the vernacular, is an See also:absolute See also:blank. French—or rather the Anglo-See also:Norman dialect of the period—reigned supreme amongst the upper classes, in See also:schools, in See also:parliament, in the courts of See also:law and in the See also:palace of the king. English lurked in farms and hovels, amongst villeins and See also:serfs, in the outlying See also:country-districts, in the distant 1 See Stevenson, Waring and Skeat, op. cit. 2 W. W. Skeat, The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, &c. (Cambridge, 1871–1887) ; J. W. See also:Bright, The Gospel of See also:Saint Luke in Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1893); for earlier See also:editions see Cook, op. cit, p. lx. 3 C. W. M. Grein, eE+lfrik de vetero et novo Testamento, &c.—Bibl. d. Angels. Prosa (See also:Cassel and See also:Gottingen, 1872), p. 6; E. Thwaites, Heptateuchus. See also:Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi; Anglo-Saxonice (Oxon., 1698).monasteries, amongst the See also:lower See also:clergy, amongst the humble and lowly and ignorant. There were certainly renderings of the Bible during the 12th, 13th and early 14th centuries, but they were all in See also:French. Some of these translations were made in See also:England, some were brought over to England and copied and recopied. Amongst the latter was the magnificently illuminated Norman Commentary on the See also:Apocalypse, some of the earliest copies of which were written in an English See also:hand. In fact before the See also:middle of the 14th century the entire Old Testament and the greater part of the New Testament had been translated into the Anglo-Norman dialect of the period. (MSS. Bibl. Nat. fr. 1, 9562, Brit. Mus. Reg. I.C. iii. Cf. S. Berger, La Bible francaise au moyen See also:age, Paris, 1884, pp. 78 ff.)
When English finally emerged victorious, towards the middle and latter half of the 14th century, it was for all See also:practical purposes a new language, largely intermixed with French, differing from the language of the older period in See also:sound, flexion and structure. It is evident that any Old English versions which might have survived the ravages of time would now be unintelligible, it was equally natural that as soon as French came to be looked upon as an alien See also:tongue, the French versions hitherto in use would fail to fulfil their purpose, and that attempts should again be made to render the Bible into the only language intelligible to the greater part of the nation—into
English. It was also natural that these attempts should be made where the need was most pressing, where French had gained least footing, where parlia-
ment and See also:court were remote, where intercourse with See also:France was difficult. In fact in the See also:Northern Midlands, and in the See also:North even before the middle of the 14th century, the book of Psalms had been twice rendered into English, and before the end of the same century, probably before the See also:great Wyciiflite versions had spread over the country, the whole of the New Testament had been translated by different hands into one or other of the dialects of this part of the country.
At the same time we can record only a single rendering during the whole century which originated in the south of England, namely the text of See also: Add. 17376, was probably written between 1340 and 1350. It contains a See also:complete version of the book of Psalms, followed by the usual eleven See also:canticles and the Athanasian Creed. The Latin original is a glossed version of the Vulgate, and in the English translation the words of the gloss are often substituted for the strong and picturesque expressions of the Biblical text; in other respects the rendering is faithful and idiomatic. The following two verses of the first psalm may exemplify this: MS. See also:British Mus. Add. 17376. (i. I.) See also:Beatus uir, qui non abijt in consilio impiorum, Es' in uia peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra •i• iudicio pestitencie •i• falsitatis non sedit. Blesced be De See also:man See also:Dar 3ede nou3t in De counseil of wicked, ne stode nou3t in (e See also:wale of sin3eres, ne sat nou3t in fals iugement. (2)Set in lege domini uoluntas eius, £e° in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte. Ac hijs wylle was in De wylle of oure Lord, and he schal Ienche in hijs lawe boj~e daye and ny3t. Before the middle of the century See also:Richard Rolle (q.v.), the See also:hermit of Hampole (+ 1349), turned into English, with certain additions and omissions, the famous Commentary on the Psalms by Peter Lombard. The work was under- Richard Rolle. taken, as the metrical See also:prologue of one of the copies tells us (MS. See also:Laud. misc. 286), " At a worthy recluse prayer, cald See also:dame Merget Kyrkby." The Commentary gained immediate and lasting popularity, and spread in numerous copies throughout the country, the peculiarities of the hermit's vigorous northern dialect being either modified or wholly removed in the more K. D. Bulbring, The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter (E.E.T.S., No. 97), part i. (London, 1891) ; cf. A. C. Paues, A Fourteenth-Century Engl. Bibl. Version (See also:Upsala See also:Diss.) (Cambridge, 1902), p. Ivi. Anglo-Norman Period. 14th-can. fury renderings. southerly transcripts. The translation, however, is stiff and literal to a See also:fault, violating idiomatic usage and the proper See also:order of words in its strict adherence to the Latin. The following brief extracts may exemplify the hermit's rendering and the See also:change the text underwent in later copies.' MS. Reg. z8 B. 21. Blessed is pat man pat hap not gone in pe counsell of wicked men, and in pe weye of sinfull men hap not stonde, and in pe chaire of pestilence sat not. 2. But in pe lawe of our lorde is pe wille of him; and [in] his lawe we shall pinke See also:day and nyght. Approximately to the same period as these early renderings of the Psalter belongs a version of the Apocalypse with a Commentary, the earliest MS. of which (Harleian 874) is written in the dialect of the North Midlands. This Commentary, for a See also:long time attributed to Wycliffe, is really nothing but a verbal rendering of the popular and widely-spread Norman Commentary on the Apocalypse (See also:Paul See also:Meyer and L. See also:Delisle, L'Apocalypse en See also:Francois an XIIIP siecle, Paris, 1901), which dates back as far as the first half of the 13th century, and in its See also:general See also:tenor represents the height of orthodoxy. The English apocalypse, to See also:judge from the number of MSS. remaining, must have enjoyed great and lasting popularity. Several revisions of the text exist, the later of which present such striking agreement with the later Wycliffite version that we shall not be far wrong if we assume that they were made use of to a considerable extent by the revisers of this version. To the North Midlands or the North belongs further a complete version of the Pauline Epistles found in the unique MS. 32, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of the 15th century. Commentaries on the Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke, we are told by the heading in one of the MSS. (Univ. Libr. Camb. Ii. 2. 12), were also translated into English by " a man of Pe north cuntre." The translation of these Gospels as well as of the Epistles referred to above is stiff and awkward, the translator being evidently afraid of any departure from the Latin text of his original. The accompanying commentary is based on the Fathers of the See also: 1.) In po dayes come Ihone baptist prechand in See also:desert of pe Iewry, & seyand, (2) Do 3e penaunce; forwhy pe kyngdome of heuyne sal come negh. (3) Pis is he of whome it was seide be Isay pe prophete, sayand. " pe See also:voice of pe cryand in pe desert, redye 3e pe way of See also:God, right made 3e See also:lie lityl wayes of him." (4) & Ihone his kleping of pe hoerys of camels, & a gyrdyl of a skyn about his lendys; & his mete was pe See also:locust & hony of pe wode. A version of the Acts and the See also:Catholic Epistles completes the number of the New Testament books translated in the northern parts of England. It is found in several MSS. either separately or in See also:conjunction with a fragmentary See also:Southern Version of the Pauline Epistles, Peter, James and z John in a curiously compiled See also:volume, evidently made, as the prologue tells us, by a See also:brother superior for the use and edification of an ignorant " See also:sister," or woman vowed to See also:religion.' The translation of this, our only southern text, surpasses all previous efforts from the point of view of clearness of expression and idiomatic use of English, and, though less exact, it may be even said in these respects to See also:rank equal with the later or revised Wycliffite version. Apart from these more or less complete versions of See also:separate books of the Bible, there existed also numerous renderings of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, accounts of the See also:Life, See also:Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, translations of the ' H. R. Bramley, The Psalter and Certain Canticles ... by Richard Rolle of See also:Ham See also:pole (Oxford, 1884) ; cf. H. Middendorff, Studien fiber Richard Rolle von Ham pole enter besonderer Beriicksichtigung seiner Psalmen-Commentare (See also:Magdeburg, 1888). ' A. C. Paues, A Fourteenth-Century English Biblical Version (Cambridge, 1904), pp. See also:xxiv. if.epistles and gospels used in divine service, and other means of familiarizing the See also:people with Holy Scripture. It was the See also:custom of the See also:medieval preachers and writers to give their own English version of any text which they quoted, not resorting as in later times to a commonly received translation. This explains the fact that in collections of medieval homilies that have come down to us, no two renderings of the Biblical text used are ever alike, not even Wycliffe himself making use of the text of the commonly accepted versions that went under his name. It is noteworthy that these early versions from Anglo-Saxon times onwards were perfectly orthodox, executed by and for See also:good and faithful sons of the church, and, generally speaking, with the See also:object of assisting those whose knowledge of Latin proved too scanty for a proper See also:interpretation and understanding of the holy text. Thus Richard Rolle's version of the Psalms was executed for a See also:nun; so was in all likelihood the southern version of the epistles referred to above. Again the earliest MS. (Harl. 874) of the Commentary on the Apocalypse gives the owner's name in a coeval hand as " Richard Schepard, presbiter," and the Catholic Epistles of MS. See also:Douce 2503 were probably glossed for the benefit of men in religious orders, if one ma y judge from a See also:short Commentary to James ii. 2, " & perfore if eny man come into 3oure si3t, pat is, into 3oure cumpenye pat beP Codes religiouse men in what degre so 3e be." Nor do any of the remaining works contain anything but what is strictly orthodox. It is first with the See also:appearance of Wycliffe (q.v.) and his followers on the See also:arena of religious controversy that the Bible in English came to be looked upon with suspicion by the orthodox party within the Church. For it is a well-known fact WW The ycllffite that Wycliffe proclaimed the Bible, not the Church Versions. or Catholic tradition, as a man's supreme spiritual authority, and that he sought in consequence by every means in his See also:power to spread the knowledge of it among the people. It is, therefore, in all likelihood to the zeal of Wycliffe and his followers that we owe the two See also:noble 14th-century translations of the Bible which tradition has always associated with his name, and which are the earliest complete renderings that we possess of the Holy Scriptures into English.4 The first of these, the so-called Early Version, was probably completed about 1382, at all events before 1384, the year of Wycliffe's See also:death. The second, or Later Version, being a thorough revision of the first, is ascribed to the year 1388 by See also:Sir See also:Frederic See also:Madden and the Rev. Joshua Forshall in their edition of these two versions.' . It is a matter of uncertainty what part, if any, Wycliffe himself took in the work. The editors of the Wycliffite versions say in the See also:Preface, pp. xv. ff.