theAV4ever

Thomas Bilson - Jacobean courtier bishop

2011-12-28T10:05:00.020Z

Family and academic background

Thomas Bilson was born in 1546/7, was one of five children of German descent. The family were settled in Winchester for two generations, and had fairly close family links with the brewery trade, the local Council, Winchester College and Merton College, Oxford. Bilson was educated at the twin foundations of William de Wykeham, Winchester College (1559) and New College, Oxford, graduating BA (1566), and MA in 1570. He became a teacher in, and later Headmaster of Winchester College, 1572.

Winchester College Chapel
commons.wikimedia.org

Theological achievements

In 1579 Bilson resigned the headship of Winchester to concentrate on theological study, rapidly acquiring a BTh that same year, and a DTh two years later. He was elected warden of the college, as well as canon and prebend at the cathedral. In 1596 he became bishop of Worcester, and three years later bishop of Winchester. Bilson broadened his academic interests during these years and

now became ‘infinitely studious and industrious in Poetry, in Philosophy, in Physick, and lastly (which his genius chiefly call'd him to) in Divinity’ (Harington, 72–3).(1)

Says McClure :

Anthony Wood proclaims him so “complete in divinity, so well skilled in languages, so read in the Fathers and Schoolmen, so judicious is making use of his readings, that at length he was found to be no longer a soldier, but a commander in chief in the spiritual warfare, especially when he became a bishop!"

The bishop also enjoyed and wrote a little distinguished poetry, which may explain why he was chosen to bring the final touches to the Bible translation work toward the end.

Bilson’s writings

During these years he wrote well over half a million words in two books - The True Difference betweene Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion(1585) and The Perpetual Governement of Christes Church (1593).

[These] established Bilson, alongside Richard Hooker, as the most scholarly and learned of a group of contemporary writers who used the joint challenge of papal supremacy and presbyterian democracy both to carve out a defence of the Church of England.(1)

Bilson rejected both the right of the pope to depose a monarch or elect church ministers, and supported the political resistance of protestants on the continent. He believed the superiority of hereditary government depended for its validity on the original permission of the people, and that tyranny should be resisted in the face of arbitrary and unwise rule.

The harrowing of hell

Did Jesus descend into hell on our behalf, and endure our punishment, after He died? The phrase in the Apostles Creed might suggest He did. In a controversy which lasted from 1597 to 1604, Bilson interpreted the phrase literally, and this reflected the prevailing view of the time - whilst Puritans tended to prefer a metaphorical interpretation. Bilson maintained that Christ went to hell, not to suffer, but to wrest the keys of hell out of the Devil’s hands. Hugh Broughton, a noted Hebraist, aggressively opposed this, and his personal animosity towards some he disagreed with excluded him from the company of translators of the King James Bible.

Queen Elizabeth, in her ire, commanded Bilson, "neither to desert the doctrine, nor let the calling which he bore in the Church of God, be trampled under foot, by such unquiet refusers of truth and authority." [McClure]

In response, Bilson wrote a treatise of half a million words, entitled The Survey of Christ’s Sufferings.

faithvillage.com

Hampton Court Conference

Thomas Bilson preached at James I's coronation, July 1603. His Episcopal seniority made him one of the main combatants at the Hampton Court conference, January 1604. James had called the conference to give the Puritans an opportunity to speak their mind on then current and contentious ecclesiastical issues. But, Bilson didn’t want the conference to take place, as he felt the level and dignity of any discussion would be demeaned by their presence.

. . . according to Stephen Egerton [Bilson] had suggested to James that: “the Bishops (being esteemed the father and pillars of the Church, for gravitie, learninge & government, &c both at home and in forraine parts) might not be so disparaged as to conferre with men of so meane place and quality. (Shriver, 56)(1)

During the conference Bancroft was highly combative whereas Bilson because of ill health, ‘stoode mute: and said little or nothing’ (Usher, 340).(1)

Bilson was now suffering from sciatica, arthritis, vertigo, ‘a continual singing in my head … many obstructions and extreme windiness’ (Salisbury MSS, 17.6).(1)

Coronation chair - Westminster Abbey
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Involvement in the KJB translation

Thomas Bilson was chosen, along with Richard Bancroft, as two of the most senior clergy, to review the entire draft translation of the Bible, and help put the final finishing touches to the all-important work. Once each company had completed its draft manuscript, and reviewed the drafts of each of the other five companies, Rule 10 of James 1 (as drawn up by Bancroft) required the entire work to be reviewed “by the chiefe persons of each company.” Rule 13 required that deans of both Westminster and Chester, and the Regius professors (RP) of both Universities be acknowledged as key participants, in the making of final textual choices. (2)

If any Company, upon ye review of ye books so sent, really doubt, or differ uppon any place, to send them word thereof, note the place, and withal send their reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at ye general meetinge, which is to be of the chiefe persons of each company, at ye ende of ye worke.

If James’ absolutist claims were to be honoured, this rule would have been adjudged flouted, had it not been followed carefully. Hence, it is very strange if John Bois’ biographer is accurate when he says the committee was not composed of those who had been previously overseers or supervisors of the six companies, but that they started afresh. [Rule 10]

The General Committee of revision

The final committee must have contained up to twelve members. Directors present (and their associated ‘heavyweights’) would have included four or five Regius professors of Hebrew and Greek [John Harding (RP 1604), Andrew Byng (RP 1608), Andrew Downes (RP 1585), John Peryn (RP 1597), and John Harmer). Others were Lancelot Andrewes (Dean of Westminster), John Duport, John Bois, Thomas Ravis, and William Barlow (Dean of Chester).] We know from a surviving document of the notes that John Bois took during the proceedings, that this review committee for certain included John Bois, Andrew Downes, and John Harmar.(3) The other committee members are inferred from the need to strictly apply Rules 10 and 13 of the Royal commission.

Committee of review

The General Committee of Review met at Stationers' Hall, London in 1609. They received a list of readings of texts, words or phrases which were still in some doubt, even after the six companies had discussed them and failed to reach agreement as to the best rendering. Some of their final decisions would have been tentative. The Committee would have made known to Bilson and Smith the textual issues at stake, which needed their input. However, it is hard to believe that the final-final review restricted itself to a list of stated ambiguities. The two men could well have worked through sections of the entire Bible individually, looking for opportunities to improve both style and substance, if such were possible. Every word was theoretically open to challenge, especially with an ear to producing a pleasing, sonorous, lucid style:

So Bois put down word meanings as a dictionary would, or alternates as a thesaurus would; later still would come a choice among possible constructions for sound and rhythm and euphony of the whole. The Bois notes show how careful the translators were, first of all, to determine exact meanings or establish a permissable range of meaning. Final constructions thus appear, almost always, to simplify the Bois suggestions.(3)

Stationer's Hall
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The final-final review and revision

Miles Smith and Thomas Bilson undertook the final editing - already reviewed and revised - of the entire draft of the Bible. Bois’ notes show that the General committee not infrequently resolved a textual issue by recommending Andrew Downes’ preferences. The Bible itself shows that the two men probably had a definite say in some of the final choices. Just a few examples where the reviewers did not follow Andrew Downes’ choices (as perhaps initially recommended) are:

(1) 1 Cor 10:20 Downes: “And I would not have you partakers with the devil.” KJB: “and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.”
(2) 1 Cor. 15:33 Downes. “Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good natures/dispositions/manners/” The KJB final choice has “good manners.“
(3) 1 Thess. 5:23 Downes “. . . that your spirit may be kept perfect.” KJB: “your whole spirit . . . be preserved blameless.”
(4) 2 Tim. 2:5 Downes “and though a man labour for the best gain, try masteries . . . unless he strive and labour lustily.” KJB: “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.”

In the final editing the last learned men, Smith and Bilson, used the Bois words “perfecting holiness” in II Corinthians 7:1. In the next phrase they refused the Bois phrasing, “we have made a gain of no man,” in favour of “we have wronged no man.” For 8:4 they took the whole Downes reading, “that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.” (4)

However, the evidence suggests the procedure was a little more complex than making simple choices. The review committee probably left hanging some of the textual decisions needed, and offered possible alternatives. Then the manuscripts reached Bilson and Smith. It is highly probable the review committee suggested to Smith and Bilson their tentative resolutions of some knotty choices, in the hope of gaining the benefit of their viewpoint. However, Smith and Bilson would have found the tyranny of distance and competing duties hindered a proper resolution, in some or many cases. If so, in some cases they had simply to make their own choices, ignoring any referral to the General Committee. In other cases, they would have gone back and forth to the General Committee (either in session, or to various individual members within it) hoping to bring finality, whilst aiming to preserve harmonious relationships. It is not surprising if they were not entirely successful in this. Assuming there were some muted criticisms of supposed arbitrariness by one or two of the two reviewers, this would have emboldened Richard Bancroft, the overall manager of the project, and jealous of his perceived right to contribute to the final result, to make his own final changes!

Adding the finishing touches

Bilson was not required to add a prefatory address to King James, as this was Miles Smith’s privilege, and a brilliant essay he gave us. However, it is possible that Bilson helped Smith add the chapter headings. Bilson also wrote the dedication to the King placed in the front of the Bible, where “the glories of the Jacobean state are emblazoned here in unequivocal pomp and glory.” (3).

Final days

Thomas Bilson died in 1616, at a good old age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was said to have been the exemplar prelate. His tomb celebrates the coming bodily resurrection - the ultimate hope of every true Christian, whatever his ecclesiastico-political views. The text on the tomb reads:

Here lies Thomas Bilson formerly bishop of Winchester and counsellor in sacred matters of his serene highness King James of Great Britain who when he had served God and the church for nineteen years in the bishopric laid aside mortality in certain hope of resurrection 18th June 1616 aged 69.

Other names associated with the Translation

There are five other names connected with the translation of the Bible, which have not been considered in these blogs celebrating the quadricentennial year of the publication of the King James Bible. They are George Ryves, Thomas Sparke, William Eyre, Arthur Lake, and Nicholas Love. These all may have had a hand in the discussions of the translators, whether formally or informally. John Bois mentions Arthur Lake in his notes, as one involved in the final review discussions in general committee. However, the source for Sparke and Eyre’s involvement is said to be undependable (4). George Ryves is referred to in a letter from Thomas Bilson to Sir Thomas Lake, which describes Ryves as “warden of New College in Oxford, and one of the overseers of that part of the New Testament that is being translated out of Greek.” Bilson also asked the King if Nicholas Love, schoolmaster of Winchester could exchange some livings with Ryves, so they could cooperate better in helping the work forward. Perhaps this work consisted in providing a path of smooth communication between the companies, thus spurring members on to see the work expedited.(4)

And so, four hundred years on, God has mightily blessed the amazing achievement of these fifty-two or more men. He continues to bless those who read and study it seriously; and He will go on doing so, as long as English is spoken and understood.

(1) Richardson, William (2004) Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
(2) McGrath, Alister (2002) In the beginning: the story of the King James Bible and how it changed a nation, a language and a culture. New York: Anchor Books, a Division of Random House, Inc. pp 174-175
(3) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 208, 217.
(4) Paine, Gustavus, (1959/1977) The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 115-116, 116-118, p. 76, 72.

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Richard Bancroft - a potent prelate

2011-12-27T02:04:00.001Z

Academic background

Richard Bancroft was born in 1544 at Farnworth, a village in south Lancashire. His parents had clerical connections, for his great Uncle was Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Oxford. (1) Bancroft went to the local grammar school and thence to Cambridge, maybe aged 20. He first studied at Christ's College, and then Jesus College, being awarded a BA in 1567 and later an MA in 1570, at which time (1572) he was ordained a clergyman. His reputation was said to be higher on the sportsfield - in boxing, wrestling, and quarterstaff than as a scholar. Notwithstanding, he was chosen to greet Queen Elizabeth during her first visit to Cambridge in 1564. In 1575 he became rector of Teversham in Cambridgeshire, and the next year was appointed one of the preachers to the university. The further divinity studies of these years meant he graduated BD in 1580 and DD five years later.

Ecclesiastical appointments

Richard Bancroft held various livings, chaplaincies and was also a prebendary of St Paul’s. He had been canon of Westminster since 1587. He became Bishop of London in 1597. By this time, Archbishop Whitgift was virtually incapacitated by reason of age and infirmity, and this meant Bancroft exercised the power of primate, with sole management of ecclesiastical affairs. When Whitgift died in 1604, Bancroft formally accepted the position of Archbishop. He had but six years remaining to show the same zeal and severity towards the extreme puritan. Someone expressed the opinion that "if Bancroft had lived, he would quickly have extinguished all that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva," such was his antipathy to the Puritan viewpoint.

Theological conflict

Bancroft knew the moderate Puritan Laurence Chaderton from College days, and the two remained lifelong friends in spite of their doctrinal differences. In his mature years Bancroft regarded men like John Rainolds, William Whitaker, and Chaderton as respectable moderates. By the time he reached his late 30’s Richard Bancroft had become a prominent opponent of the more extreme Puritans who believed the Church should be entirely separate from the State. In 1583 Bancroft reported a libel to the Magistrates, which had been pinned up in one of the city churches. This compared the Queen - England's ostensible ‘Deborah’ - to ‘that woman Jezebel’ of Revelation 2:20. Elizabeth had long pursued the middle way - later encapsulated in the writings of Richard Hooker - whereby Anglicanism was to be neither Puritan nor Roman. Ceremonial matters, such as the wearing of vestments were not a vital issue, though not to be despised. Bancroft’s report on the libel led to the arrest and subsequent death of two followers of Robert Browne, whose writings later accounted for the founding of Congregationalist churches. The axe fell on John Copping and Elias Thacker, for distributing Browne’s writings, especially A Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for Anie.

Bancroft was increasingly involved in developing an anti-puritan rhetoric, and by the time that he was admitted DTh at Cambridge in April 1585 he had produced a series of investigative accounts of puritanism in which he wrote warmly in the defence of episcopacy and denounced the practices of gathered congregations. He condemned the heresies in Robert Browne's books . . . and sought to exploit the inner weaknesses and rivalries. . . (1)

Deadly politics

Bancroft preached a famous or notorious - depending on your point of view - at St Paul’s Cross, after becoming a member of the ecclesiastical commission.

On 9 February 1589 [Bancroft] preached at Paul's Cross a sermon, the substance of which was a passionate attack on the Puritans. He described their speeches and proceedings, caricatured their motives, denounced the exercise of the right of private judgment, and set forth the divine right of bishops in such strong language that one of the queen’s councillors held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the crown.

Bancroft set about to root out the separatist congregations in London. The fate of such men as Henry Barrow, John Greenwood and John Penry was sealed, (died 1593). John Penry may have been an author of the anonymous Marprelate Tracts (1588), which lampooned the Bishops. . . .[T]he more extreme separatists, who considered each congregation a self sufficient church of Christ, became the target of a campaign led by Richard Bancroft. They were to be found in private houses all around London, holding private conventicles in which their inspirational preachers were ‘esteemed as godds.’ . . . The state church could not tolerate the freedom or the priestlessness of such behaviour. Many Separatists . . . fled to the Netherlands but others were arrested. . . . . Their leaders, honest, fierce men, the spiritual forebears of the Massachusetts colonists, were to be interrogated. . . . Andrewes was at their head. . . . Andrewes argued with [Henry Barrow in vain] . . [Barrow] was finally executed. . . (2)

Defending episcopacy

In 1592 Bancroft became a household chaplain of the archbishop, at Lambeth. There he wrote two books defending the union of Church and State. Having already publicly defended episcopacy in response to the Marprelate Tracts, he now showed the origins of the Puritan reform movement as being located in Geneva, under John Calvin, and coming via Theodore Beza, to England. Over against this, he espoused episcopacy as established by God, using the influential writings of Hadrian Saravia, another KJV translator (1590). Bancroft rejected the pattern of reformation demanded by the ‘separatists,’ in the belief that episcopacy was validated by both Scripture and History.

The Hampton Court Conference

Richard Bancroft was not initially well disposed to John Rainolds’ proposal for a new definitive translation of the Bible. However, once the King confirmed his desire, and Bancroft was appointed Archbishop the same year (1604), he pursued the King’s cause thoroughly and energetically. He drew up fifteen rules for the translators to follow, as approved by King James. These rules had a seriously limiting effect on the translators’ method. It is these rules which justify viewing Bancroft as one of the translators, even though - in his role as overseer of the project - he belonged to none of the six companies of translators. Examples of his control over method are the following instructions: (1) Follow the Bishops’ Bible as far as the truth of the original will permit - but also use Tyndale, Matthews, Coverdale, and Geneva, where necessary. This rule naturally limited the style of the translator in choosing his words. (2) Keep traditional ecclesiastical words in the Text e.g. don’t change “church” to “congregation” (3) Treat the writings of the Church fathers as a precedent, and follow their translation choices, as a way of resolving ambiguity in word-meaning. (4) Rule 10: In matters of disagreement, refer the problem to the directors of each company for final discussion and decision, when deciding on word (or phrase) choices. (5) In knotty cases involving rare words, use the skills of other scholars outside the companies to settle the meaning if at all possible.

What did Bancroft translate?

On the strength of his controlling influence, Bancroft received the final draft of the KJB from Miles Smith and Thomas Bilson, and proceeded to make fourteen changes without any consultation with the directors of the teams.

Miles Smith, as final editor, protested that after he and Bilson had finished, Bishop Bancroft made fourteen more changes. “He is so potent that there is no contradicting him,” said Smith, and cited as an example of Bancroft’s bias His insistence on using “the glorious word Bishopric” even for Judas, in Acts 1:20. . . (3)

Acts 1:20 says:

For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

The KJB margin here has “bishoprick: or, office, or, charge.” Smith saw Bancroft had introduced an anachronism by inserting episcopacy into Acts 1, as the twelve apostles referred to in Acts 1 :17 were never called overseers (the literal meaning of episcopos) in the New Testament. They were by their preaching the founders of congregations. They were not the administrators of them; this was left to local and non itinerant leaders.

A second example of Bancroft’s anachronistic insertions is Acts 19:37.

For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

The speaker here is the town clerk of Ephesus, almost certainly neither a Christian, nor aware of what a Christian church is. Yet, here he apparently defends the apostles against an imaginary charge of being “robbers of churches.” Whereas Luke wrote of “temple robbers” (hierosulos), the same word the Apostle Paul uses in Romans 2:22, to similar effect:

thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

Temples housed idols and were pagan places of worship, like the great Temple to the goddess Diana nearby. McClure explains:

Many of the Puritans were stiffly opposed to bestowing the name “church,” which they regarded as appropriate only to the company of spiritual worshippers, on any mass of masonry and carpentry. [It is not till about A.D. 229, that we find any record of the assembling of Christians in what would now be called a church Barton, Ecclesiastical history, p. 496.] But Bancroft, that he might for once stick the name to a material building, would have it applied, in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, to the idols’ temples! . . . . Let us be thankful that the dictatorial prelate tried his hand no farther at emending the sacred text.

Other changes were made, which, according to Alister McGrath are difficult to pinpoint:

Richard Bancroft reviewed what had been hitherto regarded as the final version of the text. It would be one of his final acts; Bancroft died on November 2, 1610, and never lived to see the translation over which he had held so much sway. Smith complained loudly to anyone who would listen that Bancroft had introduced fourteen changes in the final text without any consultation. Yet we remain unclear as to what those alleged changes might have been.

Bancroft died at Lambeth Palace, and in simple ceremony his body was interred two days later in the chancel of the parish church of Lambeth.

(1) Cranfield. Nicholas W.S. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp 86-87, 92.
(3) Paine, Gustavus. (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Baker p. 128,
(4) McGrath. Alister (2001) In the Beginning: The story of the King James Bible p. 188

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Ralph Ravens - a mysterious defection.

2011-12-17T08:36:00.020Z

Career background

Ralph Ravens was born in or around 1553. He was educated at one of the best schools for instilling scholarly accuracy - Merchant Taylors’, from 1571 to 1575. Thence he went up to Oxford, to St. John's College aged 18, and became a fellow that same year, in 1575. He graduated B.A. at the age of 26 (approx.) - in 1579 - and received his M.A. four years later. Ravens then took ‘holy orders’ in 1587 and focused on studies in divinity, which led to a B.D. in 1589. He thereafter became vicar of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, 1591. After five years in this ‘post’, and with continuing study, Ravens was awarded a doctorate (DD) in 1596, perhaps by now aged 43. He served also in the church at Dunmow, Essex in the year following. After several further years of service he became rector of Great Easton (also as Eyston Magna), Essex, commencing 1605.

Great Easton, Essex
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Involvement in Bible translation

Ralph Ravens was a member of the second Oxford company, commissioned to translate the Gospels, Acts and the book of Revelation. This is generally acknowledged by both the presence of his name on preserved lists, and in the lists of contemporary writers. (1) After the initial appointments, two members of the second Oxford company were thereafter substituted. First Richard Eedes, dean of Worcester, died in 1604 before the work got started. (2) He was replaced by John Aglionby. Also, Ralph Ravens was replaced by Leonard Hutton at some point between 1604 and 1610. We do not know the reason for Ravens’ defection, nor exactly when the replacement occurred. It may have been due to personal conflict between members of the group. The Director, Thomas Ravis is described as “haughty and harsh.“ (2)

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If this is true, it could easily have caused friction, leading to conflict within the group. The very similarity in their names may have tended to animosity. Or, was it that Ravens’ found himself unable to attend meetings regularly - whether through sickness or some other handicap?

Addax-pair-fighting.jpg
arkive.org

All the evidence suggests Ravens contributed to translation work, perhaps for several years, leading up to the year when the King James version was presented for publication, in 1610. If he ‘fell foul’ of the Director of the company for some unknown reason, he may thereby have become persona non grata.

Ralph Ravens died in 1616.

(1) Ravens is listed as a member by: Alister McGrath, Alexander McClure, Adam Nicolson, Gustavus Paine, and on Wikipedia. Some admit ambivalence.
(2) Paine, p. 74. p. 50

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James Montagu - Royal devotee

2011-12-08T23:45:00.012Z

James Montagu (also Mountagu, Montague) was born in 1568 at Boughton, Northamptonshire to Sir Edward Montagu. James’ mother Elizabeth came from the influential Sidney family. His mother’s aunt Frances Sidney, provided in her will for the foundation of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her executors chose James Montagu as the first master of the college, with the cautious approval of other heads, being concerned whether someone in his twenties was a suitable appointment. Montagu laid the foundation stone of the college, of which he was Master from 1596 to 1608. Understandably, this family connection determined Montagu's career in the university, in the Royal court, and in the Church.

Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex
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Academic career

Montagu became a fellow-commoner at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1585. He was created DD ‘by special grace’ in 1598. He never held a parochial living.

Ecclesiastical appointments

St. James' Palace,
one of the Chapels Royal.

The year 1603 was an important year for Montagu. He was appointed to the royal chaplaincy, and then to the deanery of the Chapel Royal. He also became dean of Lichfield, and dean of Worcester cathedral, 1604. Four years later Montagu was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells and proved an energetic administrator. In 1616 he was made Bishop of Winchester. Whilst at Bath and Wells, he was a supporter of the legend of the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury.

Supporter of Puritanism

Richard Bancroft revived the royal chapel deanery to counteract Scottish presbyterian influence upon James. Montagu’s appointment was recognition he was an appropriate mediator between ecclesiological extremes, for, on the one hand he followed Calvinist teaching - sympathetic to those of ‘godly conscience‘; on the other hand, he saw no reason to question episcopacy and the royal prerogative in matters of church discipline. He had even spoken in favour of ceremonies at the Hampton Court conference. Yet, it is not surprising that while Master, Montagu’s influence earned the college a reputation as supporting puritanism.

Close to the King

King James 1
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James Montagu was a royal favourite, and this link was both immediate (1603) and lifelong. He was closer to the king than George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was seen as influencing James I against the Arminians. Montagu introduced the Puritan Arthur Hildersham, to court circles, and Francis Bacon judged him one of the three most influential servants in the king's household - despite now and then getting into practical difficulties with the King, over puritan issues.

Montagu as writer and translator

James Montagu edited the collected works of the King. James’ eight books were written between 1584 and 1609. Montagu gave a long panegyrical preface to the collection, and this seems to have been his one original composition. Montagu’s introduction so excelled in formal public eulogy that the King would have had little difficulty in seeing himself in absolutist terms. James’ insistence on the full allegiance of his subjects versus Roman Catholicism was formalized in An Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance in 1607. Montagu helped produce this work - he was more the adminstrator than an assiduous scholar.

Translator of the King James Version?

Such a close connection to the King during the time the Bible was being revised and translated would have allowed Montagu some connection with the work. It seems fashionable for Montagu’s name to be included on the formal list, describing the second Oxford company of translators.(1) (2) Others exclude his name for lack of evidence (3) (4). The group worked on the Gospels, the Acts and Revelation. However, is there any real evidence that Montagu was an official member of the company? He was a busy adminstrator in the west country during the years the translation was being made. He had received an ‘honorary’ D.D. but we do not know if he was consulted, even informally - though it would not have been inappropriate to do so:

Proof one way or the other, is most difficult. The surmise that many must have aided in the translation unofficially, seems justified. Many must have offered advice on verses, helped solve hard problems, and queried readings on which the chosen learned men agreed. (5)

Last days

Montagu died at Greenwich in 1618, In his will he remembered the king's favour as ‘the greatest comforte of my life’, and left him a gold cup of £100 value.(5) Montagu estimated in his will that he had already bestowed over £5000 on his episcopal properties; further bequests included rents and ‘all my bookes’ to Sidney Sussex College. His body was taken to Bath for burial in the abbey church whilst his bowels were buried in the chancel at Greenwich. His commissioned tomb shows a canopied recumbent effigy of the bishop in the nave of Bath Abbey.

1. Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 258.
2. McGrath, Alister (2001) In the beginning Lon: Hodder. p.181.
3. McClure, Alexander. (1858) The translators revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible. Mobile, Alabama: R. E. Publications (republished by the Marantha Bible Society, 1984 ASIN B0006YJPI8)
4. McCullough, P. E. (2004) Oxford dictionary of national biography Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the.
5. Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Baker p. 76.

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William Thorne - a strange contention

2011-12-02T05:06:00.003Z

Academic background

William Thorne was born in 1568 in Semley, Wiltshire. His background, according to University records, made him a ‘plebe’ (plebeius: neither a gentleman nor a clergyman)! However, there was a pre-existing link between Thorne's family and the aristocratic family of Pembrokes.(1) Thorne entered Winchester College in his teens (1582) and from there went up to New College, Oxford, graduating BA in 1589. An MA followed in 1592. Five years later he was ‘licensed to preach.’ He was Regius professor of Hebrew in Oxford from 1598 for six years, until 1604. In the meantime, he formalized his divinity studies, receiving a BD in 1600, with a doctorate two years later.

His linguistic abilities

Thorne was both a classical and Hebrew scholar. His ability to read Hebrew is evidenced in some extant letters and poems, which were written to him in Hebrew. He himself is known to have written at least one poem in Hebrew.

Thorne frequently corresponded with the well-known Dutch Hebraist Johann Drusius (Johannes van-den-Driesche). In 1609 the latter dedicated one of his writings to Thorne, expressing gratitude that he had generously taken in Drusius's son, John, for two years in Oxford. John was a prodigy, said to have mastered Hebrew at the age of nine! In this writing, in 1609, Drusius quotes some Syriac too, adding a remark in such a way as to imply Thorne also knew some Syriac. There is some indication that Thorne may have also been able to read Arabic. The Elizabethan poet and clergyman Charles Fitzgeffrey devoted a Latin epigram to him in his Affaniae (1601), in admiration of Thorne’s oriental scholarship.

Ecclesiastical offices

William Thorne became dean of Chichester in 1601. The same year he became rector of Tollard Royal, Wiltshire, and two years later prebend of Bussall. Another three years passed, and he took the vicarage of Amport, Hampshire, in 1606. Then, a year later in 1607 he became canon of Chichester and rector of Birdham, Sussex. Then in 1613 the prebend of Hova Villa, and with the passing pf another three years he became rector of North Marden, Sussex. Finally in 1619 he took the rectory at Warblington, Hampshire.

