One of the quirks of the Wycliffe Centre, where Wycliffe in the UK is currently based, is the building nomenclature: most buildings take the name of someone who has been involved in Bible translation somewhere in the world. In light of the close of the Centre, it seems appropriate to look around and be reminded of our cloud of Bible translation witnesses that surround us. Today – the venerable Bede, who died on this day* in 735.
Bede is the earliest of those remembered as the name of a Wycliffe Centre building – not surprising, really, as he is also one of the earliest English Bible translators. Not that he ever managed to translate the whole Bible. In fact, it was on the same day he died that he finished his translation into English of the Gospel of John.
His assistant Cuthbert recorded this about the last words of that Gospel:
Then the boy of whom I spoke, whose name was Wilberht, said once again: ‘There is still one sentence, dear master, that we have not written down.’
And he said: ‘Write it.’
After a little the boy said: ‘There! Now it is written.’
And he replied: ‘Good! It is finished…’
(From ‘Cuthbert’s letter on the death of Bede’ in Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
As well as not really being a whole Bible translator, he also didn’t really translate it into English. The ‘English’ of Bede’s day was much closer to today’s Danish than English. Furthermore, Bede is not primarily remembered as a Bible translator – far more famous is his The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which earned him the epithet ‘The Father of English History’.
Both English and Danish now have Bible translations, and more than one at that. But many languages still don’t. In fact, if Bede’s history had caught up to the present day, it would show that until the last hundred years, the vast majority of the church had never even considered Bible translation an issue – or at least not a positive one!
More than 1,900 languages still spoken in the world today don’t have even the Gospel of John in their languages, and we’ve had that for over 1,000 years. But it’s changing. Be part of it.
*probably – it was a long time ago, and no one remembers!
- Go to blog homepage.
- Go to main Wycliffe Bible Translators UK homepage.