—" The New Testament was naturally the first object. The text of the Gospels was extracted from the Commentary upon them by Wycliffe, and to these were added the Epistles, the Acts and the Apocalypse, all now translated anew. This translation might probably be the work of Wycliffe himself; at least the similarity of See also:style between the Gospels and the other parts favours the supposition." The Wycliffite authorship of the Commentaries on the Gospels, on which the learned editors See also:base their See also:argument, is, however, unsupported by any See also:evidence beyond the fact that the writer of the Prologue to Matthew urges in strong language " the propriety of translating Scripture for the use of the laity." The Biblical text found in these Commentaries is in fact so far removed from the original type of the Early Version as to be transitional to the Late, and, what is' still more convincing, passages from the Early Version, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, are actually quoted in the Commentary. Under such circumstances it would be folly to look upon them as anything but late productions, at all events later than the Early Version, and equal folly to assign these bulky volumes to the last two years of Wycliffe's ' See Paues, op. cit. p. 210. 4 For a different view as to the authorship of the Wycliffite versions, see F. A. Gasquet, The Old English Bible and Other Essays (London, 1897), pp. 102 ff. Sir F. Madden and Rev. J. Forshall, The Holy Bible . . . made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers (4 vols., Oxford, 1850), pp. xix., xxiv. MS. Univ. Coll. 64. (i. i.) Blisful man pe whilk oway 3ed noght in pe counsaile of wicked, and in pe way of synful stode noght, & in pe chaiere of pestilens he noght sate. (2) Bot in laghe of lord he will of him; and in his laghe he See also:sail thynke day & nyght. Late Version. (i. 1.) Blessid is the man, that 3ede not in the councel of wickid men; and stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of pestilence. (2) But his wille is in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and ny3t. (iii. 1.) In tho daies Ioon Baptist See also:cam, and prechide in the desert of Iudee, and seide, (2) Do 3e penaunce, for the kyngdom of heuenes shat nei3e. (3) For this is he, of whom it is seid bi Ysaie, the prophete, seyinge, A vois of a crier in desert, Make 3e redi the weies of the Lord; make 3e ri3t the pathis of hym. (4) And this Ioon hadde clothing of camels heeris, and a girdil of skynne aboute his leendis; and his mete was honysoukis and hony of the wode. life merely because the text used in them happens to be that of the Early Version. It is therefore at present impossible to say what part of the Early Version of the New Testament was translated by Wycliffe.' The Old Testament of the Early Version was, according to the editors (Preface, p. xvii.), taken in hand by one of Wycliffe's coadjutors, See also:Nicholas de See also:Herford. The translator's original copy and a coeval transcript of it are still extant in the Bodleian library (Bodl. 959, Douce 369). Both break off abruptly at See also:Baruch iii. 19, the latter having at this See also:place a note inserted to the following effect: Explicit translacionem Nicholay de herford. There is consequently but little doubt that Nicholas de Herford took part in the translation of the Old Testament, though it is uncertain to what extent. The translator's copy is written in not less than five hands, differing in See also:orthography and dialect. The note may therefore be taken to refer either to the portion translated by the last or fifth hand, or to the whole of the Old Testament up to Baruch iii. 19. Judging from uniformity of style and mode of translation the editors of the Bible are inclined to take the latter view; they add that the remaining part of the Old Testament was completed by a different hand, the one which also translated the New Testament. This statement is, however, not supported by sufficient evidence, In view of the magnitude of the undertaking it is on the contrary highly probable that other translators besides Wycliffe and Nicholas de Herford took part in the work, and that already existing versions, with changes when necessary, were incorporated or made use of by the translators. The Early Version, apart from its completeness, shows but little advance upon preceding efforts. It is true that the translation is more careful and correct than some of the renderings noticed above, but on the other hand it shares all their faults. The translation of the Old Testament as far as Baruch iii. 19 is stiff and awkward, sometimes unintelligible, even nonsenical, from a too close adherence to the Latin text (e.g. Judges xx. 25). In the remaining parts the translation is somewhat easier and more skilful, though even here Latinisms and un-English renderings abound. It is small wonder, therefore, if a revision was soon found necessary and actually taken in hand within a few years of the completion of the Earlier Version. The principles of work adopted by the revisers are laid down in the general prologue to their edition the so-called " Later Version." For these resons and othere . . . a symple creature See also:bath translatid the bible out of Latyn into English. First, this symple creature hadde myche trauaile, with diuerse felawis and helperis, to gedere manie elde biblis, and othere doctouris, and comune glosis, and to make oo Latyn bible sumdel trewe; and thanne to studie it of the newe, the text with the glose, and othere doctouris, as he mi3te gete, and speciali Lire on the elde testament, that helpide ful myche in this werk; the thridde tyme to counseile with elde gramariens, and elde dyuynis, of harde wordis, and harde sentencis, hou tho mi3ten best be vndurstonden and translatid; the iiij tyme to translate as elect-1i as he coude to the See also:sentence, and to haue manie gode felawis and kunnynge at the correcting of the translacioun. It is uncertain who the revisers were; John Purvey, the See also:leader of the Lollard party after Wycliffe's death, is generally assumed to have taken a prominent part in the work, but the evidence of this is extremely slight (cf. Wyc]. Bible, Preface, 00. See also:xxv. f.). The exact date of the revision is also doubtful: the editors of the Wycliffe Bible, judging from the See also:internal evidence of the Prologue, assume it to have been finished about 1388. This Revised or Later Version is in every way a readable, correct rendering of the Scriptures, it is far more idiomatic than the Earlier, having been freed from the greater number of its Latinisms; its vocabulary is less archaic. Its popularity admits of no doubt, for even now in spite of neglect and persecution, in spite of the ravages of See also:fire and time, over 150 copies remain to testify to this fact. The following specimens of the Early and Late Versions will afford a comparison with preceding renderings: Cf. A. C. Paues, The English Bible in the Fourteenth Century. III. 29 Early Version. (Psalm i. i.) Blisful the man, that went not awei in the counseil of vnpitouse, and in the wei off sinful stod not; and in the cha3er of pestilence sat not. (2) But in thelaweof the Lord his wit; and in the lawe of hym he that sweteli thenke dai and ny3t. (Matthew iii. i.) In thilke days came Ioon Baptist, prechynge in the desert of Iude, sayinge, (2) Do 3s. penaunce, for the kyngdom of heuens shal nei3, or came ni3e. (3) Forsothe this is he of whome it is said by See also:Ysaye the See also:prophet, A voice of a cryinge in desert, Make 3e redy the wayes of the Lord; make 3e ri3tful the pathes of hym. (4) Forsothe that ilk Ioon hadde See also:cloth of the heeris of cameylis, and a girdil of skyn aboute his leendis; sothely his mete weren locustis, and hony of the wode. The 15th century may well be described as the via dolorosa of the English Bible as well as of its See also:chief See also:advocates and sup-porters, the See also:Lollards. After the death of Wycliffe violence and anarchy set in, and the Lollards came Tne Lollards. gradually to be looked upon as enemies of order and ,a., disturbers of society. Stern See also:measures of suppression were directed not only against them but against " Goddis Lawe," the book for which they pleaded with such passionate earnestness. The bishops' registers See also:bear sufficient testimony to this fact .2 It would appear, however, as if at first at all events the persecution was directed not so much against the Biblical text itself as against the Lollard interpretations which accompanied it. In a See also:convocation held at Oxford under See also:Archbishop Arundel in 1408 it was enacted " that no man hereafter by his own authority translate any text of the Scripture into English or any other tongue, by way of a book, booklet, or See also:tract; and that no man read any such book, booklet, or tract, now lately composed in the time of John Wycliffe or since, or hereafter to be set forth in part or in whole, publicly or privately, upon See also:pain of greater See also:excommunication, until the said translation be approved by the See also:ordinary of the place, or, if the See also:case so require, by the See also:council provincial. He that shall do contrary to this shall likewise be punished as a favourer of See also:heresy and See also:error."3 It must be allowed that an enactment of this kind was not without See also:justification. The Lollards, for instance, did not hesitate to introduce into certain copies of the pious and orthodox Commentary on the Psalms by the hermit of Hampole interpolations of their own of the most virulently controversial kind (MSS. Trin. Coll. Camb. B.V. 25, Brit. Mus. Reg. 18. C. 26, &c.), and although the text of their Biblical versions was faithful and true, the General Prologue of the Later Version was interlarded with controversial matter. It is small wonder if the prelates and priests sought to repress such trenchant See also:criticism of their lives and doctrines as appeared more especially in the former work, and probably in many others which since have perished in " faggots and burning." For all this, manuscripts of Purvey's Revision were copied and re-copied during this century, the text itself being evidently approved by the ecclesiastical authorities, when in the hands of the right people and if unaccompanied by controversial matter. Of the Lollard See also:movement in See also:Scotland but little'is known, but a curious relic has come down to our times in the shape of a New Testament of Purvey's Revision in the Scottish dialect of the early 16th century. The transcriber was in all probability a certain Murdoch Nisbet, who ads') showed his reforming tendencies by adding to it a rendering of See also:Luther's Prologue to the New Testament.4 2 See See also:Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iv. 135 if. (ed. Townsend, 1846). Wilkin's Concilia, iii. 317.
