Dear All,

In the middle of May we were visited at St Mary’s by Rachel and Doug Dickson who gave a presentation about the work of the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ charity.  It was exciting to learn of how new testaments and then whole bible’s are being translated into the world’s languages. It was also salutary to learn how important this work is: when the scriptures are only available in the language of those who have colonised a country they can be seen as a tool of oppression rather than the gift from God that they are intended to be.

In our own country we were not able to read the bible in English until the early years of the Reformation. Whilst the Old Testament is largely in Hebrew and the New is in Greek the scriptures read in England were from the Latin ‘Vulgate’ translation. When this translation had been made in the 4^th century it represented an attempt to enable ordinary people to hear the Word of God in the ‘vulgar’ tongue. But Christendom had extended beyond regions that spoke Latin leaving these with aversion of scripture that was unintelligible to most. Wycliffe attempted to remedy this in the late 14^th century but his work was associated with the call from reform of the church made by a group called ‘the Lollards’ – the church hierarchy’s resistance to the Lollards also meant that their bible translation was rejected.

But then, in 1526 William Tyndale published his translation of the New Testament: this year marks the anniversary of this momentous event. There are just 3 copies of this original translation remaining because Tyndale was not able to publish in England, rather, copies were smuggled into the country from the Low Countries. Once again, the church authorities fought against the ‘common folk’ reading the scriptures for themselves: copies were burned outside St Paul’s in London at the Bishop’s orders. Tyndale himself was betrayed, hunted down and murdered whilst still abroad but Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Church resulted in it becoming politically expedient (and a legal  requirement) for a copy of the bible in the English language to be made available in every parish church. Tyndale didn’t live to see this come about but it was his translation that formed the bedrock of that used in the English Church.

From this development came a theologically literate church, increased lay involvement and a desire to learn to read that promoted greater literacy across the country for both men and women and a huge explosion in printing and publishing bibles and religious texts. The Word of God (understood, discussed, argued over) changed the country for the better and the bible became (and still is) a global best seller. So why not read it? Start with one of the Gospels (Mark is shortest but you may recognise Luke more), go on to read the Book of Acts, dip into the epistles (they are very short), find a psalm or two. You really do have the time and the whole summer is ahead of you.  Find a modern translation (we use the New revised Standard Version in church) – you don’t have to struggle with 16^th century language. – and who knows, you may find that faith becomes that little bit easier.

Alec