A Short History of The Bible in English

A Short History of the
Bible in English

by
Dr. Russell Morton

for
Words that Shaped the World:
400 Years of the Bible in English

Presented by
Ashland Theological Seminary
910 Center St., Ashland OH 44805

2011
Ashland Theological Seminary, 2011

2

The Authorized, or King James, Bible
In 1611 one could scarcely imagine that a Bible translation,
organized in some haste, dependent on earlier translations, and
commissioned by a king of questionable piety, would become the
gold standard by which future English translations would be
judged, both for its eloquence and usefulness to the church. The
Authorized, or King James, Bible, which was never officially
authorized, nor did King James 1 of England participate in the
translation, has not only been the source of comfort and inspiration
to countless Protestant English speaking Christians, but also
stands with Chaucer and Shakespeare as one of the pillars of
English prose and poetry. How did this begin? The Authorized
Version was not the first translation of the Bible into English.
Neither is it necessarily the most accurate translation, for that
distinction belongs to Tyndale and the translators of the Geneva
Bible. What it did do was combine both the scholarship of the
previous century with a sense of language that enabled the 1611
translation to attain its singular influence in the English speaking
world.

Prehistory
The King James Bible was not the first translation of Scripture into
English. Even in the early Middle Ages, portions of Scripture were
translated into the vernacular, such as the translation of Psalms into

3

Anglo Saxon, attributed to Alfred the Great of Wessex (871-899).
1

These early translations of portions of scripture, such as Psalms or
the Gospels, prepared the way for the more ambitious project of
translating the whole scripture into English during the turbulent
14th century.
2
This was the period both of the Hundred Years War
with France (1339-1453), the Avignon Papacy (1308-1378), when
the popes lived in Avignon in southern France rather than in Rome,
and the Great Schism of 1379-1414, when rival popes at Rome and
Avignon claimed obedience of Western Europes Christian
population.
Wycliffite Bible (1380-84?, Later version 1388?)
In this environment, it is no wonder that many would call for
reform both of church and the incipient state. One product of the
reforming impulse would be translations of the Bible into the
vernacular. What is remarkable is that in the last quarter of the 14
th

century the task of translating the Bible in England was undertaken
by a circle of Oxford scholars associated with the person of John
Wycliffe (or Wyclif, d1384). In his own lifetime, Wycliffe was
less associated with Bible translation than with political and
ecclesiastical theory. His insistence that clergy live a simple, godly
life, attracted the attention of notable supporters, including the man

1
Geoffrey Shepherd, English Versions of the Scriptures Before Wycliff, in
The Cambridge History of the Bible: Vol. 2. The West from the Fathers to the
Reformation, ed. G. W. H. Lampe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1969), 362-87.
2
For more on this turbulent age, see, George M. Trevelyan, England in the Age
of Wycliffe (London, New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1946); Nigel Saul,
Richard II. Yale English Monarchs (New Haven: Yale, 1997).


4

who served as his patron, John of Gaunt (d. 1399), whose motives
in supporting Wycliffe were mixed to say the least.
3

Wycliffe was an Oxford don rather than a popular preacher. Yet,
he was undoubtedly sympathetic to the goals of popular lay
preachers, known as Lollards, who flourished in the area around
Oxford even after Wycliffes views were suppressed at the
university in 1382. They agreed with Wycliffe that the duty of all
Christians was to know the scriptures and that it was the primary
duty of both priests and laity to preach the Gospel.
4
Although often
called Wycliffes translation, it is likely that Wycliffe translated
only the Gospels, while the remainder of the Bible was rendered
into English by Wycliffes disciples, particularly Nicholas
Hereford and John Purvey.
5
There are two evidences for this
conclusion. First, work of translation began in earnest only in
1382, by which time Wycliffe was old and ailing. Second, is the
fact that two major versions of the Wycliffite translation exist,

3
John of Gaunts corruption and greed were well known. It is thought his
support for Wycliffe was rooted less in a desire for spiritual renewal than
avarice, for one of Wycliffes proposed reforms was to divest the church of
wealth. Some have supposed that John of Gaunt wished to seize the churchs
wealth for himself, which is what Henry VIII and the English nobility did
accomplish after the disestablishment of the monasteries in the 16
th
century. For
more on John of Gaunt, see Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe.
4
Margaret Deansley, The Lollard Bible and Other Medieval Biblical Versions
(1920; repr., New York: AMS Press, 1978), 242.
5
Henry Hargreaves, The Wycliffite Versions, in The Cambridge History of
the Bible: Vol. 2. The West from the Fathers to the Reformation, ed. by G. W. H.
Lampe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 387-415; Deansley,
The Lollard Bible, 252-67.