4 T. G. Law, The New Testament in Scots, being Purvey's Revision of Wycliffe's version turned into Scots by Murdoch Nisbet, c. 1520 (See also:Scot. T. S., See also:Edinburgh, 1901-1905).
II
2. The Printed Bible.—It is singular that while France, See also:Spain, See also:Italy, Bohemia and See also: It was only with the See also:advent of the " new learning " in England that a direct rendering from the originals became possible. See also:Erasmus in 1516 published the New Testament in Greek, with a new Latin version of his own; the Hebrew text of the Old Testament had been published as early as 1488. The first to take See also:advantage of these altered conditions was William See also:Tyndale (q.v.), " to whom," as Dr See also:Westcott says,' " it William has been allowed more than to any other man to give Tyndale. its characteristic shape to the English Bible." Of Tyndale's early life but little is known. Be it enough for our purpose to say that he thoroughly saturated his mind with the " new learning," first at Oxford, where in 1515 he was admitted to the degree of M.A., and then in Cambridge, where the fame of Erasmus still lingered. Before the beginning of 1522 we find Tyndale as See also:chaplain and See also:tutor in the See also:family of Sir John See also:Walsh of Old Sodbury in See also:Gloucestershire. He was there constantly involved in theological controversies with the surrounding clergy, and it was owing to their hostility that he had to leave Gloucestershire. He then resolved to open their eyes to the serious corruptions and decline of the church by translating the New Testament into the vernacular. In order to carry out this purpose he repaired in See also:July or See also:August 1523 to London, and to the famous See also:protector of scholars and scholarship, Bishop Cuthbert See also:Tunstall. His reception was, however, See also:cold, the bishop advising him to seek a livelihood in the See also:town. During a year of anxious waiting, it became clear to him " not only that there was no rowme in my lorde of londons palace to translate the new testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all englonde." 2 In May 1524 he consequently betook himself to See also:Hamburg, his See also:resolution to carry out his great work never for a moment flagging, and it was probably during his stay in this See also:free See also:city and in See also:Wittenberg, where he may have been stimulated by Luther, that his translation of the New Testament was actually made. At all events there is no doubt that in 1525 he was in See also:Cologne, engaged in See also:printing at the See also:press of Peter Quentel a See also:quarto edition of the New Testament. This edition was provided with prefaces and marginal glosses. He had advanced as far as the tenth See also:sheet, bearing the See also:signature K, when his work was discovered by Johann See also:Cochlaeus (q.v.), a famous controversialist and implacable enemy of the See also:Reformation, who not only caused the See also:Senate of Cologne to prohibit the continuation of the printing, but also communicated with Henry VIII. and See also:Wolsey, warning them to stop the importation of the work at the English seaports. Tyndale and his assistant, William Roye, managed, however, to See also:escape higher up the See also:Rhine to See also:Worms, and they succeeded in carrying with them some or all of the sheets which had been printed. Instead of completing Quentel's work, Peter Schoeffer, the Worms printer, was employed to See also:print another impression of 3000 in a small See also:octavo See also:size, without prefaces to the books or annotations in the margin, and only having an address " To the Reder " at the end in addition to the New Testament itself. Two impressions, the quarto having possibly been completed by Schoeffer, arrived in England early in the summer of 1526, and were eagerly welcomed and bought. Such strong measures of suppression were, however, at once adopted against these perilous volumes, that of the quarto only a single fragment remains (Matt. i.–xxii. 12), now preserved in the British Museum (See also:Grenville, 12179),3 B. F. Westcott, History of the English Bible (3rd ed.), revised by W. Aldis See also:Wright (London, 1905), p. 25. 2 Pref. to Genesis, p. 396 (See also:Parker Soc.). 3 Photo lithographed by Edw. See also:Arber (London, 1871).of the octavo only one perfect copy (the See also:title-See also:page missing) in the Baptist College at See also:Bristol,' and one imperfect in the library of St Paul's See also:cathedral.
But Tyndale continued his labours undaunted. In 1529 the manuscript translation of See also:Deuteronomy is mentioned as having perished with his other books and papers in a shipwreck which he suffered on the See also:coast of Holland, on his way to Hamburg. In 1530, however, the whole of the Pentateuch was printed in See also:Marburg by Hans Luft; it is provided with prefaces and marginal annotations of a strongly controversial See also:character. The only perfect copy is preserved in the Grenville library of the British Museum.5 It was reissued in 1534 with a new preface and certain corrections and emendations in Genesis, and again in London in 1551.
