HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH ANGLICAN BIBLE

In 2010, we have in our possession over 450 varieties of Bible in English, from the NLT, the
Message, NIV, etc! Yet, this has only been the case for the last 450 years.

In 1538, the first printed and authorised bible was produced, named the Great Bible, How did the
English Language bible come about?

Firstly, a little potted history for Background.

Britain has for been a Roman Catholic country for longer than not, at neigh over 1000 years the
country lived under Roman Papal authority.
The conversion of Britain began in the 7th Century, when the two great kingdoms that would go to
create England, Northumberland and Mercia, were converted by missionaries of the Pope.

In 627AD king Edwin of Northumberland converted to Christianity.

In 650’s King Wulfhere of Mercia converted also.

This was confirmed by Edwins son, Oswin, in 664AD when he called the Synod of Whitby and
confirmed the dates of the Roman Calendar, for easter, etc set by the Council of Nicacea (325AD)
was to be followed.

So by the end of the 7th Century the country was confirmed Catholic and adherents of Papal
authority. This meant Catholics clergymen acting as mediators between God and the people.
It also meant that the Bible read and spoken from by the clergy was the authorised Latin version,
revised by Jerome, called the LATIN VULGATE (c.382AD)

From this point on we have an almost unbroken Religious history that was parallel to most of the
Catholic nations of Europe. Latin masses and scripture, this changed in 1534 and Henry VIII.

Henry VIII removed the authority of Rome over the Church though he did not alter the religious
doctrine. We essentially went from a Roman Catholic Church to an English Catholic Church. The
real changes happened a later under his successors, William and Elizabeth.

GREAT BIBLE, 1538

Henry then ordered an authorised English Bible to be read out at masses. He wanted his
Bishops to produce a bishops bible. He wasn’t being truly altruistic here. Pressure had been
building since Erasmus wrote a preface to his Greek New Testament in 1516 saying the scriptures
should be produced in national tongues, Wyclif had produced English manuscripts, which had been
stopped for heresay. William Tyndale also began producing English Translation prior to this date,
both were Heretical.

Why?

Wyclif - believed that all were equal before God in gaining Grace. Removing the need for a priest
Tyndale – Had written against Henry’s divorce as un-Godly and against the scriptures. Henry kept
him quiet and the church hounded him because of what he translated from.
The Catholic Church was not against production of vernacular bibles, but what they couldn’t
tolerate was wrong doctrine. All official translations came from the Latin Vulgate by Jerome, one of
the fathers of the Church. Greek and Hebrew translations had differences that the Church did not
agree. Latin translation said ‘to do penance’, the Greek translated as ‘repent’, a Massive doctrinal
difference.

The Bishop’s Bible was delayed, what the archbishop did was ask Henry to authorise a recent Bible,
the Matthews bible, this became the Great Bible.

MATTHEW’S BIBLE 1537

The Matthews Bible was revised by Thomas Coverdale and became the Great Bible. The
Thomas Matthews bible printed under a pseudonym, it was really published by John Rodgers, a
protestant reformer and friend of Tyndale.

Who were the Translators?

Coverdale – Revisor, a few books of Old Testament and Apocrypha

Rogers – Prayer of Manasseh
Tyndale – Majority of Old and all New Testament.

Rodgers printed what was essentially the work of the now martyred Tyndale, hence the subterfuge.
The reason as we have seen is that Tyndale used the non-Latin Vulgate

What were the sources?

Latin Vulgate
Greek Septuagint
Hebrew Tanakh

1 – The LATIN VULGATE C5th AD

The latin Vulgate was commissioned by the Pope Damasus I to revise (consolidate and
provide constant quality of style) the previous Latin Translation, The ‘Vetus Latina’ (a poor and
uneven quality of varying manuscripts), which it then replaced as the basis of authorised Bibles
within the Roman Catholic Church, and remained so until the 20th Century. Any deviation from this
was non-doctrinal. (see above).

The latin translations were heavily dependant on the Septuagint as a source, but other minor ones
were used which no longer exist.

2 – the HEBREW BIBLE (old testament)

Known as the TANAKH, acronym.
TA - Torah,(teaching) first 5 books = genesis to Deutoronomy
NA – Nevim (Prophets) 12 = Joshua to Malachi
KH – Khevim (writings) Psalms to chronicles

You’d think it was the oldest version but the oldest extant Copies are
 Aleppo Codex 920 AD
Leningrad Codex 1008AD

Up to the 20th Century

1947 – Dead Sea Scrolls @ Qumran, Hebrew Texts dated 150BC to 70AD. Massively
important find in the 20th Century, Hebrew Bible was Oral tradition and finally written 3rd Century
BC. AD70 Temple of Jerusalem destroyed by Romans, and Titus a lot of mauscripts would have
perished.

Tyndale would have had access to Hebrew works spawned from the codices and other
sources, we may no longer have.

3 – SEPTUAGINT

Refers to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Manuscripts available around the 3rd to 1st BC,
We believe that this was done in Alexandria, which was the centre of learning at this time, under
one of Alexander’s general Ptolemy, who had taken Egypt when Alexander’s empire was split
between his warring Generals.

Why Greek? It was the lingua franca as they say around the levant, The conquest of Asia Minor
(Turkey) and the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great spread Greek language and culture (Hence
we know it as the Hellenic Period). As such the area mainly spoke Greek and (Hebrew being the
language of Judea, a tiny state compared to the greek speaking nations).

The Septuagint allowed the transmission of the Old Testament from Jewish Hebrew into the
international language. Imagine it like having a book written in Polish translated into English, so
from 40million people it can now be read by 2 billion people. From a national work to an
international book.

For the sharp eyed amongst you, you will see the Dates pre- BC mean, obviously, the new
testament was not included. It not having happened yet!

The Greek Version was accorded Equal authority with the Hebrew Bible, by the early
church though there are some differences in size of books, (etc Job 17% shorter in the GK)

How does the NT come about?

1-New Testament – We do not possess (yet. It’s still possible) any Primary sources
recording events set in the New Testament times.

We do have Papyri (In Greek, the English of their day), the major ones are:

Oxyrhynchus Papryi – Discovered at the turn of the 20th Century. (dates ranging from 1st –
th
4 Century, the earliest is a copy of Matthew, dated 150 AD).
Bodmer Papyri – discovered in 1952 (1st to 4th C. Luke dated to 175AD)
Chester Beatty Papyri – discovered in 1931 (3rd C)

Add this to various Fragments, etc that have been discovered since they were written.
CONSOLIDATION of Old and New Testaments.

From about the 4th Century, (313AD) mainly due to the adoption of Christianity throughout
the Roman Empire as the state religion there became a need to consolidate the works into one
volume and make them official. Thus began the creation of Codices we possess now.

Most important Codex’s

Codex Vaticanius pre-360AD

Codex Sinaiticus 325-360AD
Codex Alexandrius 373AD

CODEX VATICANIUS : Vatican Library, pre-360AD It was an unrivalled text of the bible
for modern scholars, until 1844. It was also the most complete Codex prior to 1844.

CODEX SINAITICUS; In 1844, the world saw the modern discovery/theft of a codex from
the Sinai Monastery. It was like the Vaticanius, an almost complete copy of the Septuagint and New
Testament. It is believed that this codex represents the codex that was commissioned by Emperor
Constantine I.