5

exhibiting major variations with one another with the latter dating
to 1388, four years after Wycliffes death
6
.
Part of the problem in ascribing responsibility for the translation is
that the work was of necessity anonymous. Unlike earlier
translations into the vernacular, the Wycliffe, or Lollard, Bible
produced an enormous hostility. In late fourteenth century England
the church hierarchy believed that Scripture was given only to,
and could only be understood by, either the extremely learned
or the clergy.
7
The result was that in 1408 Thomas Arundel,
Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a convocation at Oxford that
passed thirteen constitutions against Lollardy. The seventh forbade
both the possession of an English translation, as well as anyone
embarking upon the task of translating Scripture into English.
8

Despite this decision, the spirit of Lollardy would continue to be
felt in England until the Reformation, and the Wycliffite Bible, or
portions thereof, continued to circulate, as attested by the large
number of surviving manuscripts of scripture portions distributed
across a large geographical area of the United Kingdom.
9
Debate
continues as to the influence of the Wycliffe translation,
particularly in its later version, on subsequent translators. Definite

6
Hargreaves, Wycliffite Versions, 395-407; David Daniell, The Bible in
English: Its History and Influence (New Haven; London: Yale University Press,
2003), 85.
7
Daniell, The Bible in English, 68.
8
B. F, Westcott, A General View of the History of the English Bible. 3
rd
ed. Rev.
by William Aldis Wright (1903; repr., New York: Lemma Publishing Corp.,
1972), 17; Deansley, The Lollard Bible, 295. For the text of the prohibition, see
Alfred Pollard, ed., Records of the English Bible: The Documents Relating to the
Translation and Publication of the Bible in English, (1911, repr., Eugene, OR:
Wipf and Stock, 2001), 79-81.
9
Hargreaves, Wycliffite Versions, 411.

6

similarities of phrases can be found in a comparison of Wycliffe
and Tyndale.
10
As David Daniell observes, No educated and
religiously alert young man brought up in Gods Gloucesterschire
in the late fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries could fail to
have heard, and most likely read, a Wyclif Bible.
11
There are
several examples of a Wycliffite turn of expression that would
come to be considered characteristic of the King James Bible, such
as: blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Mt.
5: 5); salt of the earth (Mt.5:13) Enter thou into the joy of thy
master (Mt. 25:21).
12
Even more striking is the translation of
Romans 8:31-34 (in modernized spelling):
What then shall we say to these things? If God for us, who
is against us? He which also spared not his own son, but for
us all betook him, how also gave he not to us all things with
him? Who shall accuse against the chosen men of God? It is
God that justifieth, who is it that condemneth? It is Jesus
Christ that was dead, yea, the which rose again, the
which is on the right half [i.e.hand] of God, and that
which prayeth for us.
13

In addition, the Lollard Bibles translated the phrase rendered by
other translations Holy Spirit as Holy Ghost (or, hooli goost, Mt.
28:20, Wycliffe). This tradition would also be followed by the
translators of the King James Bible.
Tyndales New Testament 1526, 1534

10
Daniell, Bible in English.85-90.
11
Ibid., 88.
12
Ibid., 85-87.
13
Ibid., 89.

7

After Wycliffe, there would not be any major attempt at translating
the Bible into English until the Protestant Reformation in Germany
would inspire another Oxford educated Englishman, William
Tyndale (d. 1536), to become perhaps the greatest single individual
translator of the English Bible.
14
Tyndale was a superb linguist,
possessing knowledge of at least seven languages besides English,
including Latin, Hebrew Greek, German, French, Italian and
Spanish.
15
For a brief while, Tyndale served as schoolmaster to the
family of Sir John Walsh in Gloucestershire, until conflict over his
radical ideas in sympathy with Luther and continental reformers
enabled local clergy to conspire to have him dismissed from his
post.
16
Tyndale found himself in London later that year. It was here
he realized that while the Bible was being translated into the
vernacular languages of Continental Europe, England alone would
lack a translation into its native tongue. As Tyndale himself wrote:
Which thing only moved me to translate the New
Testament. Because I perceived by experience how that it
was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth,
except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in
their mother tongue.
17

14
Space prohibits a detailed account of Tyndales life and work. For one of the
better modern biographies, see, David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography
(New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1994).
15
Ibid., 18.
16
Ibid., 84-85.
17
William Tyndale, W. T. to the Reader, in Tyndales Old Testament: Being
the Pentateuch of 1530, Joshua to 2 Chronicles of 1537, and Jonah, modern
spelling ed. (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1992), 4. We must
remember that with the birth of printing in 1455, there was an explosion of
publication of translations of classical works in both original language and the