In 1531 the Book of See also:Jonah appeared with an important and highly interesting prologue, the only copy known of which is in the British Museums
Meanwhile the demand for New Testaments, for See also:reading or for the flames, steadily increased, and the printers found it to their advantage to issue the Worms edition of the New Testament in not less than three surreptitious reprints before 1534• This is testified by See also:George Joye in his See also:Apology, who himself brought out a See also:fourth edition of Tyndale's New Testament in August 1534, freed from many of the errors which, through the carelessness of the Flemish printers, had crept into the text, but with such alterations and new renderings as to arouse the indignation of Tyndale. The only remaining copy, a 16mo, is in the Grenville library. To counteract and supersede all these unauthorized editions, Tyndale himself brought out his own revision of the New Testament with translations added of all the Epistles of the Old Testament after the use of Salisbury. It was published in See also:November 1534 at See also:Antwerp by See also: In the following year Tyndale once more set forth a revised edition, " fynesshed in the yere of oure Lorde God A.M.D. and See also:XXXV.," and printed at Antwerp by Godfried See also:van der Haghen.' In this headings were added to the chapters in the Gospels and the Acts, and the marginal notes of the edition of 1534 were omitted. It is chiefly noted for the peculiarities of its orthography. Of this edition one copy is in the University library, Cambridge, a second in See also:Exeter College, Oxford, and a fragment in the British Museum. It is supposed to have been revised by Tyndale while in See also:prison in the See also:castle of See also:Vilvorde, being the last of his labours in connexion with the English Bible. His See also:execution took place on the 6th of See also:October 1536, and about the same time a small See also:folio reprint of his revised edition of 1534 was brought out in England, the first volume of Scripture printed in this country, probably by T. Berthelet.s A perfect copy is found in the Bodleian library. In later years, between 1536 and 1550, numerous editions of Tyndale's New Testament were printed, twenty-one of which have been enumerated and fully described by See also:Francis See also:Fry.9 " The history of our English Bible begins with the work of Tyndale and not with that of Wycliffe," says Dr Westcott in his History of the English Bible, p. 316, and it is true that one of the most striking features of the work of Tyndale is its See also:independence. Attempts have been made to show that especially in the Old Testament he based a great See also:deal of his work on the Wycliffite translations, but in See also:face of this we have his own explicit ' Reprinted by G. Offor (London, 1836) ; reproduced in facsimile by Francis Fry (Bristol, 1862). 5 Reprinted with an introduction by J. T. Mombert (New See also:York, 1884). 6 Reproduced in facsimile by Francis Fry (1863). ' Cf. H. See also:Bradshaw, Bibliographer (1882-1881), i. 3 if. (reprinted 1886). 8 See F. Jenkinson, Early English Printed Books in the Univ. Libr. Cambridge, iii. (1730). 9 See See also:Biographical Description of the Editions of the New Testament, Tyndale's Version, in English (1878). statement, " I had no man to counterfet, nether was holpe with englysshe of eny that had interpreted the same (i.e. the New Testament), or soche lyke thige i the scripture beforetyme."' He translated straight from the Hebrew and Greek originals, although the Vulgate and more especially Erasmus's Latin version were on occasion consulted. For his prefaces and marginal notes he used Luther's Bible freely, even to paraphrasing or verbally translating long passages from it. Apart from certain blemishes and awkward and even incorrect renderings, Tyndale's translation may be described as a truly noble work, faithful and scholarly, though couched in See also:simple and popular language. Surely no higher praise can be accorded to it than that it should have been taken as a basis by the translators of the Authorized Version, and thus have lived on through the centuries up to the present day. The following specimens may prove of See also:interest: The thryde Chapter. (Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the baptyser cam and preached in the wyldernes of lury, saynge, Repent, the kyngedom of heven ys at hond. Thys ys he of whom it ys spoken be the prophet Isay, whych sayth: the voice of a cryer in wyldernes, prepaire ye the lordes waye, and make hys pathes strayght. Thys Ihon had hys garment of camelles heere, and a gyrdyll of a skynne about hys loynes. Hys meate was locustes * and wyldhe ony. * " Locustes are more then oware greshoppers, souche men vse to eate in divres parties of the est " (marginal note). (Matthew vi. 9-13.) O oure See also:father which See also:art in heven, halewed be thy name. Let thy See also:kingdom come. Thy wyll be fulfilled, as well in erth, as See also:hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them whych treaspas vs. Lede vs See also:nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from yvell. See also:Amen. (Grenville 12179.) Meanwhile a complete English Bible was being prepared by See also:Miles See also:Coverdale (q.v.), an Augustinian See also:friar who was afterwards for a few years (1551–1553) bishop of Exeter. As the Mlles Coverdale. printing was finished on the 4th of October 1535 it is evident that Coverdale must have been engaged on the preparation of the work for the press at almost as early a date as Tyndale. Foxe states (op. cit. v. 120) that Coverdale was with Tyndale at Hamburg in 1529, and it is probable that most of his time before 1535 was spent abroad, and that his translation, like that of Tyndale, was done out of England. In 1877 Henry See also:Stevens, in his See also:catalogue of the See also:Caxton See also:Exhibition, pointed out a statement by a certain See also:Simeon Ruytinck in his life of Emanuel van Meteren, appended to the latter's Nederlandische Historie (1614), that See also:Jacob van Meteren, the father of Emanuel, had manifested great zeal in producing at Antwerp a translation of the Bible into English, and had employed for that purpose a certain learned scholar named Miles Conerdale (sic). In 1884 further evidence was adduced by W. J. C. Moens, who reprinted an See also:affidavit signed by Emanuel van Meteren, 28 May 1609, to the effect that " he was brought to England See also:anno 1550 . . . by his father, a furtherer of reformed religion, and he that caused the first Bible at his costes to be Englisshed by Mr Myles Coverdal in Andwarp, the w'h his father, with Mr See also:Edward Whytchurch, printed both in Paris and London" (Registers of the Dutch Reformed Church, See also:Austin Friars, 1884, p. xiv.). Apart from the reference to Whytchurch and the place of printing, this statement agrees with that of Simeon Ruytinck, and it is possible that van Meteren showed his zeal in the matter by undertaking the cost of printing the work as well as that of remunerating the translator. Mr W. Aldis Wright, however, judging from the facts that the name of Whytchurch was introduced, that the places of printing were given as London and Paris, not Antwerp, and lastly that Emanuel van Meteren being See also:born in 1535 could only have derived his knowledge from hearsay, is inclined to think that the Bible in which J. van Meteren was interested " was Matthew's of 1537 or the Great Bible of 1539, and not Coverdale's of 1535."2 It is highly probable that the printer of Coverdale's Bible was ' See also:Epistle to the Reader in the New Testament of 1526, reprinted by G. Offor; cf. Parker Soc. (1848), p. 390. z Westcott, op. cit. p. 57 note.
See also:Christopher Froschouer of See also:Zurich,3 who printed the edition of 1550, and that the sheets were sent for binding and See also:distribution to James See also:Nicolson, the See also:Southwark printer.' This first of all printed English Bibles is a small folio in See also:German See also:black letter, bearing the title: " Biblia, The Bible; that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche (German) and Latyn into Englishe, M.D.XXXV." The volume is provided with woodcuts and See also:initials, the title-page and preliminary matter in the only two remaining copies (British Museum and Holkam See also: But delyteth in the lawe of fie Lorde, & exercyseth himself in his lawe both daye and See also:night.
The gospell of S. See also:Mathew.
(iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the Baptyst came and preached in the wildernes of See also:Jury, saynge: Amende youre selues, the kyngdome of heuen is at honde. This is he, of whom it is spoken by the prophet Esay, which sayeth : The voyce of a cryer in tie wyldernes, prepare the Lordes waye, and make his pathes straight. This Ihon had his garment of camels hoer, and a lethren gerdell aboute his loynes. Hys meate was locustes and wylde hony.
It should be added that Coverdale's Bible was the first in which the non-canonical books were See also:left out of the body of the Old Testament and placed by themselves at the end of it under the title Apocripha.
The large See also:sale of the New Testaments of Tyndale, and the success of Coverdale's Bible, showed the London booksellers that a new and profitable See also:branch of business was
Matthew's
opened out to them, and they soon began to avail Bib/e. themselves of its advantages. Richard See also:Grafton and
Edward See also:Whitchurch were the first in the field, bringing out a See also:fine and full-sized folio in 1537, " truely and purely translated into English by See also: 365. 4 Cf. H. Stevens, Catalogue of the Caxton Exhibition (1877), p. 88. 