Translator of the KJV

There is no good reason to doubt that William Thorne was a member of the first Oxford company, translating the Major and Minor Old Testament prophets. Thorne’s involvement in the project is made certain by a paper, written in 1606, housed in the Public Records Office, London. This is worth quoting in detail, as follows:

At the request of Dr. Thorne, his majesty’s chaplain, we whose names are hereunto subscribed have thought it equal and just to make known unto all, whom it appertained, that he hath for many years read the public Hebrew lecture with very good recommendation in the University of Oxford, that he is now likewise very necessarily employed in the translation of that part of the Old Testament which is remitted to that university, that he doth govern in the church of Chichester where he is dean with judgment and discretion, and that in the one and the other place he hath ever been and now is of very good and honest reputation. (2)[emphasis added]

This was a petition written in 1606, signed by fourteen bishops, including Thomas Bilson of Winchester and Thomas Ravis of Gloucester - both involved, respectively, as editor and translator of the KJV.

Earliest is best?

What more evidence, then, does the enquirer seek before Thorne‘s name is confidently added to the first Oxford company of translators? Why is doubt still expressed by some, as to Thorne’s membership of the Oxford translation committee? The answer relates to the thorny question of the ostensibly scientific principle, when applied to manuscripts. This says, “earliest is best,“ and Thorne’s name is not mentioned in the earliest lists of translators. This is analogous to the disputed question whether the KJV Text itself represents an inferior unscientific scholarship (compared to more contemporary translations), because the King’s translators did not seek out and prefer the textual readings of the earliest extant Greek manuscripts, nor did they assume that, because they (such few as existed) were earlier, they were therefore better.

The evidence in support of Thorne’s involvement, is substantial, as quoted, even if his name is not among the 48 scholars listed in the British museum. For example, would Thomas Bilson and Thomas Ravis have signed the document as worded, if Thorne had not been involved in the translation? Moreover, Thorne’s credentials as former Regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford for six years, as well as being the King's chaplain, would have been more than enough to make him eminently suitable for inclusion in the translation project. Thorne was also a member of John Case's circle. This was a group of Oxford students who regularly met in Case’s own house in Oxford, to discuss philosophical topics, up to 1600. In 1592 John Case wrote a dedicatory verse to one of Thorne’s works - a commonplace book reorganizing Cicero's ideas on rhetoric, with extensive reference to Aristotle. (1) Thorne clearly was in the wider environment of Oxford scholarship, and this group included several of the Oxford translators. One of them, Ralph Ravens, was also wrongly omitted from some of the early lists. Failure to invite Thorne to join a translation company ran the risk of being received as an insult.

Final days

William Thorne died in 1630 and was buried in Chichester Cathedral. There is no record to suggest he ever married.

(1) DeCoursey Mathew, (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the.
(2) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version. MI: Baker pp. Pp. 46, 75-76

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Richard Kilby - reputable Hebraist

2011-12-01T08:01:00.013Z

Richard Kilby was born in 1560/61 at in Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake, Leicestershire. Leicestershire. No details are know as to the identities of his parents. He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1577, aged sixteen, and was elected to a fellowship there in the following year. A BA and MA followed in 1578 Focusing on divinity for another four years, he received a B.D. and finally a D.D. in 1596. He took ‘holy orders’ in the usual way, and became a preacher of note in the University. In 1590 he was elected rector of Lincoln College, and in 1601 he became a prebend of Lincoln Cathedral.

His academic attainments

Kilby’s acquaintance Isaac Casaubon described him as ‘a man of some reading beyond the common’ (Feingold, 455)(1).

Richard Kilby was appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in Oxford University. He held this professorship from 1610 until his death in 1620. His one publication was the sermon he gave at the funeral service in 1612 for Thomas Holland, who had been the university's Regius professor of divinity.

Kilby had hoped to publish a continuation of Jean Mercier's commentary on the book of Genesis. However, the Library of Lincoln College contains a surviving manuscript commentary on Exodus. This document shows the extent of his Hebrew learning, as he gives substantial quotes from up to one hundred Hebrew sources, many of them scarcely known writings of Rabbinical interpreters.

Translation of the KJV

Kilby became a member of the first Oxford company, appointed by King James 1 to translate the Major and Minor prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi. The Director of the company was John Harding, president of Magdalen College.

The writer of short biographies, Izaac Walton, in his life of the once-celebrated Bishop Sanderson, describes an incident involving a young inexperienced preacher whom Richard Kilby heard whilst traveling with Bishop Robert Sanderson . The young clergyman was in effect criticizing from the pulpit the inferior scholarship of the new King James translation. Isaac Walton, author of The Complete Angler, tells it in his own words.

I must here stop my reader, and tell him that this Dr. Kilby . . . was to ride a journey into Derbyshire, and took Mr. Sanderson to bear him company; and they, resting on a Sunday with the Doctor’s friend, and going together to that parish church where they then were, found the young preacher to have no more discretion, than to waste a great part of the hour allotted for his sermon in exceptions against the late translation of several words . . . . [He] shewed three reasons why a particular word should have been otherwise translated. When evening prayer was ended . . . the Doctor told him, he might have preached more useful doctrine, and [as for] that word for which he offered . . . three reasons why it ought to have been translated as he said, he and others had considered all of them, . . . . And the preacher was so ingenuous [as] to say, ‘He would not justify himself.' McClure

In fact, Kilby told the young man that, not only that they had considered his proposed reading, but thirteen others as well; only then had they decided on the rendering they gave in their translation!

Kilby left a large and valuable collection of books to Lincoln College. These comprised Hebrew volumes, commentaries on the Pentateuch, as well as dictionaries and Bibles. He died in 1620 and was buried in the chancel of All Saints' Church, Oxford.

(1) Wilson, David. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the.

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Leonard Hutton - An elegant scholar

2011-11-19T10:35:00.035Z

Academic background

Leonard Hutton was born in 1557/1558. We know little or nothing of his origins, whether in family connection or geographical location. He first appears as a student in London, at Westminster School - which probably makes him a Londoner. Every third year the school selected three scholars to attend Christ Church, Oxford. Hutton went up to Oxford in 1574. There followed a lifelong pursuit of learning in the University, first graduating BA in 1578, proceeding MA in 1582. Matters of divinity then became the focus, when a BD followed in 1591. Finally he was admitted DD in 1600.

Oxford graduation ceremoney

Bodleian Library
pragmaticmom.com

Hutton featured prominently in early seventeenth-century church and university life. He led the ceremony which opened the Bodleian Library in 1602 - a national treasure. He preached on the queen's accession day. As pro-vice-chancellor in 1603, he became involved in theological disputes within the university.

Spiritual qualifications

Alex MacClure says:

He was well known as an “excellent Grecian,” and an elegant scholar. He was well versed in the [church] fathers, the [medieval] schoolmen, and the [ancient] learned languages, which were the favorite studies of that day; and he also investigated with care the history of his own nation.

It was standard at that time to take ‘holy orders’ and so Hutton thereby added frequent preaching to his lifestyle. He became rector in several parishes: Long Preston, Yorkshire (1587–8); Rampisham, Dorset (1595–1601); Floore (Flower), Northamptonshire (1601 until his death); and Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire (1602–4). He was made canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, in 1599, and later became a prebendary of Reculversland in St Paul's, London, 1609.

Literary attainments

His first achievement was in being appointed (1604) one of the translators of the group working on the Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypse, appointed by King James. This Second Oxford company was directed by Thomas Ravis, who also went to both Westminster School and Christ Church Oxford.

There followed his first published work in 1612, entitled An Answere to a Certaine Treatise of the Crosse in Baptisme. This was a response to the Puritan William Bradshaw and aimed to defend the more ceremonial understanding of public worship.

Other works followed, featuring the local history of ecclesiastical Oxford.

Spires of Oxford
cs.ox.ac.uk

In 1606 ninety-eight Oxford dons wrote a collection of verses celebrating the visit of King Christian IV of Denmark and Hutten contributed to these.

Family connections

Hutton got married to one Anne Hampden in about 1600. Daughter Alice was born (1602–1628) - she married the then dean of Christ Church, and later bishop of Oxford. Hutton lived to a ripe old age and died May 17th, 1632, aged seventy-four or thereabouts.

In 1635 a brass inscription in Latin records, in the north transept of Christ Church Cathedral, that he ‘gave back to God a soul learned, straightforward, and godly’.

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Daniel Featley (Fairclough) - Puritan protaganist

2011-11-14T02:55:00.029Z

Magdalen College, Oxford
oldukphotos.com

Early Days

Daniel Featley (Fairclough) was a Church of England clergyman and religious controversialist, born 5th March 1582 in Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, son of John Fairclough and his wife, Marian Thrift. At the age of seven he became a chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, where his father was a college servant. His linguistic talent was early noticed when, at the age of twelve, he habitually produced witty and elegant verses in Latin and Greek (Featley, 8) to the delight of many.

Academic career

Featley is noted as a protégé of John Rainolds, who was a leading spokesman for the Puritans. Featley was received as a scholar of Corpus Christi College, and graduated BA in 1601, and then appointed a probationer fellow of the college. He proceeded MA in 1606, and became noted as a disputant and preacher. It was another seven years before Featley took B.D. in 1613.

Appointment to the Translation Committee

At some point after 1604 he was appointed to the first Oxford company of translators, whose work focused on the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament (Isaiah - Malachi). Some have questioned Featley’s suitability for the translation task, as he was only in his twenties at the time of appointment. In 1607 he delivered an oration at the funeral of John Rainolds. As Rainolds had been a member of the first Oxford company, it is more than possible that Featley was appointed to fill the breach left by his mentor‘s death for three years, prior to his departing for the continent. We do not know the measure of attainment he achieved in his Hebrew studies to suit him for the task of Old Testament translation. The chronology suggests his appointment may have motivated him to undertake more formal studies in Hebrew, in order to fulfill his commission. Whichever, we should be well assured that Featley’s general linguistic skills were not in doubt.

topnews.in

Experiencing the Continent

In 1610 Featley was recommended to the English ambassador to Paris, Sir Thomas Edmondes, who appointed him as his household chaplain. He spent the three years following in Paris, where he was known as redoubtable in arguing for the protestant cause. He was reported as being despised by the Jesuits for his smallness of stature. Nevertheless, he made up for this by quick repartee, together with an ability to make fine-shaded distinctions when pursuing an argument (Leo, 23). Featley claimed that a local Cardinal had tried to recover him to the Catholic fold, by ‘promise of far greater preferments than ever he could expect in England’ (D. Featley, Sacra nemesis, the Levites Scourge, 1644, 66).

Labelled an extremist

Theologically, at home Featley was finding disapproval from the mainstream, with his outspoken puritanical views of worship, etcetera. Tact was not his strong suit. He seems to have given offence by his plain speaking, even in consecration sermons. However, for those sharing his theological views, Featley remained a significant figure throughout the first half of the 17th century.

Though he was small of stature, yet he had a great soul, and had all learning compacted in him. (McClure).

In the wake of the Synod of Dort (1618) he also mediated in a number of theological disputes between puritan ministers, and supplied a conciliatory note to the discussion by his prefaces to several influential works.

Among protestant divines in France and the Netherlands he was regarded as one of the leading defenders of the Reformed faith; Leo recalled visiting the University of Groningen and seeing Featley's name in a list of ‘the most famous Schoole-men’ of the Christian church.

Univeristy of Groningen
alas-groningen.org

It was his misfortune that, having found himself out of favour in the 1630s because of his views on doctrine, Featley then found himself attacked in the 1640s because of his views on church discipline, and was thus denied the recognition his talents deserved.(1)

A convinced Calvinist

Featley was strongly opposed to the Arminian school of theology, which he regarded as dangerously close to semi-Pelagianism and Roman Catholicism. He may have been the ‘Oxford man, chaplein to the Archbishop’ mentioned for preaching a visitation sermon ‘wondrous plainly and vehemently against the fearfull or flattering silence of our Clergie’, warning that ‘the hope of a crosier staffe or a Cardinalls hatt would make many a Scholler in England beat his braine to reconcile the Church of Rome and England’ (BL, Harley MS 389, fol. 318). At King Charles I's first parliament in 1625, Featley was elected a member of convocation, and became the leader of a group of forty-five clergy who agreed among themselves ‘to oppose everything that did but savour or scent never so little of Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism.

King Charles 1

Surprising comfort to a troubled King

Featley produced a devotional manual entitled Ancilla Pietatis in 1626 which proved very popular, going through six editions with translations into French and other languages - it was a special favourite with Charles I as he struggled to cope with his confrontation with the ‘separatists,‘ who were insisting parliamentary government was wiser than absolute monarchy.

The price of commitment

During the Civil War years Featley landed up in prison for defending episcopal government. He was already in bad health , and the situation hastened his death of asthma and dropsy, in 1645, and he was buried in the chancel of Lambeth church.

Literary achievements

Daniel Featley published as many as forty books and treatises, also leaving a huge number of articles/manuscripts.

His other labors have passed away; “but the word of the Lord,” which, as it is believed, he aided in giving to unborn millions, “abideth for ever. McClure

(1) Hunt, Arnold. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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Jeremiah Radcliffe - close to the King’s physician

2011-11-01T11:56:00.007Z

Jeremiah Radcliffe’s date of birth is unknown. He was educated at Westminster School and went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow in 1572.

He ‘took holy orders’ in the usual way, and developed pastoral relationships as time went on, in 1588 becoming Vicar of Evesham. Then, two years later, he was Rector of Orwell 1590. Thus, he acquired 'a string of livings' and the influence of family is seen in his being brother to the King's physician" (1) His teaching career resulted in his being made Vice-Master of his College in 1597 for 15 years. In the year 1600, he received a doctorate in Divinity, which was acknowledged by both universities. He also served in the "Second Cambridge Company" charged by James I of England with translating the Apocrypha for the King James Version of the Bible. He died in 1612.

Memorial to Jeremiah Radcliffe
Church of St. Andrew, Orwell.
(1) Bobrick, Benson p. 241.

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Robert Ward - almost anonyomous

2011-11-01T10:36:00.002Z

King's College, Cambridge
flickr.com

Robert Ward (otherwise known as John Ward) was an English scholar, and a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He was a prebendary of Chichester Cathedral., and served in the "Second Cambridge Company" charged by James I of England with translating the Apocrypha for the King James Version of the Bible.

McClure says of Ward

All that we gather of this Dr. Ward is that he was Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop’s Waltham in Hampshire. Also, Fuller gives him the strange title of “Regal,” probably denoting some station in the University.

Other than these few details, we know very little about him. Further research may remedy that.

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William Tyndale - a Rock foundation

2011-10-21T12:07:00.004+01:00

William Tyndale - His influence on the KJV

povman.wordpress.com

Tyndale is the unsung hero:

Newspaper headlines still quote Tyndale, though unknowingly, and he has reached more people than even Shakespeare. (1)

Really? Even more than Shakespeare? We are being taught to appreciate and revere the name of this unsung hero: see external links (at the foot).

How influential was he?

A writer in Contemporary Review says,

[Tyndale] is the mainly unrecognised translator of the most influential book in the world. Although the Authorised King James Version is ostensibly the production of a learned committee of churchmen, it is mostly cribbed from Tyndale with some reworking of his translation.

Describing their work as “cribbed” is inaccurate for two reasons: First, each KJV committee was led by a Director who was committed to ensure King James’ guidelines for translation were strictly followed. A foundation rule was that each translator make his own draft translation of a passage before it was discussed in committee, and that the final draft should then be compared with previous translations. Second, these articles have shown that the KJV translators were more than adequately equipped to make a scholarly and independent judgement, as to how to translate any word, phrase or sentence.

The Directors of the six translation committees working on a designated portion of the Text were men of great academic distinction: Lancelot Andrewes(Genesis - 2 Kings), William Barlow (Romans - Jude), John Harding (Isaiah - Malachi), Thomas Ravis
(Gospels, Acts, Apocalypse), Edward Lively/Laurence Chaderton (1 Chronicles - Ecclesiastes), and John Duport (Apocrypha). A ‘hyperlink-glance’ at their attainments should convince the reader that these Directors were able to ensure that the translation process, as guided by them, received the diligent thoroughness required by the King’s specific guidelines.

The flyleaf of most printings of the Authorized Version observes that the text had been "translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's special command." James' instructions included several requirements that kept the new translation familiar to its listeners and readers. The text of the Bishops' Bible would serve as the primary guide for the translators, and the familiar proper names of the biblical characters would all be retained. If the Bishops' Bible
was inadequate, as was frequently the case, the translators were allowed to consult from a pre-approved list, the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible,Matthew's Bible, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible. Every verse of the Bible can readily be compared online, as between these and other Versions.

How much of the KJV is Tyndale’s work?

In answering this question, David Daniell accepts the work of Mormon writers Jon Nielson and Royal Skousen. They noted that previous estimates of Tyndale's contribution to the KJV 'have run from a high of up to 90% (Westcott) to a low of 18% (Butterworth)'. They tested this by using a statistically accurate and appropriate method of sampling - based on eighteen portions of the Bible - to show that Tyndale's contribution to the New Testament amounts to about 83% of the text, and in the Old Testament 76%.

What were William Tyndale’s linguistic skills?

Born in or around 1494, Tyndale’s life-aim from the age of ten(!) onwards was to translate the Bible into good English. All his energy was deliberately focused to achieve this aim. Tyndale showed an unusual aptitude for languages even as a child at Lady Berkeley's Grammar School at Wotton under Edge, where he learned to read Latin with ease. He went up to Oxford aged 12, where [so Foxe reports] ‘by long continuance he grew and increased in the knowledge of tongues and other liberal arts,’ and was ‘singularly addicted to the study of the Scriptures.’ By the time he was eighteen, William Hychyns (an alternative family name for Tyndale) graduated BA at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1512. He sat at the feet of three great Christian humanists: William Grocyn, William Latimer and Thomas Linacre. Having been made MA three years later he began to study theology. Foxe records that he ‘read privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen College some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and truth of the scriptures’ (Foxe, ed. Pratt, 5.114–15).(4) Erasmus’ freshly published (1516) Greek NT may have been the foundation of these studies. Tyndale then went to Cambridge, where Greek studies had received a strong injection from the visit of Erasmus, who taught Greek there for several years while Tyndale was still at Oxford.

Arriving later in London (1523?) Tyndale sought to commend his scholarly aspirations to Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, so to obtain his help in publishing an English translation of the entire Bible. Tyndale had taken with him his translation of an oration of the Greek rhetorician Isocrates, with which to prove his highly-skilled attainments in Greek. He was later praised by the German scholar Hermann Buschius for his mastery of seven languages: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, Spanish, and French, as well as English.

Tyndale’s trail-blazing energy

William Tyndale published the entire New Testament in 1526/1535. He then translated and published the Pentateuch, and the book of Jonah. John Rogers continued Tyndale’s work after the latter’s martyrdom at the hands of Henry VIII.

tyndalesploughboy.org

The publication was called the Matthew’s Bible, in order to conceal from the authorities Tyndale’s posthumous involvement. What of the remainder of the Old Testament? David Daniell’s view is that, the Matthew Version containing the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, and First and Second Chronicles, were all William Tyndale‘s work. Tyndale worked directly from the Hebrew and Greek, occasionally consulting the Vulgate and Erasmus’s Latin version, and he used Luther's Bible for the prefaces, marginal notes and the biblical text. The remaining prophetic and poetic books of the Old Testament (and the Apocrypha) in the Matthew Bible were the work of Myles Coverdale. A. S. Herbert, Bible cataloguer, says of the Matthew Bible:

This version, which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, is generally considered to be the real primary version of our English Bible upon which later editions were based, including the Geneva Bible and King James Version. Thus the Matthew Bible, though largely unrecognized, significantly shaped and influenced English Bible versions in the centuries that followed its first appearance. (2)

How did the KJV translators use earlier Versions?

The Bishops Bible was chosen to be the primary guide and orientation to spring-board a discussion, and a way of comparing a translators’ own first drafts. Nicolson gives a helpful example of how this worked by quoting Dr Ward Allen, who showed from a 1602 edition of the Bishops Bible how the revision worked. In this Bible, an individual translator has privately marked first suggestions for revision, ready for the impending weekly meeting with his colleagues. There his textual choices were aired, discussed and analysed.

Adam Nicolson's book
guardian.co.uk

A quotation follows, which illustrates using an example from Luke 1:57.

In Luke 1:57, the moment when Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, the herald of Christ, gives birth, the Bishops’ Bible text reads:
Elizabeth’s time came that she should bee delivered, and she brought forth a son.
This, incidentally, is almost exactly the wording of William Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament. It is an uncomplicated and straightforward moment, almost certainly too prosaic for Jacobean taste, and, in one minute particular, inaccurate. The King James Translator on his own in his room marked the verse very carefully with Greek letters as follows:
kElizabeth’s time lcame that she should bee delivered, and she brought forth a son.
and in the margin beside it wrote ‘k Now’ and ‘l was fulfilled’, with the intention presumably that the verse should read:
Now Elizabeth‘s time was fulfilled that she should bee delivered, and she brought forth a son.
That is the suggestion that he took to the weekly meeting. His co-Translators didn’t entirely like what he had done. They accepted his inclusion ‘Now’, translating a word which is in the Greek, and giving an extra flick of vitality and of conversational engagement to the verse, the storyteller drawing you in. But his other suggestion was rejected. The phrase ‘was fulfilled’ was a brave attempt at just the kind of lexical enrichment the Jacobeans enjoyed, and on which the King James Bible, almost subliminally, often relies. It carries a double hidden pun: not only has the time come for Elizabeth’s son to be born, but she was both filled full with the child in her womb and fulfilled in her role and duty as mother of the Baptist.
The idea is marvelous but the word is not quite right, a little dense, even a little technical. So ‘ was fulfilled’ is crossed out in the margin and replaced with ‘full time came’. As a result, the reading in the King James Bible, with which the English-speaking world has been familiar ever since, is Tyndale plus first Oxford Translator plus revision by the Oxford company:
Now Elizabeth’s full time came that she should bee delivered and she brought forth a sonne.
’It is undoubtedly the best, more accurate for its inclusion of ‘Now’ and wonderfully subtle in the phrase they landed on. ‘Full time came’ is irreproachably English, simple, accessible, conceptually rich, as full of potent and resonant meanings as Elizabeth was with child. In Jacobean English, full can mean plump, perfect and over brimming, and all of those meanings are here. (3)

Tyndale’s influence lives on

A well-known quotation of William Tyndale is his comment to a biblically illiterate priest:

‘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 plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou doest.’

Fifteen years later, Tyndale was killed, first strangled by the hangman at the stake, then ‘with fire consumed.’ Approximately one year later, in 1537, Tyndale’s entire work was published in the Matthew Bible. It was a Bible written in blood.

David Daniell says:

William Tyndale's Bible translations have been the best-kept secrets in English Bible history…Astonishment is still voiced that the dignitaries who prepared the 1611 Authorized Version for King James spoke so often with one voice—apparently miraculously. Of course they did: the voice (never acknowledged by them) was Tyndale's. (5)

The Bible’s Old Testament is about the bloodline of Israel, and the world‘s future destiny in the Messiah of God. The New Testament is about the sacrificial nature and effects of the blood of Jesus Christ. How suitable, then, that our English Bible too was written in blood. As William Tyndale was about to lose consciousness at the stake, he cried ’with fervent zeal and a loud voice: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” The prayer Tyndale made for Henry VIII is the prayer we too should make for our fellow countrymen. Tyndale’s prayer was abundantly answered within two years, when a Bible was chained to every church lectern in the land. God will answer our prayers for a quickened nation in the same way, if we are prepared by God’s Spirit to follow Tyndale’s example of dedication and single-mindedness.

Tyndale's death
calvinisedpipe.wordpress.com

(1) Daniell, David (1994) William Tyndale: A Biography Yale University Press, p. 2.
(2) Herbert, A. S. Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible 1525–1961, London: British and Foreign Bible Society; New York: American Bible Society, 1968
(3) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 152-153.
(4) Daniell, David. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(5) Daniell, David, Introduction to Tyndale’s New Testament (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1995). See the video (The Bible Revolution) on the King James Bible Trust website at
Index of translators

John Layfield - adventurous chronicler

2011-10-17T11:51:00.004+01:00

Early days

John Layfield was born in 1562/3 was the son of Edward Layfield, a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. Layfield was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood before proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1582 and became a Fellow in 1583. He proceeded MA in 1585 and BTh in 1592. He was also lector in Greek in 1593 and examiner in grammar in 1599. He later married Elizabeth in 1603 at St Mary, Whitechapel, and had two sons and a daughter. (1)

Adventures abroad

George Clifford
Wikipedia.com

In 1598 Layfield accompanied George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland as his chaplain and chronicler, during a violent and dangerous expedition to the West Indies, when hundreds died (2). Clifford wanted to see Reformed truth spread across the globe. Layfield wrote a long account of the voyage to Puerto Rico in ‘Purchas his Pilgrimes.’ Cumberland's biographer says Layfield's ‘detailed description of the whole voyage is the most reliable as well as the most complete of the extant accounts’ (Spence, 144).

sonsothunder.wordpress.com
Nicolson says of the writer’s value to the expedition:

John Layfield . . . was an explorer and prose writer of real distinction, who left one of the most civil-minded and generous accounts ever written of the English arrival in the New World. . . . What Layfield brought to this exciting subject . . . was an unabashed manliness of style, a smart brisk way of telling a story in which piety or an adopted moralism had no part. . . . Even before they leave Portsmouth, Layfield displays his gift for clear and dramatic narrative, for instant characterisation, for a scene brought utterly alert. . . . Layfield’s chronicle is as bright-colored as anything by Robert Louis Stevenson . . . . Nothing about Layfield is cynical or even prejudiced. (2)

Translator of the KJV

In 1606 he was one of the Greek and Hebrew scholars appointed by James I to produce what became the Authorized Version of the Bible. Layfield was one of ten who met at Westminster to work on the Old Testament, Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive. It was said that "being skilled in architecture, his judgment was much relied on for the fabric of the tabernacle and temple" as described in the book of Leviticus.

Paine quotes a lengthy passage from Layfield’s Carribean chronicle, describing the island of Dominica, and notes his exact and charming vocabulary:

Though we can prove nothing by mere diction, there are many words in this passage that are found in the King James Bible: apparel, attired, discovered, nakedness, boring ears, covered, profitable. The rhythms of Layfield also may remind us of those in the books on which he laboured. (3)

Nicolson quotes as an example from the opening chapters of Genesis:

9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow euery tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and euil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;

[Layfield] had a hand in writing this . . . . As he did so he would have had in mind those incomparable forests of Dominica, where ‘the trees doe continually maintaine themselves, in a greene-good liking’ - extraordinary phrase - ‘partly of many fine Rivers, which to requite the shadow and coolenesse they receive from the Trees, give them back again a continuall refresshing of very sweete and tastie water.‘ The seventeenth century English idea of Paradise, a vision of enveloping lushness, was formed by the seduction of an almost untouched Caribbean. (2)

No doubt Lancelot Andrewes chose him as a member of his Westminster group, more for his ability with English style, than in understanding Hebrew - Layfield was more the Greek scholar than Oriental.

Church appointments

Layfield was Rector of Aldwincle St Peter's, Northamptonshire from 1598 to 1602, and then became rector of St Clement Danes, London, resigning his fellowship at Trinity in 1603.

Layfield was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1606. Four years later, he became one of the first fellows of Chelsea College, newly founded to resist a return to Papal authority, by the production of an anti-Catholic polemic.

In 1613 he contributed laudatory verses to the preface of Sir William Leighton's Tears or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soul. He died, probably in his London rectory, in 1617. In his will, he left land in Old Cleeve, Somerset, and Royston, Hertfordshire, to his wife for her lifetime, with remainder to their eldest son, Edward.

(1) Bayne, Ronald (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 102-103
(3) Paine, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Baker p. 36.
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Francis Burleigh - an unremarkable choice

2011-10-16T15:24:00.005+01:00

Francis Burleigh (Burley, Burghley) is not quite anonymous, although there appears no evidence as to when or where he was born, or when or where he died. Is there not a currently living member of the Burleigh family, willing to research the records to discover more about this member of the committee, which bequeathed the Book of Books to the English-speaking world?

dynastree.com
The Wikipedia site awaits.

Chelsea College, London

Burleigh was made a fellow of Chelsea College (1), founded in London by royal charter two years before the KJV was published. Other translators among the original fellows were John Overall, Miles Smith, John Spenser, and John Boys. Other original fellows included John Layfield and Richard Brett. Burleigh was appointed to contribute to Lancelot Andrewes' "First Westminster Company," in the translating of the first twelve books of the Bible. Presumably, the need to graduate in Classics and/or divinity at Oxford or Cambridge, was an essential requirement for this task.

Church appointments

Nicolson tells us he was appointed as Vicar of Bishop's Stortford by Lancelot Andrewes in 1590. (2) He is also named as Rector of St. James the Great Church Thorley, Hertfordshire, from 1594 - 1610.

St. James the Great, Thorley
flickr.com

He was appointed a third living as rector of St Benet Paul's Wharf, London. (3)

(1) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 231.
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 253.
(3) Westbrook, Vivienne (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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Geoffrey King - Hugh Broughton’s friend

2011-10-08T12:34:00.003+01:00

Details about Geoffrey King’s life are mostly unknown. His place and date of birth (and death) are seemingly unrecorded. In adulthood, he became a fellow of King’s College Cambridge. King has a double claim to be remembered. First he was chosen to be part of the team of Lancelot Andrewes at Westminster, which translated the first books of the Old Testament. Secondly, he became Professor of Hebrew at King’s College, Cambridge, succeeding Robert Spaulding.

King's College, Cambridge
flickr.com

Of the Westminster group, Nicolson says:

Several of Andrewes’ team remain little more than names: Richard Clarke, a fellow of Christ’s college, Cambridge, whose sermons were said to be “a continent of mud’; Robert Tighe, vicar of All Hallows, Barking, the church in which Lancelot Andrewes had been christened; Geoffrey King, another Christ’s man, and in time Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge; and Francis Burleigh, who had been a scholar at Pembroke, Andrewes’ own college. Even among the obscure the connections continued to work. Those four have the look of workhorses, men flattered to be included, who could be asked to do much of the legwork. . .(1)

The influence of Hugh Broughton

King was reputed to be a personal friend of the controversialist Hugh Broughton (1549–1612). This gives us a clue as to whether King was dedicated to the mastery of Hebrew. Broughton was distinguished both in preaching and intense study, becoming an outstanding Hebrew scholar. He was thus intensely disappointed not to be invited to join the KJV translation committee.

Since his learning was beyond question, their refusal to give due recognition to Broughton's merits as a scholar was no credit to the selectors of the Authorized Version. However, it may be justly assumed that he was not invited to co-operate on account of his arrogance and intolerance. Because he was so waspish and cantankerous in controversy, other scholars were unwilling to associate with him. He would have been a troublesome collaborator.(2)

Broughton put himself offside with fellow scholars by a habit of writing excessive negative criticism concerning the writings and ministry of others. His first book was itself attacked in public lectures by two key members of the KJV committee, John Rainolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and by Edward Lively, Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge.

Notwithstanding these reservations, and despite his intemperate outbursts, Hugh Broughton was a popular teacher and much loved by those he taught. He is said to have been a jovial dinner companion and a loyal friend. Whether as a pupil or colleague, Geoffrey King would have been much influenced by Broughton’s views as to the nature, importance and need for serious Hebrew study. It is thus important to understand Broughton’s views.

Broughton's writings demonstrate that he may justifiably be regarded as the most proficient English Hebraist of his day. Not only was he able to read the Old Testament in the original, he was familiar at first hand with a wide range of post-biblical Jewish authors. His contribution to Old Testament studies includes a translation of Daniel into English and Latin with explanatory notes and comments (1596), a commentary on Ecclesiastes with an accompanying English translation of the text (1605), an English rendering of Lamentations (1606), and an English version of the book of Job (1610). In what became known as the ‘battle of the vowel points’ Broughton shared the rabbinic attitude towards the Masoretic vocalization of the Hebrew Bible. He argued against the Catholics that the vowels were a part of the original text, not a late invention of the rabbis and therefore untrustworthy. (2)

Elohim in Hebrew Bible
flickr.com

Broughton dedicated himself to the interpretation of biblical apocalyptic writings. To succeed in this he believed it needed to be based on a thorough mastery of Hebrew and the study of traditional Jewish exegesis. In teaching his students privately, he believed daily Bible readings and conversations in Hebrew were essential. Samuel Clarke claimed that in Broughton's published works:

[T]he serious and impartial reader will find … a winning and inciting enforcement to the reading of the Scriptures, with a greater seriousness, and more than ordinary searching into them. . . . [Among ordinary students] some such there were, that being excited and stirred up by his books, applied themselves to the study of the Hebrew tongue and attained to a great measure of skill and knowledge therein. (2)

Influence upon on the new translation

As a friend of Broughton, Geoffrey King would have sought his advice on various questions of translation.

Among the papers of John Rainolds are some Broughton comments and advice set down with respect for his learning. Broughton made his own partial version from the Bible from which the King James men appear to have taken some wordings. Speaking of wild horses, Broughton said of the horse, in Job 39:19, “Canst thou clothe his neck with thunder? . . . . Thunder is a figure for that which quivers; what a splendid phrase we lose if we object to “clothed his neck with thunder.” We can thank rabid Hugh Broughton for his inspired word.(3)

(1) Nicolson, p. 99
(2) Lloyd Jones, National Dictionary of Biography
(3) Paine, p. 107
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William Branthwaite - expertise in Greek

2011-09-29T09:44:00.017+01:00

Curriculum Vitae

William Branthwaite was born in 1563 into a landed Norfolk family. He entered Clare College, Cambridge in 1579 and graduated BA in 1583. He became a founding fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1585 under Laurence Chaderton. He was the first of eighteen members of his family to enter Emmanuel, receiving an MA in 1586. He then narrowed his focus to divinity as was the custom, and took a BTh in 1593, and was finally awarded a DTh (or DD, Paine) in 1598.

Master of Gonvile and Caius College

On 9 December 1607 he became master of Gonville and Caius [pron: keys] by royal mandate. He became vice-chancellor of the university in 1618, but died in January 1619, before the end of his year of office. In his will, proved on 11 March, he made a substantial bequest of books and property to his college, and was also a benefactor to Emmanuel.

Stephen Hawking, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College
Flickr.com

Translation Committee

(Greek MS) "Love is patient," 1 Cor. 13
flickr.com

Branthwaite was reputed to have a thorough mastery of Greek, and this doubtless secured him a place among the biblical revisers of the "Second Cambridge Company" charged by James I of England with translating the Apocrypha.

Branthwaite died 1620. He was known as a wit (Benson Bobrick). Says McClure,

These few items go to mark him as a learned, reverend, and worshipful divine

Vivienne Westbrook, ‘Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the (act. 1604–1611)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74199, accessed 9 Sept 2011]

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Giles Thomson - Royal Chaplain

2011-09-23T17:23:00.012+01:00

Academic ascent

Giles Thomson (also Tomson) was born in London in 1553 to a grocer of the same name. His serious education started at Merchant Taylors' School in 1564, where he was a fellow pupil of Lancelot Andrewes. From there he became an exhibitioner to study at University College, Oxford, in 1571 He graduated BA four years later. An MA followed in 1578 when he was also incorporated at Cambridge. He was made a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1580, serving as university proctor in 1586. Narrowing his focus in divinity studies resulted in a BD in 1590. He was made divinity lecturer in Magdalen College and awarded a DD in 1602. It appears that he never married. (1)

Ecclesiastical appointments

Thomson accumulated a clutch of ecclesiastical appointments in youth and middle age: Canon residentiary of Hereford cathedral, 1594, and Rector of Pembridge in Herefordshire. Some time in the late 1590s he became chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, as was his friend, Dr. Richard Eedes. He became Dean of Windsor in 1602 and remained a royal chaplain on the accession of James I. Thomson was known as an eminent preacher and addressed his Queen in a Lenten series, 1598 and 1599. He continued to preach before King James also.

The Hampton Court conference

In January 1604 Thomson, as Dean of Windsor, attended the Hampton Court conference, though he may have been silent throughout. This was the meeting where a new translation of the Bible was proposed and agreed upon. King James had the power of direct appointment, and it would have been natural for him to look to a past fellow student of Thomson, Lancelot Andrewes, to help him in the appointment process. The latter could doubtless attest to Thomson’s linguistic skill, recommending to include him in the team of eight Oxford scholars who translated the Gospels, the Acts, and the book of Revelation.

Book of Kells (Gospels)
flickr.com

Able rhetorician

Thomson was a ‘good friend’ of the strategic thinker and poet John Davies. Davies spoke highly of his friend as a lively conversationalist, with a shining face which united intelligence with piety . (Microcosmos, 1603, sig. Nn2ir);

It was a royal pastime to visit the University to receive its obeisance, observe its good order, and be entertained with various orations, debates, and theatrical plays. Elizabeth I visited Oxford in 1592. It was noted that Thomson distinguished himself with ‘a very learned and discreet speach’ (Nichols) in a natural philosophy (science) disputation. King James 1 also listened to Giles Thomson (with Thomas Holland and John Harding supporting) in a debate which opposed John Aglionby’s argument, that both saints and angels know our conscious thoughts. (2)

Later years

Thomson was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester 1611. However, he never visited the city, for he died soon after in 1612, aged fifty-nine. McClure speaks of his death in another’s words, as being, “to the great grief of all who knew the piety and learning of the man.” Thomson was buried in Bray chapel at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with a monument depicting him, half-length, in the pulpit. The Latin inscription says of him:

Here lieth Giles Tomson, formerly Dean of this Chapel, whose mind was upright, tongue learned, and hands pure. . . ever a friend to the good, indigent and learned. Though his mortal body lies under the earth, his soul is raised by piety to the skies. He was thirteen years Dean of this Chapel, during which he was in manners grave, prudent, and pious. Afterwards . . . snatched away by death, June 14, 1612, aged 59.

(1) Fincham, Kenneth Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009.
(2) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Baker p. 85

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Thomas Sanderson - fellow of Balliol

2011-09-15T10:34:00.024+01:00

Thomas Sanderson is almost unknown to us. He was a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and rector of All Hallows the Great, London which was demolished 1894. Anthony Wood, the antiquarian mentions a Thomas Sanderson, D. D., of Balliol College, Oxford. The same man was Archdeacon of Rochester during the years 1601 and 1614. He was a member of the Second Westminster Company of translators, directed by William Barlow.

A minor writer

The King James men were minor writers, though great scholars, doing superb writing. Their task lifted them above themselves, while they leaned firmly on their subjects. Many have written in wonder about what they achieved. (1)

Gustavus Paine (2) goes on to quote Dr William Faber’s taste for the KJV:

It lives on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells . . . . It is part of the national mind and the anchor of national seriousness. The memory of the dead passes into it. . . . It is the representative of his best moments; and all that there has been about him of soft, gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good speaks to him for ever out of his English Bible.

Appeal

Reader, have you experienced what Dr Faber is talking about? Try reading seven verses each morning from the AV Bible, asking God to speak to you through its pages. You’ll be surprised - after sympathetic and close consideration of the actual words - how readily the Text yields its probable meaning!

forum.ship-of-fools.com

(1)Vivienne Westbrook, ‘Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the (act. 1604–1611)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009
(2)Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 62 - 63

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Roger Fenton - a popular preacher

2011-09-09T13:20:00.035+01:00

Academic background

Roger Fenton was born in 1565 in Lancashire and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he matriculated as a sizar in 1585. Four years later he graduated B.A. and became a fellow in 1590. Subsequently awarded an M.A. he then narrowed his studies to divinity and proceeded B.D. in 1602. With another eleven years of study he received a D.D. in 1613. Meanwhile in 1601 he became the rector of St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook, also of the neighbouring St. Benet's Sherehog in 1603. In his work there over many years there he was described as “the painful, pious, learned, and beloved minister.” He moved on from Walbrook to the vicarage of Chigwell, Essex in 1606. Three years later, he succeeded Lancelot Andrewes in the prebend of St. Pancras in St. Paul's, which thus made him rector and patron, as well as vicar, of Chigwell. St Stephen's is thought by some to be the finest of the church buildings of Sir Christopher Wren. One of its vicars started the Samaritan movement.

Sermon Publications

Fenton was preacher to the readers at Gray's Inn, starting 1598, and he held the post for the rest of his life. The Elisabethan period is considered the "golden age" of this Inn of lawyers, and the Queen is its Patron Lady. Fenton was a popular preacher of the day; His first work was 'An Answer to William Alablaster, his Motives,' 1599. Fenton prefaces his work with a short note where ‘he wisheth health of soule and bodie' to William Alabaster, languishing in the Tower of London, 1598/99. He sets out to counter the arguments that Alabaster had use to justify his conversion to Roman Catholicism. These counter-arguments may have been persuasive, as Alabaster eventually gave up Catholicism, and was favoured by James I.

William Alabaster
www.thepoetsgarret.com

Another of his sermons, 'Of Simonie and Sacriledge,' was published in 1604. The context of the sermon shows he was at that time chaplain to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Chancellor. A third work was 'A Treatise of Usurie,' in three books, published the same year as the KJV, and there is some evidence it was dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, also a member of Gray‘s Inn. Fenton’s views on the morality or otherwise of usury were taken up forty years after publication in a tract by Sir Robert Filmer entitled 'Quaestio quodlibetica, or, A discourse, whether it may bee lawfull to take use for money.' This bears the sub-title, 'An Examination of Dr. Fenton's Treatise of Usury.' The author quotes Dr. Fenton and Dr. Andrewes as two of the most noted opponents of usury in England. Although Fenton’s views on usury were attacked after he died, 16 Jan. 1615, they were more than adequately defended by the Bishop of London, John King. Fenton’s successor at Chigwell, one Emmanuel Utie, published another of Fenton’s sermons posthumously, called 'A Treatise against the Necessary Dependance upon that One Head and the present Reconcilation to the Church of Rome. Together with certaine sermons preached in publike assemblies.' Three of these sermons had been preached before King James.

Yet another sermon was published in 1615, 'Upon Oathes,' preached before the Grocers' Company; and a small volume containing four more appeared in 1616.

Utie's dedication piece spoke of Fenton's merits as a preacher and writer, acknowledging 'that judgement which was admired of every side,' and saying that his style with words had '. . . naked innocencie without affectation and . . natural majestie,’ the manner of his honey-producing industry was ‘like a master bee without a sting.'

Hawaiihoneybee.wordpress.com

Translating the Bible

We have seen that Roger Fenton, like many of the translators, had patrons in high places. His ministry was located in London, so he was a natural choice to be one of seven men who formed the second Westminster company - led by William Barlow - with the task of translating the New Testament epistles.

Final Appreciation

Nicholas Felton, Master of Pembroke said of Fenton:

None was fitter to dive into the depths of school divinity. He was taken early from the University, and had many troubles afterward; yet he grew and brought forth fruit. Never a more learned hath Pembroke Hall brought forth, with but one exception.

He was referring to Bishop Lancelot Andrews. Fenton died January 16th, 1616, at the age of fifty. He had suffered much with poor health, probably owing to sedentary habits. Says Fulton, his friend,

In the time of his sickness, I told him that his weakness and disease were trials only of his faith and patience. "Oh no," he answered, Non probationes, sed castigationes. - “they are not trials but corrections.”

His body was buried under the communion-table of St. Stephen’s, where his parishioners erected a monument to his memory, inscribing their affection toward their pastor as one eminent in both piety and learning.

"Fenton, Roger". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Steve Cadman
squidoo.com

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William Dakins - cut short in his days

2011-09-02T10:34:00.017+01:00

William Dakins was born c. 1568/9 the son of William Dakyns (d. 1598), vicar of Ashwell, Hertfordshire. William attended the famous Westminster School aged thirteen, in 1582.

From there he won a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated BA in 1591 becoming a Fellow of Trinity in 1593. Having acceded to M.A in 1594 he then focused on Divinity studies, adding a BD in 1601. The next year he began lecturing in Greek and became vicar of Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, in 1603.

St. Mary the Less, Trumpington
millroadcemetery.org.uk

In 1604, he was appointed Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London. This was on the recommendation of the vice-chancellor and several heads of Cambridge colleges as well as some of the nobility - and even by King James I himself. Christopher Hill comments that James was probably glad to have a "harmless academic" appointed, after his puritan predecessors. The King, says McClure, called him “an ancient divine” in his letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of London. This alluded not to his age, but to his theological character.

The appointment to Gresham College was seen as fair remuneration for the work he was to do in helping translate the KJV Bible. His training made him more than adequate to the task, on account of “his skill in the original languages.”

In 1605 he resigned the vicarage of Trumpington, and the following year he became junior dean of Trinity College. He died in February 1607 only a few months after, being less than forty years old. Thus, his work on the Second Westminster Company (Romans - Jude), under William Barlow (Director), lasted but a short time.

Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located in central London, founded in 1597. Today it hosts over 140 lectures every year within the City of London. The Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London, gives these educational lectures free to the public. The college when founded appointed seven professors, and now also has visiting professors. However, it does not enroll students and awards no degrees. Recent lectures on religion are listed. A relevant upcoming lecture is The Language of the King James Bible by Dr Christopher de Hamel, on 26 September 2011 - a Symposium to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible.

Bill Bryson lecture, Gresham College.
flickr.com

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Robert Tighue - Known to God

2011-08-26T10:45:00.032+01:00

Robert Tigue (or Tighe, Teigh), [1] was listed in all the earlier (pre-nineteenth century) printed lists of the Translators, as Leigh says McClure.

Dr. Tighe was born at Deeping, Lincolnshire; and was educated partly at Oxford, and partly at Cambridge. He is characterized as "an excellent textuary and profound linguist." (2)

Field in Market Deeping
flickr.com.

He was Archdeacon of Middlesex and Vicar of the Church of All Hallows, Barking, London. This was the church in which Lancelot Andrewes had been christened. (AN). Tighue was also archdeacon of Westminster.

Robert Tighue was a member of Lancelot Andrewes’ Westminster I group, engaged in translating the Old Testament books Genesis - II Chronicles. This was the group of whom Andrewes’ wrote [to the Society of Antiquaries, 1604] at their commencement:

Most of our company are negligent.

Perhaps Tighue was one of the exceptions to this assessment. As far as we know, he had little to distract him from the important work. He may be one of the unsung heroes of the Translation, those who are largely unknown to men, but known to God, and added value to the work.

Dr. Tighe died in 1620 (Nicolson says, 1616), and left his son an estate of one thousand pounds annually. McClure‘s comment:

[This] is worth mentioning because [such an act is] so rarely done by men of the clerical profession.

Church Interior, All Hallows, Barking
flickr.com

1. Le Neve's Fast Eccles. Ang. P. 194
2. McClure, Alexander The Translators Revived.

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Robert Spalding - Hebrew Professor

2011-08-18T10:47:00.007+01:00

Robert Spalding was a fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. We don’t know his date of birth, but he succeeded Edward Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew in Cambridge University in 1605. Spalding was appointed to the first Cambridge group of translators of the King James Version.

videarius.eu

The first Cambridge group was responsible for revising the Old Testament books from Chronicles to Ecclesiastes. Its members were Roger Andrewes (or Andrews), master of Jesus College, Cambridge; Andrew Byng, a prebendary of York, where he later became subdean; Laurence Chaderton, one of the original delegates at Hampton Court; Francis Dillingham, a prolific theological writer; Thomas Harrison, a biblical scholar reputedly second only to Andrewes in learning; Edward Lively, a Hebraist whose death in 1605 prevented his participation in the work; Robert Spalding, a fellow of St John's College; and John Richardson (d. 1625). It was natural and inevitable that Cambridge University should dominate this group. (1)

Robert Spalding died in 1626.

(1) Westbrook, Vivienne (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyAuthorized Version of the Bible, translators of the.

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Richard Brett - eminent reputation

2011-08-13T10:15:00.019+01:00

Academic preparation

Richard Brett was born either in Somerset or in London, in 1567 , and matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1582. He was aged fifteen, and graduated in Classics four years later.

Brett subsequently proceeded MA in 1589, adding a BTh in 1597, and a DTh in 1605.(1) Meanwhile, in 1595 Brett was appointed Rector of Quainton, Buckinghamshire. That same year, he was granted a Fellowship in Lincoln College, under Richard Kilby, where he took up further studies in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic.

Lincoln College, Oxford
flickr.com

In the 18th Century Lincoln became the cradle of Methodism when John Wesley, a fellow there from 1726, held religious meetings with his brother Charles and the rest of Wesley's 'Holy Club', whom the rest of the university took to calling 'Bible-moths'.

Publications

Brett published translations of hagiography and history from Greek into Latin at Oxford, Vitæ sanctorum Evangelistarum Johannis et Lucæ à Simeone Metaphraste concinnatæ, Oxford, 1597, and Agatharchidis et Memnonis historicorum quæ supersunt omnia,Oxford, 1597 and Iconum sacrarum Decas in quâ è subjectis typis compluscula sanæ doctrinæ capita eruuntur, in 1603.

Translation work

Richard Brett belonged to the first Oxford group, responsible for translating the canonical Old Testament books, Isaiah to Malachi. Its director was John Rainolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford - John had originally proposed the undertaking to King James. Brett was also one of the first fellows of Chelsea College, London, in 1616, Other fellows of this College, who were on the KJV translation committee, include John Overall, John Spenser, Miles Smith and John Boys.

Eminent Reputation

McClure says

He was renowned in his time for vast attainments, as well as revered for his piety. “He was skilled and versed to a criticism” in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, and Ethiopic tongues. This studious and exemplary minister, having attained this exalted reputation, died in 1638, at the age of seventy, and lies buried in the chancel of Quainton Church, where he dispensed the word and ordinances for three and forty years.(2)

However, contemporary biographers date Brett’s death as 15 April 1637, not 1638. Over Brett’s grave a monument with his effigies and a Latin and English epitaph was erected by his widow. By his wife Alice he left four daughters. His stone at Quainton, Bucks, shows him, his widow and his four daughters, all kneeling.(1)

Richard Brett's monument
churchmonumentssociety.org

(1) Westbrook, Vivienne Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. “Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the (act. 1604–1611).”
(2) McClure, Alexander. (1858) The Translators Revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible. Mobile, Alabama: R. E. Publications (republished by the Marantha Bible Society, 1984 ASIN B0006YJPI8 )

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Michael Rabbett - In good company

2011-08-12T12:44:00.013+01:00

The life of Michael Rabbett seems almost completely undocumented. Like Melchizedek of old in the book of Genesis, we know neither his date of birth, nor the day of his passing from this world to the next. But, again, he is for ever remembered in heaven, for being among such illustrious company, bringing the Word of God in a definitive way to the English speaking world.

View of Great Court, Trinity College, Cambridge
flickr.com

Rabbett was a graduate in Divinity from Trinity College, Cambridge. He was chosen to share the responsibility of translating the epistles of Paul, along with William Barlow (Director), John Spenser, and Ralph Hutchinson. He must have been well trained in linguistic Greek, but we know little else that recommended him for the task

Michael Rabbett became Rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane, London

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Roger Andrewes - in the shadow of his brother

2011-07-28T12:36:00.013+01:00

Very little is known of Roger Andrewes, not least because he stood constantly in the shadow of his far more influential brother, Lancelot Andrewes. His date of birth is unknown, and no details are readily accessible concerning his early education and upbringing.

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Obvious nepotism?

Roger's brother Lancelot was Master of Pembroke College, when Roger was made a fellow there, perhaps through Lancelot's influence. When Lancelot was bishop of Chichester, Roger was a prebendery, an archdeacon and chancellor of Chichester cathedral. When Lancelot went on to Ely cathedral in 1609, Roger also received a prebend there. It was no accident that Roger Andrewes became Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, as this post was in the gift of the Bishop of Ely! By this time Roger was a fellow of Pembroke Hall, which independently shows he had genuine scholarship. However, a clear pattern emerges through his adult life, which causes Nicolson says Roger Andrewes was widely loathed by his contemporaries - which, if true, shows a deep jealousy or envy at work, in the face of nepotism.

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Work as a translator

The first Cambridge group was responsible for translating the Old Testament books, Chronicles to Ecclesiastes. Members of this group were Roger Andrewes (or Andrews), Master of Jesus College, Cambridge; Andrew Byng, and Laurence Chaderton, one of the original delegates at Hampton Court. Also members were Francis Dillingham, prolific as a writer; Thomas Harrison, whose scholarship approached that of Lancelot Andrewes; Edward Lively, a Hebraist; Robert Spalding, and John Richardson. Being in the same group as his brother Lancelot, Roger was surely Lancelot's choice. But, that is not to say he did not have, at the very least, the expertise required to fulfil the appointed task. Having said that, we may wonder what caused Lancelot Andrewes to remark his group was largely neglecting their commission in the earlier years of the translation process.

Roger Andrewes died in 1630.

Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper.

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John Richardson -- well-accepted Hebraist.

2011-07-22T10:42:00.039+01:00

Doctor John Richardson was born in Linton, Cambridgeshire seven miles from Cambridge. Like most of the KJV translators he was youngish or of middle-age and came from one of the regions of London, Oxford and Cambridge. The translators were not a cross section of English people or English clergy but of the scholars who happened to be on hand for the venture. The restricted geographical source was inevitable for two reasons (1) Universities were located only in the two communities of Oxford and Cambridge; (2) Extreme difficulties (compared to today) in communication and travel made it expedient to hold the committee sessions in the three main centres of London , Oxford and Cambridge. London University was founded by Royal Charter in 1836 over two hundred years later.

Academic appointments

John Richardson matriculated as a sizar from Clare College, Cambridge in 1578, obtained an MA in 1585. Further studies in divinity led to a BTh in 1592, and DTh in 1597. He became a fellow of Emmanuel College. In 1607 he succeeded John Overall as Regius Professor of Divinity. He was Master of Peterhouse (1608 - 1615), and then appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1615), and serving for two years as Vice-Chancellor of the University.(1617 - 1618).

Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge.
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Linguistic Ability

He was noted, says McClure, as

"a most excellent linguist," as every good theologian must be; for, as Coleridge says, "language is the armory of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests.

Not only a fine Hebraist, Richardson’s Latin was skillfully honed, shown by some Latin verses he contributed to Michael Dalton's The Countrey Justice (1618).

One day King James 1 was entertained at Cambridge by an intellectual joust:

In those days, it was the custom, at seats of learning, for the ablest men to hold public disputes, in the Latin tongue, with a view to display their skill in the weapons of logic, and "the dialectic fence." As the ancient knights delighted to display and exercise their skill and strength in running at tilt, and amicably breaking spears with one another; so the great scholars used to cope with each other in the arena of public argument, and strive for literary "masteries." Those scholastic tournaments were sure to be got up whenever the halls of science were visited by the king, or some chief magnate of the land; and the logical conflicts, always conducted in the Latin tongue, were attended with as much absorbing interest as were the shows of gladiators among the Romans. McClure

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A Dr. John Davenant (later Bishop of Salisbury) was defending the view - against all-comers - that the Church had no right to excommunicate a King. This contest had in mind the Pope's excommunication of Henry VIII in 1533 and of Elizabeth I in 1570, and the desire of James 1 to establish the Stuart dynasty on rock-solid foundations. However, Richardson trumped Davenant in the wordy war by alluding to the example of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, a man of outstanding merit and acknowledged saintliness. Ambrose excommunicated the emperor Theodosius in 390 AD

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"Here was a poser! King James, who was always very nervous on the subject of regal prerogative, saw that his champion was staggering under that stunning fact; and, to save him, cried out in a passion,-- Profecto fuit hoc ab Ambrosio insolentissime factum. [“Verily, this was a great piece of insolence on the part of Ambrose!"] To this, Dr. Richardson calmly rejoined,-- Responsum vere regium, et Alexandro dignum; hoc est non argumenta dissolvere, sed desecare. [“A truly royal response, and worthy of Alexander! “This is cutting our knotty arguments, instead of untying them."] And so taking his seat, he desisted from further discussion." McClure

King James I
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Here was a subject remonstrating with his King yet, while holding his own, still showing the humility of a spirit submissive to lawful authority.

Contribution to the KJV translation

Richardson as a skilled linguist served in the first Cambridge Company, appointed by King James I with the translation of the Old Testament books, from Chronicles to Song of Songs. Their love of balanced lines in free-verse couplets is shown in the way they rendered the Psalms, conspicuously improving on the Geneva Bible. This Cambridge Group had a masterly poetic touch with English words and sounds, and it is well illustrated in the lush and concrete love-poems of the Song of Songs. Balanced lines and free verse couplets - these rendered the parallelism of, for example, Psalms 23 and 121. More lyrical than:

Doubtless kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall remain a long season in the house of the Lord.

You can surely recite the KJV by heart? Whereas the Geneva Bible rendered Psalm 121 as:

I will lift mine eyes unto the mountains, From whence my help shall come,

the rhythm of the KJV improves it:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help.

Theological concerns

Richardson attracted some obloquy as one of the first Cambridge theologians to take up an Arminian position, and he was a popular theologian. The Puritans called him “a fat-bellied Arminian.” However, there’s no evidence he got into cantankerous debate with such men as Laurence Chaderton (of Emmanuel). Rather, he seems to have been well liked by his peers. Nicolson has him “increasingly ceremonialist and fat.”

Richardson shared an Arminian view of salvation with John Bois and John Overall, Richard Thompson and many of the translators, over against the Calvinistic convictions of such scholars as Samuel Ward, Laurence Chaderton, and George Abbot. (1)

Last days

John Richardson died in Cambridge in 1625 and was buried in Trinity College chapel. Emmanuel and Peterhouse were beneficiaries of his will.

(1) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. Pp. 56-58, 141

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Richard Clarke - preacher and family man

2011-07-16T20:25:00.014+01:00

Academic attainment

Richard Clarke (also Clerke), was born in London, date unknown (1562?), to George Clarke (d. 1607). He entered Christ's College, Cambridge in 1579 and graduated BA, 1583, becoming a fellow of the College that same year. Three years later he was granted an MA. Clarke also proceeded BTh in 1593, and was awarded a D Th 1598. Conflict within the College caused him to relinquish his fellowship.

Christ Church College, Cambridge
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Doctrinal conflict

Clarke was a leader of a minority faction in a generally puritan atmosphere, which preferred to conform to the prevailing rites and ceremonies of the Elisabethan settlement. In 1590 he came into conflict with the strongly Calvinist George Downame, a fellow at Christ‘s, and doctor of Divinity. This conflict stemmed from failure to gain desired promotion within the College - Clarke felt discriminated against because his puritan views were not more radical.

Family life

Having resigned his fellowship at Christ’s College, Clarke became a vicar on the island of Thanet. Marriage followed, and a son, Martin, born around 1602. The same year he was given the office of six-preacher in Canterbury Cathedral; and records of baptisms and funerals show he was often resident in the city.

Canterbury Cathedral Pulpit
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During their marriage Clarke's wife had given birth to at least ten children/ She died and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral,1620; most of the children also predeceased their father. Having so many children may have cost him the Mastership of his College, as King James 1 passed over him, whereas his initial recommendation for the post made an appointment look promising.

Translating the KJV

Richard Clarke was highly respected for his knowledge of Hebrew, and he served in the First Westminster Company which was responsible for translating the first twelve books of the Old Testament - Genesis to 2 Kings.

Publications

A large folio volume of seventy-four sermons (“Sermons Preached by that Reverend and Learned Divine Richard Clerke (1637)”, was published posthumously by Charles White M.A. in London. McClure comments:

. . . [A]las for "folios" and learned sermons" in these days. When people look on such a thing, they are ready to exclaim, like Robert Hall, at the sight of Dr. Gill's voluminous Commentary,--"What a continent of mud!"

According to William Prynne's account (1646), Clarke's sermons showed his anti-Catholic views, as a moderate Calvinist who opposed papal authority, attacked the mass, criticized monks and clergy, and restricted salvation to a definitive elect.

. . . [T]heir message was generally non-controversial, valuing equally prayer, preaching, sacraments, and the decency of actions such as kneeling at communion. Such a message sits reasonably comfortably with the antipuritanism of his younger days. (3)

Clarke became rector of Shargate. and vicar of Monkton with Birchington, where he ministered from 1609 until his death in 1634. He left two sons and a daughter, having married a second time.

(1) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 62 - 63
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 125-128
(3) Larminie, Vivienne. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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John Duport - reverend and learned Puritan

2011-07-07T14:30:00.002+01:00

John Duport was born c. 1549 (?) in Sheepshed, Leicestershire. He was the eldest son of Thomas Duport and his wife, Cornelia Norton of Kent. The Duports had been substantial landholders there since the early fifteenth century, tracing their origins to a Normandy family. John matriculated as a pensioner from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1564, and remained there for most of his life. Having graduated BA - and MA in 1573, he gained a doctorate (DD) in 1590, was a fellow of the college for several years. He married Rachel, daughter of Richard Cox, bishop of Ely. By her he had two sons, one of whom (James Duport) was also a noted Greek scholar and divine. He was ordained clergyman during this time, and had several ‘livings‘ in different counties and parishes throughout his life. He acted as precentor of St Paul's for over thirty years, and was a prebendary of Ely for most of the final decade of his life.

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As Master of Jesus College Cambridge for almost thirty years from 1589 to his death in 1617, John Duport was a learned man of high standing, one of England‘s senior scholars. Having come from a wealthy family, and gaining frequent preferments - that is, promotions - in changing parishes, Duport became a liberal benefactor of the College. Alexander McClure has an interesting if scathing comment (from a nineteenth century perspective) about an ecclesiastical system which too easily allowed unsuitable pastoral appointments to be made for several successive centuries:

Almost every parish, whenever vacant, is in the gift of some man of wealth, or high officer in church, state, university, or other corporation: Hence frequence removals to more desirable parishes tend to shew that a clergyman has very influential friends or is in high esteem. Still this does not necessarily follow, inasmuch as a very great part of this business is mere matter of bargain and sale. The person who has the right of presenting a clergyman to be pastor of a vacant church is called the “patron;” and the right of presentation is called the “advowson.” These advowsons are bought, sold, bequeathed or inherited, like any other right or possession. They may be owned by heretics or infidels, who are under very little restraint as to their choice of ministers to fill the vacancies that occur. If the bishop should refuse to institute the person nominated, it would involve the prelate in great trouble, unless he could make out a very strong case against the fitness of the rejected presentee. Meanwhile the flocks, who pay the tithes which support the minister, have no voice in the matter, except in comparatively few parishes. They may be dearly loved for their flesh and fleece; but they must take the shepherd who is set over them. If they dislike his pasture, and jump the fence to feed elsewhere, they must pay tithes and offerings all the same to the convivial rector, fox-hunting vicar, or Puseyite priest, who has secured the “benefice” or “living.” It is astonishing, that, under such an ecclesiastical system, the Church of England is not more thoroughly corrupted. And it is astonishing, that such a system can be endured to the middle of such a century as this, by a nation whose loudest and proudest boast is of liberty.

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There were several Masters of Cambridge colleges at this time, who all shared moderate Puritan views of the Bible and church life. In 1595 he had joined with Laurence Chaderton and six other heads of colleges in a letter to the Archbishop. In it they complained that Calvinistic teaching was being undermined by unbiblical views (later dubbed “Arminian”). The letter was designed:

to testify our own opinions for the defence and preservation of that truth of doctrine in some substantial points which hath been always in our memories both here and elsewhere, taught, professed and continued and never openly impugned amongst us.(1)

Duport was vice-chancellor of the College several times, and in that capacity ensured the university condemned the anti-Calvinist views of William Barrett in 1595.

The central point of controversy was the old one of election. Could any Christian feel totally confident of his salvation, in spite of frequent lapses into sin? A substantial body of senior academics at Cambridge had no doubt on the matter.(1)

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This was because they believed salvation depended entirely on the grace of God, and was not dependent on any human merit whatsoever! Neither was forgiveness cheaply obtained, because it cost God the most painful sacrifice of His “only begotten Son,” to enable us to enjoy salvation, as St. Paul implies in Romans 8:32.

Translation work

Duport headed up the second Cambridge group translating the Apocrypha of the King James Version. No details are available as to his specific contribution to the translation process. His colleague on the committee was John Bois, who worked assiduously for four years, and so was able to finish his part early. He then turned to help one of the other translators, who had fallen behind in his work. His name remains anonymous, and we have no certain idea as to who it might have been. John Duport died six years after publication, about Christmas, 1617, and left, says McClure "a well-earned reputation as 'a reverend man in his generation.' Let him also be reverend in this generation, for his agency in the final preparation of the Bible in English."

(1) Wilson, Derek The People's Bible Lon: Lion, p. 98.
(2) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 62 - 63
(3) Shepard, Alexandra. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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Ralph Hutchinson - quiet achievement.

2011-07-01T09:15:00.001+01:00

Educational background

Ralph Hutchinson was a younger son of John Hutchinson of London. He was born in 1552 (?) and educated at Merchant Taylors' School. For the method of this school in teaching the Classics, see Lancelot Andrewes.

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St John's College

Hutchinson then found his way to Oxford through the influence of Joan White (in her capacity as the widow of the founder of St. John's College, Oxford, Sir Thomas White). Concerned that his father, John Hutchinson, was ‘greatly charged with a great nombre of children’, Joan nominated Ralph in 1568 to a scholarship at the College. He was finally admitted two years later in 1570 (Stevenson and Salter, 164). Ralph graduated B.A. in 1575, and M.A. in 1578. In 1579 he was elected to the rhetoric readership, which he resigned in 1581 to become medical fellow. In June 1590 he was elected president of St John's College, by which time he had taken 'holy orders.' He became vicar of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, in 1593, and was also vicar of Cropthorne, Worcestershire. Further studies led to a BTh in 1596, and a Doctorate in 1602.

Cropthorne, Worcestershire.

His Translation work

In 1604 Hutchinson was appointed one of the translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible, to work at Westminster with William Barlow and five others on the Greek version of the Pauline and other epistles, from Romans to Jude. We catch a glimpse of Hutchinson's activity in translating, through his correspondence with John Rainolds, where he discusses with Rainolds the false estimation in which a mutual acquaintance held certain Bible commentaries known to them:

The commentaries . . . I can assure you to be mere empty names. For except those which are in the Venice Bible, let any man in Christendom show me so many as he speaketh upon the book of Esther, and I dare make myself his bondman.(1)

Hutchinson could not have been one of the six translators mentioned by John Bois, who were officially engaged in revising the first draft of the Bible at Stationer's Hall, as it issued from the groups in the Universities and at Westminster. The official process of revision took place during most of 1609, and involved John Bois, , Andrew Downes and three others. However, although Hutchinson had died three years earlier, he may have had an influence on an initial revision process. Paine adds:

When Hutchinson died at the age of fifty-seven he left a few notes about phrases in the New Testament. John Bois used these, which still exist in copy. They show how early the most painful re-examination of the Bible text began, and how the final product came from joint efforts. (1)

Hutchinson died on 16 January 1606 in Oxford, proud that his college had been ‘much blessed and increased duringe the tyme of [his] governement there’, and he was survived by nine children. As requested in his will, he was buried in the college chapel, where his widow (and executor) Mary placed a stone effigy in remembrance of his life and achievements. (3)

1. Paine, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 74, 100
2. Shepard, Alexandra (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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Samuel Ward - Strength in meekness

2011-06-25T13:06:00.015+01:00

Samuel Ward (1) was born 1572, (baptized 13th January, 1572) at Bishop Middleham, in the county of Durham. He was the son of John Ward, a man of ‘more ancientry than estate’ (BL, Harleian MS 7038, p. 355). Little more is known of his early days.

Student days

Ward studied at Cambridge, where he was at first a student of Christ’s College in 1589. His financial condition while a student was precarious: James Montagu and William Perkins helped him with his college debts. Ward suffered from a speech impediment that almost made him abandon divinity for its public speaking expectations, in favour of mathematics (Sidney Sussex College, MS 45, fols. 51, 46v). It was Perkins who persuaded him to stay with theology. He graduated BA in 1593. In 1595 he was elected to a fellowship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and in the following year proceeded M.A. In 1599 he became a Fellow of the newly established Sidney Sussex College. He proceeded BD from Emmanuel in 1603 and DD from Sidney Sussex in 1610. Thus, Ward spent the first forty years of his life entirely focused on academic study.

Puritanical zeal

Ward is perhaps best remembered for his diary and sermon notebook, kept from 1592 to 1601. These, along with other notebooks collected in the Sidney Sussex archives, reveal that in his youth he was a vigorous and outspoken puritan, devoted to biblical studies and inclined to intense introspection and self-condemnation for even trivial sins.

On May 13, 1595, in his diary he castigates himself for "My desire of preferment overmuch." Often he addressed himself in the second person. Thus that same day he wrote "Thy wandering regard in the chapel at prayer time." May 17 "Thy gluttony the night before." May 23, "My sleeping without remembering my last thought, which should have been of God." May 26 "Thy dullness this day in hearing God's word . . . thy sin of pride . . . thy by-thoughts at prayer-time same evening." June 14 "My negligence. . . in sleeping immediately after dinner. . . . in hearing another sermon sluggishly.June 12 "My too much drinking after supper." June 22 "My immoderate diet of eating cheese." June 27 "My going to drink wine and that in the tavern before I called upon God." July 8 "My immoderate laughter in the hall." July 15th "My incontinent thoughts at Hobson's." (2)

Nicolson gives his own helpful insights into Ward's famous diary, citing many examples of the thought habits of a Puritan's world view. (3)

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Presumably, we are wise to think that, by listing in a short space the sins of pride, impurity, sloth and greed, Ward thereby made himself more aware of a need for God's grace and for the "fruit of the Spirit" in his daily life - this in a way that would not otherwise have been possible. The result of such discipline meant he attained a godly name in maturity. Such concerns did not diminish with the passage of years:

. . . [H]is mature vernacular sermons show a continuity in his experimental spirituality, and his complaints about corruption and ‘novelties’ in the church and about popular irreligion continued throughout his life. . . . His actions . . all identify him with a puritan opposition and won him approbation . . . . Puritans regularly consulted him about matters of conscience, judging him ‘a man famous for learning and of high estimation … for his soundness of faith and integrity of conversation’, as Nicholas Estwick remarked in 1634. (Bodl. Oxf., MS Tanner 71, fols. 186–7)

At his death, forty eight years later, a funeral oration was given in Great St Mary's . . . and a sermon was preached by Ralph Brownrigg [which was] the most eloquent tribute to Ward's saintly life [and] his scholarship.

An ardent admirer of William Perkins and of Laurence Chaderton, he was like them much troubled by the introduction of popish ‘ceremonies’ into the Church of England, by clergy ‘too pontifical and papistical’, and generally by the ‘sins of the land’, especially ‘want of zeal’ and ‘coldness in our holy profession’ (Sidney Sussex College, Ward MS B, fols. 30v–31; MS 45, fol. 62v) . He was thus a natural choice for election to a fellowship of Emmanuel College . . and . . to the mastership of the newest puritan foundation, Sidney Sussex College, where he remained until his death. (4)

Sidney Sussex College was a Puritan institution and as Master, Ward welcomed Oliver Cromwell to the student body April 23rd, 1616, the same day William Shakespeare died (5). Ward showed a virulent anti-Catholicism when editing Perkins's work, and from 1610 to 1643 he actively prosecuted those who articulated ‘popish’ notions when delivering university sermons.

His scholarship and preaching

William Perkins arranged with him to posthumously publish his treatise in 1611, Problema de Romanae fidei ementito Catholicismo, Ward published it with a preface addressed to James I, to whom he was shortly afterwards appointed chaplain. A small collection of Ward's English sermons survive (Sidney Sussex College, Ward MS 0.8) which show that their concern with the state of the hearer's heart. His language aimed to stir the emotions. There are also Latin sermons more academic, which differ strongly from the tone and style of his vernacular preaching. They are more restrained, being argued with rigorous logic and narrowly focused on theological topics.

Theological Scholarship

Ward's principal commitments were always to his college, to biblical and theological scholarship, and especially to the maintenance of Calvinist orthodoxy. . . also he devoted attention to areas of scholarship rather new to early modern universities. [He was] highly regarded by the other college heads for meticulous scholarship and integrity of life. . . . The preponderance of both his writing and his use of time was always for theological ends.(4)

Whilst translating the KJV during this period (1604 - 1609) he established a relationship with Archbishop James Ussher, whom he assisted in his research of the early 'church fathers.' Says McClure, "his correspondence with Archbishop Usshur reveals traits of diversified learning, especially in biblical and oriental criticism."

Synod of Dort
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As an outspoken Calvinist, Ward was chosen in 1618 to be one of the English delegates to the synod of Dort in Holland. Letters addressed to him there from various scholars survive. One participant, Simon Episcopius, found him the most learned member of the synod. (J. Hacket, Sermons, 1675, xxvi). According to McClure

The object of the Synod . . . was to settle the doctrinal disputes which . . had been very sharp between Calvinists, who adhered to the old national faith, and the followers of Arminius, who innovated . . The points in dispute related to divine predestination, the nature and extent of the atonement, the corruption of man, his conversion to God, and the perseverance of saints. These five points are explained in some sixty “canons,” which were “confirmed by the unanimous consent of all and each of the members of the whole Synod.” The Dordrechtan Canons are, perhaps, the most careful and exact statement of the Calvinist belief, in scientific form, that has ever been drawn up.

On his return, Dr. Ward resumed his duties as head of Sidney Sussex College, and became Vice-Chancellor of the University. In the same year, he was made Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, which office he held for over twenty years.

A Bible Translator

Ward was a member of the second Cambridge company, charged with translating the Apocrypha. At age twenty-seven he was the youngest of all the translators and a chaplain to the King. After the KJV was published in 1611, some printing errors brought about a reprint under Charles I, in 1638. This was a Cambridge edition revised by Samuel Ward and John Bois, two of the original Translators who still survived, and assisted by other learned men. At the Synod of Dort (1618) Ward explained the procedure and rationale for the KJV. He says each of the six companies provided two revisers for the final revision, making twelve in all. By the time Miles Smith and Thomas Bilson 'put the finishing touches to the whole,' 'all things had been maturely weighed and examined.' (5) The overall aim of the project was explained

Caution was given that an entirely new version was not to be furnished, but an old version, long received by the Church, to be purged from all blemishes and faults.(5)

If today's critical text is accurate, they must have miserably failed in their objective!

Why translate the Apocrypha?

Just as today we purchase Study Bibles containing extensive notes and comments, so the Apocrypha was commonly included for reference purposes in Reformation Bibles, and in many languages, until the 19th century. There were good reasons, however, for excluding them as time went on.

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First, Old Testament Jewish scribes never acknowledged the Apocryphal books as sacred Scripture. When Jesus appealed to the Law, the Prophets and Psalms (Luke 24: 44), he was acknowledging a settled canon of Old Testament Scripture, which did not include these books. Little wonder, since not one of them was written in Hebrew - and Greek was not accepted as a valid medium of inspiration in Jewry. Neither do these books anywhere - explicitly or implictly - claim to be inspired. It is thus entirely consistent that the Church excluded them from the pages of Scripture during the first four centuries. They contain some fictional narrative and statements which contradict both the canonical Scriptures, as well as their own statements in other places. Where and how did Antiochus Epiphanes die, for example? In the two Books of Maccabees, three options are possible, and are given in as many places. Prayers for the dead and the possibility of sinless perfection are taught, yet both of these are at variance with Biblical teaching. Immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assassination, and magical incantation, are described, in an apparently approving way.

Knowing of these shortcomings, it was still thought wise to include some record of the centuries intervening between the two Testaments. For example, 1 Maccabees is a valuable and mostly accurate record worth of study. Thus, the apocryphal books were included in the original King James Version as a matter of course, as they were in all previous versions from Wycliffe (c. 1384) onwards. This includes the Calvinistic Geneva Bible of 1560. Not until the 1640 edition of the Geneva Bible is there mention of deliberate omission of the Apocrypha. Nevertheless, from the Biblical viewpoint, Samuel Ward's scholarship was not thereby 'wasted' on the Apocrypha. The entire body of scholars employed on the KJV translation were called on to evaluate and repeatedly revise the canonical books, as the translation process proceeded.

End of days

Samuel Ward was an upholder of the divine right of Kings, Consequently, when the English civil war broke out, Ward supported the cause of Charles 1st and, with his authority as the Vice-Chancellor of the University, sent the college-plate to be coined for the King’s use. Parliament in response deprived him of his professorship and mastership, and confiscated his goods. Also in 1642, along with three other heads of colleges involved in the same transaction, he was imprisoned in St. John’s College for a short time. During this confinement, he became fatally ill and died in 1643. Some Latin verses addressed to him by Dr. Thomas Goad show the high esteem he won. Rendered at the close in English, it suggests a strong forceful character, with a meek and quiet spirit expressed in a turbulent age:

None thy quick sight, grave judgment, can beguile,
So skilled in tongues, so sinewy in style;
Add to all these that peaceful soul of thine,
Meek, modest, which all brawlings doth decline.(4)

(1) The scholar is not to be confused with Samuel Ward (minister)
(2) Payne, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerpp. 62 - 63
(3) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 125-128
(4) Todd, Margo. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(5) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 238, 258

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Dr John Aglionby - an aquiline acumen

2011-06-16T10:05:00.019+01:00

Early days

Dr. John Aglionby was born about 1566 to Edward Aglionby and Elizabeth Musgrave, of Crookdayke. He descended from a respectable ancient family in Cumberland with the name De Aguilon - thereafter corrupted into Aglionby. Further details of his upbringing seem lost in obscurity.

Career path

Queen's College, Oxford
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In 1583, he became a student in Queen’s College, Oxford, and was made a Fellow there. After 'taking orders', he became known as an eloquent preacher, and travelled in foreign countries. He travelled abroad, and formed an acquaintance with Cardinal Bellarmine

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On his return, Aglionby was made chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth. This was itself a compliment, as Elizabeth was herself highly educated and an accomplished linguist, who endured no drone or dunce in attendance on her. He took his degree of D.D. in 1600. The next year, 1601, he was made Rector of Blechindon, and was also appointed Principal of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. About the same time, he became Rector of Islip. On the accession of James I., he continued to serve the spiritual needs of the Monarch, being appointed chaplain in ordinary to the new King. Punning on his name, his peers compared him to an eagle--"He was of aquiline acumen."

When Oxford received its new King in 1601, Aglionby was a protagonist in a debate held before the King, on the entertaining thesis: 'The saints and angels know the thoughts of men's hearts.' Against him were three other translators: Drs Holland, Giles Thomson and John Harding. The moderator was either Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester- another translator - or George Abbot, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University. The outcome of the debate is unknown.

Academic reputation

Dr. Aglionby was deeply read in the church fathers and the scholastic tradition of the middle ages. He was “an excellent linguist,” and an elegant and instructive preacher. Anthony Wood says of him in his Athanae:

What he hath published I find not; however, the reason why I set him down here is, that he had a most considerable hand in the Translation of the New Testament, appointed by King James I., in 1604.”

Aglionby may have been appointed in 1604 as a replacement for Richard Eedes, who died that same year. He became a member of the second Oxford group of translators, who worked on the Gospels, the Acts and the Apocalypse.

End of days

Dr. Aglionby died at his rectory, on the sixth day of February, 1609, aged forty-three. In the chancel of his church at Islip, is a tablet erected to his memory by his widow. He died in the prime of life, just as the Bible was in the press. Says Alexander McClure, "Thus he lived just long enough to do the best work he could have done in this world."

This is 24/52 Previous Next Index

Edward Lively - a devoted Hebraist

2011-06-04T11:45:00.048+01:00

Edward Lively was born into poverty about 1545, and never quite got out of it. He was pursued by his creditors to the end of his days:

On one occasion, he returned home from a lecture attended by the queen to find all his goods impounded against payment of debts. . . . As the father of thirteen children, he could never get ahead of his bills. Ultimately he had to sell his large library 'for a pittance' to a covetous bishop, and from time to time found himself obliged to pawn other goods. 'My life,' he once said in a despondent mood, 'is nothing but a continual Flood of waters. After his wife died, he was completely overwhelmed,(1)

The scholar "took sick with an ague and a quinsy (2)," and died in four days; he was buried at St Edward's Cambridge, May 7th 1605. He was about sixty years old.

Training and Education

Lively was a scholar and later fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

By his mid-20's in 1569 he had graduated; three years later he was awarded an MA. Continuing on with Hebrew studies he was taught by the reputed Oriental scholar John Drusius, a visiting Professor from Franeker, Belgium. Drusius had become an English fellow at Oxford to promote the study of Semitic languages in sixteenth-century England. Such was his fame as a Jewish scholar on the continent, that Drusius' Hebrew classes were frequented there by students from all the Protestant countries in Europe. He was highly skilled in both Hebrew and Jewish antiquities.

Lively was Regius Professor of Hebrew from 1575 to 1605. His published works include Latin expositions of some of the minor prophets, as well as a work on the chronology of Persian monarchs.

Ecclesiastical life

In 1602 Edward Lively received a prebend at Peterborough, and in 1604 he took a living in Purleigh. Only seven months after this he died.

Though he left eleven orphans without means of support, they survived and did well, and there are descendants of Edward Liveley living in the United States today.(3)

Scholarly pursuits

Lively's scholarship (was) exceptional for the age in which he lived. Classical learning, in which he himself was steeped, is recommended to all those aspiring to understand scripture. He stresses the contribution made by such non-Christian writers as Pliny, Horace, Homer, and Herodotus, to the understanding of the Bible: ‘For many parts of Scripture they are diligently to be sought unto, and not as some rash brains imagine, to be cast away as unprofitable in the Lord's schoolhouse; but especially for Daniel above all’ (A True Chronologie, 22). . . [I]n Lively's opinion these ‘profane writers’ were important sources for the illumination of the word of God.(4)

Lively's approach to translation blended three distinct sources in expounding the text: classical learning, the church fathers and post-biblical Jewish exegetes and historians. This is illustrated in two books he authored. The first was on five of the minor prophets in 1587, whilst the second was a commentary on the seventy weeks of Daniel 9: 24–27. The latter shows Lively's breadth of scholarship and of his attitude towards the Hebraic tradition of exegesis. His approach was to give a just account of the times as well as a true interpretation of the original.

Daniel's faint smile
Santiago de Compestela
flickr.com

If the commentator fails in either of these, ‘there is no hope to know what Daniel meant by his weeks’ (A True Chronologie, 27). In his search for the true interpretation he has constant recourse to the ‘judgment of cunning linguists and sound divines’ (ibid., 44). The result is that the comments of classical authors, church fathers, and Jewish exegetes are harnessed to the task of biblical interpretation. (4)

Dr Edward Pusey commended Lively as one of "the greatest of our Hebraists." Pusey himself had studied Oriental languages at Gottingen Germany and was Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church, Oxford for half a century

Dr Edward Pusey.

Preparation for the KJV translation

According to McClure

He [Lively] was actively employed in the preliminary arrangements for the Translation, and appears to have stood high in the confidence of the King. Much dependence was placed on his surpassing skill in the oriental tongues. But his death, which took place in May, 1605, disappointed all such expectations; and is said to have considerably retarded the commencement of the work. Some say that his death was hastened by his too close attention to the necessary preliminaries. His stipend had been but small . . .

Edward Lively was appointed leader of the first Cambridge group. The team were commissioned to translate from 2 Chronicles to Song of Songs. His premature death after only a few months of translation work compelled Laurence Chadertonto fill the gap left by his passing.

Final commendation

Illuminated Hebrew script

In the course of a distinguished career Lively proved to be a competent teacher and an able scholar. The letters which passed between James Ussher, later archbishop of Armagh, and his friends early in the seventeenth century testify to the respect in which he was held as a Hebraist by biblical scholars of his own day. His funeral oration, delivered by Thomas Playfere, Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, demonstrates how successfully he had communicated his love of Semitics, and in particular his interest in and appreciation of rabbinic literature, to his contemporaries. (4)

Playfere shows the esteem in which the knowledge of Hebrew was held, when he says:

[The Hebrew tongue] ought to be preferred above all the rest. For it is the ancientest, the shortest, the plainest of all . . . [T]herefore . . unless he can understand handsomely well the Hebrew text, he is counted but a maimed, or as it were half a divine, especially in this learned age. (1.57) (4)

(1) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 232
(2) Quinsy - an abscess in the tissue around a tonsil usually resulting from bacterial infection and often accompanied by pain and fever.
(3) Paine, Gustavus. (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Baker p. 74
(4) G. Lloyd Jones. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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William Barlow - political wheeler-dealer

2011-05-31T14:04:00.005+01:00

When I began (January 1st, 2011) these blogs on the various KJV translators, my stated aim was to examine their linguistic credentials, devoting one of these men to each week of the year 2011. The questions I asked were three:

- What can we learn about him?
- How much scholarship did he really have?
- Do our contemporary scholars easily compete with his expertise?

