Myles Coverdale was the translator of the first complete Bible into English, published in 1535. His work followed on from other first mother-tongue translations of Europe – French, German and Dutch – and the work of Tyndale, whose New Testament was published ten years earlier.
Coverdale began his work despite knowing that Tyndale was working on a complete Bible translation. ‘Why should other nations,’ he said, ‘be more plenteously provided for with the Scriptures in their mother-tongue than we?’
Like Tyndale, his translation was written and published in Europe, and was smuggled into Britain. In many ways, though, Coverdale’s translation was very different: he was not as proficient a linguist as Tyndale, and knew no Hebrew. Instead he worked from other translations. However, he was a great executor of the English language, and his translation is greatly admired for its literary, as well as spiritual, significance.
Despite his substantial work and impact, Coverdale was not a celebrated man. He was not born to a great family – in fact, the date of his birth is not even known. He never rose to great position in the church of his day, and died aged 81, in relative obscurity – 447 years ago today. Others thought he was humble and unassuming, a ‘very gentle spirit’. And he was phenomenally industrious: his notes suggest that he began his first translation less than a year before its publication, which meant he translated or revised on average 2,400 words a day – a remarkable feat.
He remained adamant in his belief that God used translations effectively. In response to objections to vernacular translations, he said, ‘The Holy Ghost is as much the author of it in the Hebrew, Greek, French, Dutch, and English, as in Latin… The word of God is of like worthiness and authority in what language soever the Holy Ghost speaketh it.’
Today, while English-speakers are indeed ‘plenteously provided for’, of 7,000 living languages in the world only 554 have a complete Bible. And around 1,800 languages don’t have any access to God’s word in their mother tongue at all. Give the Story.