Translate - and die!

How many Bibles do you have at home? And how many different versions?

At a quick glance at my shelves, I see the Authorised (or King James) version, The New Revised Standard Version, The Revised English Bible, The Good News Edition, a Children’s Bible, New Testaments given by the Gideons…… I guess it is the same in many houses.

BUT, Biblical Translation has a blood-thirsty history.

Until nearly five hundred years ago, the Bible was the province of the Church (Roman Catholic at that time),  of its ministers and of men of learning -  for education was unavailable to the masses and to nearly all women. They told their people their understanding of the Latin texts, with whatever slant they put upon those words.

Then there was a movement on the continent – Erasmus, Luther, Jan Hus……  who wished to translate texts from the original Hebrew, Greek, Latin… into their own language. And, of course, amongst these was William Tyndale, whom we celebrated at Evensong yesterday. Many ‘translators’ were condemned as heretics and put to death, like Tyndale who, after imprisonment, was strangled and burnt at the stake. Yet, by 1534 and the Act of Supremacy, the Church in England became a separate entity and, when King James came to the throne he set up teams to create the Authorised version of the Bible.

Especially since the 1950s, many versions of the Bible have been made.

It is strange to think that that Book, lying so innocuously on our shelves, was the cause of so much bloodshed.

Let us pray, using the Collect for the Last Sunday after Trinity

Blessed Lord,

Who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

help us to so to  hear them, to read, mark , learn and inwardly digest them

that through patience and comfort of your holy word,

we may embrace and for ever hold fast

the hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen