Appendix B: The Significance of the English Bible
[This is a paper that I wrote in Seminary, but will be helpful in furthering our understanding of why I believe that the order of the books in the AV is providentially guided by God.]
Although a bit lengthy, this appendix will be extremely helpful to the reader that knows little of the history of the development of the English Bible. [...plus, it is easy reading...]
“English at the end of the twentieth century is more widely scattered, more widely spoken and written, than any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.”[1]
Perhaps no other statement could more aptly summarize the underlying reason for the significance of the translation of the Bible into the English language. The purpose of this essay is to explore the importance of the translation of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments into English. In the course of the exploration, it is to be expected that certain appreciations will be deepened, and that certain comforts may be shaken. Attention will be given to certain political, social, and spiritual aspects of the issue at hand. And, special emphasis shall be laid upon the Authorized Version, the Revised English Version, and the specter of New Age Globalism.
A Bit About the Language
The English language has its roots in numerous other languages, all of which are, obviously, older than English itself. According to a previously quoted source:
“[T]he making of English is the story of three invasions and a cultural revolution. In the simplest terms, the language was brought to Britain by Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, influenced by Latin and Greek when St. Augustine and his followers converted England to Christianity, subtly enriched by the Danes, and finally transformed by the French-speaking Normans.”[2]
The Norman invasion of England took place in A. D. 1066. After this momentous event the language which was to develop into what is spoken of as English today for a time fell into relative disuse in the sense of being anything like a national tongue. Many of the scholars and churchmen spoke and used Latin. The ruling classes used Norman French. Anything that was being written, and everything that was being seriously studied was very plainly not in anything like English.
It was, however, this time of being entirely out of the limelight that opened the way for English to become a deeply enriched language, and one that could eventually carry the weight of expressing the thoughts and ideas of an entire planet. One writer expresses this truth in the following words.
"It may be truly said that, had it not been for the time of contempt, during which the English language was so to speak, lying fallow, we might never have had the extraordinary richness of a harvest of literature which has known only one parallel in the history of the world – that of the speech of ancient Greece."[3]
Indeed! It was this time of enrichment of the English language that opened the way for the development of what a previously quoted writer referred to as the “first truly global language.” Even Hellenistic Greek cannot claim to have been a truly global language. And the rich harvest of literature spoken of above certainly has as its capstone the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures.
The Age of Exploration
But, while the world was unknowingly awaiting the development of its greatest global language, everything was certainly not sitting still. It was a very busy time. By the time Chaucer put English as a language on the map in the fourteenth century, the map of the world itself was beginning to undergo significant changes. The age of European exploration was just getting underway. Before a new century dawned a “new world” would be discovered.
The hand of the all-mighty God is plainly discernible in the fact that by the time this “new world” was ready for early colonization, just over a century later, the English language was the language of those colonists whose descendants would rule what was to become the most powerful and influential nation on the earth. God certainly had His purposes in permitting the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the Italians, and the Dutch to colonize Africa, South America, and Central America. But, strangely, in His providence, He saw fit to reserve nearly the entire North American continent for English speaking peoples. Once all the wars were fought, North America became essentially English speaking.
The United States of America was destined to become one of the most powerful and influential nations on the earth. After winning its independence from England, America eventually paired up with Britain in exerting enormous influence over all other nations in the world. Two world wars have done a great deal to establish the influence of these two English speaking nations. And the fact that “the sun never sets upon the British Empire” has added that much more to the impact of the English language on a global scale. With Canada to the north of the United States, India below Asia, and Australia in the southern hemisphere, together with numerous smaller colonies dotting continents and islands everywhere, English speaking people are literally everywhere. And English has become the acknowledged “second language” of the world.
All of this was “in the works” during the age of exploration from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. But other things were in the offing during these critical centuries as well.
The Need for English Bible Translation Work
As has been suggested earlier, by the time of the aggressive exploration efforts of the European powers from the thirteenth century on, Latin had become the language of the educated men in Europe. One primary reason for this was the fact that the truly educated men in Europe were educated in institutions under the umbrella of the Catholic 'Church.' And, since about A. D. 404 Jerome’s Latin Vulgate held sway as the official Scriptures of a very powerful state church all over Europe.
The significance of this fact can hardly be overemphasized. Baikie stresses this point in the following manner.
"The Word of God was veiled from all but the learned by the fact that it was nowhere extant save in a dead language, and the triumph of the Vulgate meant the disappearance of even the poor substitutes for a vernacular Bible which had been more or less in use." [4]
By this time the attitude of the “clergy” was appalling. Baikie goes on to say the following.
"In later days it was the stock argument of the Romish Church against the translation of the Bible into English, that to offer it to the common folk in their own speech was to fly in the face of Christ’s command, and to cast pearls before swine." [5]
Speaking to this same issue Mrs. H. C. Conant had the following to say regarding the spirit of the age at that time.
"The highest truths, those especially which respect the nature of God, must be veiled in mysteries and sealed by oaths from the vulgar rabble, who are to be held in subjection by scarecrows and mummeries, which the wise ones laugh at." [6]
Thus, it is possible to trace one of the compelling reasons for exploration and colonization in the centuries ahead. Among the teeming masses of European manhood there were to be some who would do anything to find the Truth, and having found it in the Scriptures, to live by it without the tedious interference of state-church pseudo-scholars. All over Europe men began to awaken to the need for the Scriptures to be translated into the vernacular of the common people. Translations began to spring up all across the continent. Along about the same time that Columbus set sail for the New World late in the fifteenth century, vernacular translations of the Scriptures were beginning to appear all across the European landscape.
Bibles were printed in Spanish (1478), in Italian (1471), in French (1487), in Dutch (1475), in German (1467), and in Bohemian (1488); being all taken from the Vulgate. [7]
But it was in Britain that the vernacular translations were to encounter their stiffest opposition, strangely. It was almost as if Satan sensed that the English translation of the Scriptures was destined to play a major role in God’s worldwide redemptive plan. Heaton goes on to say the following.
"Apart from the ecclesiastical influences which hindered the printing of the Bible in England, it is to be borne in mind that never, within our shores, has the Sovereign undertaken any expense in connection with it. In Germany, two generations before the time of Tyndale, a translation was commenced at the Imperial expense. The Danish translation has been four times revised by order of as many kings; and one King of Denmark appointed a travelling commission for the collection of manuscripts, at his own expense. The Swedish, Norse, and other versions have also had public assistance. But the English versions have been the result of independent enterprise, though occasionally sanctioned by the reigning monarch."[8]
During all the days during which John Wycliffe labored to translate the Vulgate into English he certainly did not have the support of the English monarch. In fact, though he died in 1384, and was buried at Lutterworth, “[i]n 1428, his bones were torn from the grave in Lutterworth churchyard by the English bishop at the command of the Pope, burned to ashes, thrown into the river Swift, and from there they were carried from brook to river, river to ocean.” [9]
William Tyndale fared no better. After giving himself tirelessly to translating the Bible from the original languages into English, he was hunted down at the behest of the English sovereign and publicly executed in Belgium in 1536. One writer succinctly describes the event thus.
"But a blow came from an unexpected quarter. The son of the custom-house officer at Poole enticed Tyndale out of the privileged Merchants’ House, at the end of May; he was arrested and taken to the State prison on a charge of heresy. He was not badly treated there, and was allowed his Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary. His trial took place next year, and no defense was possible. Several pleas for mercy, one even from Cromwell, were left unheeded, and in October, 1536, he was garroted at a stake, where his body was at once burnt." [10]
The labors of these two men formed the foundation for all English Bible translation work to come in the future. Apart from all that they did the work of others who followed them would have been nearly impossible. But, even so, it is safe to say that their personal translations were never to have the influence that was providentially destined to spread around the globe. That distinction was left to the Authorized Version of 1611.
The Early English Versions
A number of English translations had varying degrees of influence between that of Tyndale and the Authorized Version of 1611. But the most significant fact relating to all of them is that they were essentially revisions of Tyndale’s work, or of one another. In some cases, the primary thing of note about a revision was the fact that it simply omitted marginal notes and book summaries inserted by previous editors. John Guy provides an example of this.
"The Geneva Bible (1560; the New Testament alone appeared in 1557), begun by the Marian exiles in that city and completed after Elizabeth’s accession, went further. In addition to an accurate English translation, it provided ‘arguments’, marginal glosses, headings, and ‘explanatory’ notes that urged Calvinist theology and prompted Archbishop Parker to commission a rival Bishops’ Bible (1568)." [11]
Each new revision was essentially the work of one individual, rather than a committee. During this period the English Bible enjoyed official sanction at times, and was officially anathematized at others. It basically depended upon political exigencies. Various Tudor monarchs of the age were destined to leave their mark upon the matter of English Bible translation, either directly or indirectly. But no English sovereign was destined to have the lasting name recognition associated with the English Bible that was reserved for James I, the first Stuart king.
The Authorized Version
By the end of the sixteenth century England was awash with English Bible translations, each vying with the others for ascendancy. There were the Great Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, the Geneva Bible, and still some lingering influence from the Coverdale and Matthew’s Bibles. When James VI of Scotland ascended the British throne at the death of Elizabeth in 1603 (becoming James I of England) one of the first things done by the new king was the calling of the Hampton Court Conference in January of 1604 “for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the church.” [12]
Although Bible revision was not on the agenda of the conference, it became an epoch-making issue when it was suggested that a new English translation be published to replace all of the competing versions then extant.