In the process of researching these KJV men, I have been somewhat drawn away from these central questions, in the desire to show the social and political context in which the translators’ worked, and to notice the issues they were grappling with, in their day.

Remembering the maxim, “Keep on making the main thing the main thing,” I will hereafter aim to concentrate on answering the two most important questions: (1) What academic qualifications and experience did each translator have in the area of language and translation? And (2) What contribution did each make to the translation itself, rather than to the circumstances in which it emerged?

St Johns College
wikipedia

Academic Background

William Barlow was born in London, date unknown (between 1555 and 1562?). His family had long settled in Barlow, Lincolnshire - near Manchester. His mother was Alice Field. In 1580 he was a student at St John's College, Cambridge, and then graduated in 1584 from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He gained an MA in 1587 and became a fellow there in 1590. He went on to graduate in Theology with a BTh in 1594, proceeding five years after to a doctorate in 1601. Perhaps by then he was in his late 30’s.

Ecclesiastical appointments

In 1597, Archbishop Whitgift made him sinecure Rector of Orpington in Kent. The next year he became chaplain to Whitgift. In 1601, he received a prebend (supported from a benefice, as a canon) at Chiswick, linked to St Paul’s cathedral. This continued until he became Bishop of Lincoln. At the same time he preached before Queen Elisabeth, as one of her chaplains. In 1603, he became Prebendary of Westminster and Dean of Chester. In 1605, whilst being Rector of St. Dunstan’s - one of the London parishes, in the East - Dr. Barlow was made Bishop of Rochester. He was promoted to the wealthier see of Lincoln in 1608, which he held until his death. He had hoped to become bishop of London, but death intervened in 1613.

He was one of the numerous ecclesiastics of that day, who were courtiers by profession, and studied with success the dark science of preferment (McClure)

Hampton Court Conference

Hampton Court Palace
flickr.com

The King commissioned the translation at the Hampton Court conference of 14–18 January 1604. As Dean of Chester, Barlow had the right to attend. He was actively involved in the preliminary arrangements. Also, he was commissioned to write the official account of these proceedings. This was titled The Sum and Substance of the Conference, Which It Pleased His Majesty to Have with the Lords, Bishops and Other of His Clergy at Hampton Court.” The account was deliberately skewed in favour of the bishops’ cause against the Puritans. Dr. Barlow’s account was apparently biased so as to make the Puritans’ statements of grievances appear as weak and witless as possible.

His ability with words

We catch a glimpse of Barlow’s preaching ability in the record of a sermon he gave at St Paul’s Cross on the Sunday after the Gunpowder plot was discovered. It aimed to blow up the King, together with the entire establishment of nobles,lords and commoners in both Houses of Parliament. Had this been successful it would have had as much and possibly more significance to future history than the effects of 9/11!!

Barlow’s text was Psalm 18:50

Great deliverance giveth He to His King, and sheweth mercy to His anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.”

Of Guy Fawkes Barlow said:

To make himself drunk with the blood of so many worthies . . . Such heaps he had laid in of billets, faggots, large stones, iron crows, pickaxes, great hammer heads, besides so many barrels of gunpowder . . . Not manlike to kill but beastlike to . . . tear parcel meal the bodies of so many personages . . , this whirling blast would have been unto our sacred king . . . as the whirlwind and fiery chariot of Elias, to have carried up his soul to heaven.”

The Translation Process

William Barlow chaired the second Westminster company (translating Romans to Jude) This was a group of seven divines, who thus worked on all the Epistles of the New Testament. Others on the panel included John Spencer (Pres. Of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), Roger Fenton, Thomas Sanderson, Michael Rabbett, Ralph Hutchinson (President of St. John’s College, Oxford) and William Dakins.

St John's College Old Library.
flickr.com

An interesting question is “How much scholarship did Barlow really have?” His studies at undergraduate level would have included Latin and Greek language. The wider aims and purpose of St John’s College , founded in 1511, were (according to it statutes) to promote education, religion, learning and research. Learned discourse regularly took place in written (sometimes also spoken) Latin. Greek was a necessary subject in which to matriculate, when qualifying for University study. If Barlow majored, say, in mathematics, then he would still have acquired serious language attainment when moving on to divinity study in 1594, at Trinity College (see summary above). During further years of study which led to his doctorate in divinity (1601), Barlow would have acquainted himself with the Greek and Latin writers of the early centuries. These were church ‘fathers’ like Tertullian and Augustine (writing in Latin) and Chrysostom (writing in Greek). With such a background he would have been able to ‘keep up with’ a more erudite scholar in his company, like Ralph Hutchinson (who seems to have been appointed one of the final review panel examining the work of all the rest).

Barlow‘s knowledge of how the early church ‘fathers’ used and quoted the New Testament would probably not have been unusually deep. Such knowledge is key to understanding how Christian scholars read the New Testament in the years preceding the earliest preserved uncial manuscripts. Barlow did publish several books and pamphlets but apparently not now accessible. Someone who spent so much time and energy wheeling and dealing in ecclesiastical politics would not have been able to deepen and perfect his knowledge of Text. However, his general competence as a translator of the Greek language would have been rightly assumed.

William Barlow died in his episcopal palace of Buckden, and was buried in 1613.

Source: Knighton, C. S., ‘Barlow, William (d. 1613)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008

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King of Bibles in Sydney - June 13/2011

2011-05-27T10:50:00.024+01:00

When asked if he was a defender of the Bible, the preacher, C. H. Spurgeon replied “I’d sooner defend a lion”. He was referring to the King James Version.

darkshoot.tumblr.com

I believe the King James Bible is the most accurate English version of the Holy Scriptures. Do I believe God kept errors of substance out of the first printed Greek text? Or did He keep them out of the Massoretic Hebrew text, which the Reformers used to translate the Old Testament? Did God keep the Reformers from making demonstrable mistakes when translating the Old Testament into English? Yes, I'm prepared to try and defend all those positions - if or when you throw a googly at me and tell me I'm a hopeless unscholarly obscurantist!!

However, no one has yet seriously tried to convince me of the errors in my mind about the Bible - so there must be little or nothing wrong with the standpoint I adopt. Ridicule is not the same as convincing argument, not to a reasonable man! Do me a favour then, and point out one obvious, clear, irrefutable, unavoidable mistake in the KJV. Whether or not you would then be prepared to hear out an explanation which seeks to justify that same KJV rendering (or its approximate marginal equivalent), is another kettle of fish. Doubtless some of us revere Martin Luther's memory so much, because his was a case of Martin contra mundum.

Further to the cause of the KJV, there'll be an "unconventional Convention" in Sydney's Anglican cathedral soon. Here's an introduction to it.
On Monday 13th June 2011 A.D. the Queen’s Birthday will be celebrated with a Convention on THE KING’S BIBLE.

Here's a video invitation from Phillip Jensen:
If you would like the 'drift' on Philip Jensen click on this link
Here’s an invitation also from Greg Clarke. Greg Clarke is a writer with the Public Centre for Christianity You can read Greg's profile here.

Here's a cinematic video trailer you can use online or at church to promote QBC IV. And here's another trailer:

Philip Jensen and Greg Clarke ask:
"Why should you come along?
The Holy Bible.
It’s the first book ever printed.
It’s the best-selling book of all time.
The word Bible means book.
And the word Holy means different, distinct, transcendent."

"Come and celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible as we reflect on the Bible's past, continuing, and future impact on our society and the world."

There'll be Convention-sized singing led by gifted musicians from the Sydney Conservatorium. Food will be on offer: "A plentiful and spectacular morning and afternoon tea! Subsidised parking at St Andrew’s House car park."

www.weddingnsw.com

VENUE: St Andrew's Cathedral, corner George & Bathurst Sts, Sydney.
DATE AND TIME: Monday 13th June 2011, 10am - 5pm.

COST:
$20 per person - for a Pre-Registered Group of 10+ by 1st June 2011
$25 per person - Pre-Registered by 1st June 2011
$30 per person - On The Day
You can register your payment in 1 of 3 ways:

- IN person at the Cathedral office
- ON 9265 1661
- AT www.queensbirthdayconvention.com

Meanwhile, I'll be beavering away here in Poole, on the south coast of England, blogging on the KJV, in the hope that each coming generation will discover the amazing book, and will love it enough to read it constantly, privately and publicly - and believe every word of it!! May the KJV live for ever

John Harmar - a faithful Calvin disciple

2011-05-26T08:30:00.012+01:00

John Harmar (also Harmer) was a Greek scholar, born at Newbury in Berkshire of unknown parentage. In 1569 he entered William de Wykeham’s School at Winchester. He also studied at St. Mary’s College, another College founded by William of Wykeham, whose motto was “Manners maketh the man.” In 1572 he became a scholar at New College, Oxford, matriculating in 1575. He graduated two years later, becoming a fellow in 1577.

Having come from a poor family he was blessed to receive the powerful patronage of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, one of Queen Elizabeth's leading statesmen. This allowed him to study at Winchester and Oxford. He graduated MA in 1582.

Roberty Dudley
flickr.com

Robert Dudley,1st Earl of Leicester was especially interested in the furtherance of preaching, which was the main concern of moderate Puritans. He went to great lengths to support non-conforming preachers, while warning them against too radical positions which, he argued, would only endanger what reforms had been achieved. Dudley was patron of the Puritan movement, trying to mediate between them and the bishops.

Academic appointments.

From 1588 to 1696 he was headmaster of Winchester School. He was Warden of his College for seventeen years. - a post he held until his death.

In 1585 Harmar was appointed Regius professor of Greek at Oxford, holding the position for five years, from 1588 until 1595.

In 1604 he was appointed to the second Oxford group of scholars assigned to work on the translation for the English Bible of James VI and I. The group translated the gospels, Acts, and Revelation, . In recognition of this he was awarded a BD and DD in 1605.

He was installed as a prebendary at Winchester on 10 January 1595; he became rector of Compton, Hants the same year and of Droxford, Hampshire in 1596.

Publications

Harmar’s first published work was an English translation of Calvin's sermons on the ten commandments, which appeared in 1579 and 1581. He dedicated this translation to his patron Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. He accompanied the nobleman to Paris, where he held several debates with the popish Doctors of the Sorbonne. He stood high in the crowd of tall scholars, the literary giants of the time. (McClure)

The Sorbonne, Paris
flickr.com

Harmar ‘s travels on the continent occurred some time before 1585. If he stayed at Geneva, as was probable, he would have attended Theodore Beza's lectures and sermons. He says he ‘found him [Beza] no lesse than a father unto me in curtesie & good will’ (Sermons, trans. Harmar, sig. 3r). He acknowledged this debt at Oxford in 1587 with an English translation of Beza's French sermons on the Song of Songs,.

Sir Henry Savile was a fellow Bible translator, and Harmar may have contributed to his important edition of the works of Chrysostom, printed at Eton in 1610–13. Harmar's will bequeathes a copy of this edition to Winchester College. Earlier in 1586 he was responsible for the first Greek book printed at Oxford. This was an edition of six sermons of John Chrysostom. In 1590 he used manuscripts at New College to produce the first edition of the Greek text of twenty-two of Chrysostom's sermons to the people of Antioch, and he supplied his own Latin version of the nineteenth sermon. (1)

Scholarship as a translator

When converting Beza’s French Sermons into English, Harmer showed his commitment to Calvinism, and his mastery of an excellent English style, as well as his adept skill in translating.

John Calvin
flickr.com

Wood described him as “a most noted Latinist, Grecian, and Divine.” A candidate for such distinction had to be well read in the Fathers and Schoolmen. In his earlier years he was accounted a very solid ‘theologist’ - ‘a subtle Aristotelian,' according to Wood (Ath. Oxon., 2.138). The scholastic writers had tried to apply Aristotle’s thought to Christian truths, as far as possible.

His attachment to and knowledge of Beza’s writings gave Harmar a natural sympathy and confidence in the latest Greek edition of the Received text of Scripture produced by Beza (1598). This position sought to make minor improvements to the previous editions of Stephens and Erasmus, and was the Greek text followed by the KJV Translators.

A member of the Revision Committee

Harmar is one of the few names we can be sure of, when describing the final revision team of twelve men. They worked on proposed amendments and resolutions of disagreements, deciding how the Text should be translated. The process was recorded by John Bois, for which see the relevant blog.

Final days

Harmar was married to Elizabeth, who survived him; they had no children. He did, however, make numerous bequests to relatives, friends, and dependents. He left many of his Greek books to New College and gave his collection of foreign-language bibles to Winchester College.

John Harmar was buried in the chapel of New College, where his epitaph was placed. His nephew John Harmar (1593/6–1670), also Regius professor of Greek at Oxford, promised Wood he would produce an account of his uncle's life for the Athenae, but this was never fulfilled. Harmar died on 11 October 1613. He was a considerable benefactor to the libraries both of the school and the college of Wykeham’s (1)

(1) P. Botley and N. G. Wilson National Dictionary of Biography

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Andrew Downes - the ablest Grecian

2011-05-24T11:53:00.003+01:00

Andrew Downes was born in 1549 in Shropshire of unknown parentage. He was educated at Shrewsbury School under its first headmaster, Thomas Ashton. He won a scholarship in his late teens to St John's College, Cambridge in 1567. He graduated after three years and became a fellow there. With the passing of almost a decade (during which time he was made a deacon) he became a senior fellow of St John's in 1580, and after another two years studying Divinity he too a BD. Another three years passed and in 1585, he was appointed to Regius Professor of Greek of Cambridge University, a post which he held for nearly forty years. Downes married Anna Delves, at Great St Mary's, Cambridge in 1608.

Personality and character

The most vivid account of Downes is to be found in the diary of Simonds D'Ewes. He says Downes was accounted "the ablest Grecian of Christendom." D’Ewes attended several of his lectures on the orator Demosthenes in 1619. He wrote:

When I came to his house near the public Schools, he sent for me up into a chamber, where I found him sitting in a chair with his legs upon a table that stood by him. He neither stirred his hat nor body, but only took me by the hand, and instantly fell into discourse (after a word or two of course had passed between us) touching matters of learning and criticism. He was of personage big and tall, long-faced and ruddy-coloured, and his eyes very lively, although I took him to be at that time at least seventy years old. (Autobiography, 139) (1)

Nicolson adds:

He was a man ‘of an extraordinary tallness, with a long face and a ruddy complexion and a very quick eye,’ who treated his students kindly, but could also turn irascible, stalking out of church one day in Cambridge when the students jeered at him for the inadequacy of his sermon. ;He left saying no one should see his face in the place again.’(2)

Downes was one of the few translators to receive cash payment for his work (others were rewarded with clerical posts afterwards). The King sent him 50 pounds in 1609 after half his work was done. Downes complained from Cambridge that further work with the final revision team, meeting in London, incurred an expense which deserved special treatment. Was this being greedy (as Nicolson seems to suggest), or did Bois rest on the Pauline injunction, “A labourer is worthy of his hire”?

Andrew Downes was one of the few translators to fall out with a colleague in the translation process. He became jealous of his star pupil John Bois. This occurred because the latter’s advice was preferred to his, when both were employed to review, evaluate and comment on Sir Henry Savile’s Complete works of Chrysostom. The angst this caused left Bois and Downes unreconciled to their dying day, even though Bois was content to keep praising his erstwhile teacher.

John Chrysostom

Translating the Bible

Downes was appointed one of the translators of the ‘Authorized Version’ in 1605 and assigned to the company, along with Bois, who were given the Apocrypha to translate. Both also served as members of the company for the review of the whole work.

Says McClure about this appointment:

He is especially named by the renowned John Selden as eminently qualified to share in the translation of the Bible. Thus it is the happiness of Dr. Downes to be “praised by a praised man;” for no man was ever more exalted for learning and critical scholarship than Selden, who was styled by Dr. Johnson, “monarch in letters;” and by Milton, “chief of learned men in England;” and by foreigners, “the great dictator of learning of the English nation.”

John Selden wrote in his Table Talk:

The translation in King James’ time took an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downes) and then they met together, and one read that translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Italian, Spanish &c. If they found any fault, they spoke; if not, he read on.(3)

Textual resources depended on Theodore Beza’s 1598 edition of the Greek New Testament. Beza was chiefly indebted to the Greek edition of Robert Estienne (1550), itself being based largely on one of the later editions of Erasmus. Beza’s edition was compared with other Polyglot Bibles (the Complutensian and Andwerp) which were placed alongside the Hebrew and the Greek and the various ancient Versions. The Latin Vulgate was an important resource, though no longer seen as standard.

Theodore Beza
Flickr.com

Then there were the countless comments by the early church fathers and ancient scholars, which showed how they read the Text, sometimes as early as the second century (Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Justin). These readings of the fathers (like Chrysostom) strongly supported the traditional text, as reflected in Beza’s Greek Text. Most scholars today accept Hort’s basic analysis of the Greek Text (which ‘analysis’ is a theoretical statement, not based on clear empirical evidence) and so they assume copies of the Fathers were corrupted over the centuries. Scholars like Downes and Bois would not have dared to assume manuscript copies of the ‘fathers’ had been corrupted, unless there was clear evidence for it. A rejection of Hort’s theories reopens the door to believing the Traditional Text (Beza), which the reformers worked with, was providentially preserved by God in detail - just as the divine Originals are trusted by a conservative evangelical when he reads the English text. At the critical moment of transition when the Greek New Testament was transferred from multiple copies to a single printed Text, God would not have abandoned his providential preservation of every word which He breathed out. This was the truth which Dean Burgon held with passionate conviction, and drove him to oppose the Greek Text introduced by Bishop Westcott and Prof. Hort. The latter ignored the brief impliedly given to them, to make only minor improvements to the wording and style of the KJV. Instead, they undermined the credibility of the printed Greek Text, and persuaded their colleagues (ERV Revision, 1881) to treat the words of the Bible as they did every other ancient Text, that is, subject to the same ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’

The final revision

Bois and Downes were colleagues working on the final revision of King James‘ Bible. They met in Stationer’s Hall, London for nine months, and John Bois kept detailed daily notes of all discussion between the revisers. Andrew Downes’ textual opinions appear strongly in the Notes of Bois. These notes evaluated the readings recommended by the scholars at Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster, comparing them with the Bible already translated into English and Latin as well as with the original Hebrew and Greek.

Thus as the six men worked . . . around a table piled with papers and books, we can . . hear Downes --“our most subtle thinker in words” Bois called him--compare one Greek reading with another. . . . Bois notes . . for the debatable passages present a number of alternate readings . . searching for the right word or combination of words to express an idea, and even deciding which idea to adopt, among the possibilities suggested by the different translations or inherent in the grammatical structure of the ancient texts . . . The Bois notes show how careful the translators were, first of all, to determine the exact meanings or establish a permissible range of meanings (3)

His literary output

Downes published little, but what there is suggests he was passionate about the Greek orators. The first Greek volume of Plato printed at Cambridge was Plato's Menexenus, 1587. It was "set as a teaching text... [and] was almost certainly printed as part of the curriculum established by Andrew Downes." He edited Lysias' Pro caede Eratosthenis (1593); Praelectiones in Philippicam de pace Demosthenis (1621), dedicated to James I of England. He also wrote some letters (in Greek) to Isaac Casaubon, and added notes to John Chrysostom, in Sir Henry Savile's edition. His letters to Isaac Casaubon, and others witnessed to his fluency in Greek.

The philosopher Plato
flickr.com

Downes died at Coton, near Cambridge. Having reluctantly resigned his chair in 1625 after almost forty years' tenure, he died three years later on 2 February 1628, and was buried there on 5 February.

(1) Elisabeth Leedham-Green and N. G. Wilson .(2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 199.
(3) Payne, Gustavus, 1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerp. 76-77, 115

This is 20/52 Previous Next Index

John Spencer - assisting Richard Hooker

2011-05-17T11:58:00.007+01:00

Early development

John Spenser was born in 1558/9 in Suffolk, the son of John Spenser, gentleman. When we has twelve he attended Merchant Taylors' School in London, 1571. We get an insight into the high standard of classical education pursued by the Company where they imposed a frequent test (“probation”) on staff and pupils alike in 1606, in the attempt to make it one of the great schools of England:

Merchant Taylors School
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During the probation, the headmaster was required to open his copy of Cicero at random and read out a passage to the Sixth form. The boys had to copy the passage from [Latin] dictation and then translate it, first into English, then into Greek and then into Latin verse. After this, they had to write a passage of Latin and some verses on some topic chosen for the day. This was for the morning; in the afternoon the process was repeated in Greek, based on the Greek Testament, Aesop's Fables, "or some other very easie Greeke author". The standard in Greek was not as high as in Latin, but Hebrew was also taught. This form of inspection was the model for teaching every day, as neither mathematics nor science were included in the curriculum.

Graduate education

From Merchant Taylors' Spencer ‘went up‘ to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated in Classics late 1577. He was the fellow-student and close friend and colleague of the celebrated author Richard Hooker - just as was his fellow students Hadrian Saravia, Sir Henry Savile, and John Reynolds.

Some indication of Spencer’s linguistic talent is shown in the fact that, despite lacking a master's degree, Spenser was elected by the president and seniors to the post of Greek reader the very next year,in 1578. The college has maintained its reputation as specializing and excelling in Classics, not least because of the emphasis placed on Greek and Latin culture since its founding. It is said to take more students to a study program inclusive of Classics each year, than of any other subject. From its early days the College became a humanist enterprise, and the library, founded at the same time as the college, was 'probably, when completed, the largest and best furnished library then in Europe.'

The three ancient languages
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Spencer’s election was strongly opposed by Dr. Reynolds, as he felt Spencer’s sister had exercised undue influence in the appointment. The lady was married to the college President, who naturally had a critical role in all academic appointments! (but Also Spencer was only nineteen years old. Thus, “the unprecedented promotion aroused sharp resentment among older and better qualified fellows.” (1) Rainolds’ opposition may have also been caused by his knowledge that the young scholar had early attached himself to the anti-Puritan faction of the College who were as unhappy with the growing Puritan emphasis as they had been with Popery. The appointment was however confirmed and in 1579, Spencer became a Fellow of the College. and ‘took orders.’(McClure)

Preaching and further study

John Spencer was Greek reader for ten years, until resigning in 1588. He then left Oxford and held successively the livings of Aveley, Essex (1589–1592), Ardleigh, Essex (1592–1594), Faversham, Kent (1594–1599), and St Sepulchre-without-Newgate London (1599–1614). He was also ‘presented’ to the living of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, in 1592.

During these years Spencer was not idle academically, as he developed his theological interests. In 1590 he took a BTh, and his consolidated learning was acknowledged with a doctorate, awarded 1602. During this time he also became a popular preacher.

Spencer’s flowing style carried figures of speech to great lengths. In his sermon to St. Paul’s Cross, “God’s love to His Vineyard,” he elaborated on the comparison of the Church to a vine rooted in Christ, warning the church in elaborate metaphors which ranged from horticulture to climate, from fencing to irrigation.”(2)

Spencer’s sermons were reputed to have ‘a more formal sober and gracious elegance, sometimes falling into excess of wit’ (MacClure, 164). This contrasted with the more colloquial style preferred by Elizabethan puritans.

Academic achievements

In 1607 Spencer was appointed president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in succession to John Rainolds. The time of his presidency was apparently orderly, peaceful and uneventful. He was made a chaplain-in-ordinary to King James.

Spenser was married to George Cranmer's sister, herself a favourite pupil of Richard Hooker. His wife’s brothers, George and William Cranmer were warm patrons of their celebrated teacher; both brothers were in diplomatic service to the Court. Hooker authored the work well-known among Anglicans, “The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.” Spencer was constantly consulted, says McClure, in the making of this work, and was even said to have “had a special hand” as in part its author. According to Hamlett Marshall, one of Spencer’s friends,

This of mine own knowledge I dare affirm, that such was his humility and modesty that when he had taken extraordinary pains . . about compiling a learned and profitable work [the Laws] now extant, yet would he not put his hand to it, though he had a hand in it. Therefore it fell out that another took his honours.(3)

McClure gives us some insight into how more radical Puritans like Thomas Cartwright, (who influenced John Rainolds) would have viewed Hooker‘s theology as arbitrary and arrogant:

. . . . [T]his work is to this day the “great gun” on the ramparts of the Episcopal sect. Its argument, however, is very easily disposed of. It is thus described by Dr. James Bennett; --”The architecture of the fabric resembles Dagon’s temple; for it rests mainly upon two grand pillars, which, so long as they continue sound, will support all its weight. The first is, ‘that the Church of Christ, like all other societies, has power to make laws for its well-being;’ and the second, that ‘where the sacred Scriptures are silent, human authority may interpose.’ But if some Samson can be found to shake these pillars from their base, the whole edifice, with the lords of the Philistines in their seats, and the multitude with which it is crowded, will be involved in one common ruin. Grant Mr. Hooker these two principles, and his arguments cannot be confuted. But if a Puritan can show that the Church of Christ is different from all civil societies, because Christ had framed a constitution for it, and that where the Scriptures are silent, and neither enjoin nor forbid, no human association has a right to interpose its authority, but should leave the matter indifferent; in such a case, Hooker’s system would not be more stable than that of the Eastern philosopher, who rested the earth on the back of an elephant, who stood upon a huge tortoise, which stood upon nothing.”

After the death of Richard Hooker in 1600 Spencer edited the first five books of the Ecclesiastical Politie (London, 1604). When Spenser wrote his preface, he identified with Hooker’s views, noting ‘this unhappy controversy about the received ceremonies and discipline of the church of England’ which had ‘rent the body of the church into divers parts, and divided her people into divers sects’, and had ‘taught the sheep to despise their pastors, and alienated the pastors from the love of their flocks.’

Richard Hooker, Exeter
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The introduction to that work and A Sermon at Paule's Crosse on Esay V., 2, 3 (London, 1615) are his only published writings. John Keble, former Professor of Poetry at Oxford, says, that it is “full of eloquence, and striking thoughts.”

Translation involvement

Spencer was also one of the translators of the King James Bible, serving on the second Westminster group of seven, led by William Barlow. They worked mainly on the epistles of St Paul - from Romans to Jude, inclusive. During the five years in which the translation process occurred, Spencer was vicar of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate London. This made him proximate to the Jerusalem chamber, Westminster. Thus, it was an easy journey for him to make to attend regular meetings of the team. There each read his latest draft-translation to the rest, as an agreed basis for detailed discussion, amendment and review.

The end of a career.

One final appointment followed the publication of the Authorised Version. The following year Spencer was ‘collated to’ the prebend of Ealdstreet, in St Paul's Cathedral. Two years afterwards, he died aged fifty-five in 1614, and was buried in the chapel of Corpus Christi College. A monument to his memory stands next to one of his predecessor, ‘each being attired in his doctor's habits, and each holding a book, Reynolds a closed one, Spenser an open one’ (Fowler, 175). His death apparently distressed his widow and children, who doubtless expected many more years together. (1)

Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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1. Wright, Stephen (2004) ‘Spenser, John (1558/9–1614)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
2. Paine, Gustavus, (1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerp. 44 (3) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 244

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George Abbot - Famous but flawed

2011-05-10T17:21:00.016+01:00

George Abbot was born in 1562 in Guildford, Surrey, the fourth son of a poor cloth worker, and Alice March.

They were certainly a brilliant and ambitious family. One of [his] brothers became Master of Balliol and then Bishop of Salisbury, another Lord Mayor of London and Governor of the East India Company. . . . George himself became Archbishop of Canterbury.(1)

His parents embraced the truth of the Gospel in King Edward's days and were persecuted for it in Queen Mary's reign' (Thomas Fuller). Abbot's mother, when pregnant with him, dreamed that her unborn son was destined for greatness, which ‘made several people of quality offer themselves to be sponsors at the baptismal fount’ (Aubrey, Natural History, 3.281) and later to sponsor him, aged sixteen, to enter Balliol College, Oxford.

Curriculum Vitae

George Abbot graduated BA in 1582, and MA three years later . He meanwhile had become a fellow of Balliol and was probably ordained at that time. Further studies led in 1597 to his DTh. His thesis specialised in attacking the basis of papal claims - the Petrine commission. In the same year he became master of University College, Oxford, and in 1600 he was appointed dean of Winchester. Little is known of Abbot's years as master of the College but he did attract the devotion of some pupils who later themselves became well-known.

His character

Nicolson piles up adjectives to suggest Abbot was not a good man . . .

