The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-03-19
THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
Specimens Seen at the Loan - The
Parent TranSlati0ns and
Their Authors.
wyclffe and Tyndale; Their Lives.and
wOrk-The Grenvtlle Fragment.

Engilsn blDle, issued IN loll, Is Tue ciowiy
matured fruit produced by the toll and nur-
ture of many earnest scholars through near
ly hundred years of constant translation
and revision; preceding this period was that
century of virtual, though largely uncon-
scious, preparation, which included the re-
vival of learning in Europe, the invention
of printing and the discovery of new
world; and fronting the dawn Of this open
ing day, which we trust has not yet reached
Reformation"
wYCLIFFE.
John de Wyc,iffe written also Wyclif,
Wiclif, and in about 20 other ways) was
born in Yorkshire about 1920, held several
offices in the University of Oxford, and in
1874 was presented by King Edward III. to
the rectory of Lutterworth; there he died
on the last day of the year 1884, and there
his robe, his chair, and the table on which
he wrote, are still preserved. During his
last years he was repeatedly assailed for
heresy and erroneous teaching but under
the powerful protection of John of Gaunt
he escaped martyrdom. But in 1928, by
command of Clement VIII. his remains were
burned and the ashes cast into the Swift,
and thus, says Fuller, in his Church History,
''this brook hath conveyed his ashes into
Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the
narrow seas they into the main ocean. And
thus the ashes of Wycliffs are the emblem OF
his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the
world over" Wordsworth gave this idea
metrIcal form in one of his sonnets; but the
shape in which it is best known is that in
which Webster quoted it 30 years ago:
"The Avon to the Severn runs,
And Wicklifss's dust shall spread abroad
Wide as the waters be-"
From careful and extensive comparison
of MSS, it has been ascertsined that there
were two related yet distinct versions of the
tury, and the conclusion has been reached
that the earlier was the work of Wycliffe and
Nicholas de Hereford, about 1882, and that
after Wycliffe death, probably in 1888, there
appeared a revision, executed by his assocI-
ate, John Purvey. Both versions are anony-
nous, as was necessary when translator of
Scripture was in danger of death. The New
Testament of the later version was published
as Wycliffe's by Lewis Q731), by Baber
QS10) and in a revised form by Bags
ter in the English Hexapla (S4l). But in
1873 Pickering issued an elegant black let
ter edition of the New Testament from a
genuine Wycliffe MS, edited by Lea Will
son. (No. 80, Hon. F. r. Brunot.) And in
1850, after the labor of % years. Rev. Josiah
Forshall and Sir Frederick Madden wrong 1T
out complete edition of both versions in
four volumes, from the Clarendon Press of
Oxford. The learned editors examined ITO
MSS. (of which less than 20 represented the
first verslon), and the various readings OF 60
MSS. are gwen throughout.
THE wYcLIFFITE VERSIONS.
The Wyciiffite versions were made from
the Latin Vulgate, not from the original
Hebrew and Greek, to which the translstors
had no access, and OF which they probably
knew scarcely anything. At that time
Greek was almost unknown in Western Eu-
rope. But when the Eastern Empire fell in
1853, many exiled Greek scholars settled
IN Italy under the patronage of Pope Nicholas
V. and of Cosmo del Medici, and a knowledge
of the language gradually spread. Iu 145S
teacher of Greek was appointed in
the University of Paris, but it was not till
1891 that the language was taught at Oxford.
The Nycliffite Bible, therefore, labored IN
der the disadvantage of being translated
from inaccurate copies of a version which, at
best, was dishgured by some serious errors.
| On the other hand, being seen to be identical
! with the common Bible'' received by the
whole Western church, the English transla-
ton was probably regarded with less suspic-
| ion than If based upon the languages of the
Jews and Greeks the number of copies
still existing, Notwithstanding the &C
tive measures taken from the first to
| suppress this version as a noxious and
heretical production, indicates that ii
must have been eagerly sought after and rap
idly multiplied. Henry knighton, writing
| within 20 years of Wychffe's death, com
planned that "the Gospel pearl was cast
abroad and trodden under foot" since the
Scriptures had been made more plain even
to women than formerly to the learned
amongst the clergy. PCzzling enough does
the fac smile of Wycliffe MS. look; but
when printed in ordinary type, this Eoglish
of five centuries ago can be read without
much difficulty. though many of the words
are obsolete. Here IS a specimen: "Ther
fore when Jhesus was born in Bsthlem Of
Juda, in the days of kyng Herode. loo
kyngis, or wis men, camen fro the eest Il
Jerusalem, sayinge, Wher is he, that 1:
borun kyng of JEWS? forsothe we han seyr
his sterre in the este, and we comen for tc
wirshippe hym."
TYNDALE's GREAT DESIGN.
William Tyndale was born about 14S4, il
Worcestershire; he studied at Oxford where
according to F0xe, The grew up and IN
creased as we'll in the knowledge OF tongue.
and other liberal arts, as especially in the
knowledge of the Scriptures, whereunto his
mind was singularly addicted" While tn
tor in the family of Sir John Walsh he sale
disputing, IF G od spare my life, ere man,
years / Will cause boy that driveth tn,
plough shall know more of the Scripture
than thou doest" But he met with n,
sympathy or encouragement in his great un
dertaking, either from the ignorant coun
try priests or from the learned Bishop
of London, and he understood at the last
not only that there was no room in m,
lord of London's palace to translate the New
Testament, but also that there was no plac
to do it in all England" SO in Nav, 1924, b,
left his native country, never to return. Ii
Cologne, in the following year. he begai
secretly to print an edition of 5000 copie
of the New Testament, in quarto, will
notes; but when the printing had advance,
as far as the tenth sheet (probabl.
through Matthew news of the worl
reached the ears of John Dobneck, surname,
Cochlaeus q virulent opponent of Luthe
and a Jealous herosy hunter and an inter
dict was procured from the Senate. Tyndsl
and his assistant. William Roy, ''snatchin
away with them,' as Cochlaeus says, 9TH
printed quarto Sheets fled by ship, going u