Through the Bible - Translation

The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, as noted elsewhere. The Bible as we know it was translated into Latin, the official language of the Church, by Jerome in about AD 400. He went to the original Hebrew and Greek texts a far as possible.

The established church frowned on languages other than Latin, so when John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English just before he died in AD 1384. “The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe (on 4 May 1415) a stiff-necked heretic and under the ban of the Church. It was decreed that his books be burned and his remains be exhumed. The latter did not happen till twelve years afterward, when at the command of Pope Martin V they were dug up, burned, and the ashes cast into the river Swift that flows through Lutterworth” (from Wikipedia).

William Tyndale did not fare so well – he was strangled then burned in 1536.

After Tyndale came Myles Coverdale's “Great Bible” (because of its size). He was only exiled.

Next is Matthews Bible by John Rogers under the pseudonym “Thomas Matthew”, which didn’t help as he was still burned at the stake as the first martyr under Mary I.

English scholars were again driven into exile and produced the Geneva Bible in 1560.

These translations led, via the Bishops' Bible to the King James Bible of 1611, which still casts a long shadow in both Christianity and the secular culture of the English-speaking world. Bible translation subsequently became less risky and so we have a vast range today.

Read translations online at BibleGateway and Blue Letter Bible, or download them from Online Bible and e-Sword.