The Development of Bible Translations
by Rit NosotroChange Over Time essay
Describe the development of the Bible from the time of Moses through the time of the Apostles.
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Thesis:
The Bible had many people involved in the process of getting the Bible out to all nations over a period of hundreds of years. Translating, printing and persecutions all had to take place to get the Word out to the world.
Summary:
The English Bible has over 500 versions. These versions start
with the very first English Bible translated and hand written by John Wycliffe
during the 1380s AD. Wycliffe used the the Latin
Vulgate rather than the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek to translate only the
New Testament and part of the Old Testament. The Vulgate, as the official Bible of the Catholic Church, had allowed loose interpretation as long as it supported papal dogma. When Wycliffe translated the Vulgate in to English
he also translated all of the mistakes in it. The first full translation from
the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek to English was done by William
Tyndale from 1523-1530. Unfortunately his translation was not fully accurate
either due to mistakes made by Erasmus, who is known as one of the greatest
scholars of all times, when he edited the Greek New Testament in 1516. Never-the-less Tyndale’s work was a break through and much of it was used later
in the Geneva Bible written in 1560 and the 1611 King James Authorized Version. There was persecution and many obstacles in the way of the people trying to translate and print the Bible.
The Bible is a fascinating book. Approximately 40 men and possibly some women wrote it over the course of between 1,500 to 2,200 years. Originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek it has been translated into over 2,000 languages. This number doesn’t count the numerous partial translations, or audio translations, for languages with no written alphabet. There are different versions within those different languages that the Bible has been translated into. This adds up to an enormous number of different translations and versions.
The New Testament's writings were not considered complete until sometime from the first to the third century AD (sources vary). The close of the canon, i.e., when no new scriptures could be added, is unknown because scholars are unsure as to the dates when the Revelation of John was written (possibly 68-69 AD or 95-96AD).
The Old Testament
[This section needs to be written.]
The New Testament
In 382 AD, Father Jerome began translating many of the books of the Bible into Latin which became known as the “Latin Vulgate” (meaning common or vulgar). By 500 AD, the scriptures had been translated into over 500 languages.[needs citation] Astonishingly, 100 years later, the Roman Catholic Church made a rule that the scriptures could only be in Latin, although only the priests and few other people could understand. In this manner, the Roman Catholic heirarchy could ensure a single interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. For example, one thing they made up was that a person could pay indulgences to pardon sins and could pay extra to pardon family member's sins. The greatest threat to the wealth of the church was the Bible in a common language, because people would then see that the church had added traditions to increase papal wealth and power. Under penalty of death, only authorised clergy could own a copy of Scripture other than the Latin Vulgate.[needs citation] Some priests admitted that they did not even believe what they were saying, as Pope Leo the Tenth said, “The fable of Christ has been quite profitable to us!”[needs citation]
In 1384, John Wycliffe wrote the first handwritten translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English—including the Apocrypha which made eighty books. The pope forty four years later was so irate that he had the bones of Wycliffe dug up, crushed, burned, and scatterred on the river.
The most essential tool that allowed peoples to have so many copies of the Bible in their own language was the invention of the printing press about 1455 by Johann Gutenberg. He printed the Latin Vulgate first, and although his business was overthrown by other businessmen, the printing press printed important documents in years to come—and more Bibles.
One of the first men to discover that the Latin Vulgate was different from the original Greek New Testament was Thomas Linacre. He wrote in his journal, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.”[needs citation] The Latin Vulgate had become so twisted throughout the generations, that it barely contained the message of the Gospel, free of works. Still, the church was executing anyone who even owned a copy of the scriptures in another language. Linacre then notified his friend, John Colet about the twisted book and they worked to make a Greek grammar book which they printed in England in 1496. This indirectly communicated to the people that the Latin Vulgate was not trustworthy.
Erasmus then came along about twenty years later and printed a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin was his own translation from the original Greek version, not the Vulgate. This also demonstrated how corrupt the Latin Vulgate had become and that it was essential to go back to the original languages (Hebrew and Greek).
Martin Luther translated the Greek-Latin New Testament and the Pentateuch into German. William Tyndale worked with Luther in translating the New Testament into English. Tyndale was fluent in eight languages which helped him evade capture in several occasions. He was caught eventually, however, and was strangled and burned at the stake, but not before he finished translating the English New Testament, Pentateuch, and nine other Old Testament books. His last words were “Oh Lord, open the King of England's eyes!”[needs citation]
Myles Coverdale was a loyal follower of Tyndale and when Tyndale was executed, Coverdale took over the project and finished translating the Old Testament. So, the first complete English Bible was printed in 1534 using both Luther's German translation and Erasmus' Latin. This was called the Coverdale Bible.
Then in 1539, it appeared Tyndale's last prayer was answered in an unexpected way. Coverdale was hired by the Archbishop of Canterbury to publish the “Great Bible.” King Henry VIII divorced his wife, Catherine of Aragon, without the Pope's approval, making himself head of his new Church, the Anglican Church.
All of this seemed to go askew, however, when King Henry VIII and the next king, Edward the VI, died and Mary I (the child of Henry and Catherine) became queen. She took it upon herself to make England Roman Catholic once again. She earned the title “Bloody Mary” as she began executing Protestant leaders, even the Archbishop of Canterbury. This obviously scared the Protestants, and many fled to Geneva, Switzerland, where the Geneva Bible was printed. The special thing about the Geneva Bible was that before then, there were no verse numbers. The Geneva Bible included them to make it easier to find passages. The Geneva was the first Bible to reach America with the Pilgrims and Puritans. It was even more popular than the King James' version even years after the release of the KJV. Even though she meant to do the exact opposite, Queen Mary's reign ended up helping the Protestants get a Bible that would later be the most important source for the translators of the KJV. Queen Mary I finally died after failing to make England Roman Catholic and her half-sister, Elizabeth I took the throne and tried to make it a Protestant-friendly state once again.
