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| Well-worn antique Bibles, thanks to Wright and Ruddick ancestors. |
The first human author to write down the biblical record was Moses. He was commanded by God to take on this task and he naturally wrote in his native language -- Hebrew.
During the thousand years of its composition, almost the entire Old Testament was written in Hebrew. But a few chapters in the prophecies of Ezra and Daniel and one verse in Jeremiah were written in a language called Aramaic. This language became very popular in the ancient world and actually displaced many other languages. Aramaic even became the common language spoken in Israel in Jesus’ time, and it was likely the language He spoke day by day. Some Aramaic words were even used by the Gospel writers in the New Testament.
The New Testament, however, was written in Greek. This seems strange, since you might think it would be either Hebrew or Aramaic. However, Greek was the language of scholarship during the years of the composition of the New Testament from 50 to 100 AD. The fact is that many Jews could not even read Hebrew anymore, and this disturbed the Jewish leaders a lot! So, around 300 BC a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek was undertaken, and it was completed around 200 BC. Gradually this Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, was widely accepted and was even used in many synagogues. It also became a wonderful missionary tool for the early Christians, for now the Greeks could read God’s Word in their own tongue.
By way of translation, we now have The Holy Bible (His revelation) in our own English language and in 2,300 other languages as well. Today we have the very Bible that comes to us from the original three languages. Truly we can say, “God speaks my language!”
In the post that follows, I take a look at the long journey of the Christian Bible that forms the basis of our faith today. Some of it is not common everyday knowledge, including the fact that at least one English version actually preceded the King James Version found in our churches and homes in the 21 st. Century.When Pilgrims arrived in the New World in 1620, they not only brought along supplies and tools that would enable them to forge a new existence for their families, but also a consuming passion for advancing the Kingdom of Christ, and the Word of God. Clearly, their most precious cargo was the Bible – specifically, the Geneva Bible.
All but forgotten in our day, this version of the Bible was the most widely read and influential English Bible of the 16th and 17th centuries. A superb translation, it was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day and became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers and thinkers of that time. William Bradford also cited the Geneva Bible in his famous book "Of Plymouth Plantation", regarded as the most authoritative account of the Pilgrims and the early years of the colony which they founded.
“The Geneva Bible was translated by members of John Knox’s English Puritan church in Geneva, Switzerland, during the last years of John Calvin’s ministry there. This was the Bible of the English Reformation. William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, John Milton, the Pilgrims, and the Jamestown settlers, along with most other English and Scottish Protestants, used the Geneva Bible almost exclusively….The Geneva Bible was not only a popular and readable text because it was translated into the language of the common man, but it also had commentary on each page that was reflective of the theology of John Calvin, John Knox, and the Protestant Reformation with significant political and social applications.”
The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders such as Calvin, Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and others, were included to explain and interpret the scriptures for the common people.
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| Geneva Bible with characteristic commentary notes in the margins. |
When the Pilgrims landed it was The Geneva Bible, published in 1560, that they had been using for years and was the most popular Bible in the English language at that time. Dr. Marshall Foster writes concerning the Geneva Bible, “Nearly forgotten by the modern world, this version of the Holy Scriptures was researched, compiled, and translated into English by a team of exiled Reformers in Geneva, Switzerland, between 1557 and 1560, and was destined to be the major component of the English-speaking people’s rise from the backwaters of history to the center of civilization…The Geneva Bible surely was carried aboard their (the Jamestown settlers) three ships that sailed from England in December of 1606. The New England Pilgrims likewise relied on the Geneva Bible for comfort and strength on their 66-day voyage aboard the Mayflower in 1620, and were even more dependent upon it as they wrote the Mayflower Compact, a document unique in world history and the first constitutional government in the western hemisphere….It is no exaggeration to say that the Geneva Bible was the most significant catalyst of the transformation of England, Scotland, and America from slavish feudalism to the heights of Christian civilization.”
Prior to the Reformation, ordinary believers did not have access to the Bible. It was not until the printing of Luther’s German Bible in 1534 and the printing of the Geneva Bible in English in 1560, that the Christian public could own and hold the Bible in their own hands for personal and family reading and study. (At one time it was a capital crime even to read the Bible in England in the English language.)
William Tyndale, risking his own life, translated the New Testament into English and published it for the first time in 1526. Tyndale had said to a clergyman, “…if God spare my life, ere many years pass I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of Scripture than thou (a theologian) dost.” (p. xxiv, 1599 Geneva Bible) This New Testament was smuggled into England from Belgium. For this great work of Tyndale, he was hunted down in Belgium and captured and on March 6, 1536 was burned at the stake. His Bible, however, did not die and made it to some English preachers and even to King Henry VIII himself who became a supporter of Protestant reformers. The English Bible, however, was still reserved for pulpits and was not yet available to the people.
