CHAPTER X

THE GENEVAN VERSIONS

1. Events from 1541-1557. 2. Whittingham's Testament 3. The Genevan Bible of 1560.

of 1557.

4. Marginal Notes. 5. Popularity of the Genevan Bible. 6. The Bassandyne Bible.

§ 1. Events from 1541-1557.-For some years after the publication of the Great Bible there was a time of suspense in the external history of our English Bible. No new versions appeared, a proposed revision by the Bishops falling through, owing to Gardiner's pressing the retention of so many Latin words in the text that it would have been practically unintelligible. Nor, which is far more serious, were the older versions left undisturbed. In 1543 Parliament passed an Act for the "Advancement of True Religion," in which all books of Tindale's translation were clearly and utterly abolished and extinguished, and forbidden to be kept or used"; and no one belonging to the class of apprentices, servants, husbandmen, or labourers was permitted to read the Old or New Testament at all either in public or in private. The reason for such an absurd enactment it is difficult now to understand, but it doubtless arose out of Henry's complaint that the book was "disputed, rhymed, sung, and jangled in every alehouse and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same." Three years later the proscription was extended in still more rigorous terms to the writings of Wycliffe, Coverdale, and many others, so that practically only the Great Bible was left. And such was the

state of the times that even its use must have been attended with a certain amount of danger.

By Henry's death on 28th January 1547, and the accession of Edward VI. to the throne, all this was changed. According to a well-known story, the English Bible was then for the first time used at a royal coronation, for when three swords were brought, signs of his being king of three kingdoms, Edward said there was yet one wanting. "And when the nobles about him asked what that was, he answered, The Bible. 'That book,' added he, 'is the Sword of the Spirit, and to be preferred before these swords.'. . . And when the pious young King had said this, and some other like words, he commanded the Bible with the greatest reverence to be brought and carried before him." One of Edward's first acts, moreover, was to issue an order requiring that all beneficed persons "shall provide within three months next after this visitation, one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English"; and that, so far from discouraging its use, they "shall rather conform and exhort every person to read the same, as the very lively word of God, and the special food of man's soul." That these enactments proved no dead letter is evidenced by the fact that during Edward's short reign at least thirteen editions of the Bible and thirty-five editions of the New Testament were printed. The same reign saw

also the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, which, with slight alterations, is still used in the Church of England, and of the Forty-two, afterwards reduced to Thirty-nine, Articles of Religion, which form that Church's doctrinal standard.

Amidst such signs of religious zeal, we may be sure that the work of Bible-translation was not lost sight of; but still no new version appeared. A revision contemplated by Cranmer came to nothing, because the two scholars whom he had secured for the purpose "fell sick, which gave a very unhappy stop to their studies"; while a translation of the New Testament by Sir John Cheke did not get farther than the middle of the first chapter of

St. Mark. It is not even certain that his version was ever intended for publication; but in any case the death of Edward VI. and the accession of "Bloody" Mary gave a new turn to the ever-varying fortunes of our Bible's history. Cranmer soon followed Rogers to the stake, and the public, though apparently not the private, use of the Scriptures was strictly forbidden. Foreseeing what was coming, a number of leading Reformers had already contrived to escape to the Continent; and of these a small band eventually settled at Geneva, attracted doubtless by the fame of Calvin. There, as they themselves tell us, "we thought we could bestow our labours and study in nothing which could be more acceptable to God, and comfortable to His Church, than in the translating of the Scriptures into our native tongue."

§ 2. Whittingham's Testament of 1557.-We shall see the result of their combined labours directly, but in the meantime we have to notice that in 1557 there appeared a translation of the New Testament alone, apparently the unaided work of one of their number, William Whittingham. In his Address to the Reader, Whittingham describes his work as specially intended for the "simple lambs which partly are already in the fold of Christ, and partly wandering, through ignorance." And it was doubtless the thought of the same readers that led to the numerous annotations, in which he claims to have left "nothing unexpounded, whereby he that is anything exercised in the Scriptures of God might justly complain of hardness." 3 The text, according to the title-page, had been "conferred diligently with the Greek, and

1 The most interesting feature of this fragment is the translator's evident desire to introduce home-born terms. Thus with him parable is biword; regeneration, gainbirth; and crucified, crossed. To the same striving after simplicity we owe such quaint renderings as "Happy be the beggars in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs" (Matt. v. 3); and "They have winked hard with their own eyes, lest they should see with their eyes" (xiii. 15).

2 Whittingham was married to Calvin's sister-in-law, not sister as is often stated, and in 1559 succeeded Knox in the pastorate of the English congregation. He contributed several Psalms to the Sternhold and Hopkins' Collection.

3 An Epistle by John Calvin declaring that "Christ is the end of

best approved translations," and was for the first time in an English translation divided into verses. In previous translations no other sub-division had ever been attempted than into paragraphs of various lengths, but Whittingham now "for the profit of the reader ” adopted the shorter sections prepared by R. Stephens for one of his editions of the Greek Testament.1 These verse-divisions were afterwards applied to the whole Bible in 1560, from which they have passed into our own Authorised Version. They can however only be defended on the ground of convenience of reference, for their whole tendency is to destroy the connection, and so to obscure the sense of the original.

Another innovation which Whittingham introduced, and which has also come down to us, was the use of different type to indicate words that had no place in the original, but which were added to make the meaning clear; for example: Luke vi. 40, "The disciple is not above his master: but whosoever will be a perfect disciple shall be as his master is "; 2 Cor. v. 13, "For whether we be fools, we are fools to God; or whether we be in our right mind, we are in our right mind for your commodity."

Of the translation itself, it is not necessary to say more just now than that it is founded not so much on the Great Bible as on Tindale. A few verses from the Epistle to the Philippians will make this clear, as well as illustrate the general character of the translation.

PHIL. ii. 5-11 (WHITTINGHAM, 1557)

5. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

the law" was also prefixed to the Testament, and doubtless further helped its popularity.

f Stephens worked out his scheme hurriedly on a journey from Paris to Lyons in 1551. "I think," says an old commentator, "it had been better done on his knees in the closet" (quoted by Smyth, How we got our Bible, p. 67, note). In the Old Testament the division into verses was already in existence in the Hebrew Bible.

6. Who being in the shape of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God.

7. But He made Himself of no reputation, and took on Him the shape of a servant, and was made like unto men, and was found in appearance as a

man.

8. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto the death, even the death of the cross.

9. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name above all names.

10. That at the Name of Jesus should every knee bow, both of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under earth.

II. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, unto the praise of God the Father.

In these verses, Whittingham agrees with the Great Bible as against Tindale (1534) in only one place, but with Tindale as against the Great Bible in no fewer than seven places. He differs from both moreover in other seven places, of which the most important are : "was made" for "became," "in appearance" for "in his apparell,' "at the Name of Jesus" for "in the Name of Jesus," and "every tongue" for "all tongues." With one exception ("in appearance") these changes have all found their way into the A.V., and it is curious to think that by the erroneous substitution of "at the Name" for "in the Name of Jesus should every knee bow," this version has actually been the means of establishing one of those outward ceremonies against which the Genevan Reformers so strongly set themselves.1

§ 3. The Genevan Bible of 1560.-Three years after the appearance of Whittingham's Testament, a new translation of the whole Bible was issued at Geneva, which in one important particular differed from all preceding versions. It was the work of no single scholar, but of a small body of men banded together for the pur

1 The custom of bowing in English churches when the name of Jesus is mentioned is traced to this verse.