During the counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church finally gave up on the “Latin Only” rule. In 1582 they decided to go ahead and print a Roman Catholic version of the Bible in English, but they used the corrupt Latin Vulgate. Therefore, the English version still contained all the distortions that priests and others had made up centuries before.
After Queen Elizabeth I died, James I of England took over. The Protestants went to him asking for a new translation of the Bible; one with cross-references or word clarifications for the people. So about fifty scholars got together and started a huge task of producing the King James Bible. They brought together The Tyndale New Testament, The Coverdale Bible, The Matthew's Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the Roman Catholic Bible, called the Rheims New Testament. This production was called The 1611 King James Bible. The “Great Bible” was the first legal English Bible, funded by the King. Several copies were made and given to each church, also providing someone to read it, so that everyone could hear the Bible in English.
The King James Version was the only version that had the royal authority and was "appointed to be read in churches." It is characterized as "the noblest monument of English prose." and is one of the most familiar forms of the Bible for many English-speaking people. But even this well loved version faced some controversy. So the King James Version was rewritten and republished under the name of the English Revised Version. The revision of the New Testament was published in 1881 and the revision of the Old Testament was published in 1885. Surprisingly, this more accurate revision was not anywhere near as popular as the original King James Version. Due to its lack of popularity and the dissatisfaction amongst the people with the English Revised Version some scholars in America decided to try their hand at revising it to make it more appealing to the people.
This new version was published in 1901 as the American Standard Version, and although a bit more popular than the English Revised Version the American Standard Version also met with some controversy. So in 1937 the International Council of Religious Education undertook the job of revising the American Standard Version. In this revision they used the American Standard Version as well as parts of the King James and the Tyndale Translation. It took 32 scholars and 50 advisors approximately 10 years to complete the revision, and when they had completed the revision they had the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
After the Revised Standard Version of 1947 the American Standard Version was again revised in 1971 and called the New American Standard Version. This version is considered to be the most accurate word for word translation of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic scriptures into modern day English. The is the most popular version of the English bible amongst Bible scholars, due to its accuracy. Many regular people though don’t care for the New American Standard because the accuracy of a word for word translation from the original ancient languages doesn’t flow well in everyday conversational English. This was the reason for the making of the New International Version in 1973. Focusing on phrase for phrase accuracy instead of word for word, the New International Version, or NIV as it is better known as, is written in modern English allowing even an elementary age school child to read it with relative ease. It’s not a wonder that the NIV is the best selling version of the Bible in modern English.
In 1982, Thomas Nelson Publishers proposed a New King James Bible that would replace out of date words and the old Elizabethan pronouns "thee", "thy", "thou", ... but learned such minor changes could not be legally copyrighted. Although their proposal was forced to expand to make greater changes, their marketing campaign benefited from retaining the name "King James" in the title of the NKJ.
`Because of the popularity of the NIV and the NASB, there was much effort put into the English Standard Version (ESV) which was edited to combine the accuracy of the NASB with the readability of the NIV. In 2002 a group of 118 plus people, 14 for Translation Oversight, 50 Translation Review Scholars, and 50 Advisors, made a major attempt as bridging the gap between the almost perfect accuracy of the New American Standard Version, NASV, and the easy reading of the New International Version, NIV. The English Standard Version continues to grow in popularity because of it easy reading and accuracy.
Thanks to the dedication and sacrifices of Father Jerome, John Wycliffe, Johann Gutenberg, Thomas Linacre and John Colet, Erasmus, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Myles Coverdale and hundreds of other supporters and translators, the Bible can be read in the native tongue of hundreds of languages.
Commentary:
The Roman Catholic clergy often stood in the way of those who were trying to get the Bible out to the nations. But, as in the days of the Acts of the Apostles, “the word of God continued to increase and spread,” (Acts 12:24). God placed Henry VIII on the throne in England, and controlled his heart. "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." (Proverbs 21:1). Again, as in Acts, “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power,” (Acts 19:20). Although this passage was written about Paul in Ephesus a couple thousand years ago, it was only a few hundred years ago when the Word was illegal in any language but Latin. It is a shame that the gospel which had been declared in so many languages ("Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?... we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." Acts 2:6,11) was restricted to only one language in an effort to centralize authority within the Vatican, rather than God's word.
QuickQuiz:
Bibliography:
Jeffcoat III, John L. “English Bible History” 11 Nov. 2008 <http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/pre-reformation.html>.
Jeffcoat III, John L. “English Bible History” 11 Nov. 2008 <http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/index.html>.
Wilde, Robert. “The Vulgate” 11 Nov. 2008 <http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/religionandthought/p/prvulgate.htm>.
Packer J.I. <http://www.bible-researcher.com/esv.html> English Standard
Version 1/15/04
Mastrantonis, Rev. George, <http://www.goarch.org/print/en/ourfaith/article7068.asp>
The Bible: Its Original Languages and English Translations 1/15/04
Mitchell, Frank K. <http://www.ciger.be/erasmus/> Erasmus 1/15/04
DeMar, Gary <http://www.reformed.org/documents/geneva/Geneva.html> The
Geneva Bible 1/15/04
Additional information about <http://hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w05bibleversions.htm>
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