“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8, NKJV).
The story of the valiant men who laid down their lives for the cause of giving the Word of God to ordinary people is one of heroism and tremendous dedication. John Wycliffe (c. 1330-80) was the first to give the English-speaking world a Bible in its own tongue. In 1382, Wycliffe translated the Bible into English—the first European translation done in over 1000 years.
Victor Hugo once said that nothing in all the world is as powerful as an idea whose time has come, and the idea that the Bible should be given to the masses, to ordinary people, was like a spark which ignited a tremendous flame which couldn’t be put out.
Fortunately, he died before he could be executed. But forty-four years later, the Pope, angry that he had been deprived the pleasure of burning him at the stake, condemned the man as a heretic, had his bones dug up, and the burned them. The ashes were thrown into the Avon River, which flowed into the Severn River, which flowed into the sea, and the sea touched every continent on earth—a kind of ironic picture as to how the Bible, translated by John Wycliffe, would eventually touch the world.
Where he left off, William Tyndale (1494?-1536) took over. We’re uncertain of the date of his birth, but we know he died a martyr’s death, strangled and burned at the stake in the year 1536.
William Tyndale in a fit of anger once said, “I defy the pope and all his laws, and if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scriptures than thou doest.”
Between 1525 and 1528, 18,000 copies of the New Testament, which had been printed in Germany, were smuggled into England—a kind of prototype operation of Bible smuggling which Brother Andrew, known as “God’s Smuggler,” made popular in the twentieth century.
When accused by his enemies of corrupting what the text said, Tyndale replied, “I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.” After William Tyndale’s death came several other translations, but most of them were really based on his text. Then in 1611, King James, wanting to displace the authority of the anti-monarchist sentiments of the Geneva Bible, commissioned the King James Version of the Bible that is with us to this day. What was allowed as a political balance proved to be the blessing of centuries.
For almost 400 years, the King James Bible was “the Bible” of the English- speaking world; it blessed the hearts and lives of men and women everywhere. Eventually, though, the language began to change. The language of the King James translation had become the Shakespearean English of “thees” and “thous” no longer spoken by ordinary people.
In 1880, a new translation known as the Revised Version of the Bible was released, followed by the American Standard Version of 1901, embodying the finest scholarship of both Britain and the United States. Then, in the mid-1950s, the divisive Revised Standard Version was released.
In the past 50 years, literally dozens of new translations have been issued, striving to make the Word meaningful. But some are asking, “Have translators gone too far in trying to make the Bible relevant to our world today?” That’s the theme of our next commentary. But one thing is certain: What Isaiah wrote long ago is still true: “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8, NKJV).
Resource reading: 2 Peter 1.
