English BIBLES. The first English Bible we read of was that translated by J. Wickliffe about the year 1360; but never printed, though there are MS. copies of it in several of the public libraries. J. de Trevisa, who died about the year 1398, is also said to have translated the whole Bible; but whether any copies of it are remaining, does not appear.
Tindal's. The first printed Bible in our language was that translated by Will. Tindal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, printed abroad in 1526; but most of the copies were bought up and burnt by Bishop Tunstal and Sir Thomas More. It only contained the New Testament, and was revised and republished by the same person in 1530. The prologues and prefaces added to it reflect on the bishops and clergy; but this edition was also suppressed, and the copies burnt. In 1532, Tindal and his associates finished the whole Bible except the Apocrypha, and printed it abroad: but while he was afterwards preparing for a second edition, he was taken up and burnt for heresy in Flanders.
Matthew's. On Tindal's death, his work was carried on by Coverdale, and John Rogers superintendent of an English church in Germany, and the first martyr in the reign of Queen Mary, who translated the Apocrypha, and revised Tindal's translation, comparing it with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, and adding prefaces and notes from Luther's Bible. He dedicated the whole to Henry VIII. in 1537, under the borrowed name of Thomas Matthews; whence this has been usually called Matthew's Bible. It was printed at Hamburg, and license obtained for publishing it in England by the favour of Archbishop Cranmer and the bishops Latimer and Shaxton.
Cranmer's. The first Bible printed by authority in England, and publicly set up in churches, was the same Tindal's version, revised, compared with the Hebrew, and in many places amended, by Miles Coverdale afterwards bishop of Exeter; and examined after him by Archbishop Cranmer, who added a preface to it: whence this was called Cranmer's Bible. It was printed by Grafton, of the largest volume, and published in 1540; and, by a royal proclamation, every parish was obliged to set one of the copies in their church, under the penalty of 40s. a-month; yet, two years
years after, the Popish bishops obtained its suppression of the king. It was restored under Edward VI. suppressed again under Queen Mary, and restored again in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, and a new edition of it given in 1562.
Geneva.—Some English exiles at Geneva in Queen Mary's reign, Coverdale, Goodman, Gilbie, Sampson, Cole, Whittingham, and Knox, made a new translation, printed there in 1560, the New Testament having been printed in 1557; hence called the Geneva Bible; containing the variations of readings, marginal annotations, &c. on account of which it was much valued by the puritan party in that and the following reigns.
Bishops.—Archbishop Parker resolved on a new translation for the public use of the church, and engaged the bishops and other learned men to take each a share or portion. These being afterwards joined together, and printed with short annotations in 1568, in a large folio, made what was afterwards called the Great English Bible, and commonly the Bishops Bible. The following year it was also published in 8vo, in a small but fine black letter: and here the chapters were divided into verses: but without any breaks for them, in which the method of the Geneva Bible was followed, which was the first English Bible where any distinction of verses was made. It was afterwards printed in large folio, with corrections, and several prolegomena, in 1572: this is called Matthew Parker's Bible. The initial letters of each translator's name were put at the end of his part: e. gr. at the end of the Pentateuch, W. E. for William Exon; that is, William bishop of Exeter, whose allotment ended there; at the end of Samuel, R. M. for Richard Menevenis, or bishop of St David's, to whom the second allotment fell: and the like of the rest. The archbishop oversaw, directed, examined, and finished the whole. This translation was used in the churches for 40 years, though the Geneva Bible was more read in private houses, being printed above 30 times in as many years. King James bore it an inveterate hatred on account of the notes; which at the Hampton-court conference he charged as partial, untrue, seditious, &c. The Bishops Bible too had its faults. The king frankly owned he had yet seen no good translation of the Bible in English; but he thought that of Geneva the worst of all.
Rhemish.—After the translation of the Bible by the bishops, two other private versions had been made of the New Testament: The first by Laur. Thomson, made from Beza's Latin edition, together with the notes of Beza, published in 1582 in 4to, and afterwards in 1589, varying very little from the Geneva Bible; the second by the Papists at Rheims in 1584, called the Rhemish Bible, or Rhemish Translation. These finding it impossible to keep the people from having the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, resolved to give a version of their own as favourable to their cause as might be. It was printed on a large paper, with a fair letter and margin. One complaint against it was its retaining a multitude of Hebrew and Greek words untransliterated, for want, as the editors express it, of proper and adequate terms in the English to render them by; as the words azymes, tunicis, rational, holocaust, prepucer, pusche, &c. However, many of the copies were seized by the queen's searchers, and confiscated;
and Th. Cartwright was solicited by Secretary Walsingham to refute it: but after a good progress made therein, Archbishop Whitgift prohibited his further proceeding therein, as judging it improper the doctrine of the church of England should be committed to the defence of a puritan, and appointed Dr Fulke in his place, who refuted the Rheims with great spirit and learning. Cartwright's refutation was also afterwards published in 1618, under Archbishop Abbot. About 30 years after their New Testament, the Roman Catholics published a translation of the Old at Doway, in 1609 and 1610, from the vulgate, with annotations; so that the English Roman Catholics have now the whole Bible in their mother-tongue; though it is to be observed, they are forbidden to read it without a license from their superiors.
King James's.—The last English Bible was that which proceeded from the Hampton-court conference in 1603, where many exceptions being made to the Bishops Bible, King James gave orders for a new one; not, as the preface expresses it, for a translation altogether new, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, but to make a good one better, or of many good ones one best. Fifty-four learned persons were appointed for this office by the king, as appears by his letter to the archbishop, dated in 1604; which being three years before the translation was entered upon, it is probable seven of them were either dead or had declined the task, since Fuller's list of the translators makes but 47; who being ranged under six divisions, entered on their province in 1607. It was published in 1613, with a dedication to James, and a learned preface, and is commonly called King James's Bible. After this, all the other versions dropped and fell into disuse, except the Epistles and Gospels in the Common Prayer Book, which were still continued according to the Bishops translation till the alteration of the liturgy in 1661, and the Psalms and Hymns, which are to this day continued as in the old version.
The judicious Selden in his Table Talk, speaking of the Bible, says, "The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best, taking in for the English translation the Bishops Bible, as well as King James's. The translators in King James's time took an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs), and then they met together, and one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian, &c. If they found any fault, they spoke; if not, he read on."
King James's Bible is that now read by authority in all the churches in Britain.
Welch BIBLES.—There was a Welch translation of the Bible made from the original in the time of Queen Elizabeth, in consequence of a bill brought into the house of commons for this purpose in 1563. It was printed in folio in 1588. Another version, which is the standard translation for that language, was printed in 1620. It is called Parry's Bible. An impression of this was printed in 1690, called Bishop Lloyd's Bible. These were in folio. The first 8vo impression of the Welch Bible was made in 1630.
Irish BIBLE.—Towards the middle of the 16th century,
tury, Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, set on foot a translation of the Old Testament into the Irish language; the New Testament and the Liturgy having been before translated into that language. The bishop appointed one King to execute this work, who not understanding the oriental languages, was obliged to translate it from the English. This work was revised by Bedell, who, after having compared the Irish translation with the English, compared the latter with the Hebrew, the LXX. and the Italian version of Diodati. When this work was finished, the bishop would have been himself at the charge of the impression, but his design was stopped upon advice given to the lord lieutenant and the archbishop of Canterbury, that it would prove a shameful thing for a nation to publish a Bible translated by such a despicable hand as King. However, the manuscript was not lost, for it went to press in the year 1685.