Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

So securely has the English Renaissance Bible established its place in the canon of English literature that to most of its readers it is the Bible. I am using the term ‘English Renaissance Bible’ as an archetype consisting of Tyndale's New Testament (1525) and Pentateuch (1530), the Coverdale Bible (1535), the Geneva Bible (1560), the Rheims-Douay Bible (1609), and the King James Version (1611). The text is familiar because of its influence upon the growth and development of English language, literature, and culture. Yet until the sixteenth century, few Englishmen had access to the biblical text and fewer still could have read it even if they had access since it was not in the vernacular. Thus, the major impact the Bible had on Renaissance culture was its very existence in English. Although biblical translation was favoured by humanists since it enabled them to combine their penchant for ad fontes with the enrichment of their native language, it was against the law. Translating the Bible could mean charges of heresy, exile, or even death. This chapter examines some of the major obstacles encountered by the translators – in particular, the politics of biblical translation. The attitude of the Church towards biblical translation is not easy to define both because it underwent considerable modification between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries and because it always concerned ... log in or subscribe to read full text