Today is the 450th anniversary of the death of John Calvin. The name has become synonymous with Reformation and theology. Given that context, and the significant impact he had on the church, it’s no surprise he had a part to play in Bible translation.
Calvin, second from the left, with William Farel, Theodore Beza, John Knox on Reformation Wall in Geneva.
Although not a Bible translator himself, Calvin had close connections to Bible translators. It was a relative, Pierre Robert Olivétan, who first encouraged him to study the Scriptures when he had changed his mind about becoming a priest. The same Olivétan was the first person to translate the whole Bible intro French from Greek and Hebrew. When it was published in 1535, Calvin wrote the foreword, saying that having the Bible available in the vernacular would allow all believers to know what God has said.
John Calvin, Bible in hand.
When he and other reformers, including John Knox, were established in Geneva, they encouraged the British expatriates there to do a complete Bible translation into English too, what would become the Geneva Bible. One of the key workers on the team was William Whittington, Calvin’s brother-in-law. The Geneva Bible went on to be incredibly popular, even after the publication of the Authorised Version, and was the translation used by Cromwell and Shakespeare.
Why was it that Calvin – busy as he must have been writing his many Institutes – cared about Bible translation, when he knew Hebrew, Greek and Latin himself? In his magnum opus, he said:
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
If it’s in a language you don’t understand, the Bible stays indistinct and unreadable, as if you’d forgotten your glasses. In your language – a language you really understand – the Bible shows us the true God clearly. Find out what you can do in Bible translation.