While many readers of the King James Version faithfully and doggedly defend that version as the perfect translation, we must point out that language changes over time. The King James Version was written for the common man of 1611 England, not for the common man of 2023 England (or anywhere else on earth), and readers of our day find it tedious. They not only have to deal with translation issues from the original languages of the Bible’s Hebrew and Greek, but they also have to navigate 400-year-old English terminology. The wall between the reader and the meaning of God’s word becomes increasingly thicker and higher over time.
This barrier is not new. John Wycliffe faced this problem in the 1300s and William Tyndale faced it again in the early 1500s. They both were vitally interested in producing an English translation of God’s word so the common plowman or maid could read and understand without having to rely on some clergyman to read in Latin and translate for them.
Back in the time of the Hebrews, the original Old Testament books were written for the Israelite people to read in their own language; God meant for them to easily understand it. The prophets and apostles of the first century wrote in what we call koine Greek, the common Greek of the time. They did not use hyper-sophisticated, university-level Greek; they wrote so the common Roman citizen could understand.
Perhaps we don’t realize what an excellent gift our English Bible is. I can open this holy book whenever I desire, and I can read the Old Testament or New Testament morning, noon, or night. What a blessing! I should praise God every day for providing this amazing gift. How am I so blessed to have paper copies in my house and digitally on my computer and phone?
God could have made His word accessible any number of ways, but He chose to use the lives and minds of faithful and brave men, champions among them being John Wycliff and William Tyndale.
John Wycliff (1328–1384)
John Wycliff was educated at Oxford and taught theology there much of his life. It troubled him that the common man had to depend upon the clergy to hear the Bible read and its meaning explained. Wanting to translate the Bible so it would be accessible by the common Englishman, he spearheaded a project to translate the Latin Vulgate into the English of his day. He believed Scripture alone, without the aid of the Church’s clerical class, was sufficient to teach men how to live before God.
As an example of the spirit of his age, here is a quote from one of his opponents of the time:
This Master John Wyclif translated from Latin into English…the Scriptures which Christ gave to the clergy and the doctors of the Church that they might sweetly minister to the laity…
Thence by his means it is become vulgar and more open to laymen and women who can read than it is wont to be to lettered clerks of good intelligence. Thus the pearl of the Gospel is scattered abroad and trodden under foot by swine, the jewel of clerics is turned to the sport of the laity.[1]
The Church of his day banned his English translation and attempted to destroy all copies it could get its hands on. They labeled Wycliffe “wicked” and as “doing the work of the Antichrist.”[2]
Despite heavy opposition, he and several helpers (including Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey) finished an English version of the Bible translated from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, a translation of a translation. Though tremendously useful, it was not as excellent as it would have been had they translated directly from the original languages.
Over the next century, the Church continued to ban English copies of the Bible, and the Council of Constance on May 4, 1415, ordered Wycliffe’s grave opened and his bones dug up to be burned. They dumped his ashes into the river Swift so they would run to the sea and be dispersed as a post-mortem punishment and a public warning to any who would dare follow in his footsteps. Many Christians later saw it as ironic; Wycliffe’s influence and courage had been loosed to infect the whole world.
William Tyndale (1494–1536)
William Tyndale, also a graduate of Oxford about 150 years post-Wycliffe, felt burdened with the same spirit. He translated God’s word into English directly from the best Hebrew and Greek texts which were available to him in his day.
Because of the Church’s opposition, he was forced to flee his homeland of England and finish translating the texts of Scripture in Germany. Copies were then smuggled into England from his secret location (Worms) starting in 1526, ten years before his martyrdom. He was eventually ousted by a “friend” and thrown into a castle dungeon in Belgium near Brussels. While in the dungeon, he wrote the governor of his prison:
Be kind enough to send me from my goods…a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold…a warmer coat also… Kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, my Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study.[3]
God had arranged the timing such that Tyndale could take advantage of the newly-invented printing press. The nation of England became a “people of the book” because of his work.
His famous last words were, “Oh, God, open the eyes of the king of England.” He was strangled the morning of October 6, 1536, and his body was burned at the stake for committing the great crime of producing an English translation of God’s word.
The original King James Version, published in 1611, derived an estimated 90% of its words from Tyndale’s translation, and many phrases English-speaking Christians now hold dear come directly from Tyndale’s work. Here are some examples:
- He coined words such as “Passover,” “scapegoat,” “mercy seat,” and “long-suffering.”
- “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt. 3.2)
- “the pinnacle of the temple” (Matt. 4.5)
- “the salt of the earth” (Matt. .5.13)
- “daily bread” (Matt. 6.11)
- “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11.29)
- “eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12.19)
- “only begotten son” (John 1.14, 18)
- “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.285)
- “God forbid” (Rom. 3.4)
Those are directly from Tyndale’s translation but with modernized spelling. “It is noteworthy that these expressions could have been translated differently from the Greek text, yet because Tyndale had such an ear for the English language, these phrases live on.”[4]
Today’s Common Man
The KJV has been updated several times to modernize it a bit and clean up some defects in the original (every translation has some man-introduced mistakes). It remains a classic and a great help and comfort to many.
But as the English language continues to advance and morph, there is a need for continual adjustments and more modern translations so the common man can hear God’s word with as few barriers as possible.
When I ponder the lives of Tyndale and Wycliffe, I feel a kinship and connection. Though we are separated by centuries, they are my brothers. If we had been living in the same time, I hope they would have been my friends and that I would have had the courage to stand with them. Theirs is a rare courage, born of and directed by the Holy Spirit, and God is praised by their faithful deaths. They now stand beside the faithful witnesses listed in Hebrews 11.
We live in an excellent time because we have such free access to the living word. Let us be thankful and praise God for the men He has used to translate and preserve it through the years!
[1] Phillips, Harold L. Translators and Translations, a Brief History of the Making of the English Bible.1958. Gospel Trumpet Company. Pp. 13-14.
[2] Ibid. p 14.
[3] ibid. p 24.
[4] Lightfoot, Neil R. How We Got the Bible. Baker Books. p 179.