In 1553, Mary Tudor became queen of England and had resolved to force England back to Roman Catholicism and ordered the burning of all English Bibles. Marshall Foster writes, “She caused more than 300 reformers, pastors and Bible translators to be burned at the stake, well earning her for all of history the sobriquet Bloody Mary.”
Because of her persecution of protestants, approximately 800 English scholars had to flee from their country. Many of these went to Geneva and studied under John Calvin. They were “some of the finest theologians and Biblical scholars in history” relates Foster. It was these Bible Scholars who translated the Geneva Bible between 1557 and 1560.
They not only translated the whole Bible into English but also included their notes with it. Foster writes, “The completed Geneva Bible was published in 1560 and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, who had succeeded her half-sister Bloody Mary to the throne and, at least for political reasons, supported a definitive break with the Church of Rome. The Geneva Bible captured the hearts of the people with its powerful, uncompromising prose and more than 300,000 words of annotations in the margins to aid in personal study and understanding.” It went through many editions and was an instant hit with the people who could finally have their own personal Bibles to read and study.
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In 1604, the year after he claimed the throne of England in 1603, King James I hosted and presided over a conference pertaining to matters religious, the Hampton Court Conference. While the Geneva Bible was the preferred Bible of Anglican and Puritan Protestants during the Elizabethan Age, King James disliked the Geneva Bible and made his views clearly known at the conference: "I think that of all [English Bibles], that of Geneva is the worst." Apparently, his distaste for the Geneva Bible was not necessarily caused just by the translation of the text into English, but mostly the annotations in the margins. He felt strongly many of the annotations were "very partial, untrue, seditious, and savoring too much of dangerous and traitorous conceits..." In all likelihood, he saw the Geneva's interpretations of biblical passages as anti-clerical "republicanism", which could imply church hierarchy was unnecessary. Other passages appeared particularly seditious: notably references to monarchs as "tyrants".
It followed that the need for a king as head of church and state could be questioned also. James had been dealing with similar issues with the Presbyterian-Calvinist religious leaders back in Scotland, and he wanted none of the same controversies in England. Also, if annotations were in print, readers might believe these interpretations correct and fixed, making it more difficult to change his subjects' minds about the meanings of particular passages.
Toward the end of the conference two Puritans suggested that a new translation of the Bible be produced to unify better the Anglican Church in England and Scotland, James embraced the idea. He could not only be rid of those inconvenient annotations, but he could have greater influence on the translation of the Bible as a whole. He commissioned and chartered a new translation of the Bible which would eventually become the most famous version of the Bible in the history of the English language. Originally known as the Authorized Version to be read in churches, the new Bible would come to bear his name as the so-called King James Bible or King James Version (KJV). The first and early editions of the King James Bible from 1611 and the first few decades thereafter lack annotations, unlike nearly all editions of the Geneva Bible up until that time. Initially, the King James Version did not sell well and competed with the Geneva Bible.
Shortly after the first edition of the KJV, King James banned the printing of new editions of the Geneva Bible to further entrench his version. However, Robert Barker continued to print Geneva Bibles even after the ban, placing the erroneous date 1599 (see photo above) on new copies of Genevas which were actually printed circa 1616 to 1625. Despite popular misconception, the Puritan Separatists or Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower in 1620 brought to North America copies of the Geneva Bible.
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| Title page in 1840 King James Bible. |
I frequently refer to my collection of 1800 vintage Bibles and Spiritual Books (a number of which my pioneer ancestors brought to Upper Canada from their native England and Ireland) and it is interesting to note the wording of the title pages of the early King James versions i.e. "The Holy Bible containing Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations compared and revised. By His Majesty's Special Command. Appointed to be read in Churches." That wording has only slightly been altered in subsequent centuries.
During its long history the King James translation has been revised in accordance with changes in English speech and our growing knowledge of the original text of the Scriptures. The work has made its way to a position of primary acceptance among clergy and laity and continues to hold that position after more than three centuries.
Meanwhile, The Geneva Bible was fairly recently republished in 2006 by Tolle Lege Press. In his closing remarks in the introduction of this new edition, Dr. Marshall Foster says, “Many people have forgotten, abandoned, or rejected the great lessons of the Reformation and the Biblical theology that inspired the greatest accomplishments of Western Civilization. We fervently pray that the re-introduction of this powerful tool of Godly dominion, the Geneva Bible, will, with God’s favor light the fires of another powerful reformation.”
Time will tell.
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