8

Around 1523, Tyndale approached Cuthebret Tunstall, Bishop of
London and a well known classical scholar. Tunstall was noted for,
among other things, having assisted in the editing of the second
edition of Erasmus New Testament.
18
Yet, if Tyndale expected to
find in Tunstall a fellow spirit, these hopes were soon dashed.
Tunstall was well aware of Tyndales radical religious and political
ideas, and that there was no room in the Bishops house for
Tyndale to translate the New Testament. Tyndale remained in
London for about a year, preaching at Saint Dunstans-in-the-West
in Fleet Street, where he made important connections with
Humphrey Monmouth, a cloth merchant with Protestant
sympathies.
19

With the support and backing of Monmouth and other London
merchants, Tyndale was able to leave England for the continent to
engage in the work of translation, as recorded by John Foxe in
Actes and Monuments (1583):
And therefore finding no place for his purpose within the
realme, and hauing some ayde and prouision by Gods
prouidence ministered vnto hym by Humphrey Mummouth
and certain other good men, hee tooke hys leaue of the
realme, and departed into Germanie. Where the good man
being inflamed with a tender care and zeale of his country
refused no trauell nor diligence howe by all meanes possible

vernacular. In addition, vernacular translations of Scripture were also produced
in both Germany and France in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Indeed, some seventeen translations of the Bible in German appeared before
Luthers famous September Bible. Among the most famous of these early
German translations was Anton Kobergers 1483 Biblia Germanica.
18
Daniell, William Tyndale, 84.
19
Daniell, The Bible in English, 142-43.

9

to reduce his brethren and countreymen of England to the
same tast and vnderstandyng of Gods holy word and veritie,
which the Lord had endued him withal.
20

By 1525, Tyndale is recorded as living in Cologne.
Assisted by William Roye, Tyndale began translating and printing
in Cologne, until the authorities caught wind of his activities and
sought to close down the printing press and confiscate the printed
sheets of the book. Fleeing to Worms, Tyndale completed the first
edition of his English language New Testament in 1526. This
translation was the first translation of the New Testament from
Greek. Tyndale was also assisted in the task by reference to
Luthers German New Testament, and the end product bears a
definitively Lutheran stamp.
21
Few examples of this New
Testament survive. Upon being shipped to England, Cuthbert
Tunstall, bishop of London, bought up as many copies as possible
and had them burned.
22
By purchasing the books rather than
confiscating, however, Tunstall did Tyndale a service, for the
purchase of these New Testaments financed Tyndales second
edition.

20
Cited in Pollard, Records of the English Bible, 88-89.
21
See Daniell, William Tyndale, 113-15. For example, Tyndale usually avoided
the term church, translating the Greek ecclesia with the more generic term
congregation. What is somewhat remarkable is that despite his conflicts with
ecclesiastical authorities he continued to translate the term episcopus as
bishop in 1 Tim. 3.
22
See the account in Pollard, Records of the English Bible, 150-53. The first
edition of Tyndales New Testament is extremely rare. Only some three copies
exist in libraries worldwide.

10

In 1534, the second edition of Tyndales New Testament appeared,
printed at Antwerp. In the intervening years, Tyndale also gained
knowledge of Hebrew. We do not know where and when he
learned the language. With the exception of Robert Wakefield at
Cambridge, there were few Hebrew scholars in England, and the
situation would not change until the reigns of Elizabeth and James
I.
23
He would have had more opportunity to study the language on
the continent, where, unlike England, large Jewish communities
existed.
24
Tyndale translated the Pentateuch by 1530, and before
his death completed a translation of Joshua through 2 Chronicles
and Jonah. Tyndales version of Genesis through 2 Chronicles later
would be incorporated into Matthews Bible of 1537. Thus, he was
working on both his revision of the New Testament and translation
of the Old Testament virtually simultaneously. Published
clandestinely on the continent, these books were printed in small
formats to be smuggled into England, for on June 22, 1530, Henry
VIII issued a decree prohibiting the use of Bible translations.
25

Despite this opposition, and living in exile, Tyndale continued to
translate the whole Bible into English.
He was, however, never to finish the translation of the Old
Testament. Despite the attraction of a vital printing trade, life in
Antwerp could be dangerous for one of Protestant convictions, for
the city was a stronghold of Catholic sentiment. Antwerp was
under the authority of Emperor Charles V, a monarch committed to

23
Daniell, William Tyndale, 291-96.
24
Jews were expelled from England in the late thirteenth century by Edward I,
and would not return to England until the Middle of the seventeenth century in
the time of Oliver Cromwell.
25
The text of the proclamation is found in Pollard, Records of the English Bible,
163-69.

