Page images
PDF
EPUB

his version of the New Testament was printed, first in the year 1731. In our public libraries, there exist several manuscript copies of Wycliffe's translations of the whole Bible.

William Tyndal has, nevertheless, the honour of having executed the first English translation of the Scriptures that was ever printed for the people. But he was obliged to withdraw from England to the Continent, in order to accomplish this great work.

Alderman Humphrey Monmouth, of London, gave Tyndal ten pounds towards his noble enterprize; and he sailed, in 1523, to Hamburgh, whence he proceeded to Saxony, to confer with Luther. That great reformer, having just finished his German version of the New Testament, encouraged the pious refugee to proceed with his work on a similar plan in English; and probably rendered him some assistance in his undertaking. With intense energy, Tyndal, having John Frith and William Roy, his countrymen, as amanuenses, prosecuted his work at Wittemburg. An octavo edition, it is supposed of three thousand, was printed in that city, in the year 1525; and many were brought over and sold in England. The eagerness to possess the work was extreme; but Tonstall, bishop of London, employed a merchant to buy up all the copies that he could find, to be burnt at Paul's Cross. By the Paul's Cross. By the money, Tyndal was enabled to publish a quarto edition, in 1526, at Cologne.

Tyndal continued his labours, revising his Testament, and translating the other books of the Bible. An immense demand was made for the New Testa

ment, and several merchants entered into it as a branch of profitable trade. Many editions were published by the Dutch booksellers, for which some of them were heavily fined in England. Tyndal's last edition was printed at Antwerp, in 1534.

Tyndal obtained the assistance of Miles Coverdale, a learned English exile, and he completed the printing of the Bible in 1535, while his friend was suffer ing in prison. This Bible was dedicated to King Henry VIII.; and Lord Cromwell, his "Vicargeneral and Vice-gerent in ecclesiastical affairs," issued "injunctions" to the clergy, in 1536, requiring every parson, or proprietor of any parish church within this realm, to provide a book of the whole Bible, both in Latin and English, and lay them in the choir, before the first of August," for every man to have the liberty of reading the Word of God!

While this work was being printed in 1534, Tyndal was apprehended and imprisoned, by means of the treachery of Henry Philips, an Englishman, hired for that base purpose by the Council of Henry VIII.; and, after a long confinement, he was condemned as a heretic, under a decree of the Emperor Charles V. He was then strangled, and burnt to ashes, in September, 1536, at Vilvoord Castle, between Antwerp and Brussels. This faithful martyr for Christ, when near the place of execution, reflecting on the delusion which blinded his enemies, repeatedly prayed,

66

Lord, open the King of England's eyes!" Tyndal's assistants were sought for, and two of them eventually shared the fate of their martyred friend;

John Frith at Smithfield, in London, and William Roy in Portugal.

Archbishop Cranmer was a known friend of the Bible; and, in the Chapter House, near St. Paul's Cathedral, in the winter of 1534, standing up before the assembled clergy, he "recommended that his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue, by some honest and learned men, to be nominated by the King." His motion, for that time, was overruled or rejected.

Miles Coverdale, however, assisted by John Rogers, who afterwards became the first martyr for Christ, in the reign of Queen Mary, revised the whole Bible, comparing it with the Hebrew and Greek, and the translations into Latin and German; adding notes and prefaces from the version of Luther. This was printed at Zurich, in 1538, under the assumed name of Thomas Matthews, and published in England, by a royal license, granted by Lord Cromwell, recommended by Archbishop Cranmer, and Bishops Latimer and Shaxton. Another edition, again revised by Coverdale, with prefaces added by Cranmer, was printed in England, in 1539, and called " Cranmer's Bible." Several other editions of this were published in 1540; and, by royal proclamation, every parish was commanded to provide a copy of it to be placed in every church, for the free use of the public, under the penalty of forty shillings a month for disobedience. Many from this learned to read, that they might thus become acquainted with the true doctrine of salvation by Christ.

Lord Cromwell, in 1540, fell a sacrifice to the perfidious Popish prelates, and the capricious cruelty of the king, Henry VIII.; when the bishops procured the partial suppression of the Bible, by order of the king; and the cause of the Scriptures declined, in a measure, till the death of Henry, in 1546. Edward VI. restored the use of the Bible, and greatly advanced the Protestant Reformation till his death in 1553. Queen Mary interdicted the use of the Bible, and put to death many of its most learned advocates, as heretics, until her decease in 1558; but under Queen Elizabeth it was again restored with the Reformation.

Divine knowledge, by the Scriptures, continued to advance throughout Europe; and in the reign of Mary, the English exiles at Geneva, of whom the chief was Coverdale, with John Knox, the famous reformer of Scotland, made a new revision of the New Testament, which was printed in 1559; and another edition in 1560, in which also they published the whole of the Sacred Volume, which was called, "The Geneva Bible." This contains marginal readings and annotations, with the chapters of the New Testament, for the first time in English, divided into verses, after the Greek Testament by Robert Stephens, printer to the King of France. These, with other helps, made it greatly prized, especially for private and family reading.

But Dr. Parker, having been made Archbishop of Canterbury, by Queen Elizabeth, engaged some learned men to prepare a new version of the Bible. This, with the chapters divided into verses, was pub

lished in 1568, and called "The Bishops' Bible:" it was used in the churches; but the "Geneva Bible" was preferred for private reading, on account of its expository notes; and more than thirty editions of this were required in as many years: so highly was the "Geneva Bible" esteemed as a faithful version of the Holy Scriptures.

King James, succeeding Elizabeth, in 1603, disapproved of some of the notes found in the " Geneva Bible," and objections being made to the "Bishop's Bible," especially by Dr. Reynolds, the chief of the Puritan clergy, at the Hampton Court Conference, in 1603, when having been requested, to appoint some learned men to the work, he gave his royal commands, the next year, for the making of a new translation of the Bible. Forty-seven of the most learned divines, selected from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, commenced this revision of the Scriptures, in 1607; it was completed in 1610; and published in 1611, with a preface by the translators, addressed to the readers, and a dedication to King James.

66

King James's Bible" is not, however, a new translation; but a revision of the other versions of the Holy Scriptures; as is acknowledged in the preface, and as is evident, both from the manner in which the undertaking was accomplished, and from the work itself. It differs but little from the other versions; many paragraphs together being the same, or with only the alteration of a word in a verse; and after its publication, the others fell into disuse. King James's Bible," therefore, revised and cor

66

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »