The bible began mostly in Hebrew. By the Renaissance, there was a discontentment in the Europeans with the church and a growing need to be able to read the bible. At this time, only educated individuals could read, but no one else could read. We would believe this would be a good idea, yet it wasn’t viewed as a good idea.
Many people believed the word of the bible would distorted or misinterpreted which in a general since we have seen this all the way up to modern times. Some people might claim the distorting or misinterpreting could have been done by the church beforehand. One of the gentlemen who translated the bible into a common language, Wyclif, began to challenge the teaching of the church. This challenge of the church verse interpretation lead to the imprisonment or execution of those who worked to translate the bible.
Finally around 700 to 1350 CE, church clerics translated portions of the bible into Anglo Saxon and Middle English. Yet the full translated bible in 1380-1397 by John Wyclif. Although there was a strong disagreement with his work, Wyclif was not executed. They did decide to dig his bones up after he passed away and burned them in punishment.
William Tyndale is the next man to come to the scene in 1526 when the first new testament from the original Greek and later the first in English. His work didn’t end there since in 1530-1531, Tyndale produces the first Torah and Book of Jonah from Hebrew. Unfortunately, Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1536 because of his translation work.
In 1535, the first entire bible into English is produced from two Latin versions, Tyndale’s English work, and Luther and Zwinglis German translation by Mule Coverdale. Two years later and one year after Tyndale was burned, his friend, John Rogers, better known by his pseudonym, Thomas Matthew, published the Thomas Matthew Bible. The next bible, The Great Bible, makes the hugest mark by being the first authorized bible. The Great bible is also order to be placed in every church by King Henry Vlll in 1539 CE.
The Pilgrims brought the Geneva Bible, produced in 1560, to America in 1620. Seeking refuge from Queen Mary’s actions against the Protestants, several people in Geneva worked to translate. Queen Mary’s actions and the Pilgrims are not the only history surrounding this bible. Shakespeare use the bible and was the first bible with numbered verses.
Before the Pilgrims can take the Geneva Bible to America, there are two more events with the English Bible. The first is in 1568 when Queen Elizabeth wanted Bibles to again be placed in every church. The response to Queen Elizabeth come from the bishops of the Church of England with the Bishop’s Bible.
The next is the most famous translation commanded by King James l. The King James Bible involved 54 scholars with Greek, Hebrew, and English translations to work from. It was completed in 1611.
Beginning with the opposition of the bible around 700 CE, it took almost 1000 years to have the first authorized bible. Although there are many different bibles now, the one last important mark for the English Bible’s history comes to us in 1782. In that year, a King James version short the Apocrypha, known as the Robert Aitken’s Bible becomes the first bible to be published in America.
For more interesting information about the bible:
Seven Themes of Genesis - Articles that discusses the seven themes found in Genesis
Within the Bible - A bible study blog addressing not just Christian perspectives, but many different perspectives.
