The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-08-11

the Greek languages. We have only to
into English. The greater portion of
these were made from the original
tongues, but certain it is that parts Of
the text are translations from the Lat
in, which IN turn came from the He
brew or the Greek. The earlier English
translation owes itself to B8da, or, as
he was known, the Venerable Bede.
Bede was monk and spent most of his
life in the famous monastery of JAR
row-on-Tyne. All of his books, which
were quite numerous, were written in
Latin, save one, and this was a Trans
lation of the Gospel of st. John, work
on which he labored until the very mo-
ment of his death. This he wrote in
English in the early part of the eighth
century and it stands today as the very
first piece of English prose. 1t is a
great pity that this translation is utter
ly lost, but no manuscript of it is at
present known to be in existence.
In the eleventh century Aelfric, arch
bishop of York, translated into Eng
lish most of the historical works of the
Old Testament; but it was not until
the latter part of the fourteenth GEN.
tury that complete English Bible
came into existence. At this time John
Wyclif, clergyman and a reformer,
with the assistance of one Nicholas de
Hereford, fully accomplished a basic
translation of both Old and New Tes-
taments. Tho often copied in manu-
script, it was not printed for several
centuries. The New Testament did not
appear in type until 1871, and the Old
Testament not until the year 1850. But
the words and the style of this transla-
ton, which was read and re-read by
hundreds of thoughtful men, were of
real amt permanent service in fixing
the form of the language. Three trans
lations appeared within the succeeding
$50 years. The first was known as Tyn-
dales version, after which came the
Great Bible and then the Bishops Bi-
BILE. The two latter were made by
scholars under the direction of the
bishops of the church. The Great Bible
was, however, merely a revision of Tyn-
dale's work, part of which was made
early in the sixteenth century.
i William Tyndale exied from Eng
, land to the continent on account of his
opposition to the rule of the Roman
Catholic church, held that the Bible
should be in the hands of every grown
up person and not in the exclusive keep.
! ing of the church, as had been hereto
fore the case. He accordingly set tc
, work to make a translation of the
, Scriptures into his native tongue
f This translation has, since the time OF
. It's appearance, formed the basis of al
, the after versions of the Bible. 1t is
: written in pure and simple English an(
+ very few of its words have grown obso
Iete in our modern speech. Tyndale's
+ work is In fact one of the most striking
e n . III CIlO hiStOly VI Jul ldii
+ guage, and there is no book that ha
s exerted so great an Influence on Eng
: liSh rhythm, English style, the selec
:. tion of words, and the build of sen
g tences in our English prose.
3. The version of the Bible that we a
+ present use was made by command o
e King James l. in 1911 The translat
II. ors were directed by the king to follow
the Bishops Bible, but this, as we hav
e seen, was founded on the Great Bibl
l. and this in turn on Tyndale's version
n Thus it is apparent that when we rea
10 the Bible we are not, as might be SUP
l. posed, using seventeenth century Eng
l. lish, but that of the sixteenth century
sr and to large extent English of tn
< early part of that period. 1t is tru
~ that printers and publishers have, fror
le time to time of their own accord, a
to tered the spelling and to certain d,
in gree modified the grammar; but thes
al changes have few and of minor in
es portance.
le 1t is but natural to find words {
Latin derivation mixed with the Al
ne glo-Saxon in the King James versio
be tho the latter predominant. After tt
or Norman invasion, the Latin throue
in the French found its way into IL
in English in ever increasing volume, ar
e. when Tyndale lived it had had almo