English Bible History

Factors That Contributed to the Distribution of Bibles in English

The Printing Press

Prior to the printing of the Gutenberg Bible, copying a page of Bible text was a time consuming and labor-intensive process of crafting manuscripts by hand. Some short sections of writing and pictures could be reproduced by etching into blocks of wood in reverse and then inking and stamping these blocks onto sheets of paper. Each page would need to be carved into a new block of wood in mirror image. The technological advancement spearheaded by Gutenberg was the invention of the movable type. A composition of mass-produced letters could be mechanically assembled to form one page of text, and many copies could be printed onto paper. Once the desired number of copies was reached, these letters could then be removed and reassembled to form the next page of text. Using his invention, Gutenberg produced the first printed Bible in Latin in the city of Mainz, Germany around 1453-1455. It is believed that Gutenberg printed around 180 copies of his Bible, which were all elaborately illuminated by hand. Amazingly, 50 of these original copies have survived to present day. Some say Gutenberg made the greatest contribution to civilization in the second millennium. His printing press forever changed the way books and Bibles were produced and distributed, making the written word more accessible and economical than ever before.

The Dawn of Humanism

In Italy during the 15th century, the Renaissance and humanism brought renewed interest to the Latin and Greek manuscripts of the Bible. In applying textual criticism, Lorenzo Villa created a detailed verse by verse comparison of several Greek manuscripts with the Latin Vulgate produced by Jerome. The famous humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536) stumbled upon Villa’s work and began compiling a New Testament in Greek based upon old manuscripts. From 1511 to 1516, he worked on his Greek New Testament with an emphasis on comparing Jerome’s Latin translation to his Greek text. He claimed to be improving upon Jerome’s version by calling out inaccuracies or misleading emphases in the text. His stellar reputation as a scholar and person of great influence kept him from running into serious trouble with the establishment. Even so, Erasmus was treading upon dangerous ground. The Church had used the Vulgate for hundreds of years and calling its accuracy into question had significant implications. Doing so would compromise the integrity of the teaching of the Church fathers, inasmuch as they quoted the Vulgate, and raise concerns regarding the accuracy of the judgments of councils. Nevertheless, Erasmus proceeded with his work and published his New Testament in two-column format—Greek on one side and Latin on the other. Erasmus’s work bolstered attempts at future translations of the Bible into contemporary languages by providing a compilation of original Greek to draw from.

Theological Factors

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was an Augustinian monk who served as chair of theology at the University of Wittenberg. In 1517 Johann Tetzel was sent to Germany to sell indulgences in order to raise money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. An indulgence was essentially a fund-raising certificate. Anybody could donate money toward a specific cause, and if their donation was pious, they were granted not only a certificate, but forgiveness of sin (either their own, or that of a deceased relative). Pope Leo X granted permission to sell a special plenary indulgence which would remove the temporal punishment of sin. Tetzel overstated the Catholic stance of indulgences purchased on behalf of the dead. His slogan was, “when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Luther got wind of this and wrote a letter to his bishop (in the academic language of Latin) stating his concerns, including what would become known as the ninety-five theses. Luther claimed that God alone was able to grant forgiveness for sins, so those selling indulgences must be in error. The tone of his letter was inquisitive and concerned, rather than accusative. His friends translated his ninety-five theses into German and used the newly-invented printing press to circulate Luther’s ideas. Within a few weeks his theses were spread throughout Germany. By the following year, they had reached Italy, France, and England. Luther grew in fame and gave lectures on various New Testament books. In doing so, he began to refine his understanding of justification. Luther believed that God’s favor cannot be earned. Rather, he believed it is granted through undeserved kindness to those exercising faith. To Luther, spiritual truth did not rest in Scripture and tradition but in Scripture alone. Luther objected to the Church’s teaching that the Pope had the exclusive right to interpret Scripture. He committed to translate the Bible into everyday German. Though there were already as many as 18 editions of the Bible in German, they were translated from the Vulgate, and many of the phrases seemed dry and incomprehensible. Luther combined Erasmus’ Greek New Testament text with his gift for writing clearly and articulately. By 1522, he completed his German New Testament, and the Old Testament was done sometime during the 1530s.