11

stamp out heresy. On May 21, 1535, Tyndale was betrayed by
Henry Phillips, arrested, and held in prison. On August 10, 1536
Tyndale was degraded from the priesthood. He was later handed
over to the secular arm and executed by strangling. His body was
then publicly burned at the stake. Tyndales execution was
reported back to Henry VIII on October 6, 1536, although it likely
occurred a few weeks earlier. His last words are said to have been
Lord, Open the King of Englands eyes.
26
The following year
Tyndales prayer would be answered. In 1537 two English
language translations of not only the New Testament, but of the
whole Bible, were licensed for printing in England and placed in
the churches of England for public reading.
The impact of the Tyndale New Testament, as well as his partial
translation of the Old Testament, cannot be overestimated. In his
Bible translations, Tyndales conscious use of everyday words,
without inversions, in a neutral word-order, and his wonderful ear
for rhythmic patterns gave to English not only a Bible language,
but a new prose.
27
Furthermore, his linguistic skill and intuitive
understanding of the biblical languages, his ability to express the
true meaning into English idiom, has been virtually unmatched by
any other single translator.
28
Nearly a century later, the translators
of the King James Bible would return to Tyndales work, utilizing

26
John Foxe, Foxs Book of Martyrs: A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and
Triumphant Deaths of the Early Christian and Protestant Martyrs, edited by
William B Forbush (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 184.
27
Daniell, William Tyndale., 116.
28
The one possible exception might by James Moffatt (1870-1944) who also
translated both the Old and New Testaments into English. His translations,
however, are in places more Scots than English, leading to a certain eccentricity
of language. Moffatts translations also never caught the popular imagination.

12

it as a guide to their own translation. As S. L. Greenslade has said,
Tyndale made the spoken English of his day a fit vehicle for the
communication of Holy Scripture and determined the fundamental
character of most of the subsequent versions.
29

Coverdale Bible (1535)
Miles Coverdale (1488-1568) was a friend and associate of
William Tyndale, whose translation was the first full printed Bible
in English.
30
He had worked with Tyndale in Hamburg, and
followed him to Antwerp. Printed in Gothic type, Coverdales
Bible is an impressive folio. Coverdale likely converted to
Protestantism before 1527, the year he is thought to have met with
Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIIIs first minister. From 1528-1535
he was in exile on the continent, during which time he met with
Tyndale in Antwerp. The full extent of Coverdales service to
Tyndale is not known, but it must have been limited. Coverdale
knew neither Hebrew nor Greek, and he did not translate scripture
from the original languages.
31
Rather, the Coverdale translated
from Latin and German translations, and incorporated Tyndales
New Testament and Pentateuch. He did not use Tyndales Joshua-2
Chronicles.
32
The place of printing of the first Coverdale Bible is
not mentioned. While Marburg or Cologne in Germany have been

29
English Versions of the Bible, 1525-1611, in The Cambridge History of the
Bible: Volume 3 The West from the Reformation to the Present Day, ed. S. L.
Greenslade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), 145.
30
A.S. Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible,
1525-1961: Revised and Expanded from the Edition of T.H. Darlow and H.F.
Moule, 1903 (London: British and Foreign Bible Society; New York: American
Bible Society, 1968), no. 18.
31
32
Greenslade, English Versions of the Bible, 148.

13

suggested, more recent evidence suggests that it was likely printed
in Antwerp.
33
The work was completed on Oct. 4, 1535.
Coverdales greatest contribution was his sense of language. He
had exquisite taste in words, and coined terms still used today,
such as loving kindness and tender mercies. His sense of the
parallelism of the Psalms, although not based on the Hebrew, was
unrivaled for its time, and his Psalter was to leave to posterity a
permanent memorial of his genius in that most musical version of
the Psalter which passed into the Book of Common Prayer.
34

Although not originally licensed by the king, the Coverdale Bible
was allowed to be distributed in England. This is due both to the
shifting political sands of sixteenth century England as well as
Coverdales savvy. As early as 1527, Coverdale made the
acquaintance of Thomas Cromwell, and made a positive
impression upon King Henry VIIIs first minister.
35
Likewise,
although he utilized Tyndales work, he was wise enough to alter
some of Tyndales more objectionable language. Anne Bolyne was
also in Henry VIIIs favor at the time, and her support of reform
undoubtedly aided the cause of the Coverdale Bible.
36
Indeed,
Anne is said to have supported the placing of a copy of the English
Bible in every church in England, and this Bible was
Coverdales.
37
Coverdales Bible also has the distinction of being

33
Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 18; Daniell, English Bible, 179-80.
34
Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 18.
35
36
Geddes MacGreggor, A Literary History of the Bible: From the Middle Ages
to the Present Day (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968), p. 123.
37
Greenslade, English Versions of the Bible, 149.