5 Remains, Parker Soc., pp. 11 f. the books from Joshua to the end of See also:Chronicles are traditionally, and lately also by See also:external evidence,' assigned to Tyndale and were probably left by him in the hands of Rogers. From See also:Ezra to See also:Malachi the translation is taken from Coverdale, as is also that of the Apocryphal books. John See also:Roger's own work appears in a marginal commentary distributed through the Old and New Testaments and chiefly taken from Olivetan's French Bible of 1535. The volume was printed in black letter in See also:double columns, and three copies are preserved in the British Museum. In 1538 a second edition in folio appeared; it was reprinted twice in 1549, and again in 1551. It is significant that this Bible, like Coverdale's second edition, was " set forth with the kinges most gracyous lycence," probably with the concurrence of See also:Cranmer, since he, in a letter to See also:Cromwell, begged him to " exhibit the book unto the king's See also:highness, and to obtain of his See also:grace . . . a licence that the same may be sold and read of every See also:person, without danger of any See also:act, See also:proclamation or See also:ordinance, heretofore granted to the contrary."2 And thus it came to pass, as Dr Westcott strikingly puts it, that " by Cranmer's See also:petition, by Crumwell's See also:influence, and by Henry's authority, without any formal ecclesiastical decision, the book was given to the English people, which is the See also:foundation of the text of our present Bible. From Matthew's Bible—itself a See also:combination of the labours of Tyndale and Coverdale—all later revisions have been successively formed " (op. cit. p. 71). Meanwhile the successful sale of Matthew's Bible, the private venture of the two printers Grafton and Whitchurch, was See also:threat-Taverner. ened by a See also:rival edition published in 1539 in folio and quarto by " John Byddell for Thomas Barthlet " with Richard Taverner as editor. This was, in fact, what would now be called " piracy," being Grafton's Matthew Bible revised by Taverner, a learned member of the Inner See also:Temple and famous Greek scholar. He made many alterations in the Matthew Bible, characterized by See also:critical acumen and a happy choice of strong and idiomatic expressions. He is, perhaps, the first purist among the Biblical translators, endeavouring, whenever possible, to substitute a word of native origin for the See also:foreign expression of his predecessors.' His revision seems, however, to have had little or no influence on subsequent translators, and was only once, in 1549, reprinted in its entirety. Quarto and octavo editions of the New Testament alone were published in the same year, 1539, as the original edition, and in the following year, 1540, the New Testament in duodecimo. The Old Testament was reprinted as part of a Bible in 1551, but no other editions are known than those named. It will have been observed that the translations of Holy Scripture which had been printed during these years (1525–1539) were all made by private men and printed without any public authority. Some of them had indeed been set forth by the king's licence, but the object of this is shown by the above-quoted letter of Archbishop Cranmer to Cromwell, touching Matthew's Bible. It is " that the same may be sold and read of every person . . . until such time that we, the bishops, shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday." This letter was written on the 4th of August 1537, and the impatient words at the end refer to an authorized version which had been projected several years before, and which was, in fact, at that very time in preparation, though not proceeding quickly enough to satisfy Cranmer. In the year 1530, Henry VIII. had issued a commis- See also:sion of inquiry respecting the expediency and See also:necessity of having " in the English tongue both the New Testament and the Old " (See also:Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 737). This See also:commission reported against the expediency of setting forth a vernacular translation until there was a more settled See also:state of religious See also:opinion, but states that the king " intended to provide that the Holy Scripture shall be, by great, learned and Catholic persons, translated into the English tongue if it shall then seem to His Grace convenient to be " (ib. 740). The Convocation of Canterbury refreshed the Westcott, op. cit. p. 172 note. 2 Cranmer's Works, letter 194 (Parker Soc.). ' See examples in Westcott, op. cit. pp. 208 f. royal memory on the subject by petitioning the king on the 19th of See also:December 1534 " that His See also:Majesty would vouchsafe to See also:decree, that the Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue . . . and . . . delivered to the people according to their learning " (ibid. 770). The subject was again before Convocation in 1536,4 but the detailed history is lost to us—all that is known being that Cromwell had placed Coverdale at the See also:head of the enterprise, and that the result was an entirely new revision, based on Matthew's Bible.' Coverdale consulted in his revision the Latin version of the Old Testament with the Hebrew text by See also:Sebastian See also:Munster, the Vulgate and Erasmus's editions of the Greek text for the New Testament. Concerning the printing of this authorized Bible more details are known. Cromwell had planned the work on a large See also:scale, too large evidently- for the resources of the English presses, for it was determined that the printing should be entrusted to Francis See also:Regnault, a famous Paris printer. At the See also:request of Henry VIII., a licence was granted to Regnault for this purpose by Francis I., while Coverdale and Grafton were sent over in 1538 to superintend the work as it passed through the press. The work was pressed forward with all See also:speed, for, as Coverdale writes to Cromwell, they were " dayly threatened " and ever feared " to be spoken withal"' Indeed, when the printing was far advanced, on the 17th of December 1538, its further progress was interdicted by the Inquisitor-general for France, and orders were given to seize the whole of the impression. Coverdale and Grafton left Paris quickly, but soon returned, rescued a great number of the finished sheets, "four great dry-vats " full of them having been sold to a See also:haberdasher instead of being burnt—and conveyed types, printing-presses and workmen to England. Thus the volume which had been begun in Paris in 1538 was completed in London, the See also:colophon stating that it was " Fynisshed in Apryll, Anno M.See also:CCCCC.XXXIX." It is a splendid folio Bible of the largest volume, and was distinguished from its predecessors by the name of The Great Bible. The title-page represents Henry VIII. giving the " Word of God " to Cromwell and Cranmer, who, in their order, distribute it to laymen and clerics, and describes the volume as " truly translated after the veryte of the Hebreue and Greke texts by pe dylygent studye of dyverse excellent learned men, See also:expert in the forsayde See also:tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch." " Certain godly annotations," which Coverdale promised in the Prologue, did not, however, appear in the first issue, nor in any of the following. This was the first of seven editions of this noble Bible which issued from the press during the years 1539–1541,—the second of them, that of 1540, called Cranmer's Bible from the fact that it contained a long Preface by Archbishop Cranmer, having the important addition " This is the Byble apoynted to the vse of the churches " on the title-page. Seventy years afterwards it assumed the form ever since known as the Authorized Version, but its Psalter is still embedded, without any alteration, in the Book of See also:Common Prayer. For the See also:sake of comparison the following extracts from St Matthew are given, according to the edition of 1539. (Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes came'Iohn the Baptyst, See also:preaching in the wyldernes of Iewry, saying, Repent of the life that is past, for the kyngdome of heauen is at hande, For thys is he, of whom the prophet Esay spake, which sayeth, the voyce of a cryer in the wyldernes, prepare ye the waye of the lorde: make hys pathes strayght. Thys Iohn had hys garment of camels heer And a gyrdell of a skynne aboute hys loynes. His meate was locustes and wylde hony. (Matthew vi. 9-13.) Oure father which art in heauen, halowed be thy name. Let thy kingdome come. Thy will be fulfilled, as well in erth, as it is in heuen. Geue vs this daye oure dayly bred. And forgeue vs oure dettes, as we forgeue oure detters. And leade vs not into temptation: but delyuer vs from euyll. For thyne is the kyngdom and the power, and the glorye for euer. Amen. Meanwhile the closing years of Henry VIII.'s reign were characterized by restrictive measures as to the reading and use of the Bible. Tyndale Version was prohibited by an act of 4 See also:Burnet's Ref., ed. See also:Pococke, 1865. Westcott, op. cit. pp. 18o f. 2 Remains (Parker Soc.), p. 493; cf. J. A. Kingdon, Incidents in the Lives of Thomas Poyntz and Richard Grafton (1895). The Great Bible, 1539. parliament, 1543; at the same time it was enacted that all notes and marginal commentaries in other copies should be obliterated, and that " no woman (unless she be a noble or See also:gentle woman), no artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under the degree of yeomen . . . husbandmen or labourers " should read or use any part of the Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.'. In 1546 Coverdale's Bible was included in the proscription, the Great Bible being the only translation not interdicted. During Edward VI.'s reign there was a brief See also:respite, William but with the accession of See also:Mary the persecutions of the Whitting- ham. English Bible and its See also:friends were renewed. Cranmer suffered martyrdom at the stake, as John Rogers had done before him. Other prominent reformers, amongst them Coverdale, sought See also:refuge in See also:Geneva, the town of See also:Calvin and See also:Beza, where they employed their enforced leisure in planning and carrying out a new revision of the Bible. The first fruits of these labours was a New Testament issued in See also:June 1557, with an introduction by Calvin, probably the work of William See also:Whittingham.' The volume, in a convenient quarto size, printed in clear Roman type, and provided with marginal annotations, gained immediate popularity in England, where a Bible suited for See also:household demands had long been needed. It was the first Bible which had the text divided into " verses and sections according to the best editions in other languages." 3 Whittingham's enterprise was, however, soon superseded by an issue of the whole Bible, which appeared in 1560, the so-called Genevan Bible, popularly also known as the Breeches Teaevan Bible, from its rendering of Gen. iii. 7, " They sewed Bible. fig leaves together and made themselves breeches."
This edition was mainly due to the combined efforts of William Whittingham, See also:Anthony Gilby and Thomas See also:Sampson, and the expenses towards printing and publication were See also:borne by members of the See also:congregation at Geneva. It represented in the Old Testament a thorough and independent revision of the text of the Great Bible with the help of the Hebrew original, the Latin versions of See also:Leo See also:Judd (1543), Pagninus (1528), Sebastian Munster (1534-1535), and the French versions of Olivetan. The New Testament consisted of Tyndale's latest text revised to a great extent in accordance with Beza's translation and commentary. The changes introduced by the Genevan translators were, as a rule, a great improvement, and the version received a ready welcome and immediate popularity, not only on See also:account of its See also:intrinsic merits, but because of its handy size, usually that of a small quarto, and of its being printed, like Whittingham's New Testament, in a readable Roman type instead of black letter. Like this earlier publication, it had the See also:division of the chapters into verses, and a marginal commentary which proved a great attraction to the Puritans. The popularity of the Genevan Bible was so great that between r 56o and 1644 at least 140 editions of it were published,' and this in spite of its not being allowed for use in the churches.
In 1576 the New Testament of the Genevan Bible was again revised by See also:Lawrence Tomson and provided with a new commentary mainly translated from Beza. It soon became popular and even replaced the Genevan New Testament in later editions of this Bible.
