Pr Ko Lingkang

A Brief History of the English Bible 

Last Sunday, as part of the Morning Worship Service, I briefly touched on the history of the English Bible - of the events leading up to the translation and publication of the King James Bible. Here is a more detailed look at this history, recognizing the providence and goodness of God in providing us with a most excellent translation of the Bible in a language that we can understand.

Early English Versions

Prior to the 14^thcentury, there was no translation of the Bible that was widely available to the English-speaking world. Historical records show some attempts were made to translate portions of the Bible into Old English from as early as the 8^thand 9^thcentury, such as parts of the Psalter by Aldhelm (d. 709), the translation of the Gospel of John and other portions of Scripture by Bede (675-735/736), and the Scripture portions translated by Alfred the Great (849-901).^[1] However these were not widely distributed, and were only parts of the Bible, and never consolidated into a single whole. 

It was only in the latter half of the fourteenth century, through the efforts of John Wycliffe (1329-1384) that the English-speaking world would have their first complete Bible translated into a language they could understand. Wycliffe was a brilliant Oxford scholar and churchman.  Through his study of Scripture, he began to be troubled by the excesses and corruptions of the church and papacy, noting especially how their teachings and practices were in conflict with Scripture. Because of his preaching against the church and his emphasis on the authority of Scripture over any earthly powers, Wycliffe was admonished by the church and lost his position in the university.[^2] He is best remembered for his translation of the New Testament (c. 1382) which was published together with the Old Testament translated by an associate, Nicholas of Hereford, both translating from the Latin Vulgate. The resultant translation was known as the Wycliffe Bible (c. 1388). Further work was done by John Purvey, a follower of Wycliffe, to smoothen the translation. This revision became known as the ‘Lollard Bible’ – the edition that became the predominant English Bible throughout the 15^thcentury, until the time of Tyndale. Because the printing press was not yet invented, every copy had to be painstakingly made by hand. Yet despite that, Wycliffe’s Bible was carried throughout Europe and enabled many to be able to read the Bible in a language they understood.^[3]  

More than a hundred years later, William Tyndale (1494-1536) had the noble, godly ambition to “cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of scripture than he (the Pope) did”.^[4] Like Wycliffe, he knew the importance of the Bible, and wanted everyone in England to be able to read it in a language that they knew. Thus he devoted the rest of his life to translate the Bible into English directly from the original Greek and Hebrew, which by then, with the invention of the printing press, was available to him. Prior to his martyrdom in 1536, he had managed to translate the New Testament, the Pentateuch and other portions of the Old Testament. Tyndale’s skill and mastery in translation and the English language was excellent, and widely regarded to be superior to Wycliffe. His translation was accurate, clear and of great stylistic beauty.^[5] His translation was published and smuggled throughout England. He himself was arrested, imprisoned and eventually put to death for this act, for at that time it was still illegal to translate the Bible. At his execution, as he was tied to the stake to be burned, he cried out with a loud voice: “Lord! open the King of England’s eyes”^[6] – a prayer that would soon be answered in a most spectacular way.

Over the next seventy years, many rapid changes were taking place in England. The Church of England had split from the Roman Catholic Church, and the rule against translations of the Bible was abolished in England. There was a further interest and study made into the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. Greek texts were being edited and published by men such as Erasmus, Stephanus and Beza, producing various editions of a group of texts that would later anachronistically be termed as the Textus Receptus(TR) or Received Text.^[7]

Various other English Bibles also began to appear, such as the Coverdale Bible (1535), the Matthews Bible (1537) the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560). Most of them were based on the work of Tyndale. There was no centralized backing for any of those works, and some of them had problems with accuracy, or were being championed by various factions within the young protestant church. For example, there was the Geneva Bible which had very strongly Calvinistic commentary notes which the Church of England opposed, whilst the Great Bible, which was a huge Bible printed to be placed in the churches and chained there, was a compilation of various works and not consistent. There was a growing desire for an authoritative translation that would be received by all English speaking Christians.  

King James Version

In 1604, the new King of England, King James I, agreed to a meeting with various ministers of the different groups of Protestants in England at that time, to try to seek out a common ground between them. Though the meeting itself did not do much in terms of uniting the Christians in England, one fruit of it was the decision to translate an officially authorized version of the English Bible. Puritan John Reynolds was the man who set forward the proposal for this new translation, which was readily received by King James. As it was a work backed by the king, no effort was spared in ensuring that it would be done to the best of their abilities. Over the next six months, a general plan was drawn up as to how the translation was to be done, and who would be involved in the work. 

