OF ENGLISH VERSIONS TO THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
§1. Wycliffe's.
To speak of English translations based upon the Vulgate, we need but further refer to that by John Wycliffe, first printed in the present reign (1850), the work of one who, in the opinion of a learned Professor of Modern History, has done more than any other Englishman to shape the England of the present day.
Of English translations by Protestants, to which principally reference is made on the title-page of the common English Bible, it is well to know something of the following:—
§ 2. Tyndale's.
William Tyndale's Translation of the Pentateuch and Book of Jonah (circ. 1530). The influence of this celebrated Protestant martyr has been chiefly felt in the New Testament. But his vocabulary seems also to have largely entered into the texture of Matthew's Bible, the first of the so-called Authorized Versions. Froude says of Tyndale's Bible, 'It is substantially the Bible with which we are all familiar,' which is certainly true of the New Testament. Besides the Pentateuch and the Book of Jonah, which he issued separately, Tyndale translated what were called Epistles,' being selections from the Old Testament, which are appended to his translation of the New Testament. He had little to work with besides the Vulgate and Luther's translation of the Pentateuch, the latter of which appeared in 1523. It is generally agreed that he must have translated from the Hebrew Text. Tyndale was burned in 1536. He is said at the stake to have exclaimed, The Lord open the king of England's eyes:' his prayer seems to have been answered the next year by Henry's license being given to the publication of Matthew's Bible.
§3. Coverdale's.
Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535. The translator did not profess to follow the Hebrew in this his first Bible.
Each of the following Bibles was based more or less upon its English predecessors.
§4. Matthew's.
Matthew's Bible, 1537, 1539. This version, to which reference has just been made, is generally attributed to John Rogers, an associate of Tyndale; the Bible, it is said, having been published under a pseudonym. Rogers suffered martyrdom in 1555. As already intimated, the Bible he seems to have edited was the first Authorized Version. The way in which it was taken up by the king may be learned from Westcott's pages. Dr. Charles P. Krauth graphically remarks: It received the approval of that same royal authority which had helped to hunt its chief author to the death.' The same writer further says: The king saw to it that the Bible was circulated, and then piously burned men to death for believing it in any respect wherein it did not agree with the king's views. It was rather in spite of the dubious aid given by Henry, than in consequence of it, that God's Word was widely circulated and read.'
Westcott says: It is the foundation of the text of our present Bible.' From Matthew's Bible—itself a combination of the labors of Tyndale and Coverdale—all later versions have been successively formed.'
Amongst the characteristics of Matthew's Bible are the division of the Psalms into five books, after the Hebrew, and the translation of Hallelujah by 'Praise the Everlasting,' in which we may discern the influence of Olivetan's French version (1535). The Pentateuch is substantially Tyndale's; the Prophets, Coverdale's.
§5. The Great Bible.
The Great Bible, Crumwell's, first appeared in 1539-1541. Coverdale was chiefly concerned in this translation, which is nearer to the Hebrew than his earlier work. He had the hearty support of Crumwell and of Cranmer. This Bible may be called the second Authorized Version. Moulton says of it, Whilst much use was made of the Vulgate and of the Complutensian Polyglott, Münster's Latin Version was the authority to which Coverdale chiefly deferred.' Münster's version had appeared in 1534-5. Of the edition of the Great Bible brought out in 1540, Moulton, referring to Isa. 52, remarks: We gladly welcome such renderings as "the chastisement of our peace" in the place of "the pain of our punishment" (1539), and "the Lord hath heaped together upon him the iniquity of us all" is a more adequate representation of the prophet's meaning than " through him the Lord hath pardoned all our sins."' This Bible was associated with the name of Cranmer from the year 1540; so that what is sometimes called Cranmer's Bible is only one or other of the later editions of Crumwell's Bible.'
§ 6. The Genevan Bible.
The Genevan Bible was begun in Queen Mary's reign by refugees at Geneva, amongst whom was Whittingham, brother-in-law of Calvin, and was first published in its complete form in the year 1560. It abounds with marginal notes, often caustic, and breathing a Calvinism which proved most offensive to King James 1 It adhered more closely than the previous English Bibles to the original form of Hebrew proper names, as Habel for Abel. It was the first English Bible in which we find italics used for words supplied that have no equivalent in the Hebrew.
Since the early editions of the Great Bible' were published, there had appeared a Latin version of the Hebrew Bible by Leo Juda (1543) of which doubtless the Genevan translators availed themselves in addition to other earlier helps. Though Geneva' appears to follow the Great Bible rather than any other previous English version, an examination of Psa. 90 would show more than eighty departures from that Bible. Of these divergences Moulton says: In two out of every three the change is an improvement, and more than fifty of the changes hold their ground in the Authorized Version.' The same writer correctly says, The Authorized Version has been very largely influenced by the Genevan Bible, which in that part of the Old Testament not translated by Tyndale was the most thorough and satisfactory of all the early versions.' That it was the Bible of the people is evidenced by the fact that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth no less than seventy editions appeared in all sizes from folio to 48 mo.'
§ 7. The Bishops' Bible.
The Bishops' Bible 1568, 1572, was the third of such Authorized' Versions; but it seems never to have endeared itself to the people. Like the Genevan, it gives proper names in a more Hebraic dress than other Bibles. It has in Gen. 4 Habel in text, but Abel in the summary of contents.
Of this Bible Moulton says: In the Old Testament, Cranmer's Bible was closely followed.... What is original in this Version does not often possess any great merit, nor does it appear that the revision of 1572 produced much effect in the Old Testament.'
As late as the time of the Bishops' Bible, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah were respectively called the 1st and 2nd Books of Esdras. The Song of Solomon is headed, The Ballet of Ballets of Solomon.