14

the first Bible licensed to be printed in England, likely under the
influence of Thomas Cromwell.
38

Matthews Bible (1537)
Whatever its virtues and vices, the production of the Coverdale
Bible was inadequate to meet the needs of England. Thomas
Cromwell wished to place a Bible in each of Englands 9,000
parish churches. There were not enough Coverdales to meet the
challenge.
39
It was in this atmosphere that another translation came
to the fore, the Matthews translation of 1537. It was the first
complete English Bible to have a distinctly Protestant emphasis. It
was also the first English Bible to incorporate Tyndales
translation of Joshua-2 Chronicles. Finally, in something of an
irony, it is also the one English Bible that bears the name of a
pseudonymous translator. Although the translator was named as
Thomas Matthews, he was, in fact, Tyndales close associate,
John Rogers (d.1554).
Like Coverdales Bible, the Matthews Bible was licensed to be
placed in churches. Nevertheless, its place of publication and
printer are not listed on the title-page of the first printing. It simply
states that it was published in the year 1537 Set forth with the
Kinges most gracious licce
40
These precautions were taken for

38
This was the second printing by James Nicholson (or Nycholson) of
Southwark. In 1537 he printed the first folio English language Bible in England
(Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 32) and later that year, published a quarto
edition, which bore following the imprint the phrase, Set forth with the Kynges
moost gracious licence (Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 33).
39
40
Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 34. The macron over the letter e
represents the letter n. This was in keeping with manuscript practice, which

15

good reason. Although Cromwell authorized its licensing, this
translation Bible was, in fact, quite a dangerous book. Rogers was
Tyndales close friend and associate. Unlike Coverdale, who
mollified some of the offensive language, Rogers retained
Tyndales material virtually unchanged. For those books Tyndale
did not live to complete, Rogers translated from the versions of
French and German Protestants.
41
He also added marginal notes of
a distinctly Protestant flavor also derived from French and German
reformers.
As with Coverdale, the Matthews Bible was compiled with some
haste, dependent primarily upon the work of Tyndale. Tyndales
New Testament, Pentateuch and historical books (Joshua-2
Chronicles) were used, virtually unaltered. Where Tyndales
translations were lacking, Rogers used and altered Coverdale.
Coverdales Apocrypha did not include the Prayer of Manasseh,
which Rogers translated for his Bible. Rogers also corrected
translations of Isaiah and the first six chapters of Job.
42

The Matthews Bible would have enormous impact. This version,
which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, is
generally considered to be the real primary version of our English
Bible.
43
Rogers remained on the continent until 1547, but returned
to England after Edward VI ascended the throne. Upon Edwards

often used this abbreviation for ms and ns in an effort to save paper. For
more on the practice of abbreviations in early printing, see Ronald B.
McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (1927; repr.,
Winchester, [Eng.]: St. Pauls Bibliographies; New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll
Press, 1994), 319-24.
41
42
Ibid., 196.
43
Herbert, Historical Catalogue, no. 34.

16

death in 1553, his Catholic sister, Mary Tudor, became queen and
in that year Rogers was arrested. In 1554, he became the first of
the Protestants executed for heresy under Queen Mary.
44

Nevertheless, his work lived on, for his Bible would become the
basis for the next major English translation, the Great Bible.
The Great Bible (1539)
The Great Bible was a translation that arose out of necessity. There
were not enough Coverdale or Matthews Bibles to supply the
parish churches of England. Also, neither of these two translations
were deemed suitable for the life of the church. The Coverdale
Bible did not have the support of scholars, because it was not
based on the original languages. The Matthews Bible offended the
sensibilities of the conservative elements of the English church
because of its notes and radical translations derived from Tyndale.
A new translation was demanded. To meet this challenge, Thomas
Cromwell, with the support of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas
Cranmer, commissioned Miles Coverdale to revise the Matthews
Bible.
45

Because the Great Bible was not intended for the public at large,
but was issued for the pulpits of English churches, certain
standards were established for its first printing. First, it was to be
large, hence the title Great Bible. Its size would facilitate public
reading. It was also to be printed on the best paper and by the
finest printers. The first edition, therefore, was to be printed not in
England, but in Paris by Francois Regnault, whose skill as a printer

44
45
Ibid., 200.

17

was far superior to anything found in England at the time. It was to
be distributed by Grafton and Whitechurch, the printers of
Matthews Bible. At the end of 1538, however, the French
authorities suppressed the work and confiscated some of the sheets.
A number of sheets were saved, however, and with presses, type
and skilled workers, were transported back to England, where the
work was completed and the first edition of the Great Bible
appeared in 1539.
46

The Great Bible was intended to be a modest revision of the text of
Matthews Bible. It was also to be printed without notes.
Coverdales revisions of the Old Testament were accomplished
utilizing Sebastian Munsters Latin translation, which included
Hebrew text and notes.
47
In 1541 Royal proclamation authorized
that the Great Bible was to be placed in the parish churches of
England. Royal proclamation also noted that the public reading
was to be clear and devoid of personal interpretation.
48
Thus, the
Great Bible is, in fact, the only English translation ever to receive
royal authorization. It continued to exercise influence over the life
of the English church even after being superseded by later
translations, for it was Coverdales translation of the Psalms that
provided the Psalter for the Book of Common Prayer.
One of the unique problems of the Great Bible is determining its
editions. The Bible was printed in seven editions between 1539
and 1541. It was also published in various parts, Pentateuch,

46
Ibid.; A.S. Herbert, Historical Catalog, no. 46.
47
Wescott, History of the Bible in English, 181. For a list of the revisions, see
ibid., 181-207.
48
For the text of both proclamations, see Pollard, Records of the English Bible,
261-66.

