Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it InspiredNext to the Bible itself, the English Bible was--and is--the most influential book ever published. The most famous of all English Bibles, the King James Version, was the culmination of centuries of work by various translators, from John Wycliffe, the fourteenth-century catalyst of English Bible translation, to the committee of scholars who collaborated on the King James translation. Wide as the Waters examines the life and work of Wycliffe and recounts the tribulations of his successors, including William Tyndale, who was martyred, Miles Coverdale, and others who came to bitter ends. It traces the story of the English Bible through the tumultuous reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I, a time of fierce contest between Catholics and Protestants in England, as the struggle to establish a vernacular Bible was fought among competing factions. In the course of that struggle, Sir Thomas More, later made a Catholic saint, helped orchestrate the assault on the English Bible, only to find his own true faith the plaything of his king. In 1604, a committee of fifty-four scholars, the flower of Oxford and Cambridge, collaborated on the new translation for King James. Their collective expertise in biblical languages and related fields has probably never been matched, and the translation they produced--substantially based on the earlier work of Wycliffe, Tyndale, and others--would shape English literature and speech for centuries. As the great English historian Macaulay wrote of their version, "If everything else in our language should perish, it alone would suffice to show the extent of its beauty and power." To this day its common expressions, such as "labor of love," "lick the dust," "a thorn in the flesh," "the root of all evil," "the fat of the land," "the sweat of thy brow," "to cast pearls before swine," and "the shadow of death," are heard in everyday speech. The impact of the English Bible on law and society was profound. It gave every literate person access to the sacred text, which helped to foster the spirit of inquiry through reading and reflection. This, in turn, accelerated the growth of commercial printing and the proliferation of books. Once people were free to interpret the word of God according to the light of their own understanding, they began to question the authority of their inherited institutions, both religious and secular. This led to reformation within the Church, and to the rise of constitutional government in England and the end of the divine right of kings. England fought a Civil War in the light (and shadow) of such concepts, and by them confirmed the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In time, the new world of ideas that the English Bible helped inspire spread across the Atlantic to America, and eventually, like Wycliffe's sea-borne scattered ashes, all the world over, "as wide as the waters be." |
From inside the book
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Page 155
... Protestant dominions , linked in a political confederation called the Schmalkaldic League . This league had grown , and by 1540 included Brandenburg , Prussia , Saxony , Hesse , Mansfeld , Brunswick , and Anhalt , as well as twenty ...
... Protestant dominions , linked in a political confederation called the Schmalkaldic League . This league had grown , and by 1540 included Brandenburg , Prussia , Saxony , Hesse , Mansfeld , Brunswick , and Anhalt , as well as twenty ...
Page 167
... Protestant congregations , which had proliferated during Edward's reign . The pastor of one of them was handed over to Bonner for trial , and when , under interrogation , he inveighed against the Catholic Mass as an “ abomination ...
... Protestant congregations , which had proliferated during Edward's reign . The pastor of one of them was handed over to Bonner for trial , and when , under interrogation , he inveighed against the Catholic Mass as an “ abomination ...
Page 203
... Protestant devout . Although the Act of Uniformity embraced Protestant doctrine with respect to the Eu- charist , in its ritual and organization the Church had otherwise assumed a more or less Catholic form . From the beginning there ...
... Protestant devout . Although the Act of Uniformity embraced Protestant doctrine with respect to the Eu- charist , in its ritual and organization the Church had otherwise assumed a more or less Catholic form . From the beginning there ...
Other editions - View all
Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution Benson Bobrick Limited preview - 2011 |
Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution Benson Bobrick No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Andrewes Anne Boleyn Archbishop authority became Bible Translation biblical Bishop Cambridge Canterbury cardinals Catholic Christ Christian Church clergy College copy Council court Coverdale Cranmer Cromwell dean divine doctrine Douai-Rheims Bible ecclesiastical edition Elizabeth England England's Word English Bible Erasmus faith father gave Geneva Bible God's Gospel Greek hand hath Hebrew Henry's heresy heretic Holy John Wycliffe King James Translators King James Version king's Lancelot Andrewes later Latin learned living Lollard London Lord Luther Mary Matthew's Bible ment Miles Coverdale Old Testament Oxford papal Parliament pope Popular History Prayer preaching priest princes Protestant Psalms Puritan queen Quoted in Conant Quoted in ibid Quoted in Lupton Quoted in Opfell Quoted in Paine rector Reformation Richard Rome royal scholars Scripture Sir Thomas things Thou shalt tion tongue took Trevelyan Tyndale Tyndale's unto Vulgate Westminster William William Tyndale Wolsey wrote Wycliffe's Wicket