George Abbot was perhaps the ugliest of them all, a morose, intemperate man, whose portraits exude a sullen rage. Even in death, he was portrayed on his tomb in Holy Trinity Guildford, as a man of immense weight, with heavy, wrinkled brow and coldly staring eyes. He looks like a bruiser, a man of such conviction and seriousness that anyone would think twice about crossing him. [He was] . . . egregious . . . the cleverest and the gloomiest. . . . He was stern, intransigent and charmless. He had no modern virtues. . . . He could be brutal as well as verbose . . . . [Was he] a wicked, mean, greedy, self-indulgent, vituperative, pompous bishop? It is certainly possible to . . . to see him as . . . an obdurate brute, coarsened by rage and the worst of the Protestant inheritance. There is more to him [however].(1)

Truly, ugliness (like beauty) is in the eye of the beholder. How can a writer be so sure of a man's nature and personality at a space of 400 years that he should make such a negative evaluation?

Payne has his own list of criticisms of Abbot:

[O]ne of his lacks was that he had never held a post in which he had to concern himself with the care of souls. Out of touch with the common people, he was often tactless and stupid. With little zeal for, and skill in preaching, he was born just to have views, to manage and command. He was a great one to reprove, and though tender to the scruples of the Puritans, he maintained that all should comply with the forms of worship enjoined by the law of the land. With all his scowls he was deeply pious and never flinched in his duty, which he knew to be a light to guide and a rod to check the erring. . . . [He was] "a dull plodder," and "stodgy."(2)

His earlier writings

In 1594 Abbot began to lecture each Thursday morning on the book of Jonah to an audience of students and others. After two hundred and sixty sermons were delivered over the next five years An Exposition upon the Prophet Jonah was printed in 1600. He also wrote A Briefe Description of the Whole Worlde (1599), where he mixed fact and comment on geography, politics, and trade, and it became the most popular of his works, being regularly reprinted. The way the book was composed and enlarged shows the broad intellectual tastes of its author. Abbot's library as archbishop contained works on political theory, science, mathematics, and witchcraft, with a specialty in French culture. In A Quatron of Reasons (1600) Abbot set out to refute Roman arguments against English protestantism. (3)

Abbot's theology

Abbot was an evangelical Calvinist, embracing even the doctrine of double predestination. He was implacably opposed to the teachings and practices of the Roman church.

Sarah's smile
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Abbot later exposed the immoral doctrine of mental reservation and equivocation, as taught by the Jesuits Robert Southwell, and Henry Garnet. [Henry Garnet withheld his knowledge of the impending Gunpowder Plot (1605) from the secular authorities, claiming the secrecy of the Confessional to protect him from the charge of obstruction] Equivocation is a method whereby the speaker deceives the hearer into believing what he wants him to hear by a process which is not strictly true, called mental reservation. The entire thought engaged is "expressed partly in speech and partly in the mind," on the basis that God hears what is in one's mind while human beings hear only what one speaks. From this perspective the Christian's sole moral duty was to tell the truth to God, whilst withholding, if need be, some relevant aspect of the truth from the hearer. The deceiver aims to serve a greater good. By employing double meanings in words, equivocation also allowed a speaker to tell the literal truth while concealing a deeper meaning, which meaning was in his own mind justified, although deceptive to the hearer. Abbot sought to show not only that all lies are deception, but deceptions are also lies.

Abbot contrasted the freedom of the gospel in England with the pre-Reformation church, when 'the decrees of popes, and the canons of councels, and customes and traditions, were in place of the written word’ (Abbot, Exposition, 340). Ministers must fulfil their evangelical duty to protestants and Catholics alike and ‘be diligent in preaching the gospell to such as wil heare, and in writing, for such as will reade, that they may know and beleeve and be saved’ (Abbot, Reasons, sig. Ff2r). (3)

Whilst distancing himself from puritan calls for major reforms of the English church, he taught that the office of bishop was apostolic, and he insisted on a ‘seemely conformity’ in ceremony. This differed from the more radical approach of John Rainolds, who opposed all ornamentation in worship as unnecessary.

His part in the translation process

George Abbot was a member of the second Oxford Group of translators. Their task was to translate the four Gospels, the Acts and the book of Revelation. The publication occurred one year before Abbot became Archbishop of Canterbury. By this time he had also become Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as well as Bishop of London. This suggests in Abbot we have the consummate politician. He knew how to flatter King James, and to use other valuable connections to obtain coveted ecclesiastical preferments.

A summary of his work shows that Abbot was more interested in the exercise of ecclesiastical power than in deepening his engagement with, or perfecting his knowledge of the ancient languages:

At court he was an outspoken champion of the cause of international protestantism, and a tireless administrator . . . . Abbot was also an effective parliamentarian, co-operating with clients and allies in the House of Commons, and working sedulously for regular and harmonious meetings. In short, Abbot's reputation for doctrinal rectitude and his evangelical churchmanship made him an important figure in James I's inclusive ecclesiastical establishment . . ."(3)

All this suggests that, as a translator, Abbot would have deferred to the expertise of other colleagues on the team, when deciding the finer points of phrasing and the meanings of words. Sir Henry Savile, for example, had particular skill in Greek, and sustained a devotion to the works of Chrysostom, and was a highly accomplished scholar. . .

But the strong man on the panel was really Sir Henry Savile . . . one of the foremost classical scholars of his age. In his early prime he had served as Latin secretary to Queen Elizabeth and had tutored her in mathematics and Greek.(4)

Abbot probably offered more when discussing stylistic issues than he did on translation itself. Nicolson quotes two or three eloquent passages, which compare his style favourably with that of John Donne. The passage on sin, for example, is striking, where Abbot shows "the way of the transgressor is hard.

[Sin] is like a smoke, like fire, it mounteth upward, and comes even before God to accuse us; it is like a serpent in our bosom, still ready to sting us; it is the devil's daughter. A woman hath her pains in travail and delivery but rejoiceth when she seeth a child is born; but the birth of sin is of a contrary fashion; for all the pleasure is in the bringing forth, it tormenteth us continually; they haunt us like tragicall furies. "(2)

George Abbot Hospital
Nicolson analyses three quoted passages, saying,

It isn't difficult to see how the King James Bible emerges from this pattern of thought and language. There is an immense and sonorous dignity to Abbot's style, a torque towards grandeur, a natural majesty, but also an understanding of metaphor . . . The gift of this language moment, the great Jacobean habit of mind on which the King James Bible rides for chapter after chapter and book after book, is this swinging between majesty and tangibility, the setting of the actual and perceptible within an enormous enriching frame, the sense of intimacy between the great and small, the embodiment of the most universal ideas in the most humble of forms, the sense in other words that the universe . . . is one connected whole

A burning question

King James ordered the deaths of Edward Wightman and Bartholomew Legate. These were ‘blasphemous heretikes’, according to Abbot, who were teaching Arianism. Legate believed Jesus was merely human, that he was not virgin born, and that there was no Incarnation. For preaching this, he was condemned to burn at the stake. The archbishop strongly endorsed the decision, at the same time ensuring that only those who agreed with the seriousness of the issue should form the panel of judges to hear the cases (J. P. Collier, ed., The Egerton Papers, CS, 1st ser., 1840, 446–8). Bartholomew Legate (and Wightman later) was burnt at the stake in Smithfield Market, in March 1611. This was the last time such a sentence was carried out for heresy in England, and in the same year the Bible was published.

Do the standards of the age determine whether an act is morally obnoxious, or whether conscience is excused from a charge of inhumane cruelty? Do St. Paul's words have any relevance in answering the question?

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. (Rom 12:19-20)

Abbot died a single man at Croydon Palace in 1633, after having placed the crown on the head of King Charles 1. The chief mourner at his funeral was his doctrinal opponent William Laud, who was also nominated his successor. Abbot was buried in Holy Trinity, Guildford, where his brother erected a splendid canopied tomb for him, adorned with eleven allegorical figures. Abbot had enjoyed a famous career. The extraordinary ebb and flow in his fortunes reflected a character flawed by controversy.

Holy Trinity Church, Guildford

(1) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 154 - 156. 158-159
(2) Payne, Gustavus, 1959/1977)The men behind the King James version, MI: Bakerp. 55, 145
(3) Fincham, Kenneth. (2004) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(4) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 241

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INDEX OF KING JAMES' TRANSLATORS

2011-05-09T11:45:00.034+01:00

THE WESTMINSTER GROUPS

Old Testament

(Genesis - Kings, inclusive)

Lancelot Andrewes (Director)
William Bedwell
Francis Burleigh
Richard Clarke
Geoffrey King
John Layfield
John Overall
Hadrian Saravia
Robert Tigue
Richard Thomson

New Testament

(Romans - Jude, inclusive)

William Barlow (Director)
William Dakins
Roger Fenton
Ralph Hutchinson
Michael Rabbett
Thomas Sanderson
John Spencer

THE OXFORD GROUPS

Old Testament

(Isaiah - Malachi)

John Harding (Director)
Richard Brett
Daniel Featley (Fairclough)
Thomas Holland
Richard Kilby
William Thorne
John Rainolds(Reynolds)
Miles Smith

New Testament

(Gospels, Acts, Revelation)

Thomas Ravis (Director)
George Abbot
John Aglionby
John Harmar
Leonard Hutton
John Peryn
Henry Savile
Giles Thomson
Ralph Ravens
James Montague

THE CAMBRIDGE GROUPS

Old Testament

(1 Chronicles - Ecclesiastes)

Edward Lively (Director)
Laurence Chaderton
Roger Andrewes
Andrew Bing
Francis Dillingham
Thomas Harrison
John Richardson
Robert Spaulding

Apocrypha

John Duport (Director)
John Bois
William Branthwaite
Andrew Downes
Jeremy Radclilffe
Samuel Ward
Robert Ward
Also Thomas Bilson: Editor
Rock Foundation: William Tyndale

John Harding - A quiet achiever

2011-04-30T16:04:00.023+01:00

John Harding was an English churchman and academic. We know little relating to his character or personal history. He was born c.1562 and married Isabel (her second marriage, first married under the name Clarke). They had three sons and four daughters.

Academic Background

Magdelene College, Oxford.
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John Harding was a demy (1) of Magdalen College. He graduated in Classics 1578 and postgraduated (M.A.) in 1581. He became proctor in 1589. His Divinity studies for a further three years led to a B.D. He held the chair as Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford from 1591 for seven years, and his doctoral position was recognised in 1597. In this same year he accepted the rectory of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire. Seven years passed and he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral, in 1604 Finally, he was made president of Magdalen College, in 1607–8.

By the time he was appointed as a translator of the Bible in 1604, Harding had been Royal Professor of Hebrew in the University for thirteen years. Says Alex McClure,

His occupancy of that chair, at a time when the study of sacred literature was pursued by thousands with a zeal amounting to a passion, is a fair intimation that Dr. Harding was the man for the post he occupied.

His professorial chair in Oxford made him the leader of the First Oxford Company of translators after the death of John Rainolds in 1607. The company translated the Major and Minor Old Testament prophets (Isaiah to MalachI).

oksanacouture.com

He was also a member of the twelve-man revision team, whose task it was to study the recommendations of other appointed translators. The latter had already scrutinised the work of the original team appointed to make a first translation of one particular part of the Scriptures. This added third stage was a final revision to appraise the suggested amendments and/or alterations already put forward. This last stage was, perhaps, the most difficult aspect of the translation-work and demanded the experience and skill of the senior men of the translators - the Regius professors of Oxford and Cambridge - plus the Dean of Westminster representing the London teams. This team of twelve gave the work finality.

Given two languages, how may the nearest approximation be made in the second language to the expression of ideas already conveyed in the first? The skill and beauty with which the KJV translators accomplished it are a fair testimony to the consummate skill and extreme care they took with the sacred deposit, to make every word exceedingly well crafted.

John Harding died in 1610, within one year of publication.

(1) A "demy" describes a foundation scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford: so called because such a scholar originally received half the allowance of a fellow.

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next Index

John Overall - Thinking in Latin

2011-04-23T15:11:00.022+01:00

en.wikipedia
John Overall was born in 1559 in Hadleigh, a cloth-making village in Essex, fifty miles from London. He was the son of George Overall , but became an orphan in his first year.

Academic background

He attended Hadleigh Grammar School as a poor student and survived by being in service to the master of the school. He and John Bois were pupils together at Hadleigh. Both received the patronage of John Still, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge who enabled them to become students at St John's College Cambridge in 1575. When John Still became Master of Trinity Cambridge, Overall followed him there in 1578. He graduated in 1579 and postgraduated in 1582 (MA). Overall was appointed as Greek lecturer in 1586

Known as a serious minded and handsome man, Overall's first church post was in 1592 as Vicar at Epping, beyond Epping Forest in Essex.

University Career

Overall became Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge in 1596, receiving his doctorate the same year, aged 37. He was popular with his pupils. There was some conflict about this appointment caused by the fact that younger University men had elected him because he opposed the Calvinistic teaching of his predecessor William Whitaker. Archbishop John Whitgift had recently adopted the Calvinistic Lambeth articles, and this raised tension between the learn-ed men, complicating their relationships. Overall supported the theologian Peter Baron and attacked the Lambeth articles in the pulpit. He believed no man could presume to say he was saved, unless he lived in a spirit of repentance. Thus, in his eyes final assurance depended on a spirit of daily repentance, not on a fixed decree of God. (1)

Overall was then made Master of Catherine Hall in 1598. This was a very rapid rise for someone born into poverty, and he was reluctant to accept the appointment (McClure). Just three or four years later in 1601/2 the Queen made him Dean of St. Paul's (Lancelot Andrewes was a Prebendary there at the time); all the while he maintained his academic post at Cambridge! He was promoted to a plum position as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1614. Thereafter he became Bishop of Norwich in 1618. On the one hand he developed a good friendship with Lancelot Andrewes; on the other he was hated by George Abbot. Overall became a member of the court of High Commission.

'Unlucky' in marriage

John Overall must be a good example of those referred to by Francis Dillingham in his sermons as "unwise luckless men [who] have gone on wooing and wiving foolish females to this day." This emerged in 1604, the same year as work on the KJV began. Overall married Anne Orwell; he was 44 years old, and dean of St Paul's. Anne was reputed by John Aubrey to be 'the greatest Beautie of her time in England.' (1). Had Overall believed in predestination he may have felt like Hosea in the Old Testament who was commanded to marry a faithless woman, then to take her back again after wooing her a second time. Anne's beauty was but skin-deep, and she committed adultery with the notorious womaniser Richard Sackville, third earl of Dorset, and later ran away with one John Selby. At Overall's behest some chased after the couple and they brought Anne back to the deanery. He received her back again, but no word survives of what became of this 'holy deadlock.'

His Translation work

Overall was placed in the Westminster group led by Lancelot Andrewes, translating Genesis to II Chronicles. Perhaps he was chosen as a translator of these early Old Testament books because he was aligned with Andrewes' theological opinions rather than for his linguistic skills. He was not noted for his knowledge of Hebrew, but was a Classical specialist, and like Andrewes opposed to Puritanism. However, his knowledge of Latin was deep, having lectured in Latin to his scholars over many years (from 1592 to 1604).

flickr.com

His Greek lectures were also given in Latin! Discussion between the translators preparing for publication was later immersed in Latin, which facilitates a very precise and concise word usage. The Hampton Court conference also used Latin heavily. This was not a problem for King James as he had learned Latin before he had learned Scots, and by the age of eight could translate any Bible passage chosen at random from Latin into French, then from French into English 'as well as few men could.' (2) Thomas Fuller reported that Overall had said to his father that, when being asked to preach in English before the Queen Elizabeth Overall found it difficult to "speak English in a continued oration" as he had spoken Latin for so long in public discourse.

Overall had a first-hand knowledge of the Greek and Latin 'church fathers,'

It is noted by Bishop Hacket that it was his custom to ground his sermons in the schools on two or three texts of Scripture showing what latitude of opinion or interpretation was admissible . . . . He was celebrated for the appropriateness of his quotations from the Fathers.

The exactness of Overall's literary scholarship is reflected by his addiction to the scholastic writers of the middle ages. The schoolmen refined analysis of language to a fine art involving the definition of nicer shades of thought as well as cultivating precise word-definition. (McClure) Linguistic analysts of our own day are hardly treading new ground here. Overall's skills would have served the Westminster company well, whilst they would have looked more to Geoffrey King (Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge) and William Bedwell, ('father of Arabic studies in England') for their opinions on the finer points of Hebrew syntax and idiomatic usage.

Nevertheless all Andrewes' group were Hebrew scholars to a greater or lesser degree.

Further guarantee of the highest standards of translation scholarship were secured by the 'rules of engagement' set by the King. Each group had to submit its work to every other group for evaluation, with review and suggestion by each member of the group. Each translator was thereby seen as responsible to check the entire Translation as best he could (given time constraints) and so work for the highest accuracy. All suggestions for improvement were submitted to a final revision committee of twelve senior men for analysis and application. The three directors of the company were all Hebraists: Edward Lively, Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge; John Harding, Regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford, and Lancelot Andrewes, whose knowledge of ancient languages was celebrated and well known.

Never has a translated work of literature been subjected to such a thorough and rigorous scrutiny by so many scholars at one time. "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. Pro. 11:14

Jerusalem chamber, Westminster Abbey
English-heritage.org.uk

Altogether the first Westminster Company was rich in talent, sensibility and experience --well fit (as one writer put it) to' sit down in a cold stone room by the fire and discuss in capable fashion' the legendary, historical, and biographical narratives, short stories, and lyric poetry in the books of Genesis through 2 Kings entrusted to their care.

(2) However, it is gratuitous to believe that any one of the translators relegated an Old Testament story to the status of mere legend."! Their minds had not yet been poisoned by the anti-supernatural scepticism of the eighteenth century 'enlightenment.' Their work is thus much more relevant to the creation of sound contemporary biblical faith than it has been for 400 years..

Within a year of beng made Bishop of Norwich, Overall died.

(1) Cranfield, Nicholas (2008) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(2) Bobrick, Benson. (2001) The Making of the English Bible Lon: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 210

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Andrew Bing – not quite anonymous.

2011-04-14T11:28:00.050+01:00

Doctor Andrew Bing (Byng) was born in 1574, and lived seventy-eight years.

Academic credentials

Andrew Bing was a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in Trinity College Cambridge in 1608. His predecessors were Edward Liveley (Director, First Cambridge company), Robert Spaulding (First Cambridge company) and Geoffrey King (First Westminster company).

Like its sister college, Christ Church, Oxford, Trinity takes pride in its aristocratic connections — it has generally been the academic institution of choice of the Royal Family (King Edward VII, King George VI, Prince Henry of Gloucester, Prince William of Gloucester and Edinburgh and Prince Charles were all undergraduates). Like Christ Church, the college has also been associated with Westminster School. The Master remains to this day an ex officio member of the school's governing body.

Trinity has educated six British prime ministers and several heads of other nations. Among the alumni are Isaac Newton and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Its members have won 32 Nobel Prizes. Though Andrew Bing’s life and career is not quite anonymous, we can take comfort in the knowledge that the highest academic standards were present when Henry VIII first founded the College in 1546. Another alumnus of Trinity is John Stott, who as a student was a gifted student in French and Theology.

Dr. John Stott.(1921 - 2011)

There was a lot more emphasis on the importance of language study in depth, in an age when the physical sciences had not yet developed their alluring claim on students’ time and energies.

Appointed to translate

Andrew Bing was a tall, smiling young man, and merely 30 years of age when King James I of England chose him to work on the Bible. (1) He served on the "First Cambridge Company" charged with translating parts of the Old Testament for the King James Version of the Bible. The chairman of this group was Edward Lively, father of thirteen children. Others in the same group as Andrew Bing were Laurence Chaderton, Francis Dillingham, Thomas Harrison, Roger Andrewes, (brother of Lancelot Andrewes), and Robert Spaulding. The books they translated were I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.

Not a great deal is known about this scholar, as is true of several of the names in a list of over 52 men who worked on the Translation. A study of these men’s careers enables the reader to build up a picture of their life-style and relationships:

[T]hey were bound together in a complex web of shared experience at both school and university and in a set of mutually reliant networks of clientship and patronage, by which leading members of the church promoted their favourites into well-rewarded positions of influence.” (2)

Other responsibilities

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Dr. Bing was Sub-dean (deputy to the Dean) of York in 1606, responsible for running the York Minster Cathedral. Twelve years later, he was made Archdeacon of Norwich in 1618. “An archdeacon is often responsible for administration within an archdeaconry, which is the principal subdivision of the diocese. The office has often been described metaphorically as that of oculus episcopi, the bishop's eye.”

Andrew Bing outlived nearly all his fellow workers and died in 1652. By this time Oliver Cromwell was about to take the title of “Lord Protector” in running the Commonwealth after the execution of King Charles I.

(1) Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker.
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 251.

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The world needs more than starlight

2011-04-11T21:07:00.001+01:00

The apostle Paul exhorts us in Philippians 2 to avoid grumbling and complaining when we get into difficult circumstances . . .

KJV Philippians 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

The NIV has a different thought here, when it likens our influence in the world to the stars of the physical universe . . .

NIV Philippians 2:15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

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The NIV translation I believe is misleading. It makes two gratuitous assumptions when translating the phrase as like stars in the universe.

First, this rendering assumes that Paul had stars in mind when he used the word phoster (‘lightbearer) in verse 15. But, this is reading into Paul’s use of the word more than is there. If he had meant “stars,” he had a perfectly good Greek word to hand, which would indicate that: aster (as in astral, asteroid, astrology). However, phoster may refer to any luminary body which bears light, for example, the moon or the sun itself.

The second gratuitous assumption is made by translating kosmos as “the universe.” There is no suggestion from the context of the passage (Phil 2: 14 - 16) that Paul had the physical universe in mind. Only the context in which a word or phrase is used can help the translator choose the correct English meaning, where there are different ways of explaining what was in the writer’s mind. Ignore the context and you can make an author say what you want him to say, not what he actually said. Where two or more meanings are possible, a translator should not make up the reader’s mind for him as to the Holy Spirit’s intention, but should leave the same apparent ambiguity in the English rendering as that which characterised the Greek words originally written, lest he misrepresent the writer’s intended meaning.

How should phoster (light bearer) be translated?

All stars bear light, but not all light bearers are stars. Jesus describes Himself as a star in Rev 22:16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star (aster). Peter describes the risen Lord as “the day star arising in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19) Balaam described the coming Messiah Jesus in the words “There shall come a Star out of Jacob”, Num. 24:17. On the other hand Paul the apostle never described believers as “stars,” probably because Jesus never did either. For example, Jesus commanded his disciples:

KJV Matthew 5:16 Let your light (phos) so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Jesus uses phos five times in Matthew 4-6, referring to his disciples, just as he does when referring to himself as “the light of the world,” in John 8:12. Did he intend us to read Matthew 5:14 as “Ye are the starlight (phos) of the world”? On that basis, perhaps we should sign up for a career in Hollywood!

In the Genesis account of creation, Gen 1:14 and 16 describe God’s act of creating the greater light (sun) and the lesser light (moon). The stars are distinguished from these ‘lights’ with the words: “and he made the stars also.” The Hebrew word for “light” here is me’or.

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In the OT this refers to the sun and the moon, and of the sum-total of the seven lights of the golden candlestick in the Temple.

It was in the Temple context (John 8:2) that Jesus, in John 8:12, described Himself as “the light (phos>) of the world." No room for stars here.

When the five books of Moses were translated into Greek (called the Septuagint – translated from Hebrew before the time of Jesus), the translators used Paul’s word phosteres, when translating ‘lights’ and ‘great lights’ in Gen 1:14, 16. This also harmonises with how the word is used in the OT Apocrypha. The moon is phoster in Ecclus. 43:7. The phrase “luminaries of heaven” (phosteres ouranou) in Wisdom 13:2 refers to the material world, not the ethical world, and is “exactly equivalent to phosteres en kosmou” (1) which is Paul’s expression in Phi. 2: 15 (“lights in the world”). Paul has, moreover, already indicated in verse 15 that the ethical world is in his mind, when he says in the same verse that believers shine “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.” Thus, the light he has in mind harks back to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus exhorts us to light up the darkness around us, as the sun chases away the night’s darkness.

Jesus does not compare the believer’s enlightening influence specifically to the sun, so neither would Paul expect us to understand his reference in Phi 2:15 to the sun in such a specific way. However, the believer “walking in the light” sheds a whole lot more light in this dark world than does a bunch of remote stars, which are light-years away in the vast depths of empty space.

How should kosmos be translated in Phil. 2:15?

There are seven possible ways of understanding the word cosmos in the New Testament. Its primary meaning is “order, arrangement, ornament, adornment.” It can also refer to the earth Acts 17:24, or the “earth” in contrast with Heaven, 1 John 3:17. Another usage is figurative - by metonymy, it can refer to the “human race, mankind,” e.g., Matt. 5:14; John 1:9. It is also applied specifically to the Gentile world, in contrast to the Jewish, Rom. 11:12, 15. Again, Paul may have had in mind the “present condition of human affairs,” mankind in alienation from and in opposition to God, as in 8:23 (notice Jesus had just described Himself as the “light (phos) of the world” (kosmos), in 8:12. Jesus uses kosmos quite differently in Matt. 16:26 where he is speaking of “the sum of temporal possessions,” Lastly, a seventh usage of kosmos is metaphorical, where James says the “tongue” is “a world (of iniquity).”

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Conclusion

So, which if these seven uses of the word kosmos does Paul have in his mind in Phi. 2:15, and how does the Holy Spirit want us to understand this verse? The NIV has made up its mind for us - an approach which makes everything depend on the translator getting it right. Rather ambitious, don’t you think? Some would even say, arrogant, as if the reader is not competent to be able to work out for himself whether a literal or metaphorical meaning is intended by the Spirit (on whom we should depend!) in verse 15.

“World” is defined in the same verse as meaning the ethical world, and it is most probable that Paul is saying the believers’ interaction with his pagan surroundings is designed to shed a needed light in a society so described in Eph 4: 18 “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

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Not surprising then, that RC Trench says of the KJV rendering of Phil 2:15, “. . . among whom you shine as lights in the world” that, although it “fails to mark with entire precision what St. Paul intends,” yet, “it would be difficult to improve on this.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Allow some room for the Holy Spirit to teach us what the words mean. Sometimes, less is more.

(1) RC Trench (1880/1985) Synonyms of the New Testament, MI:Eerdmans, p. 164

Hadrian Saravia – the continental influence

2011-04-06T10:46:00.038+01:00

Birth and early days

Hadrian Saravia was born 1530/31 in Hesden, Artois, Belgium. He had a Spanish father and a Flemish mother. We know little of his early life. He was trained for a clerical career in the Low Countries (1). His training specialised broadly in languages. Saravia was responsible for drawing up the Walloon Confession and he founded the Walloon church in Brussels.

Approaching maturity

In 1566 Saravia became minister at Ghent, and experienced conflict there with some of his colleagues. He ‘escaped’ to England. There the Privy Council sent him to Guernsey in the Channel Islands to found Elisabeth College, and to pastor a church there.

Elisabeth College

In 1577 he was recalled to Belgium from Guernsey. In 1582 he became Prof. of Divinity at Leiden, aged 51/52, and awarded a D.D. Leiden University is well-known for its long-held standard of superlative scholarship:

The presence within half a century of the date of its foundation of [various famous] scholars . . at once raised Leiden university to the highest European fame, a position which the learning and reputation of . . others enabled it to maintain,

University of Leiden

At the same time Saravia was appointed preacher of the French Reformed Church in Leiden.

Advocate of the high church position

In 1588 Saravia moved to England to teach at Southampton Grammar school In 1590 he was awarded a D.D. from Oxford University aged 55 – 60. He also became Vicar of Lewisham in Kent. Engaged in writing, Saravia published that same year the Degrees of Christian Priesthood, which advocated apostolic succession as an essential basis of ecclesiastical authority. He was the most strict of the high churchmen (1), publishing treatises in Latin against the views of the Presbyterian Theodore Beza and against the Jesuitical approach of Jacob Gretser, “considered one of the best controversialists of the time”

However, Saravia was no contentious academic. According to one contemporary, he was “most anxious and earnest in seeking for general peace and concord in the church of God.” (2)

Puritan persecution of the 1580’s

Puritan separatists were persecuted by Richard Bancroft as they met in private houses (3). Bancroft had an effective spy network reporting on the freedom and ’priestlessness’ exercised by separatists in celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Whilst two hundred or so Puritans fled to Holland, fifty-two were put in jail. They were then interviewed by Lancelot Andrewes, whose duty it was to visit ‘the separatist’s hell.’ (3) Hadrian Saravia was a soul-mate of Lancelot Andrewes, deeply conservative, authoritarian and inclusivist, who opposed reform and controversy. His principal work was to defend episcopacy. Whilst he held firmly to the supremacy of Scripture, he so valued the writings of the early church fathers that he opposed any change to doctrine that could not be supported from their writings. (4)

Saravia interviewed Daniel Studley in the Fleet.