Some time after the accession of See also:Queen See also: . . and distributing these ' Cf. Burnet's Ref. i. 584. 2 Printed in Bagster's Hexapla, 1841, reprinted separately in 1842. ' See " Address to the Reader." The division into verses of the New Testament was first found in R. Stephanus' Greek-Latin New Testament (4th ed., 1551), whereas these divisions already existed in the Hebrew Old Testament. ' See T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, See also:Historical Catal. of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Libr. of the Brit. and Foreign Bible Soc. (London, 1903).parcels to able bishops and other learned men, to peruse and collate each the book or books allotted them . . . and they to add some short marginal notes for the See also:illustration or correction of the text." The rules upon which they proceeded were these:- 1. " To follow the common English translation used in the churches, and not to recede from it, but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the text as Pagnine in his translation useth, and for the verity of the Hebrew to follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others learned in the tongues. 3. To make no See also:bitter notes upon any text, or yet to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such chapters and places as contain matters of genealogies, or other such places not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation to any offence of lightness or See also:obscenity be expressed with more convenient terms and phrases." The work was pushed forward with See also:energy, and on the 5th of October 1568 the volume was ready for publication. It was a magnificent folio, generally known as the Bishops' Bible, since not less than eight of these dignitaries took part in the revision. But the detached and piecemeal way in which the revision had been carried out naturally caused certain in-equalities in the execution of the work. The different parts of the Bible vary considerably in merit, the alterations in the New Testament, for instance, showing freshness and vigour, whereas most of the changes introduced in the Old Testament have been condemned as " arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the Hebrew text " (Westcott,op. cit. p. 237). Several editions of the Bishops' Bible were afterwards published, but it is doubtful whether the ecclesiastical authorities in spite of repeated enactments (See also:Cardwell, Synodalia, pp. 115, 123, 210, 292) ever succeeded in entirely enforcing its public use in the churches. After 1569 the Great Bible ceased, however, to be reprinted. But in the homes the Genevan version still maintained its supremacy. One thing is certain, that the book of Psalms of the new revision had fairly soon to give way before the well-known and smooth rendering of the Great Bible. In the second edition of the Bishops' Bible, 1572, the two texts were actually printed See also:side by side; in all later editions except one (1585) the older Psalter alone remained. From the time of Tyndale onwards the translation of the Scriptures into English had been more or less an outcome of the great reformatory movements within the church. It was not until Queen Elizabeth's reign that members and See also:Dol :1 of the Romanist partyfound it expedientto translate the version. Bible into the vernacular " for the more speedy abolish- ing of a number of false and impious translations put forth by sundry sectes, and for the better preseruation or reclaime of many good soules endangered thereby " (Preface to the Rhemish Version). According to the title-page the New Testament was " translated faithfvlly into English ovt of the authentical Latin, according to the best corrected copies of the same, diligently conferred vvith the Greeke and other editions in diners languages. . . . In the English College of Rhemes, 1582." The Old Testament had been " long since " completed, but " for lacke of good meanes " (Preface to the New Testament), its appearance was delayed till 1609-1610, when it was published at See also:Douai. The complete work, known as the Rhemes and Douay Version, was reprinted in See also:Rouen in 1635, and after a considerable time revised by Dr See also:Challoner (1749-1750). The translation is really See also:anonymous, but there seems to be little doubt that it was carried out by some of the Romanist refugees connected with the See also:Seminary at Douai and the English college at See also:Reims, the chief Amongst them being See also:Gregory Martin, William See also:Allen, Richard See also:Bristow and J. See also:Reynolds. Like the Wycliffite Versions it is merely a secondary rendering from the Latin Vulgate, and it suffered from many of the defects which characterized these versions, extreme literalness, often See also:stilted, ambiguous renderings, at times unintelligible except by a reference to the Latin original, as in Luke xxii. 18, " I will not drink of the See also:generation of the See also:vine," or Phil. ii. 7, " But he exinanited himself." The Bishops' Bible. As further examples of this rendering we print the same passages from St Matthew: (Matthew iii. 1-4.) And in those dayes cometh Iohn the Baptist preaching in the desert of Ievvrie, saying. Doe See also:penance: for the Kingdom of heauen is at hand. For this is he that vvas spoken of by Esay the Prophet, saying, A voyce of one crying in the desert, prepare ye the way of our Lord, make straight his pathes. And the sayd Iohn had his garment of camels heare, & a See also:girdle of a skinne about his loynes: and his meate was locustes & vvilde honie. (Matthew vi. 9-13.) Ovr Father which art in heauen, sanctified be thy name. Let thy Kingdom come. Thy wil be done, as in heauen, in See also:earth also. Giue vs to day our supersubstantial See also:bread. And forgiue vs our dettes, as we also forgiue our detters. And leade vs not into tentation. But deliuer vs from evil. Amen. The strongly Latinized vocabulary of this version was not without its influence on the next great venture in English translations of the Bible, the Authorized Version.' The English Bible, which is now recognized as the Authorized Version wherever the English language is spoken, is a revision The of the Bishops' Bible, begun in 1604, and published Authorized in 1611. It arose incidentally out of a See also:Conference version, between the High Church and the See also:Low Church parties 1611. convened by James I. at See also:Hampton Court Palace in See also:January 1604, for the purpose of determining " things pretended to be amiss in the church," and was originally proposed by Dr Reynolds, See also:president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the leader and spokesman of the Low Church party, and subsequently on the See also:committee which revised the translation of the Prophets. No real opposition was offered to the proposal, and the king cleverly sketched out on the moment a See also:plan to be adopted. He " wished that some See also:special pains should be taken in that behalf for one See also:uniform translation—professing that he could never yet see a Bible well translated in English—and this to be done by the best learned in both the See also:Universities; after them to be reviewed by the bishops and the chief learned of the Church; from them to be presented to the privy council; and lastly to be ratified by his royal authority; and so this whole church to be See also:bound unto it and none other." 2 He also particularly desired that no notes should be added by way of comment in the margin, since some of those in the Genevan Bible appeared to him " very partial, untrue, seditious and savouring too much of dangerous and traitorous conceits." The See also:appointment of the revisers was a work of much responsibility and labour, and five months elapsed before they were selected and their respective portions assigned to them; but the See also:list of those who began the work, and who, with some few changes in consequence of deaths, brought it to a happy conclusion, shows how large an amount of scholarship was enlisted. It includes Dr See also:Andrewes, afterwards bishop of See also:Winchester, who was familiar with Hebrew, See also:Chaldee, See also:Syriac, Greek, Latin and at least ten other languages, while his knowledge of patristic literature was unrivalled; Dr Overall, regius See also:professor of See also:theology and afterwards bishop of See also:Norwich; Bedwell, the greatest Arabic scholar of See also:Europe; Sir Henry See also:Savile, the most learned layman of his time; and, to say nothing of others well known to later generations, nine who were then or afterwards professors of Hebrew or of Greek at Oxford or Cambridge. It is observable also that they were chosen without reference to party, at least as many of the Puritan clergy as of the opposite party being placed on the committees. The following list' is See also:drawn up in such a way as to show the academical or other position which each of them occupied, and the particular part of the work on which they were engaged. ' See J. G. See also:Carleton, The Part of Rheims in the Making of the English Bible (Oxford, 1902). 2 See also:Barlow, Sum and Substance of the Conference . . . in Cardwell's History of Conferences, pp. 187 f. ' Compiled chiefly from the list found in Cardwell's Synodalia (ed. 1844), H. 145-146, a reprint from Burnet's Doc. See also:Annals, ii. io6 if., " who himself took his list from a copy belonging originally to Bishop Ravis." The list is correct for the year 1604; cf. Westcott, op. cit. pp. 112 f. c Dr John Overall, See also:dean of St Paul's. Dr See also:Lancelot Andrewes, dean of See also:Westminster. Dr See also:Hadrian de See also:Saravia, See also:canon of Canterbury. Dr Richard See also:Clark, fellow of See also:Christ's Coll., Camb. Dr John Layfield, fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb. Dr See also:Robert Thigh, See also:archdeacon of See also:Middlesex. Mr Francis Burleigh, Pemb. Hall, Camb., D.D., 1607. Mr See also:Geoffrey King, fellow of King's Coll., Camb. Mr See also:Thompson, See also:Clare Hall, Camb. Mr William Bedwell, St John's Coll., Camb. Mr Edward Lively, fellow of Trin. Coll. Mr John See also:Richardson, afterwards See also:master of Trin. Coll. Mr Laurence See also:Chatterton, master of Emm. Coll. Mr Francis Dillingham, fellow of Christ's Coll. Mr Thomas See also:Harrison, See also:vice-master of Trin. Coll. Mr Roger Andrewes, afterwards master of Jesus Coll. Mr Robert See also:Spalding, fellow of St John's.
Mr See also:Andrew Byng, fellow of St Peter's Coll.
Dr John See also:Harding, pres. of Magd. Coll.
Dr John Reynolds, pres. of Corpus Christi Coll. Dr Thomas Holland, afterwards See also:rector of Ex. Coll. Mr Richard Kilbye, rector of See also:Lincoln Coll.
Dr Miles See also: Dr Richard Brett, fellow of Lincoln Coll.
