The English Bible Before the KJV
some thoughts on the history of the English Bible
I’ll be publishing a series of short essays that I put together for a friend as he is studying for his comprehensive exam for his Master’s. They include one on the Septuagint, an article on the preface to the KJV, an examination of different translation philosophies, and a short history of the English Bible before the KJV. Just a heads up: writing style will be a little different because of the nature of the work. I hope you Enjoy!
When discussing the history of the English Bible before the 1611 KJV, there are two names which come up more than any other: John Wycliffe (1330-1384) and William Tyndale (d. 1536).1 John Wycliffe was an Oxford scholar and teacher who sided with parliament in confrontations with the Pope concerning taxes. He fought for social and religious reforms, and he urged England to the great spiritual revival of the fourteenth century. In 1382, two years before his death, Wycliffe and his students completed the first translation of the English Bible from Latin to English.
William Tyndale might be considered the “true father of the English Bible.” He committed to translating the Bible, not from Latin, but from the original Hebrew and Greek. He once said to an opponent, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” His goal of translating the New Testament into English was completed, and in 1526 the first copies were smuggled into England and purchased with enthusiasm. While he completed several sections of the Old Testament, his goal of providing the public with an entire translation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue was incomplete because in 1536, Tyndale was burned at the stake for heresy.
Other heroes of the reformation were at work in Tyndale’s day to produce translations of the Bible into English as well. Miles Coverdale produced a translation of the entire Bible into English in 1535. Matthew’s Bible, a work of Tyndale’s friend John Rogers, was published in 1537; Rogers suffered martyrdom for his friendship with Tyndale and his commitment to providing the common people with their own translation. Coverdale updated Rogers’s version and called it The Great Bible in 1539. It became the official Bible of the Church of England. William Whittingham revised the English Bible which was called the Geneva Bible (1560), but its Calvinist marginal notes made bishops in the Church of England to reject it. This led to The Bishop’s Bible, which was completed in 1568. Finally, the Catholics countered with their own translation in 1593 called the Douai-Rheims Bible.
Since none of the previous translations were able to satisfy all the different factions within the English church, King James I authorized a new translation of the whole Bible, which we know as the King James Version.
Lightfoot, Neil R. How We Got the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books (2003), p. 174 Note: all paragraphs in this section contain excerpts, quotations, or paraphrases of his work.