[They] were held for long periods in the string of hideous London gaols: the Clink, the Gatehouse, the Fleet, Newgate, the Counter Woodstreet, the Counter Poultry, Bridewell and the White Lion, some of the prisoners being shut in the ‘most noisome and vile dungeons’, without ‘bedds, or so much as strawe to lye upon . . . and all this, without once producing them, to anie Christian trial where they might have place given them to defend themselves.’(2)

In 1595 Saravia became prebender of Gloucester. Also of Canterbury, Worcester and Westminster, according to Paine. He became at this time a good friend of Richard Hooker, the writer of Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.

In 1601 he became Prebender of Westminster aged 73. This was while Lancelot Andrewes was Dean of the chapter there.

Translating the Bible

Saravia was a member of the first Westminster group appointed by Lancelot Andrewes (e.g. John Overall, and William Bedwell), a Hebrew scholar among Hebrew scholars, translating Genesis to II Kings. They made a balanced team where all shades of opinion on ecclesiastical issues were represented. (1) However, by this time Saravia was an old man, “a royal favourite, perhaps rather exhausted at 73.” In 1609 he became Rector of Great Chart in Kent.

We do not know just how much work he applied to the task of translation, though his love of languages must have persuaded Andrewes he was a worthy addition to his Westminster team. This was regardless of the identity of the views they shared, as to the direction in which they believed the church should go. Saravia imbibed his Calvinistic views on the Continent, but these were modified by his friendships with Hooker and Andrewes.

In the same year the KJV was published, Saravia collected a folio of his own works. The next year, 1612, he died in Canterbury, aged 82.

1, Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker, pp. 30, 34-35, 41.47, 52, 59.
2. Wilson, Derek (2010) The People’s Bible: The remarkable history of the King James Version, OX: Lion, p. 95
3. Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 29, 88, 95, 99, 193.
4. Douglas, J.D. (1974) Dictionary of the Christian Church Exeter: Paternoster.

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Thomas Ravis - a scourge of the Puritans.

2011-04-01T02:37:00.014+01:00

Thomas Ravis was one of the six deans who attended the Hampton Court Conference in 1604. As a result, he was appointed director of the Second Oxford company involved in the creation of the King James Bible. This group translated the Gospels, the Acts and the book of Revelation. Sir Henry Savile and John Peryn were included in this group. Ravis later supplied notes for William Barlow's account, the Sum and Substance of the Conference.

Early days

Ravis was born in 1560 at Malden, in the county of Surrey, and died 1609. His education began at the famous Westminster School. Its list of old pupils display a galaxy of talent: Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Nick Clegg, John Locke, Charles Wesley, JN Darby, Sir Peter Ustinov, and winners of six VCs! – to name only a few. Later Ravis was to show great favour to students from his old school, encouraging and advising them in their studies (1)

Westminster School

In 1575 Ravis became a student of Christ’s Church, one of the Oxford Colleges, and founded by Cardinal Wolsey. The dean and chapter of Christ Church were reluctant to make a place for him, until a strong letter from William Cecil (Lord Burghley) overcame it. Over the next twenty years he pursued courses in both Arts (MA 1581), and Divinity (DD 1595).

Says McClure, “It is enough to record, that [the King James translators] nearly all attained to the highest literary honours of their respective universities.”

An influential cleric

He ‘took holy orders’ in 1582, and preached around Oxford for some time. From 1591 he was vicar of Allhallows Barking, in London for seven years. Then followed an appointment as Canon of Westminster, and two years after that he was made Dean of Christ’s Church College, Oxford. In 1596 he was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University. In 1598, he exchanged his All- hallows Church for the rectory of Islip. He also held the Abbey Church, in Wittenham Berkshire. These appointments took him into the inner circle of influential churchmen, where he rose fast in its elite social network, and he exercised a strong personal resistance to the Puritan influence of John Rainolds and his group.

In October 1604 Ravis was appointed Bishop of Gloucester, whilst still remaining dean of Christ Church, and holding his Westminster prebend, as well as the parsonages of Islip and Wittenham.

The Old Bishop's Palace, Gloucester

His holding a plurality of churches for the sake of their revenues, in neither of which he could perform the duties of the pastoral office [justified complaint] . . . The pernicious custom of pluralities, whereby a man receives tithes for the care of souls of which he takes no care, fleecing the flock he neither watches nor feeds, is one of those abuses still continued in the Church of England . . . [but not practised now]” McClure

A persecutor of Puritans

Thomas Ravis’s persecuting spirit towards the Puritans makes it difficult for biographers to commend him as a translator. Increasing conflict within the higher offices of the clergy made it certain that the list of translators would be staunch representatives of the then established order, where the authority of the bishop was ever more appealed to, in order to resolve the pain caused by conflicting viewpoints. Lancelot Andrewes appealed to episcopal authority at the Hampton Court conference with the words:

The occasion which caused the apostles to appoint bishops seemeth to be schisms . . . . The whole ministry of the New Testament was at the first invested in Christ alone. He is termed . . . bishop, 1 Peter 2: 25.”

No appeal was made to the Bible to justify the diocesan tradition where many congregations are ruled by one bishop. Edwin Hatch’s lectures tended to show that the earliest Biblical order was quite different,

For although it is indisputable that our Lord founded a church, it is an unproved assumption that the church is an aggregation of visible and organised societies. . . . The theory upon which the public worship of the primitive churches proceeded was that each community was complete in itself, and that in every act of public worship every element of the community was present.”(2)

Part of the New Testament evidence for the congregational view (assuming the authority of biblical precedent) is seen in Acts 20. There we read Paul gathered together at Miletus the elders (presbuteroi) of Ephesus. These same men are at the same time denoted “overseers” (episopoi: bishops) by the writer Luke, in Acts 20:17, 28. This shows that in the earliest times, instead of one bishop ruling many churches, it was the reverse, wherein several bishops (episcopoi: overseers) ruled one church, that is, one local congregation.

Paine says Ravis was “haughty and harsh” speaking against the Puritans at some length at the Hampton Court Conference. (1)

Ravis’ appointment as Bishop of London brought on a strong persecuting spirit in line with his predecessor, Richard Bancroft. He showed a severe exacting intolerance of all nonconformity. His determination to bring uniformity of outlook to his diocese made him blind to the virtues of those he opposed. For example, he interviewed, says McClure:

the holy and blessed man, Richard Rogers, [who was] for nearly fifty years the faithful minister of Weathersfield, than whom, it is said, “the Lord honoured none more in the conversion of souls.” In the presence of this venerable man, who, for his close walking with God, was styled the Enoch of his day, Bishop Ravis protested,--”By the help of Jesus, I will not leave one preacher in my diocese, who doth not subscribe and conform.”

The writer reposts:

The poor prelate was doomed to be disappointed; as he died, before his task was well begun . . . . So true is the remark, that “bishops and books are seldom the better for being translated.”

The term “bishop” was finally prominent in translating the pastoral epistles of Paul, being conspicuously used five times, where “overseer” would have allowed for the Puritan conviction that pastoral care is best exercised by someone present and directly involved in ruling a local congregation. It is hardly surprising that a company of translators, which included many bishops among them, would result in the final translation-product reflecting what was then the established order. The overall director, Lancelot Andrewes, with his high church leanings, had the final word, and he ensured it would be so!

A man of social affairs

In 1604, soon after Dr. Ravis was commissioned as a translator, he also became bishop of Gloucester. There

he spent lavishly on social affairs, and it was said that he ‘in so short a time had gained the good liking of all sorts that some who could not brook the name of bishop were content to give (or rather to pay) him a good report. He also constructed conduits to bring water into his bishop’s palace, built much of it anew, and improved the paving.(1)

His appointment was ostensibly for “his great learning, gravity, and prudence” and he seems to have been well accepted: “[Though] his diocese “was pretty well stocked with those who could not bear the name of a bishop, yet, by his episcopal living among them, he obtained their love, and a good report from them.” Paine calls him “stringent but sociable.” (1)

“Known as a ‘grave and good man,’ Ravis was able at getting work done and considered a model for lesser folk to revere, but clearly not a man without choler. In retrospect we may think him an odd choice for chairman of the group to work on the writing that contains the heart of Christian teaching.” (1)

His competence as a translator

Thomas Ravis would have learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic as part of the curriculum of the upper school at Westminster in early days. Whether he excelled in these disciplines we are not told. There is no record of a particular aptitude for languages. Neither do we hear whether he immersed himself in the writings of the early Christian ‘fathers,’ whose work is so important in offering a critique of modern text-critical methods. Doubtless he would have kept in touch with classical languages during the twenty years which led up to his receiving a doctorate. However, his specialty seems to have been more to do with practical ecclesiastical affairs, and a doctrinal preoccupation with defeating the Puritan influence in church life.

“While he worked on the Bible, he was highly active as a hated scourge.” (1)

Notwithstanding, McClure gives Ravis the benefit of the doubt, saying:

Though too much carried away by a zeal for the forms of his Church, which was neither according to knowledge nor charity, he lived and died in deserved respect, and hath a fair monument still standing in his cathedral of St. Paul’s.

Ravis died on 14 December 1609, and was buried in the north aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral.

(1) Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker, pp. 50-51, 93, 98, 104.
(2) Lang, G.H. (1959) The Churches of God Lon: Paternoster. P.15
(3) Wilson, Derek (2010) The People’s Bible: The remarkable history of the King James Version, OX: Lion, p. 100

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Jesus mediated the New Testament.

2011-03-30T11:20:00.017+01:00

Paul the Apostle, so I believe, wrote about a testamentary covenant in his letter to the Hebrews in Jerusalem. Six times (9:15, 16, 17, 18, 20) the KJV translates the Greek word diatheke as “testament,” not “covenant” in the KJV rendering of chapter 9. No more modern version follows the KJV translators, but settles for “covenant.” That is a serious loss to Christian teaching on the meaning of this chapter.

Why did the KJV use the word “testament,” in translating Paul’s thought here? Because he makes it clear in verse 16, as he writes he has a will (a testamentary disposition) in mind.

In v. 16 he said:

KJV Hebrews 9:16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

However, in order to isolate the thought of a will in verse 16 from the wider context, thus allowing the word diatheke to be otherwise translated as “covenant,” the NIV adds to verse 16 the words, “in the case of a will.” But, these are words which the Holy Spirit never spoke!

NIV Hebrews 9:16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it.

The whole passage (9:15 – 20) runs as follows:

And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

What is a testament? The key idea contained in the word is that it is a witness to something. Thus, we speak of a witness in court as testifying to the truth when giving his testimony, that is, saying what he heard and saw. [Lat: testari: to bear witness). When you write a will, you establish its power to determine what will happen after you die, by the validity of the witnesses who signed the written instrument in proper form. At the point of signature it becomes your “last will and testament,” unless you change your mind before you die. Change is evidenced by a new written will, which replaces the old one, and it shows what should happen to your property after you’ve gone.

The Greek word diatheke, however, does not have to refer to a written will. It’s basic meaning is “a settlement,” (1) - whether orally agreed or written – as when God entered into covenant with Abraham, promising to do certain things for him and for his progeny after he’d gone. Gal. 3:15-16 refer to God’s promise to him that in the covenant, he would receive the inheritance of the land of Canaan, Gen 15:18. However, we human beings are often untrustworthy creatures, and usually need something written, to give clear unambiguous evidence of what has passed between the parties to a covenant, and to hold us to do what has been promised. Interestingly enough, the book of Genesis is itself, not only a written covenant, but a testamentary one at that. Both the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic one were ratified by the death of a sacrifice:

“a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”

The bloodpath of Genesis 15
And in the case of the Mosaic covenant,

Exo 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

The sacrificial death of an animal had to occur before the promise of God could be put into effect, just as you and I have to die before the promises of our “last will and testament” can be carried out. The promise of the Abrahamic covenant was the land of Canaan, which will one day become Israel’s property (in the exact boundaries laid down in Gen 15:18) to fully enjoy. The promise of the Mosaic covenant was that God would make Israel His own peculiar possession, Exo.19:5-6. Paul says in Hebrews 9:15 that the sacrifices involved in these covenants looked forward to the one perfect sacrifice of Christ, when He would become the mediator of a new testament, put into effect at the point of His death - when he gave His blood for our sins, Matt, 26:28.

The new covenant is therefore, God’s determination to put those He has called into the possession of the inheritance He has bequeathed. The Abrahamic covenant promises a legal bequest of actual land, and is yet to be fulfilled when Jesus Christ returns to this earth - although the conditions for its fulfilment have already been met in the death of Christ. Isaiah 53 expounds the latter fact in a prophetic way. The new covenant will be literally fulfilled on Israel’s behalf, as explained in Heb. 8:10. Its significance is more than material, and is spiritual, Heb 8:10. Meanwhile, as the body of Christ, we enter into all the benefits and privileges of that new covenant, not because we deserve to do so, but because it is an unconditional testamentary covenant. It witnesses to the death of the Son of God, which enables all the promises of God to be fulfilled to us. Matthew Poole puts it this way:

So that for what was spoken, v. 14 [the purging of the conscience from dead works ] even the effects of his sacrifice, the justification and the sanctification of sinners, is he the great gospel High Priest, the mediating person between God and sinners, confirming and making effectual by His death God’s testamental covenant, which is for the very administration of it the very best and last, in which God bequeathed pardon, reconciliation, righteousness, holiness, adoption and heirship to an eternal inheritance to penitent believing sinners. (Heb 9:15)

F.F. Bruce sums up the evidence for retaining the word “testament” in Hebrews 9:15 -20 as follows:

As used elsewhere in the epistle, the particular kind of settlement which diatheke denotes is a covenant graciously bestowed upon his people, by which he brings them into a special relationship with Himself: in other words it is used . . . as the equivalent of the Hebrew berith. But in verses 16 -17 [of chapter 9] it is used of another kind of settlement, a last will and testament, in which property is bequeathed by the owner to various other persons on the understanding that they have no title to it until he dies. There are, in fact, some scholars [refs. given], who have maintained that “testament” is the sense of diatheke throughout this epistle if not throughout the Greek Bible. “Testament” is certainly the predominant sense of the word in Hellenistic Greek . . . On the other hand, there have been exegetes who have endeavoured to retain the meaning “covenant” even in Heb. 9:16f . . . . But it simply is not true to say that “where a covenant is there must of necessity be the death of him that made it” – nor of necessity the death of anyone else. . . . The death of him that made it” is . . . “the death of the testator”; a testament is the only kind of diatheke which depend for its ratification on the death of the person who makes it.(1)

www.jonrising.blogspot.com

You may say, ‘well, all right, you have shown at least that “testament” is a valid and helpful way of translating diatheke, but why is it actually necessary to translate it that way?’ How does the idea of a testamentary covenant add anything to the simple word “covenant”?

The essential point is that every testament is a covenant, but not every covenant is a testament. Therefore omitting the idea of “testament” diminishes the meaning, if the writer had “testament” in his mind – and we have shown (from the obvious reference in v. 16) that he did so have it in mind. There are several Old Testament examples which prove the point of this difference. The first three major covenants of Scripture (with Noah, with Abraham and with Moses) all had a testamentary aspect. A death of an animal sealed the covenant in each case by the shedding of blood. However, this is not true of the Davidic promises. When God said, Psa 89:3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, He was referring to His everlasting promises to him in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. God spelled out these specific benefits to undeserving David, who had simply to respond in faith and say ‘thank you,’ which he did, 7:20-29. No death took place, and no sacrifice. It was ‘merely’ a covenant, though a very important one for the world’s destiny. “Covenant” is also used to describe marriage, in Ezek. 16:8; Mal. 2:14; Prov. 2:17.

Similar one-sided promises are made every day of the week. When my neighbour purchased his property, he bought it subject to a covenant to allow me to use his land to access my garage. When he signed up on his property, he impliedly entered into covenant with me, giving me the stated right to use his drive, even though I was not a party to the purchase. But this covenant was not a testament. No death took place. It was merely a promise witnessed to, when he signed off on the property. It was not a contractual promise, for I had no legal interest in the property. But, it was nevertheless a promise made for my benefit - a covenant, not a conrtact.

“Testament” is the correct and proper translation in Hebrews 9:15-20, because v. 16 proves a specific testamentary instrument (i.e. a written will) is in the Apostle’s mind, as an essential part of the discussion. For the NIV to add “In the case of” a will denies the natural context of the passage, which focuses on the death of Christ. That death is the means by which the promised inheritance is bequeathed. A mere glance at the passage proves this: verse 12 refers to blood, so does v. 13, and see v.14 and v. 18, and again in v. 19, and v. 20 and v. 21, and finally v. 22! The verses surrounding v. 16 (this verse refers to a will) discuss death in each verse. The whole passage is about a ‘will and testament’, and not merely the reference in v. 16. Also, “in the case of” is not a translation, for there are no Greek words in the Text, which correspond to it. They are thus added words, and we are told not to add to God’s words, lest we incur the plagues described in the book of Revelation (Rev 22:18).

Secondly, “testament” is not a mere option in Hebrews 9, because only that word brings out the meaning and nature of the new covenant. It is a promise effected on the death of Christ. That promise has been solemnly witnessed to, by two classes of men: the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New (Eph 2:20). The Testament is in written form, evidencing the meaning of the death of Christ - it leaves mankind without excuse.

By refusing the word “testament,” we too easily overlook we need all the help we can get, to enable us to appreciate the meaning and value of the Cross – especially when it comes to actually reading Scripture. That’s why the early church celebrated the Lord’s Supper every week, on the Lord’s day (Acts 20:7; Rev 1:10). We need to be constantly reminded that we are sinners, even while we are at the same time saints.

The apostle Paul said:

Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom.
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer,
But this I know with all my heart,
His death has paid my ransom.

How deep the Father's love for us!!

Bishop Frank Houghton used to say, “We should never let a day go by without thanking the Lord Jesus for Calvary.”

(1) FF Bruce,(1964) The epistle to the Hebrews, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, MI: Grand Rapids. pp. 210 -212

Thomas Holland – Deep learning, strong conviction.

2011-03-26T09:02:00.017Z

Thomas Holland was born in Ludlow, Shropshire in 1538/39, and was one of the older translators of the King James Version. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford and became chaplain and Fellow of Balliol College in the same University.

Exeter College, Oxford

He was made Doctor in Divinity in 1584. The next year, when Robert Dudley, the well-known Earl of Leicester was made governor of the Netherlands – having just then been set free from Spanish rule - Dr. Holland went with him as chaplain, in 1585.

A man of solid learning

In 1589, Holland became the King’s Professor of Divinity at Oxford, for no obscure reason:

McClure says he was “so celebrated for his preaching, reading, disputing, moderating, and all other excellent qualifications, that all who knew him commended him, and all who heard of him admired him.”

He adds that under his leadership many distinguished scholars were trained up. Later in 1592 he served as Rector of Exeter College for twenty years. As a student, it was said of him, that he was so “immersed in books,” that academic pursuits overshadowed and dominated his entire life. The same could be said of many, perhaps all of the translators.

[This] office he filled with great reputation for twenty years, being regarded as a universal scholar, and a prodigy of literature. His reputation extended to the continent, and he was held in high esteem in the universities of Europe. These were the leading events in his studious life.

In his funeral sermon Dr. Kilby said of our translator:

that he had a wonderful knowledge of all the learned languages, and of all arts and sciences, both human and divine. He was mighty in the Scriptures; and so familiarly acquainted with the Fathers, as if he himself had been one of them; and so versed in the Schoolmen, as if he were the Seraphic Doctor [Thomas Aquinas].

The antiquarian Anthony Wood referred to him as “another Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures,” and besides, “a solid preacher, a most noted disputant, and a most learned divine.”

Contending for the Faith

Dr. Holland preached with gravitas and was intensely serious. When he discoursed off the cuff, he held an audience better than when he relied on the smaller details of an elaborate script.. For Holland, “contending for the faith” meant opposing Roman Catholic errors and expounding the Bible from John Calvin’s perspective. The latter’s teachings from Scripture formed the backbone of Holland’s Christian character, and in all his studious work he maintained an ardent devotion to God. He was a decided Puritan appealing against the prevailing standards of church ceremony and discipline.

He enjoyed debating difficult questions in the public University arena. For example, when he visited Oxford in 1604, the King, no mean scholar himself, liked to listen to a good academic argument with plenty of heat - all part of the royal entertainment. Holland and two other KJV translators, Giles Thomson and John Harding, argued for the negative when discussing the theological question, “Can the saints and angels read the thoughts of our hearts?” Dr John Anglionby, chaplain to the King (and to Elizabeth 1st before him) - yet another helper in the KJV translation - argued for the affirmative: yes, they can! Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, yet another translator, was the dialogue moderator in all this.

Paine says of this debate:

Though an appropriate choice for men of many minds, all on their good behaviour, the virtue of the question was that no one could answer it. It was therefore a perfect subject for a heated debate, a drill in what passed for logic, in the manner of the schoolmen of the Middle Ages. (1)

A fierce Puritan

“Fierce” is what Nicolson calls him (2). This is doubtless because of the famous contretente he had with the future Archbishop William Laud, as to whether bishops should rule the Anglican Church, rather than it be governed by elders.

William Laud

Archbishop Richard Bancroft (and Laud later on) had laboured all too successfully to introduce ‘popish innovations ‘at Oxford. Holland maintained against all comers that “bishops are not a distinct order from presbyters, nor at all superior to them by the Word of God. Thomas Holland had attempted to persuade the young Laud to a different opinion when the latter was taking his Divinity degree in 1604. Laud as a student contended “that there could be no true churches without diocesan episcopacy.” Dr. Holland issued a sharp public rebuke to him for what he foresaw as a prescription for a divided church, written by “one who sought to sow discord among brethren, and between the Church of England and the Reformed Churches abroad.” At that time the Calvinist party was strong in the Church of England. Laud's later insistence on the authority of ‘apostolic succession’ was unpopular in many quarters. His diminutive stature was satirised in the pun, "give great praise to the Lord, and little laud to the Devil."

But the bishops let him alone, as just Dr. Holland and harmless – a renowned old codger [now in or beyond his 60’s] whom all Oxford loved.

Thomas Holland must have been very preoccupied with the errors and idolatry wrapped inside Roman dogma, for Kilby - in the same funeral sermon – tells how whenever the scholar set out on a journey, he would first convene the Fellows of his College, and give them his favourite parting charge, that is, never failing to end with, Commendo vos dilectioni Dei, et odio papatus et superstitionis!! “I commend you to the love of God, and to the hatred of all popery and superstition!”(1)

A worthy translator

Holland was a member of the "First Oxford Company", responsible for the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, in the royal aim to create an ‘authorised version’ of the Bible for reading in the churches. He took a prominent part in what was the crowning work of his life.

Once translation days were over, Holland spent most of his time meditating and praying. Through his life, he had published several learned orations, also one sermon. Many manuscripts were ready for posthumous publishing, but they fell into unfriendly hands opposed to Puritan teaching, so were never published.

Sickness and the weakness of old age drew him closer to his eternal destiny and quickened the prospect of heaven. His biographer writes:

He loved and he longed for God, for the presence of God, and for the full enjoyment of Him. His soul was framed for heaven, and could find no rest till it came there. His dying prayer was— ‘Come, O come, Lord Jesus, Thou Morning Star! Come Lord Jesus; I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Thee!’ (1)"

He died and was buried with great solemnity in the chancel of St. Mary’s, Oxford on 16th March, 1612. Richard Kilby published his funeral sermon on Thomas Holland, in 1613. This was just a few months after the Bible was completed and published. He was 73: it was a religious age.

(1) Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker, p. 85, 46-47, 155.
(2) Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. p. 254.

This is 12/52. Previous Next Index

Laurence Chaderton – a saintly scholar

2011-03-18T10:37:00.005Z

Laurence Chaderton was born in Lancashire, England, 1536, son of Thomas Chaderton, a Roman Catholic. His family were wealthy and devoted papists. Under the tuition of Laurence Vaux, a catholic priest, he became an able scholar. His father pushed him into law, and he was trained in the London Inns of Court, where he studied and practised for some years.

In 1564 Laurence entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where the Puritans were strong. After a short time, he became convinced of reformed doctrines. He wrote to his father for some financial support but the reply he got was an offer of thirty pounds a year if his son would quit Cambridge: (1)

Son, Laurence, if you will renounce the new sect which you have joined, you may expect all the happiness which the care of an indulgent father can assure you: otherwise, I enclose a shilling to buy a wallet. Go and beg.”

Thus was Chaderton disinherited of a large estate. However, he quietly summoned up courage, and went on as a Puritan. His strong Christian character and academic dedication gained him a scholarship, which replaced the need for a begging bag. He must have felt like the apostle Paul who sustained his mind by laying hold on the promises of God his Saviour - having "suffered the loss of all things ,” that he may win Christ (Phil 3:8). Chaderton eked out his means with some teaching, and his father may have helped him a little, in spite of the threat.

Student years at Cambridge

Chaderton attained a thorough knowledge of the three ancient languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He also learned French, Italian and Spanish, and made time for some botany too (1). He liked to join in the playful famous Town-n-Gown fights with fellow students, though in his case this was tempered by a genuine piety and seriousness. Archbishop Richard Bancroft owed his life to Chaderton, and the latter had risked his right hand to save him from a mob of enraged citizens. (1) In 1567 he was elected a fellow of his college, when taking his first degree; then followed by an M.A in 1561, and Bachelor of Divinity in 1578/1584. He was made doctor in Divinity in 1613.

His interest in the Old Testament was deep. McClure explains:

Moreover he had diligently investigated the numerous writings of the Rabbis, so far as they seemed to promise any aid to the understanding of the Scriptures. This is evident from the annotations in his handwriting appended to the Biblia Bombergi, [1518 Hebrew edition] which are still preserved in the library of Emanuel College. His studies were such as eminently to qualify him to bear an important part in the translating of the Bible. (2)

A famed preacher

Chaderton was successful in his teaching, but his fame lay in his preaching.

In early seventeenth century England, endlessly and repetitively, the word of God was preached in the 8,000 or so pulpits across England. It was the ocean in which everyone swam. Attendance at sermons was compulsory. Many people would hear two or three on a Sunday in which every last echo of meaning would be squeezed from the words of the Bible. And week after week, preachers would occupy their pulpits, analysing texts, pursuing moral and theological arguments, exercising the difficult and demanding skills that hold a congregation’s attention. They were clearly good at it. (3)

Says McClure:

It is stated on high authority, that while our aged saint was visiting some friends in his native country of Lancashire, he was invited to preach. Having addressed his audience for two full hours by the glass, he paused and said,--"I will no longer trespass on your patience.” And now comes the marvel; for the whole congregation cried out with one consent,--"For God's sake, go on, go on!" He, accordingly, proceeded much longer, to their great satisfaction and delight.

Coleridge said the best moral criterion of the character of an age is found in its sermons - their tone, their themes, their substance and how they identify with the emotional issues of the age. See the crowded congregations of those times, and note the intense interest sustained through one-hour-and-two-hour-long sermons. Here is sure evidence of moral and intellectual progress on the part of many. Not that today’s audience is any less uninterested, for our contemporaries too like to hear preaching which really is preaching. But, said Coleridge, ‘where shall we find men for the work like those who gave us our version of the Bible?’ (quoted in McClure)

A disciple of John Calvin

Chaderton started a series of afternoon lectures or sermons in 1567 at St. Clement's Church, Cambridge that continued for fifty years, attended by admiring audiences. Through the influence of his preaching many young men began to study the Bible and practise godliness. (3) They liked his plain and cogent way of explaining the way of salvation. He taught God’s predestination of the believer was unconditional, while our moral responsibility for choosing Christ remained intact. The juxtaposition of these statements may not sound reasonable, yet it is what the Bible teaches - therefore to be believed. He counted among his friends men of more extreme views like Thomas Cartwright and William Perkins. When “Chaderton decided, at eighty-two, to cease preaching he received letters from forty clergy begging him not to and testifying that they owed their conversion to his preaching.”(5)

Dr Peter Baron, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity publicly debated with him in 1576 over the Calvinist-Arminian divide. Dr. Chaderton held to his view with good grace, showing his learning and ability to notable advantage.