A list of 54 scholars were drawn up and tasked to carry out the translation work. Due to some deaths and withdrawals, 47 were finally involved in the actual translation process. These were men of great learning and understanding, top-rated scholars of England and Europe in their day. They were also pious men of deep faith, with great respect for the Bible as the infallible Word of God.^[8] This was indeed an unprecedented and never to be repeated gathering of such top minds, all coming together to embark on a common project – to produce the best possible translation of the Bible into the language of the people.

These 47 men were divided into six companies, and the various portions of the Bible were distributed amongst them to translate. The whole process of the translation was extremely thorough and meticulous, with every effort made to ensure that the work produced would be as perfect as it could possibly be. A list of directives was drawn up to guide these translators in the execution of this project. Every single word that was translated would be subject to repeated scrutiny and evaluation by the rest of the committee. This is especially evident in rules 8-12 that govern the translation process:

8) Every particular Man of each 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 Manner they shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for His Majesty is very careful in this Point. 

10) If any Company, upon the 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 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 Judgement of such a Place. 

12) Letters to be sent from every Bishop to the rest of his Clergy, admonishing them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge as many 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.^[9]

The texts that the translators had available to them were as follows:

They had the Complutensian Polyglot of 1517… and they had the Antwerp Polyglot, 1569-72. These gave Hebrew and Greek texts with versions in other tongues added. Of course they had the Latin Vulgate, though that was suspect because it was popish. With some fragments of early scrolls, they had countless comments by the early church fathers and ancient scholars. Often they referred to St. Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.)… Another reference authority was the Geneva scholar, Theodore Beza (1519-1605).^[10]

The work took several years, as the translators went through the whole Bible thoroughly, carefully studying and translating each verse and each word. They would have done so with godly fear and reverence, for they knew that they were handling the very words of God, given by the inspiration of God. Finally, the work was completed and published in 1611. Although reception to this new translation was not instant, nonetheless it was a hugely significant accomplishment for it produced a translation of the Bible so accurate and faithful that it would not be surpassed in the generations to come. 

After its initial publication in 1611, revisions were made by two of the original translators, John Bois and Samuel Ward in 1629 and 1638 to correct various printing errors, or to make some minor grammatical or punctuation changes. In 1762 and 1769, two further revisions were made mainly to standardize and modernize the spelling, punctuations, use of italics, and marginal annotations. The final revision was done in Oxford in 1769, and is the edition used by most printers of the KJV today.^[11]  

Despite some initial resistance against the adoption of this version, it soon became the only available printed version of the English Bible. In 1644, the last issue of the Geneva Bible was printed, and by the end of the seventeenth century, the KJV would be the translation used by almost all Christians in the English speaking world.

Now 400 years later, we continue to hold to and cherish this excellent translation, because it remains the only English translation that is based on the perfectly preserved text of the Bible, was done by a gathering of godly and gifted translators that had a high view of God’s word, applied the right technique of formal equivalence, and unashamedly proclaims only theologies that are found in God’s Word. 

We hold to the King James Version because this is the best, most faithful, most accurate translation of the Bible in the English language. May we love it, read it, defend it, but most importantly obey its commandments always. 

 ^[1]Paul D. Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1999), 273–281.

 ^[2]Summarized from Wegner,The Journey from Texts to Translations, 281.

 ^[3]Summarized from C. P. Hallihan, The Authorised Version: A Wonderful and Unfinished History(London: Trinitarian Bible Society, 2010), 21–24.

 ^[4]John Foxe, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, ed by. William Byron Forbush (Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d.), https://www.ccel.org/ccel/foxe/martyrs/files/martyrs.html (accessed February 12, 2017).

^[5]For an assessment of Tyndale’s translation and its impact on the AV, see Jonathan D. Moore, “The Authorized Version: The Influence of William Tyndale’s Translations” (Oxford: Trinitarian Bible Society, 2011), 1-19, http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.tbsbibles.org/resource/collection/255F0F61-81C1-4992-BC04-CA72788DF0BB/238-1.pdf (accessed February 12, 2017).

^[6]Foxe,Fox’s Book of Martyrs.

^[7]The Textus Receptus describes a group of published editions of the Greek New Testament. It was a phrased coined in 1633 due to the term used by the Elzevir brothers in the preface of their second edition of the Greek New Testament, which stated that it was “the text now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted”. Subsequently, this term became a catchword to refer to the form of the Greek texts found in the editions of Erasmus, Stephanus, Beza, Elzevir, and the later work of Scriviner, all of which form the basis for the King James Version and of all the principal Protestant translations in the languages of Europe prior to 1881. 

^[8]For a detailed look at the profile of the translators of the KJV, see Gustavus Swift Paine, The Men Behind The King James Version(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977).

^[9]Gustavus Swift Paine, The Men Behind The King James Version, 70–71.

^[10]Gustavus Swift Paine, The Men Behind The King James Version, 77.

^[11]Hallihan,The Authorised Version: A Wonderful and Unfinished History, 54–56.