Without going into any real detail, it is enough to say that this committee-produced translation plainly became the Bible of the English-speaking world, and remained so for over two hundred and fifty years. John Guy has the following to say about it.
"It is still accepted as such [the Bible] by its defenders, and recognized as so by its detractors."[13]
The translators of this Authorized Version adhered largely to much that had preceded their work. Their foundational manuscripts were the T. R. Greek for the New Testament, and the Masoretic Hebrew for the Old Testament. A very large portion of Tyndale’s work was retained. Yet the English language of this new translation was polished and beautiful in its expressiveness. It was, to a great extent, the English language of Shakespeare, or Elizabethan English. It was the English language at its best. The following excerpt sheds interesting light upon the difference between the English of the Authorized Version and that of Shakespeare.
"The King James Bible was published in the year Shakespeare began work on his last play, The Tempest. Both the play and the Bible are masterpieces of English, but there is one crucial difference between them. Whereas Shakespeare ransacked the lexicon, the King James Bible employs a bare 8000 words - God’s teaching in homely English for everyman."[14]
With the combined popularity of the five major English translations mentioned up to this point, the influence of the English Bible was established. All that was necessary now was a broader stage upon which that influence could play out.
The Influence of English and New Age Globalism
With the broadening of the British Empire under Elizabeth and the standardization of the English language during the same period, English as a world language began to come into its own. It has already been suggested that the impact of Shakespeare upon the English language was essentially to elevate it to a level never before reached. Finally, with the rise of Cambridge and Oxford as universities recognized all over Europe, the impact of English as a “scholarly” language was assured.
Moving from that time into the present one watches as English becomes truly a language for all people. As America comes into its own, and becomes a melting pot for the world, the English language as spoken here begins to undergo constant change as it assimilates into itself words and modes of expression from other languages. In the meantime, English as a second language is being taught all over Europe and Asia. Amazingly, when Americans travel abroad, they have come to expect the people in the countries in which they are traveling to speak English. It is as though English were literally the language of all mankind.
The observation of this phenomenon cannot help but recall to the mind of the serious Christian the eleventh chapter of Genesis. Recorded in that chapter is the divine confounding of human languages at Babel. Omnisciently seeing ahead of time the dangers of one global language, God intervened. By scattering man’s languages, He scattered men.
But today Babel is, in a sense, being rebuilt. There is a global perspective invading everyone’s thinking. It is perceived as a good thing that English is spoken everywhere. It is applauded that there are now English translations of the Bible to suit everyone’s particular inclination with the universal language, no matter that the inspired originals in Hebrew and Greek have been shunted off to the side, lost in the shuffle. Reading the following excerpt gives one pause to ponder in a new way.
"Between 1535 and 1568 no less than five major versions were published – Matthew’s, Taverner’s, Cranmer’s (the “Great Bible”), the Geneva, and the Bishop’s Bible. All were immediate bestsellers, as Bibles are to this day, and were probably the most widely read texts of the sixteenth century, with an enormous influence on the spread of English."[15]
Can the same thing be said concerning the deluge of English translations today? Is it not true that these new translations are vying with the Authorized Version for bestseller status? And is it not true that they are promoting the spread of English? How many Asian or European people, struggling with English as a second language have been handed a modern translation of the Scriptures into English by well-meaning Christians?
Is it possible that in all of this Satan has a hidden agenda? Is there a subtle return to a global language with watered-down “Scriptures” which will open the way for a global pseudo-Christian religion? It is not in the province of this essay to examine this question in any further depth, merely to pose it. May the Lord enable us to see beyond the apparent, and not be taken in by Satan’s devices.
[1] Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil, The Story of English (New York: Viking, 1986), 19. [Emphasis mine]
[2] Ibid, 51.
[3] James D. Baikie, The English Bible & Its Story (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, N.D.), 94.
[4] Ibid, 92.
[5] Ibid, 92.
[6] Mrs. H. C. Conant, The English Bible. History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue (New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., 1856), 14.
[7] W. J. Heaton, The Bible of the Reformation; Its Translators and Their Work (London: Francis Griffiths, 1910), 12.
[8] Ibid, 15.
[9] Louise A. Vernon, The Beggars’ Bible (Scottdale, PA.: Herald Press, 1971), 133.
[10] W. T. Whitley, The English Bible Under the Tudor Sovereigns (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, Ltd., No Date), 49.
[11] John Guy. Tudor England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 303.
[12] Laurence M. Vance. A Brief History of English Bible Translations (Pensacola: Vance Publications, 1993), 24.
[13] Ibid, 29.
[14] McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil, p. 113.
[15] McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil, p. 110. [Italics mine]