Chap. ii. 'Testament both in Latin and English and the ParaHistory.'phrase of Erasmus upon the same.' A revision of the English Bible probably con But beyond this nothing of moment was actually achieved with regard to the English Version of the Scriptures. At this crisis the constitution of the English Church and the remoulding of the Service-books were of more urgent importance than the revision of the Bible; but Cranmer did not overlook this work. In 1549 Fagius and Bucer were appointed by his influence to templated. professorships at Cambridge, and during their stay with him at Lambeth, before they entered on their work there, 'the archbishop himself directed of what subject matter 'their lectures should be. As it had been a great while 'his pious and most earnest desire that the Holy Bible 'should come abroad in the greatest exactness and true 'agreement with the original text, so he laid this work upon these two learned men. First that they should 'give a clear plain and succinct interpretation of the Scrip'ture according to the propriety of the language; and 'secondly illustrate difficult and obscure places and re'concile those that seemed repugnant to one another. 'And it was his will and his advice that to this end and 'purpose their public readings should tend...Fagius, 'because his talent lay in the Hebrew learning, was to 'undertake the Old Testament; and Bucer the New... 'Fagius entered upon the Evangelical prophet Esaias 'and Bucer upon the gospel of the Evangelist John, and 'some chapters in each book were dispatched by them. 'But it was not long but both of them fell sick, which 'gave a very unhappy stop to their studies'.' Nothing indeed is here said of an immediate revision of the authorised Bible, but the instructions point to the direction in which the great archbishop's thoughts were turned. 1 Strype's Cranmer, I. 281. Meanwhile a fragment of a version of the New Testament-the Gospel of St Matthew and the beginning of St Mark-was completed by Sir John Cheke, at one time professor of Greek at Cambridge and tutor to Edward VI. He seems to have aimed at giving a thoroughly English rendering of the text, and in this endeavour he went to far greater lengths of quaintness than Taverner. Thus he coins new words to represent the old 'ecclesiastical' terms for which More and Gardiner contended most earnestly: frosent (apostle): biword (parable): gainbirth (regeneration): uprising or gainrising (resurrection): tablers (money-changers): tollers (publicans): freshmen (proselytes): and uses strange participial forms: gospeld (xi. 5): devild (viii. 28): moond (iv. 24); and even crossed for crucified. The fragment remained in manuscript till quite lately', and it is not certa in that it was designed for publication. As it will not be necessary to revert to it again, a specimen may be given to shew its general style: 'At that time Jesus answered and said: I must 'needs, O Father, acknowledge thanks unto Thee, O 'Lord of heaven and earth, which hast hidden these 'things from wise and witty men, and hast disclosed the 'same to babes; yea and that, Father, for such was thy 'good pleasure herein. All things be delivered me of 'my Father. And no man knoweth the Son but the 'Father, and he to whom the Son will disclose it (sic). 'Come to me all that labour and be burdened and I will 'ease you. Take my yoke on you and learn of me, for 'I am mild and of a lowly heart. And ye shall find 'quietness for yourselves. For my yoke is profitable '(xpnoTós) and my burden light.' (Matt. xi. 25-30.) In the reign of Mary no English Bible was printed. 1 Edited by Mr Goodwin, London, 1843. Chap. ii. Sir 7. translation Cheke's of St Matthew. Chap. ii. History. Bible in Mary's reign. Rogers and Cranmer were martyred: Coverdale with difficulty escaped to the Continent: the bones of Fagius The English and Bucer were burnt; but no special measures appear to have been taken for the destruction of the English Scriptures, or for the restriction of their private use. The public use of them in churches was necessarily forbidden. Proclamations against certain books and authors were issued, but no translations of the Old or New Testament were (as before) mentioned by name. Copies of the Bible which had been set up in churches were burnt; but they were not sought out or confiscated. Evidently a great change had come over the country since the time of Henry VIII. And in the mean time though the English press was inactive the exiles abroad were busy, and at the close of Mary's reign a New Testament was printed at Geneva, which was the first step towards a work destined to influence very powerfully our authorised Version. The origin of this must now be traced. June 1557. The Genevan Testa § 7. THE GENEVAN BIBLE. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the disastrous disment of 1557. cussions at Frankfurt which divided the English exiles of Mary's reign. The task of continuing the revision of the Bible fell naturally to the non-conforming party who retired to Geneva, the active centre of the labours of Calvin and Beza. Among them was W. Whittingham, who married Calvin's sister; and it is to him in all probability that we owe the Genevan Testament, which appeared in 1557 with an Introductory Epistle by Calvin. The reviser's own address to the reader is anonymous, but it is definitely personal, and claims the work for a single man, and no one seems more likely than Whittingham to have undertaken it, 'As touching the perusing of the text,' he writes, 'it was diligently revised by the most approved Greek 'examples, and conference of translations in other 'tongues, as the learned may easily judge both by the 'faithful rendering of the sentence, and also by the pro'priety of the words and perspicuity of the phrase. 'Furthermore that the reader might be by all means ‘profited, I have divided the text into verses and sec'tions' according to the best editions in other languages. ...And because the Hebrew and Greek phrases, which 'are strange to render in other tongues and also short, 'should not be too hard, I have sometime interpreted 'them, without any whit diminishing the grace of the 'sense, as our language doth use them, and sometime 'have put to [added] that word which lacking made the 'sentence obscure, but have set it in such letters as may 'easily be discerned from the common text.' Chap. ii. The reviser's account of his work The attractiveness of the book was enhanced by a marginal commentary, in which the author boasts that 'to his knowledge he has omitted nothing unexpounded, 'whereby he that is anything exercised in the Scriptures 'of God might justly complain of hardness.' It was at least far more complete than any yet available for the English reader. So it was that the edition received a ready welcome and soon found its way to England. It was however only the beginning of a larger enterprise. Within a few months after it was finished, a thorough The revision revision of the whole Bible was commenced, and was undertaken. continued 'for the space of two years and more day and 1 The division into verses was first the reviser from Beza's Testament given in Stephens' Gr.-Lat. Test. of of 1556, which I have been unable 1551. See Tregelles, An Account to see. A different type was emof the Printed Text... p. 33. The ployed in the Great Bible to mark use of italic supplemental words is readings borrowed from the Vulgate, found in Münster's O. T. 1534, but e. g. 1 John v. 7. is said to have been borrowed by of the Bible Chap. ii. Nov. 1558. 'night.' The striking difference between the translation of the New Testament in this complete edition of the Bible (1560) and the separate New Testament (1557)', is a signal proof of the amount of independent labour bestowed upon the work. The names of those who were engaged upon it are not given, but they were several and perhaps not the same during the whole time. The accession of Elizabeth broke up the society in part, but 'Whittingham with one or two more did tarry at Geneva 'an year and a half after Q. Elizabeth came to the Crown, 'being resolved to go through with the work". These were probably Gilby and Sampson. Under their care April 1560. the Bible was finished in 1560, and dedicated to Q. Elizabeth in bold and simple language without flattery or reserve. 'The eyes of all that fear God in all places behold 'your countries,' thus they address the Queen, 'as an 'example to all that believe, and the prayers of all the 'godly at all times are directed to God for the preserva'tion of your majesty. For considering God's wonderful 'mercies toward you at all seasons, who hath pulled you 'out of the mouth of lions, and how that from your 'youth you have been brought up in the Holy Scrip'tures, the hope of all men is so increased, that they 'cannot but look that God should bring to pass some 'wonderful work by your grace to the universal comfort 'of his Church. Therefore even above strength you 1 See Chap. III. § 6. The acknowledged importance of this work of revision is further shewn by the fact that the text of the edition of 1557 was never reprinted. It was at once superseded by the more complete work undertaken very shortly after its appearance. Compare Mr F. Fry, Journal of Sacred Literature, July 1864. The separate New Testament of 1560 gives, as Mr Fry has shewn, the text of the translation in the Bible and not that of the New Testament of 1557. 2 Wood's Athena Oxon. s. V. Whittingham. 3 This is well established by Anderson, II. pp. 320 f. |