Mr Richard Fairclough, fellow of New Coll.
Dr John See also:Duport, master of Jesus Coll.
Dr William Branthwait, master of See also:Caius Coll. Dr See also:Jeremiah See also:Radcliffe, fellow of Trin. Coll.
Dr See also:Samuel See also: Dr George See also: Hall, Camb. Mr See also:Michael Rabbett, Trin. Coll., Camb. Mr Thomas See also:Sanderson, Balliol Coll., Oxford, D.D., 1605. Mr William Dakins, fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb. When this large body of scholars were set down to their task, an elaborate set of rules was drawn up for their guidance, which contained a See also:scheme of revision as well as general directions for the execution of their work. This is one of the very few records that remain of their undertaking.4 " (1) The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called ` the Bishops' Bible,' to be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit. (2) The names of the prophets and the holy writers, with the other names of the text to be retained as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were vulgarly used. (3) The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, viz, the word Church not to be translated Congregation, &c. (4) When a word bath See also:divers significations, that to be kept which bath been most commonly used by the most of the See also:ancient fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the See also:analogy of the faith. (5) The division of the chapters to be altered either not at all or as little as may be, if necessity so require. (6) No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the I-Iebrew or Greek words which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text. (7) Such quotations of places to be marginally set down as shall serve for the See also:fit reference of one Scripture to another. (8) Every particular man of each See also:company to take the same chapter or chapters; and having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree for their parts what shall stand. (9) As any one company hath dispatched any one book in this rnanner, they shall send it to the See also:rest to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for his majesty is very careful in this point. (1o) If any company, upon the See also:review of the book so sent, doubt or differ upon any place, to send them word thereof, note the place, and withal send the reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at the general See also:meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company at the end of the work. (11) When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed by authority to send to any learned man in the land for his See also:judgment of such a place. (12) Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, admonishing them of his 4 Quoted from G. Burnet's Hist. of Reformation, ii. p. 368 (1861). U x= S be -a .0 8 U translation in hand, and to move and See also:charge as many as being skilful in the tongues and having taken pains in that kind, to send his particular observations to the company either at Westminster, Cambridge or Oxford. (13) The See also:directors in each company to the deans of Westminster and Chester for that place; and the king's professors in the Hebrew or Greek in either university. (14) These translations to be used when they agree better with the text than the Bishops' Bible; viz. Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whit-church's, Geneva. (15) Besides the said directors before mentioned, three or four of the most ancient and See also:grave divines in either of the universities, not employed in translating, to be assigned by the vice-See also:chancellor upon conference with [the] rest of the heads to be over-seers of the translations, as well Hebrew as Greek, for the better observation of the fourth rule above specified." It is not possible to determine in how far all these rules were adhered to. All we know of the way this noble work was carried out is contained in the Preface, where Dr Miles Smith, in 1612 bishop of See also:Gloucester, in the name of his fellow-workers gives an account of the manner and spirit in which it was done: " Neither did we run ouer the worke with that posting haste that the See also:Septuagint did, if that be true which is reported of them, that they finished it in 72 days. . The worke hath . . . cost the workemen, as See also:light as it seemeth, the paines of twise seuen times seuentie two dayes and more . Truly (good See also:Christian Reader), we neuer thought from the beginning, that we should neede to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a See also:bad one a good one . but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one princi- See also:pall good one, not justly to be excepted against. . To that purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other mens eyes than in their owne, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise. . . . Neither did wee thinke much to consult the Translators or Commentators, Chaldee, Hebrewe, Syrian, Greeke, or Latine, no mor the See also:Spanish, French, See also:Italian or Dutch [German] ; neither did we disdaine to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anuill that which we had hammered: but hauing and vsing as great helpes as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting praise for expedition, wee haue at the length, through the good hand of the Lord vpon vs, brought the worke to that passe that you see." From the above it appears that the actual work of revision occupied about two years and nine months, an additional nine months being required for the final preparation for press. The edition appeared at length in 1611, the full title being as follows: The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues, & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised, by his Majesties speciall comandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London by Robert See also:Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie. Anno Dom. 1611.1 Since that time many millions of this revised translation have been printed, and the general See also:acceptance of it by all English-speaking people of whatever See also:denomination is a testimony to its excellence.
Still the work of improving and correcting went on through the centuries, and a See also:modern copy of the Authorized Version shows no inconsiderable departures from the See also:standard edition of 1611. Dr Scrivener imputes some of those See also:differences " to oversight and See also:negligence . . . but much the greater part of them " he holds to be " deliberate changes, introduced silently and without authority by men whose very names are often unknown." (A. C. P.)
More ambitious attempts at amending the new version were not lacking, but they all proved fruitless, until in See also:February 187o
the Convocation of Canterbury appointed a committee The to consider the subject of revision. The See also:report of
Revised
version. this committee, presented in May, was adopted, to
the effect " that Convocation should nominate a body
of its own members to undertake the work of revision, who shall
be at See also:liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholar-
See also:ship, to whatever nation or religious body they may belong ";
and shortly afterwards two companies were formed for the re-
See also:vision of the Authorized Version of the Old and New Testaments.
These companies consisted of the following :—1. For the Old Testa-
ment:—(a) Appointed by Convocation.—Connop See also:Thirlwall, bishop
of St See also:David's (d. 1875); Alfred 011ivant (1798–1882), bishop of
See also:Llandaff; E. Harold See also: J. See also:Rose (d. 1873) ; William See also:Selwyn (1806–1875), canon of Ely and See also:Lady See also:Margaret professor at Cambridge; Dr John See also:Jebb (1805–1886), canon of Here-See also:ford; and Dr William See also:Kay (182o-1886). (0) Invited.—Dr William See also:Lindsay See also: Dr Gotch of Bristol; Archdeacon Benjamin Harrison (1808-1887), Hebraist; the Rev. See also:Stanley See also:Leathes (1830-1900), professor of Hebrew at King's College, London; Professor M`Gill; Canon Robert See also:Payne Smith (1819–1895), regius professor of divinity at Oxford, dean of Canterbury (187o) ; Professor J. J. S. See also:Perowne, afterwards bishop of Worcester; the Rev. Edward See also:Hayes Plumtre (1821-1891), professor of exegesis at King's College, London, afterwards dean of Wells; Canon E. Bouverie See also:Pusey; William Wright (183o–1889), the orientalist; W. Aldis Wright, Cambridge. Of these Canons Cook and Pusey declined to serve, and ten members died during the progress of the work. The secretary of the company was Mr W. Aldis Wright, fellow of Trinity, Cambridge. 2. For the New Testament:—(a) Appointed by Convocation.—Samuel See also:Wilberforce, bishop of Winchester; Charles J. Ellicott, bishop of Gloucester and Bristol; and George See also:Moberly, bishop of Salisbury; Dr Edward See also:Bickersteth (1814–1892), See also:prolocutor of the lower See also:house of convocation; Henry See also:Alford, dean of Canterbury, and Arthur See also:Penrhyn Stanley, dean of Westminster; See also:Joseph See also:Williams See also:Blakesley (1808–1885), canon of Canterbury, and (1872) dean of Lincoln. (0) Invited.—The Rev. Dr Joseph See also:Angus, president of the Stepney Baptist College; Dr David See also: Benjamin Hall See also:Kennedy, canon of Ely; William See also: A. Scrivener (1813–1891), rector of St Gerrans, See also:Cornwall; Charles Wordsworth, bishop of St See also:Andrews; Dr W. H. Thompson; Dr S. P. See also:Tregelles; Dr C. J. See also:Vaughan; Canon Westcott. Of these, Dr Thompson and Dr Newman declined to serve. Dean Alford, Dr Tregelles, Bishop Wilberforce and Dr Eadie were removed by death. Only the first vacancy was filled up. Dean See also:Merivale was co-opted, and on his resignation Professor, afterwards Archdeacon, See also:Edwin See also:Palmer. The Rev. J. Troutbeck, See also:minor canon of Westminster, acted as secretary. Negotiations were opened with the leading scholars of the See also:Protestant denominations in See also:America, with the result that similar companies were formed in the See also:United States. The work of the English revisers was regularly submitted to their See also:consideration; their comments were carefully considered and largely adopted, and their divergences from the version ultimately agreed upon were printed in an appendix to the published work. Thus the Revised Version was the achievement of English-speaking Christendom as a whole; only the Roman Catholic Church, of the great English-speaking denominations, refused to take part in the undertaking. The Church of England, which had put forth the version of 1611, fitly initiated the work, but for its performance most wisely invited the help of the sister churches. The delegates of the Clarendon Press in Oxford, and the syndics of the See also:Pitt Press in Cambridge, entered into a liberal arrangement with the revisers, by which the necessary funds were provided for all their expenses. On the completion of its work the New Testament company divided itself into three committees, working at