18

historical books, prophets, etc. The result was that binders often
combined parts from different editions. Second, while the title
page may be to a later edition, the text may be from the first. The
reason is that the first edition of the Great Bible possessed an
elaborate engraved title page by the famous artist Hans Holbein,
with Henry VIII handing Bibles to Thomas Cromwell, the kings
Vicar General, and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
49

They distribute the Bible to the people. After Cromwells fall and
execution in 1540, a new title page was commissioned, with
Cromwell missing. The title page of earlier editions was often
replaced with a cancel.
50
Also, from the second edition on, the
Great Bible contained a preface from Thomas Cranmer. After
Cranmers execution under Mary Tudor, these were also
sometimes excised.
Geneva Bible (1560, revised 1599)
Mary Tudor reigned from 1553 to 1558. As the daughter of
Henrys first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and as one raised in the
Spanish court, she was zealous to eradicate heresy from her
dominion. Thus, she instituted a policy of reversing the gains made
by the Reformation in England, particularly under her predecessor
and half-brother Edward VI. Although the reading of the English
Bible continued, numbers of zealous Protestants, including
numerous scholars, fled England, with a significant number
making the pilgrimage to Calvins Geneva. It was here that the
Geneva Bible was translated and published. Often called the

49
Ironically, the book Henry hands to Cromwell and Cranmer bears the Latin
title, Verbum Dei, rather than the English title of Bible.
50
A cancel is a printed sheet that corrects mistakes. The offending leaf is
excised, leaving a stub, to which the new leaf is glued into place.

19

Breeches Bible because of its translation of Gen. 3:7 (they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches), the
Geneva Bible has gained certain fame for its textual notes.
Although these notes were to cause great offense to James I, they
primarily provided the reader with great assistance in
understanding the unique features of biblical language, particularly
in the Old Testament.
51
Indeed, they primarily provided a running
commentary on the Bible, and are not particularly sectarian or
tendentious.
52

The New Testament of the Geneva Bible appeared in 1557. The
entire Bible was completed in 1560. Although Mary had died by
1560, the Geneva Bible was not permitted to be printed in England
until after Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in
1575. In the meantime it was printed in Geneva by at least two
English printers, Rolland Hall and William Whittingham, the latter
being also one of the translators of the New Testament.
53
The
Geneva Bible became at once the Bible of the English People. It
remained so, through 140 editions editions, not simple reprinting,
before 1644.
54

The Geneva Bible represented a number of firsts. It was the first
English Bible in which the entire Old Testament was translated
directly from the Hebrew.
55
Also, because it was originally printed

51
Daniell,, The Bible in English, 297.
52
Ibid., 306.
53
Ibid., 293-94. It should be noted that it was not unusual for printers to also
function as translators. Not only did Aldus Manutius, of the famous Aldine
Press, produce many translations, so also did the first English printer, William
Caxton.
54
55
Ibid., 297.

20

in Geneva, it is the first English Bible printed in a Roman, type
font.
56
It was also the first English Bible to use verse divisions. It
exerted influence outside of England as the Bible of the Scots
Reformation after 1560. It was also the Bible of Shakespeare and
the Bible the Pilgrims carried to America.
57
This translation was
also to exert tremendous influence on the translation of the King
James Bible fifty years after its first appearance.
Bishops Bible (1568)
In an effort to enforce conformity of worship in England, Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, approached William Cecil,
Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, about commissioning a new Bible
translation. The goal was to provide a uniform translation for the
English people, and to escape the folly of multiple translations,
particularly the now popular Geneva Bible. The goal was to
provide something better than the Geneva Bible. The translators
were all bishops. Officially, the work was done episcopally. It
was also done quickly. Sadly, it was not done well.
58
One
problem with entrusting translation to ecclesiastical authorities is
that the skills of a bishop are not those of a translator. In short,
their knowledge of Hebrew and Greek was inadequate to the task.
The result was a reliance upon the Latin translations to revise the
Geneva Bibles better renderings from the Hebrew and Greek. The

56
William Caxton, the first printer in England, learned his trade in Bruges, and
utilized a black face or Gothic type font standard in northern Europe. This
type font was typical of early English printing until it was eventually replaced
by the clearer Roman font. Because religious sensibilities tend to be
conservative, the black letter type font was standard for Bibles until the printing
of the Geneva Bible.
57
MacGreggor, Literary History of the Bible, 145.
58

