Our English Bible – How it
Came to Us
For centuries the Church relied on
two versions of the Scriptures - the Vulgate (in Latin) and the Septuagint (a
Greek translation of the Old Testament). The 16th century reforms that
crystallized around the time of Martin Luther, along with the advent of movable
type, brought a wave of translation into the everyday languages of
The first translation of the
Bible into English was begun by John Wycliffe, and completed by John Purvey in
the 1380s.
The first printed English New Testament was published
in 1525 by William Tyndale, who had set up shop in
Several key transition
editions were published in the balance of the 1500s, in the face of varying
degrees of opposition.
In 1610 the complete Rheims/Douay version was published and, until quite
recently, this was the version authorized for use by English-speaking Roman
Catholics.
In 1611 King James came to
the throne and commissioned a new translation, often called the Authorized
Version, but known more widely as the "King James Version." This
translation dominated the English-speaking Protestant world for well over 300
years and is still in widespread use.
If translations of single
books of the Bible are included, there have been about 500 new translations or
revisions of older English versions - an indication of people's desire to have
and pass on the Bible in a language they can understand.
The Bible is such an integral
part of western civilization that it is considered a literary classic, and has
been quoted as an authority for centuries.