London, Westminster and Cambridge, for the purpose of revising the Apocrypha. The work of the Old Testament company was different in some important respects from that which engaged the See also:attention of the New Testament company. The received Hebrew text has undergone but little emendation, and the revisers had before them substantially the same Massoretic text which was in the hands of the translators of 1611. It was See also:felt that there was no sufficient justification to make any attempt at an entire re-construction of the text on the authority of the versions. The Old Testament revisers were therefore spared much of the labour of deciding between different readings, which formed one of the most important duties of the New Testament company. But the advance in the study of Hebrew since the early part of the 17th century enabled them to give a more faithful translation of the received text. The value of, their work is evident, especially in Job, See also:Ecclesiastes and the prophetical books. It is the work of the New Testament committee which has attracted most attention, whether for blame or praise. The critical resources at the disposal of scholars in 1611 were very meagre, and the few early manuscripts with which they were acquainted failed to receive the attention they deserved. The results of modern critical methods could not fail to make the incompleteness of the " Received Text," and of the " Authorized Version," which was based on it, obvious. It had long been the opinion of all competent scholars that a thorough revision was necessary. A proposal in favour of this course was made in Convocation in 1856, but it was not until fourteen years later that the committee was appointed to undertake the work. The revisers' first task was to reconstruct the Greek text, as the necessary foundation of their work. In this difficult See also:duty they were no doubt influenced by Westcott and Hort's edition of the New Testament. These two scholars were members of the committee which prepared the Revised Version, and on the question of various readings they appear to have exercised a predominating influence. The revisers were privately supplied with instalments of Westcott and Hort's text as their work required them. But it is scarcely necessary to say that the Revised Version is not the work of one or two scholars. Different schools of criticism were represented on the committee, and the most careful discussion took place before any decision was formed. Every precaution was taken to ensure that the version should represent the result of the best scholarship of the time, applied to the work before it with See also:constant devotion and with the highest sense of responsibility. The changes in the Greek text of the Authorized Version when compared with the textus receptus are numerous, but the contrast between the English versions of 1611 and 1881- is all the more striking because of the difference in the method of translation which was adopted. The revisers aimed at the most scrupulous faithfulness. They adopted the plan— deliberately rejected by the translators of 1611—of always using the same English word for the same Greek word. " They endeavoured to enable the English reader to follow the correspondences of the original with the closest exactness, to catch the See also:solemn repetition of words and phrases, to mark the subtleties of expression, to feel even the strangeness of unusual forms of speech." The revision of the New Testament was completed in 407 meetings, distributed over more than ten years. It was formally presented to Convocation on May 17,1881. The revision of the Old Testament occupied 792 days, and was finished on June 20, 1884. The revised Apocrypha did not make its appearance until 1895. The text of the Revised Version is printed in paragraphs, the old division of books into chapters and verses being retained for convenience of reference. By this arrangement the capricious divisions of some books is avoided. Various editions of the New Version have been published, the most complete being the edition of the whole Bible with marginal references. These references had their origin in the work of two small sub-committees of the revisers, but they received their present form at the hands of a specially appointed committee. The marginal references given in the original edition of the Authorized Version of 1611 have been retained as far as possible. The work of the revisers was received without See also:enthusiasm. It was too thorough for the See also:majority of religious people. Partisans found that havoc had been played with their See also:proof texts. Ecclesiastical conservatives were scandalized by the freedom with which the traditional text was treated. The advocates of change were discontented with the hesitating acceptance which their principles had obtained. The most vulnerable side of the revision was that on which the See also:mass of English readers thought itself capable of forming a judgment. The general effect of so many small alterations was to spoil thefamiliar sonorous style of the Authorized Version. The changes were freely denounced as equally See also:petty and vexatious; they were, moreover, too often inconsistent with the avowed principles of the revisers. The method of determining readings and renderings by See also:vote was not favourable to the consistency and literary character of the Version. A whole literature of criticism and apology made its appearance, and the achievement of so many years of patient labour seemed destined to perish in a See also:storm of resentments. On the whole, the Revised Version weathered the storm more successfully than might have been expected. Its considerable excellences were better realized by students than stated by apologists. The See also:hue and cry of the critics largely died away, and was replaced by a calmer and juster appreciation. The work of the revisers has been sharply criticized from the standpoint of specialists in New Testament Greek. Dr See also:Rutherford stated the case briefly and pointedly in the preface to his translation of the Epistle to the See also:Romans (London, 'goo). He maintains that " the Greek of the New Testament may never be understood as classical Greek is understood," and accuses the revisers of distorting the meaning "by translating in accordance with See also:Attic See also:idiom phrases that convey in later Greek a wholly different sense, the sense which the earlier translators in happy See also:ignorance had recognized that the context demanded." The use of the new Version has become general. Familiarity has mitigated the harshness of the revisers' renderings; scholar-ship, on the whole, has confirmed their readings. The Version has been publicly read in See also:parish churches both in London and in the country. In Canterbury cathedral and Westminster See also:Abbey it has definitely displaced the older Version. Bishops have acquiesced and congregations approved. It is no longer possible to maintain the plausible and damaging contention that the Revised Bible is See also:ill suited for public use. The Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury in May 1898 appointed a commit-tee to consider the expediency of "permitting or encouraging" the use of the Revised Version in the public services of the Church. (H. H. H.*) For the version as a whole: J. R. See also:Dore, Old Bibles (2nd ed., 1888) ; J. Eadie, The English Bible: an External and Critical History of the various English Translations of Scripture (2 vols., 1876: the most complete account) ; A. See also:Edgar, The Bibles of England (1889) ; H. W. See also:Hoare, The See also:Evolution of the English Bible (2nd ed.,1902 : gives historical setting of the Versions); F. G. See also:Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts (1895) ; J. H. Lupton, See also:article on " English Versions," in See also:Hastings' Dict. of the Bible extra vol.); R. Lovett, The Printed English Bible, 1525–1885 (1894) ; G. Milligan, The English Bible, a See also:Sketch of its History (1895); J. I. Mombert, English Versions of the Bible (1883); F. Moulton, The History of the English Bible (2nd ed., 1884); T. H. See also:Pattison, History of the English Bible (1894); J. See also:Stoughton, Our English Bible, its Translations and Translators [1878]. For the earlier history: J. See also:Lewis, History of English Translations of the Bible (1818); the historical accounts prefixed to Bagster's issue of The English Hexapla and of Forshall and Madden's edition of the Wycliffite Versions (Oxford, 185o). These are all to a great extent antiquated, their errors being repeated in almost all subsequent accounts of the subject. The only trustworthy authority on the Anglo-Saxon Bible is A. S. Cook's " Introduction on Old English Translations of the Bible," in Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose-writers. For the 14th and 15th centuries: See A. C. Panes, The Bible in the Fourteenth Century. For the early printed Bibles: H. Cotton, List of Editions of the Bible (1852), Rhemes and Doway (1855) ; F. Fry, The Bible by See also:Cover-See also:dale (1867) ; Description of the Great Bible, 1539 (1865) ; See also:Bibliographical Descriptions of the Editions of the New Testament (1878); N. See also:Pocock, " On the Bishops' and Genevan Bible," (Bibliographer, vols. i.-iv.) ; See also:Prime Wendell, Fifteenth-Century Bibles (1888) ; John Wright, Early Bibles of America (1893). For the Authorized Version: F. H. A. Scrivener, The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1884). See also R. Gel!, See also:Essay toward the See also:Amendment of the Authorized Version (1659); W. Kilburne, Dangerous Errors in . . Bibles (1659) ; R. C. Trench, On the Authorized Version of the New Testament in connexion with some See also:recent proposals for its revision (2nd ed., 1859). For the Revised Version: J. B. Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision of the English New Testament (London, 1871 ; 3rd ed.. 1891) ; Westcott, Some Lessons of the Revised Version (London, 1897) ; Kennedy, Ely Lectures on the Revised Version (London, 1882). The Revisers fully explained their principles and methods in the Preface. The See also:American Committee of Revision issued an historical account of their work (New York, 1885). The case against the Revisers is ably stated in The RevisioraRevised, by Dean See also:Burgon (London, 1883). The literary defects of the Version are elaborately exhibited by G. See also:Washington See also:Moon in two works: The Revisers' English (London, 1882), and Ecclesiastical English (London, 1886). See also Some Thoughts on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, by G. See also:Salmon, D,D. (London, 1897); Bishop Ellicott's Charge (1901). The Greek Text of the New Testament adopted by the Revisers was edited for the Clarendon Press by Archdeacon Palmer (Oxford, 1881). Parallel editions of the Bible, showing both the Authorized and Revised Versions, a large-type edition for public use, a reference edition, and (1900) a "Two Version " edition, have been issued by one or both the University Presses. (A. C. P.; H. H. 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