21

product was a Latinizing, barely readable translation. Its language
was too exalted for the masses, who continued to favor the Geneva
Bible, as did many of the clergy in their preaching. Also, both
because of the haste in which the project was undertaken, and the
reliance on Latin sources, numerous mistakes were introduced into
the translation. Ultimately, the Bishops Bible is important not for
its success, but for its failure. Because it failed to fulfill its task,
less than fifty years later a new translation, originally
commissioned to correct its mistakes and shortcomings, was
commissioned: the King James Bible.
Translating the King James Bible
59

There are several misapprehensions about the Authorized, or, King
James Bible. First, contrary to popular thought, it was not the first
translation in English, but was, rather, the culmination of a process
that began with Tyndale, if not Wycliffe. Second, it never received
royal authorization. Finally, King James did not translate it.
Rather, it was the work of six committees, called companies, of
translators operating from Westminster, in London, Cambridge,
and Oxford. It is, if anything, the triumph of a work, put together
by committee.
The King James Bible arose, in part, because King James I (1603-
1625) detested the notes of the Geneva Bible, which he saw as
seditious. For example, in the 1587 edition of the Geneva Bible,
the notes on Exodus 1:17-21, commenting on the Hebrew

59
The story of the translation of the King James Bible has been told numerous
times, and need not be repeated here in detail. A good popular discussion is
found in Adam Nicolson, Gods Secretaries: The Making of the King James
Bible. (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2003).

22

midwives disobedience to Pharaoh by saying that Hebrew women
had their children before a midwife could assist them states, Their
disobedience was lawfull, but their dissembling was euil.
60
This
observation may seem rather tame by the standards of the 21
st

century, but to James I it was nothing less than seditious, for the
midwives were disobeying the orders of their ruler.
61
Such willful
disobedience was not acceptable to one who, like James, was
utterly committed to the doctrine of the divine right of kings. The
Geneva Bible also on occasion translated the Hebrew and Greek
terms rendered kings in the King James as tyrant, as in Isaiah
13:11b: and I wil cause the arrogancie of the proud to cease, and
will cast downe the pride of tyrants.
62
In January, 1604, at
Hampton Court, the king met with eighteen bishops and four
representatives of the puritan party. The purpose of the meeting
was to suppress puritanism. The meeting, as a whole was a failure,
but on its last day, January 16, John Reynolds, president of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, proposed a new Bible translation.
63
This
translation was not intended to be original, but a revision of the
Bishops Bible of 1568.
64

Under the impetus of Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London,
translation committees were formed by June 30, 1604.
65
There
were to be six companies whose membership would total fifty-four

60
Geneva Bible, 1587, A Machine- Readable Transcript. Accessed via
OhioLINK 9-23-10 at http://ebooks.ohiolink.edu/xtf-
ch/view?docId=tei/bible/B07000.xml&chunk.id=d58&toc.id=d57&brand=defau
lt.
61
Nicholson, Gods Secretaries, 58-59.
62
Geneva Bible, 1587.
63
Daniell, Bible in English, 432.
64
Nicholson, Gods Secretaries, 73.
65
Daniell, Bible in English, 436.

23

scholars. Two companies were located at Westminster, two were at
Cambridge, and two were at Oxford.
66
The task of translating was
divided among the companies. The first Westminster Company
was responsible for Genesis through 2 Kings. The first Cambridge
Company was entrusted with 1 Chronicles through the Song of
Songs. The first Oxford Company translated the prophets. The
second Cambridge Company handled the Apocrypha. The second
Oxford Company translated the Gospels, Acts and Revelation.
Finally, the Second Westminster Company was responsible for the
New Testament letters.
67
When the companies had finished their
work, two representatives of each were to meet for final revisions.
The final group of twelve met in 1610 in Stationers Hall in
London to decide the final language of the new Bible.
68

The companies were given very specific instructions, including:
1. The Ordinary Bible read in the Church commonly called
the Bishopps Bible to be followed, and as little altered as
the Truth of the Originall will permit.
2. The names of the Profyts and the holie Wryters with the
other Names in the text to be retayned, as near as may be,
according as they are vulgarly used.
3. The ould ecclesiasticall words to be kept viz. as the word
Churche not to be translated Congretation &c.

66
A list of the scholars by companies is found in Nicholson, Gods Secretaries,
251-59.
67
On the division of the labor of the companies, along with examples of their
translations, see Olga S. Opfell, The King James Bible Translators (Jefferson,
N.C.; London: McFarland, 1982), 27-100.
68
On this meeting, see Ibid., 101-106.