[This issue] was dividing the whole Protestant world..... [I]t was not a new problem. Scholars had for centuries applied themselves to what was a central paradox of the faith: how can God be all-powerful and all-loving? If he desires all men to be saved why does he not arrange it so that they are? If some of his creatures resist his grace, then his power must be limited. Calvin had taken the sovereignty of God as his starting point. The divine will cannot be thwarted. Therefore the distinction between the saved and the damned can only be explained by election. – God preordains those who are ordained for heaven and hell (6 ) .

Two years later (1578) he was appointed preacher of the Middle Temple. This gave him opportunity to preach the gospel to a flock of lawyers, as one who had been himself trained to know the temptations of their calling.

Strong Christian character

In 1576 he married Cecilia Culverwell, daughter of the Queen’s wine merchant. This entailed giving up his fellowship. He was married for fifty-three years, and they had one daughter. During all that time he showed consistent spiritual concern for his domestic servants. He saw they needed to be in church, and so he never allowed food preparation or other household duties to take priority over their presence at public worship. Rather, he said, --"I desire as much to have my servants to know the Lord, as myself." He had high ethical standards for them, and dismissed a servant regardless of his hard work, once convinced he was a habitual liar, or was morally delinquent in some other respect. Although Chaderton had come from a wealthy family, he showed “a living affection for the poor” in their material need.(1)

Founding of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Chaderton’s reputation was well established after eighteen years of University teaching and preaching. This led Sir Walter Mildmay (Chancellor of the Exchequer) to choose him as the first master of Emmanuel College in 1584, which he reluctantly accepted after Mildmay convinced him he was the best qualified man for the task. The purpose of this foundation was to train “godly ministers.” Sir Walter was not thought to be a high Churchman, and when the Queen suggested he had “erected a Puritan foundation," of dubious legal standing, Chaderton replied,

No, madam, far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws, but I have set an acorn, which, when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof." And truly, it pleased God, that it should yield plenteous crops of Puritan "hearts of oak;" and afford an abundant supply of that sound, substantial, and yet spiritual piety, which stands in strong contrast with all superstition and formality.(1)

Chaderton was subtle and never allowed his advocacy of deep reform . . . to emerge in public. There was clearly something canny about him and the entire strategy of the Emmanuel project was not open revolution but a silent seeding of the Church of England to bring it, as by stealth, to a more reformed condition.(3)

Nicolson gives an extraordinary exposition of the “astonishly loving atmosphere at the college.” A surviving manuscript in the Bodleian library records a correspondence between two Emmanuel students, which, when read in today’s context would suggest (wrongly) a homosexual relationship existed between them. One of the two men was William Sancroft, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury!

There is no suggestion of sex but the passion between these boys is unmistakable. . . . They lived together, read together and slept together. . . . This extraordinary and passionate atmosphere is one of the governing qualities of the time. The age was at ease with unbridled but apparently quite unsexual love between men. . . . We can no longer imagine that erotic passion and religious intelligence can be bound together into one living fabric.

Chaderton’s team produced the KJV translation of the Song of Solomon, and Nicolson shows that Chaderton’s annotated notes of the erotic aspects of the poem breathe an air of frank innocence. The notes show a mind free from any perverted sentiments. A dysfunctional approach would be detectable in the way they dealt with the poem, had these men ever believed that homosexuality was a valid moral choice for the Christian. (3). In consequence, the correspondence recorded between Sancroft and his ‘lover’ should make someone very reluctant to accuse King James himself of closet homosexuality.(3)

During the radical Puritan movement of the 1580’s the college became a centre of its teachings, and thus Chaderton’s influence on the movement was great.

Presbyterianism in 1580’s Cambridge played the role of communism in the same 1930’s colleges. All young men with any brilliance or vitality were apart of the movement. Chaderton certainly was, as were his co-Emmanuel men and co-Translators, Frances Dillingham and Thomas Harrison. These young apostles were burning with the idea of a renewed, reformed and holy world.” (3)

Chaderton as Master of Emmanuel worked for thirty-eight years with zeal and industry, building a high reputation for the college. During his rule he made provision for twelve fellows and above forty scholars in Emmanuel College. In 1622, now eighty-five years old, he resigned prematurely (so he felt) hoping thus to avoid an appointment of a successor who held Arminian doctrines. He successfully saw appointed Dr. John Preston, a champion among the Puritans - yet Chaderton outlived him!

Likewise Chaderton survived the next succeeding Master, William Sancroft. When he finally died in 1640 yet another Master of the College had succeeded to the post. This was Richard Holdsworth, who preached at his funeral. At the great age of 103, the old patriarch continued to read without spectacles, and was still consulted about the affairs of the College!

Launching the King James Version

At the Hampton Court Conference, in 1603, Dr. Chaderton was one of the four divines appointed by the King as being "the most grave, learned, and modest of the aggrieved sort," to represent the Puritan interest. Dr. Chaderton was a great friend of Bancroft’s from student days, and remained so in spite of their differences. They used to wrestle together when they met, both men being from Lancashire where wrestling is a traditional sport. Problem was Bancroft as Bishop of London was an arch-opponent of the Puritan doctrine and “all but wrecked [the Conference] by his belligerence and intransigence.” (3) Here, however, Chaderton took no part in the verbal sparring, and was accused of being ‘mute as any fyshe.’ He felt the Conference was somewhat farcical, given that King James would never surrender his claims to absolute power, which claim undemined a proper bsis for discussion and compromise. The Puritan sympathies towards eldership rather than episcopacy meant the four of them were at a disadvantage, though their erstwhile advocacy of Presbyterian government had become muted by the Elizabethan settlement. Yet, Chaderton was of a moderate temperament and did not object to the customary ceremonies, which his more extreme Puritan friends opposed: the ceremony of confirmation, the use of the cross in baptism, wearing a ring in the wedding service, kneeling to receive communion, and wearing a surplice.

Two of the other Puritans John Knewstubbs and the charming mild-mannered Laurence Chaderton had been at Cambridge with Lancelot Andrewes,[the influential Dean of Westminster] and used to have ‘constant meetings’ with him there. Their lives had certainly diverged . . . but even so there was a great deal uniting them. They had all studied the ancient languages together, read the Bible together and teased out the details of ‘Grammatical Interpretation’ together, ‘till at last they went out like Apollos, eloquent men, and mighty in the Scriptures. (3)

Chaderton was now approaching seventy years, and Master of Emmanuel College, “one of the most loved of all men in that University.” (3) Edward Lively was the director of the first Cambridge Company of translators. However, he died within months of taking the position, so Chaderton provided the direction. They translated the Old Testament books from 2 Chronicles to the Song of Songs. We owe the beauty of the Psalms to their work, as they took Coverdale’s translation and made it more immediate and fluent. Take for example Coverdale’s version of Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing
He shall feed me in a green pasture: and lead me
forth beside waters of comfort.
He shall convert my soul: and bring me forth
In the paths of righteousness, for His Name’s sake.

Now recall the Psalm 23 you learned by heart as a child! Which is the better?

McClure says of Dr. Chaderton:

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one. Having reached his three score years and ten, his knowledge was fully digested, and his experience matured, while "his natural force was not abated," and his faculties burned with unabated fire. Even to the close of his long life, "his eye was not dim," and his sight required no artificial aid.

On November 13th 1640 Laurence Chaderton “died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.” (Gen 25:8)

1. Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker, pp. 26 – 27; 140 – 141; 165 – 166
2. Vita Laurentii Chadertoni, a W. Dillingham, S. T. P. Cantab. 1700. Pp. 15, 24
3. Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 45 – 47, 130 – 134, 181 – 182.
4. Douglas, J.D. (1974) Dictionary of the Christian Church Exeter: Paternoster.
5. Packer, J D (1990) A Quest for godliness ILL: Crossway. p. 57.
6. Wilson, Derek (2010) The People’s Bible: The remarkable history of the King James Version, Oxon: Lion pp. 83, 93, 96-98.

This is 11/52 Previous Next Index

When evil thoughts molest.

2011-03-12T04:00:00.000Z

Recently I was reminded of the words of the hymn “When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries . . .” Verse 4 goes as follows:

When evil thoughts molest,
With this I shield my breast,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The powers of darkness fear
When this sweet chant they hear,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Evil thoughts are no respecter of age or gender, and they arrive like sudden unwelcome visitors to disturb the soul. I thought to myself, ‘what does the late Selwyn Hughes have to say about it? – ‘Is there really a remedy, or are we doomed to repeat the same sins until we shuffle off, or Christ first comes?”

In his Christian Counsellor’s pocket guide (1) Selwyn assures us there is a remedy, if we are willing to take the medicine:

This is a battle of the mind. To win it you must heed the Apostle’s words, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ To have a mind like Christ in this evil world may not be easy but all heaven is on your side in the issue. , God is not merely concerned with getting you out of evil but in getting the evil out of you. This is how it can be achieved. Firstly, read much of your Bible. Fill your mind with the clean healthy, positive statements of Scripture. Dwell long on the purity of its inspiration. Secondly, concentrate your thought life on Christ. Evil thoughts are not expelled by dwelling upon them; they must be outwitted and to do that there is no better way than by letting the Lord come right into your mind. Evil thoughts will not stay long where He is present. Thirdly, you can outmanoeuvre evil by blasting it in prayer. Prayer can bulldoze a way through sinful thoughts right into the clear presence of the Throne of God. There you breathe a purer atmosphere. Remember in all this that the battle is not yours but Lord’s. Your own strength will fail. He never fails

I found this helpful, because reading it oriented my mind immediately away from myself to Jesus Christ (“May Jesus Christ be praised”!). Secondly, the emphasis on “Read much of the Bible.” Yes, we pride ourselves on reading the Bible daily, say, for 20 minutes. I wonder whether that qualifies as reading “much”. Thirdly, “dwell long on the purity of its inspiration.” For me, the changes in the latest critical text of the Bible - where words are added, left out, or changed – do not speak of the purity of God’s inspiration. They speak of the opposite – corruption. We need to be able to trust every word that God says, and know it comes from the Throne room. So, when I read KJV Luke 9:56

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

I trust it is an accurate saying of Jesus my Lord. That’s what the Church has always believed, until 1881. Doubtless, the Holy Spirit did not let us down in preserving His very words. Purity of inspiration is not much use, without purity of preservation. Textual critics admit they lack a proper history of the Greek Text to explain satisfactorily how changes came into the original Text through the centuries. Believe the “Received Text” of the sixteenth century, when it was first committed to the printing press. You’ll find it in the KJV, and 99.9 % of it also is in the NKJV. Better still; study the Greek and Hebrew for yourself, then no one can accuse you of supposed myopia - of being a “King James only” Bible reader.

Anyway, back to the Selwyn Hughes quote. I like the way he said: “Evil thoughts . . . must be outwitted.” This makes the point they often come unbidden into our minds, and seemingly against our will. This applies to fantasies of the imagination, negative thoughts towards others (how they look, how stupid we may judge them to be, how superior we may feel– or the opposite, or our anger about them or towards them). Unkind or untrue words expressed, simply prove to ourselves we are harbouring evil thoughts, and that these do not pass the tests, which the Apostle gives us in 1 Corinthians 13. We outwit these evil thoughts by first confessing them to God as wrong, secondly praying for the person victimised by them, and also turning our thoughts towards Christ. Think about him! Why did He suffer so much, when in a sense he didn’t need to? What drove him to the Cross? Have you plumbed the depths of the greatest most significant event to ever occur on this planet? Why aren’t we thinking about it more, then?

Why did He love me, I never can tell!
Why did he suffer to save me from hell?
Nothing but infinite grace from above,
Could have conceived such a story of love.

(1) Selwyn Hughes’ Christian Counsellor’s pocket guide is (1972) now out of print.

John Rainolds - the father of the King James Version

2011-03-09T22:58:00.014Z

John Rainolds (also Reynolds) was born about Michaelmas, 1549, in the village of Pinhoe, near the city of Exeter, Devonshire. He was one of five sons born into the Roman Catholic family of Richard Rainolds. John adhered to his father’s loyalties until his attempt to convert his brother William from Protestant views had precisely the opposite effect intended. Each convinced the other that his view (the other’s view) was correct!! (McClure). While William lived and died loyal to the papacy, John developed strong if moderate puritanical convictions. These led him to champion the Reformation in England, and his initiative makes him the true father of the King James Version of the Bible.

A dedicated scholar

Rainolds entered Oxford University in 1562 aged thirteen, and spent his entire life within its precincts. Beginning at Merton College, he soon moved to Corpus Christi College, where he became a Fellow three years later, at the early age of seventeen! There he “wholly addicted himself” to the study of the Holy Scriptures. After six years of tutoring, he was made Greek Lecturer there in 1572. One of his students was Richard Hooker, another Exonian from the English west- country. Hooker’s work is still studied today for its explaining (to many at least) what Anglicanism is about – distilled into fine English prose.

Richard Hooker
Exeter Cathedral Churchyard

Rainolds himself read all the Latin and Greek fathers, and all the ancient records of the Church that he could come by. He studied Aristotle and wrote a commentary that was highly praised. Also he practiced a style of writing, later called Euphuistic . . .based on alliteration and classic patterns of formal balance.(1)

Says McClure:

Nor did this flood of reading roll out of his mind as fast as it poured in. It is stated that “his memory was little less than miraculous. He could readily turn to any material passage, in every leaf, page, column and paragraph of the numerous and voluminous works he had read.” He came to be styled “the very treasury of erudition;” and was spoken of as “a living library, and a third university.”

A champion of reformation

The year 1578 was a significant landmark in Rainold’s career, as he debated contentious theological issues. This was after John Hart, a Roman zealot, challenged all the learned men in the nation to public debate. Reynolds contended against the authority of the papacy, at the instigation of one of the Queen’s privy councillors.

Among six conclusions which he propounded, expounded and defended in public disputation at Oxford was a statement that “the authority of the Holy Scripture is greater than the authority of the Church.” (2)

Rainolds composed some doggerel to fill out this proposition. It concluded as follows:

And these books hath the Holy Ghost set sooth for mortal wightes
That we in counte of faith and light might follow them as lights.
Avant all ye, who braine-sick toyes and fancies vain defend:
Who on humane traditions and Fathers favours depend.
The holy written word of God doth show the perfect way
Whereby from death to life arise, from curse to bliss we may.

Which being interpreted is:

And the Holy Ghost hath set forth in these books truths for the mortal but strong
That we, believing them to be true by faith in the revealed word, might follow them as lights to guide us.
Be off with you! You, who vainly defend your brain-sick toys and fancies:
Depending on mere human traditions and approval of ‘the Fathers’
The holy written word of God doth show the perfect way
By which we may arise from death to life, and from the curse to an eternal bliss. (2)

After several rounds, the Romish champion acknowledged defeat and left the field. These debates were recorded and widely published, and they put Rainolds in higher public standing.

A gifted teacher and pastor

In 1586 Rainolds moved to Queen’s College, appointed by the Queen to be Royal Professor of Divinity, the express purpose being to strengthen the English Church against the Church of Rome, and to widen the breach between them. A series of lectures was founded by Dr Francis Walsingham so that Dr. Reynolds could use his knowledge in strenuously opposing Romish corruptions. To do this, he had to resign his fellowship in Corpus Christi, which was much closer to Rome in spirit. Anyway, he was tired of all the “dissentions and factions there,” as he says, “having made him weary of the place.” He was Master at Queen’s; nevertheless he returned later to become President of Corpus Christi in 1598.

In 1593 the Queen had appointed Rainolds Dean of Lincoln. However, Elizabeth was no lover of the puritan mind, and she “schooled Doctor Reynolds for his obstinate preciseness, willing him to follow her laws and not run before them.” (3) Nevertheless, she did not refuse to recognise his teaching gifts, and formidable theological knowledge. But, when the Queen offered to make him a bishop, he declined it in preference for the studious academic life. He questioned the hierarchical value of episcopacy, as being then set forth:

In a letter to Sir Francis . . . Dr. Reynolds observes, --”All who have labored in reforming the Church, for five hundred years, have taught that all pastors, whether they are entitled bishops or priests, have equal authority and power by God’s word; as the Waldenses . . Wiclif and his scholars, afterwards Huss and the Hussites; and Luther, Calvin, [and others]. . . (McClure)

Rainolds was keen to pass on his knowledge to younger minds. Energetic, patient and sharp-witted, he engaged his students at will, conversing with them “so familiarly and so profitably that whatsoever men desired to learn from him in any kind of knowledge,” they could daily draw from his mouth “as an ever springing and never failing well.” (3)

A man of initiative

Hampton Court Palace
When King James called Rainolds to head up the Puritan delegation at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, Rainolds was President of Corpus Christi College. The delegation included Laurence Chaderton, John Knewstubbs, and Thomas Sparke. These four were carefully selected as more compliant Puritans, who would ‘know their place’ in the presence of an Archbishop, eight senior bishops, six cathedral deans and four privy councillors,’ - none of whom was particularly friendly to the Puritan viewpoint. (4). Rainolds argued for no surplice, no unbiblical confirmation, no use of a cross as some magic talisman, no kneeling at communion. King James enjoyed demolishing their arguments for reform in a five hour dialogue, dismissing Puritan reasoning with an “I have spoken’ approach, designed to humble them, or humiliate!

Poor, dignified, generous Reynolds and Chaderton stood as if in the stocks, the royal squibs falling around them. . . . James was treating them like extreme schismatics from the outer reaches of Anabaptist lunacy. Nothing like this had happened under Elizabeth . . . . [A] more distant less engaging monarch, basing her authority on the aura of that very distance, would not have countenanced it. James enjoyed the roughness of theological argument.

Into this fierce overheated atmosphere, where the mild divisions in the Church of England were being whipped into extremity by the quick, intellectual, joky, combative, slightly unsocialised banter, argument and bullying of the King . . . the first suggestion, the seed of the King James Bible, dropped.(5)

Reynolds was hoping the recent Bishops’ Bible would be acknowledged as inferior, at least to the Geneva Bible. As a close student of Calvin’s commentaries, he would like to have heightened its authority under the new King. Problem was the Geneva Bible had annotated notes which statedly limited the King’s authority, much to the King’s displeaure. Rainolds asked,“May your majesty be pleased that the Bible be new translated, such versions as are extant not answering to the original?” The aim was that ‘one only translation of your Bible be seen as authentic and read in your church.’(6)

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Geneva Bible

Rich linguistic resources had been published since the earlier sixteenth century Bibles had appeared. There was greater access as a result to not only the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin Text, but also to new grammars and lexicons in those languages. This was thanks to such scholars as Immanuel Tremellius and Theodore Beza.

The labours of these masters inspired a whole generation of biblical scholars and Reynolds was, in all probability, among those who, party issues aside, wanted to see an English Bible which was as accurate as it could possibly be. The existing situation was unsatisfactory to many(6)

A disciplined man

Rainolds became a member of the first Oxford company who translated the Old Testament prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve Minor prophets. Also Lamentations.

Work on the new Version was not easy for Rainolds as he had health problems. “He had long been less than robust, coughing more than he liked. Some of the Oxford translators began to meet weekly in John Reynolds’s rooms in Corpus Christi College, to perfect the work, notwithstanding the said Doctor, who had the chief hand in it, and all the while sorely afflicted with gout.” (5)

When the King visited him in 1905 at Corpus Christi College, normal group translation work stopped temporarily. Rainolds would return to his rooms, having delivered a lecture to the King, only to resume private study. He believed in taking extreme pains – and took them - poring over the biblical sources, crafting shapely English phrases to suit the majesty of the Text. (7)

Creative Commons/James-Flickr
Students at Oxford

A godly man

One of the letters which have come down to us from Rainolds explains his estimation of the Bible. For him, the sum of the New Testament was contained in Paul’s letter to Rome, and the Gospel of the apostle John. The sum of the Old Testament was found in the Psalms and in the prophet Isaiah. Having said that, he then explains how we obtain true Biblical wisdom:

Divinity, the knowledge of God, is the water of life. . . . God forbid that you should think that divinity consists of words, as a wood doth of trees. . . . True divinity cannot be learned unless we frame our hearts and minds wholly to it. . . . The knowledge of God must be learned of God. . . . We have to use two means, prayers and the reading of the holy Scriptures, prayers for ourselves to talk with God, and reading to hear God talk with us. . . . We must diligently give ourselves to reading and meditation of the Holy Scriptures. . . . I pray God you may.

In this context he urged study of the word of God in the Hebrew and the Greek, “out of the very well-spring, not out of the brooks of translations.” (7)

It was Rainolds’ godliness, which put him off-side with his generation on the question of stage-plays, writing a pamphlet against them:

They meditate how they may inflame a tender youth with love, entice him to dalliance, to whoredom, to incest, inure their minds and bodies to uncomely, dissolute, railing, boasting, knavish, foolish, brainsick, drunken conceits, words and gestures.” (7)

Mocked by some in their day and ours for their closure of the theatre, the Puritans’ successors lived to see them open again in the reign of Charles II, who shocked even the French with conduct unworthy of a King (Spivey's Kings and Queens of England). Stage plays had become more corrupt and obscene than ever. (7)

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the Globe theatre

Rainolds died on the 21st of May 1607, leaving a great reputation for scholarship and high character.

1. Paine, Gustavus S. (1977/1959) The men behind the King James Version, MI: Baker, pp. 22-23.
2. Paine, pp. 170 - 171.
3. Paine, pp. 24 -25.
4. McGrath, Alister (2001) In the Beginning Lon: Hodder. See the 3 minute video (The Bible revolution: King James Conference) of the King James Bible Trust.
5. Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 57, 148
6. Wilson, Derek (2010) The People’s Bible: The remarkable history of the King James Version, OX: Lion. p. 205, note 3; p. 86.
7. Paine. Pp. 84-86; 24.

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Richard Thomson – Bringing back the lost sheep

2011-03-03T22:32:00.010Z

Richard Thomson (also Thompson) was born in Holland of English parents, probably around 1569. (1) Nicknamed ‘Dutch Thomson,’ he became a fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1587. Nine years later he took his Master’s degree at Oxford. By then he was probably 27 years old. This was ten years before the Hampton Court Conference, which authorised the making of a new translation, in 1604.

[Thomson] . . . travelled widely on the continent, and mastered several modern as well as ancient languages.(1)

Personal reputation
Richard Thomson’s personal reputation is tainted by controversy:

Thomson lived hard and fast and although a fellow of Clare Hall in Cambridge, was also part of a much racier and riskier London set.(2)
When in England he seems to have preferred the London social scene where Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, and Thomas Dekker drew large audiences to the playhouses and the young bucks of the Jacobean court set the tone of conspicuous consumption and display. (1)

Professional skill
Thomson made his name as a brilliant linguist by translating and editing the epigrams of the Latin poet Martial. Martial’s short witty poems cheerfully satirise the pretentious city life of first-century Rome and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances. In so doing his descriptions overstepped the bounds of decency – it would take another 300 years before the State sanctioned Christian sexual mores. The obscenity which stains the epigrams of Martial has thereby tainted the name of Richard Thomson, for his unwise perpetuation of lewd literature in English translation. However

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. . . Martial has a great deal to teach any writer. Everything he composed was honed to exactness. Every sentiment he expressed had been examined by a fierce intelligence. There is nothing lax, soft or expected in Martial’s epigrams: they are the product of a mind that has worked.(2)

Richard Thomson’s translation of Martial was renowned for its wit, and amid other more amateurish attempts, some thought Thomson to be ‘the great interpreter.’

Anyone who could match Martial in his art, who was also a man of the church, and an acknowledged linguist, with correspondents in Italy, France and Germany, was a man to have in your company. The disciple of Martial would not accept the second-rate; and his mind would be bright enough to summon the best.(2)

Richard Montague,Bishop of Norwich and chaplain to the King - himself a linguist assisting Sir Henry Savile’s editing - called Thomson "a most admirable philologer." He said, however, Thomson was "better known in Italy, France, and Germany, than at home."
Did Thomson work hard on the Translation?
Lancelot Andrewes headed up the team of Old Testament translators at Westminster. As such, he dominated his fellows and felt let down by their disposition: “Most of our company are negligent,” he wrote in a letter in 1604. (2) However, the work of translation had hardly started in 1604, so was this hubris at work? Or, did he speak with premonition about men like Thomson, whose expertise was not Hebrew but Latin, and who may have attracted a dark taint from publishing ‘the full Monty' of Martial’s epigrams for a new generation . If several (or most) of Andrewes' team were negligent, that would have left the way open for him, as one of the great preachers of the age, to take Tyndale’s work and exercise to the full his “feeling for enrichment, and a layered dense , baroque sensibility,” making these qualities “sit alongside other contemporary demands for secretarial exactness and clarity.”(2) But, given the date 1604, we do not really know whether Andrewes’ premonition (if such it was) later proved correct.
Should he have been appointed?

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Who appointed Richard Thomson to be one of the company of translators, which translated the Old Testament from Genesis to II Kings inclusively?

[In appointing Richard Bancroft as the project coordinator] the King did not, in fact, wait for his new archbishop to assemble a team of translators. By the summer of of 1604 he had personally designated fifty-four scholars to be involved. . . He had already informed Bancroft that “so religious a work should admit of no delay and the chief translators should with all possible speed meet together. . . . The King left absolutely nothing to chance. He supervised the drawing up of a list of very precise guidelines.” (3)

Richard Thomson was a member of Lancelot Andrewes’ team at Westminster. Andrewes’ disapproval of Thomson might not have been enough to overrule James’ personal appointment of Thomson, if it had been made at the King’s instigation. King James himself has been accused of being a closet homosexual – the result of his being starved of normal familial affection in earlier childhood. (4) If the royal Court itself was seen as dysfunctional in sexual matters, it’s hardly surprising if Andrewes was willing to see Richard Thomson’s appointment as a potential start to a healing process in “bringing back the lost sheep on the shoulder.”
God’s majesty and love, his willingness to forgive, said Andrewes’, in his Manual of Private Devotion

. . . is tender, sweet, better than life;
Hating nothing that it hath made,
Neglecting neither the young ravens,
Nor the sparrows,
Bringing back the lost sheep on the shoulder,
Sweeping the house for the piece of silver,
Binding up the wounds of the half-dead,
Opening paradise to the thief
Who is standing at the door and knocking.

Caught in the crossfire?

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Thomson would probably be esteemed by many Aussies as a larrikin. Long after he had died, Thomson was accused by William Prynne of being ‘a debosh'd drunken English Dutchman, who seldom went one night to bed sober.' McClure says this accusation applied to Thomson’s later years, after he had been given a ‘living’ as a reward for hard work in a comfortable village called Snailwell, in Lancelot Andrewes’ diocese of Ely. Prynne was a next-generation lawyer who was only 13 years old when Thomson died. He was a Puritan leader and a severe disciplinarian. Archbishop William Laud, leader of the opposing Arminian party, had put Prynne in the pillory and branded him on the cheeks with the letters S. L., signifying 'seditious libeller' - and his ears were cropped. This was recompense for Prynne opposing Laud’s high churchmanship. Prynne finally had William Laud tried and beheaded for ostensibly treasonable persecution of Puritan leaders. Doubtless Prynne saw Thomson of a previous generation as part of the enemy he had spent his life opposing - the Presbyterian divines had called Thomson "the grand propagator of Arminianism” (McClure). In this troubled context, Prynne’s comment about Thomson’s drinking habits sounds suspiciously like a partisan overstatement made well after the event on the basis of hearsay. Perhaps it describes how Thomson, in retirement, fell into Noah’s trap (Gen. 9:20), whilst cultivating a vineyard in his back garden! (2)

grapes in an English vineyard
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Richard Thomson was buried at St. Edward's, Cambridge, on 8th January 1612–13.
1. Wilson, Derek (2010) The People’s Bible: The remarkable history of the King James Version, OX: Lion. pp. 94 – 95.
2. Nicolson, Adam. (2003) Power and glory: Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible, Lon: Harper. pp. 99 - 101, 194-195
3. Wilson, p. 88.
4. Fraser, Antonia (1974) King James I of England, Lon: Book Club Associates, pp. 36-37.

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