24

4. When a word hath divers Significatons, that to be kept
which hath ben most commonly used by the most of the
ancient Fathers being agreeable to the proprietie of ye
place and the analogie of fayth.
5. The Division of the Chapters to be altered either not at
all, or as little as may be if necessity soe require.
6. Noe marginal notes att all to be affixed, but only for ye
explanation of ye Hebrew or Greeke Words which cannot
without some circumlocution soe briefly and fitly be
expressed in ye Text.
7. Such quotations of places to be marginally sett downe, as
shall serve for fit reference of one Scriputure to an other.
8. Every particular man of each company to take ye same
chapter or chapters, and having translated or amended
them severally by himselfe where he thinks good, all to
meete together, confer what they have done, and agree for
their Parts what shall stand .
9. As one company hath dispatched any one booke in this
manner they shall send it to the rest to be considered of
seriously and judiciously: for His Majestie is verie
carefull at this point.
10. If any Company, upon ye review of ye books so sent,
really doubt, or differ uppon any place, to send them
word thereof, note the place, and withal send their
reasons to which they consent not, the difference to be
compounded at ye generall meetinge, which is to be of
the chiefe persons of each company at ye end of the
work.

25

11. When any place of speciall obscurity is doubted of, letters
to be directed by authority to any learned man in the land
for his iudgments of such a place
69
.
The translators were to be conservative in their work. The new
Bible was not to be a new translation as much as revision.
Ecclesiastical language, the language of the Church of England,
was to be retained, for the new translation was to solidify not only
the church, but also the kingdom as well. Finally, marginal notes,
those comments which James I found so offensive, were
specifically prohibited.
It is ironic that the King James Bible was to be a revision of the
Bishops Bible, perhaps the least satisfactory of the sixteenth
century Bible translations. All the translators knew such to be the
case. In fact, the Bishops Bible was consulted only sparingly,
accounting for only some nine percent of the wording of the King
James Bible.
70
In addition to the Bishops Bible, the translators
were to consult the other major sixteenth century translations:
Tyndale, Coverdale, and Matthews to guide them as they translated
the original text. As a result, the language was archaic even in
1611. Finally, because they were self consciously working on a
revision, the translators worked from the manuscript tradition
represented by Erasmuss 1516 New Testament and the
Complutensian Polyglot (1522). They did not utilize better
manuscripts, such as Codex Beza, which influenced the translation
of the Geneva Bible. Yet, despite its weaknesses, it can be said that

69
From a manuscript in the Cambridge University Library. Cited by Nicholson,
Gods Secretaries, 73-82.
70
Nicholson, Gods Secretaries, 73.For another version of the list of rules, see
Pollard, Records of the English Bible, 339.

26

the King James Bible represents the culmination of some eighty
years of biblical scholarship in England.
71

What the scholars achieved, despite their restrictions, was a
translation that was not only useful, but also eloquent. They were
expected to produce a Bible that would read and sound well. In this
task, the commission succeeded beyond expectation. It is only
fitting, for the King James Bible was produced in the England of
Marlowe and Shakespeare. The translators had a wondrous sense
of language, which leaps from the page. The result was not merely
a functional translation, but one of the great monuments of the
English language.

Post History
The King James Bible stood the test of time. A translation,
originally inspired by a king upset by the notes of the Geneva
Bible and meant to be a revision of an inferior work, became a
major influence not only in the religious life of the English
speaking world, but also its language. Part of this is due to the
eloquence of its wording. Many of our daily phrases, such as
strain at the gnat and swallow the camel (Mt. 23:24), Judge not
that ye be not judged (Mt. 7:1), and widows mite (Mk. 12:42;
Lk. 21:2) come directly from the King James Bible.
The endurance of the so-called Authorized Version is also seen in
the fact that later translations were not understood as entirely new
works, but as revisions of the King James Bible. The English

71
Nicholson, Gods Secretaries, 81-82.

27

Revised Version (1885), American Standard Version (1901);
Revised Standard (1954, 1971), and, to a lesser extent, New
American Standard Version (1971) were all either consciously
revisions of the King James, or in the tradition of the King James.
That it endured for over 250 years before a major revision was
attempted, despite the discovery of better manuscripts and the
recognition of its translation errors, also attests to the endurance of
this work.
Yet, even in Bible translations not consciously in the tradition of
the King James, such as the New English Bible (1961), Todays
English Version (1979), New Revised Standard Version (1989),
and Contemporary English Version (1996), there remains a
commitment to put the words of scripture into coherent,
comprehensible language that can be understood by average
people. This commitment, which began in English with Wycliffes
followers, culminated in the sixteenth century with Tyndale, and
led to the monumental translation of the King James Version in
1611 endures today as translators continue to grasp the challenge
of producing a biblical text that is both scholarly, accurate, and
also deeply moving to the reader.

A Short History of The Bible in English

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