| Matthew Bible | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full name | Matthew Bible or Matthew's Version |
| Copyright | Public domain |
In the beginnynge GOD created heauen and erth. The erth was voyde and empty, and darcknesse was vpon the depe, and the spirite of God moued vpon the water. Than God sayd: let there be light: & there was lyght. For God so loueth the worlde, that he hath geuen his only sonne, that none that beleue in him, should perishe: but should haue euerlastinge lyfe. | |
The Matthew Bible, also known asMatthew's Version, was first published in 1537 byJohn Rogers, under thepseudonym "Thomas Matthew". It combined the New Testament ofWilliam Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as he had been able to translate before being captured and put to death.Myles Coverdale translated chiefly from German and Latin sources and completed the Old Testament andBiblical apocrypha, except for thePrayer of Manasseh, which was Rogers', into theCoverdale Bible. It is thus a vital link in the main sequence of English Bible translations.
The Matthew Bible was the combined work of three individuals, working from numerous sources in at least five different languages.
The entire New Testament (first published in 1526 and later revised in 1534), thePentateuch,Jonah and inDavid Daniell's view,[1] theBook of Joshua,Judges,Ruth,First and Second Samuel,First and Second Kings, andFirst and Second Chronicles, were the work ofWilliam Tyndale. Tyndale consultedLuther'sGerman Bible,Erasmus’Latin version, and theVulgate for the biblical text, prefaces, and marginal notes, and worked directly with theHebrew andGreek.[2][3][4][5][dubious –discuss] The use of the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew" resulted possibly from the need to conceal fromHenry VIII the participation of Tyndale in the translation. A theory exists from Dr. Harding that indicates the nameThomas Matthew, which in Greek means "A twin to the original gift from God", may have been chosen to indicate that the largest contributing author was indeed William Tyndale and that his writings were preserved by Coverdale and Rogers.[6]
The remaining books of the Old Testament and theApocrypha were the work ofJohn Rogers andMyles Coverdale. Coverdale originally translated primarily fromGerman and Latin sources and in the Matthew Bible they used the original language texts to translate.[7] Historians often tend to treat Coverdale and Tyndale like competitors in a race to complete the monumental and arduous task of translating the biblical text. One is often credited to the exclusion of the other. In reality they knew each other and occasionally worked together. Contemporary historianJohn Foxe states that they were inHamburg translating the Pentateuch together as early as 1529.[8]
ThePrayer of Manasseh was the work ofJohn Rogers. Rogers translated from a French Bible printed two years earlier (in 1535). Rogers compiled the completed work and added the preface, some marginal notes, a calendar and an almanac.
Of the three translators, two met with martyrdom. Tyndale was strangled to death and his body burned on 6 October 1536 inVilvoorde,Belgium.[9] John Rogers was "tested by fire" on 4 February 1555 atSmithfield, England; the first to meet this fate underMary I of England. Myles Coverdale was employed byCromwell to work on theGreat Bible of 1539, the first officially authorized English translation of the Bible.
Time and extensive scholastic scrutiny have judged Tyndale the most gifted of the three translators.Dr. Westcott (in hisHistory of the English Bible) claims that "The history of our English Bible begins with the work of Tyndale and not with that ofWycliffe."[10] The quality of his translations and choices have also stood the test of time, coming relatively intact even into modern versions of the Bible. A. S. Herbert, Bible cataloguer, says of the Matthew Bible, "this version, which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, is generally considered to be the real primary version of our English Bible",[11] upon which later editions were based, including theGeneva Bible andKing James Version.[11] ProfessorDavid Daniell recounts that, "New Testament scholarsJon Nielson[12] andRoyal Skousen observed that previous estimates of Tyndale's contribution to the KJV 'have run from a high of up to 90% (Westcott) to a low of 18% (Butterworth)'. By a statistically accurate and appropriate method of sampling, based on eighteen portions of the Bible, they concluded that for the (KJV) New Testament Tyndale's contribution is about 83% of the text, and in the Old Testament 76%.[13] However, these studies do not in turn deal with the contributions ofprevious versions to Tyndale.
The Matthew Bible, though largely unrecognized, significantly shaped and influenced English Bible versions in the centuries that followed its first appearance.
John Strype wrote in 1694 that the 1537 Matthew Bible was printed byRichard Grafton, inHamburg.[14] Later editions were printed in London; the last of four appeared in 1551.[15] Two editions of the Matthew Bible were published in 1549. One was a reprint of the 1537 first edition, and was printed by Thomas Raynalde and William Hyll (Herbert #75). The other was printed by John Daye and William Seres,[16] and made extensive changes to the notes of the original Matthew Bible, included copious commentaries on the book of Revelation based on the bookImage of Two Churches by contemporaryJohn Bale.
Van Meteren's son,Emanuel, stated in an affidavit dated 28 May 1609 that his father was "a furtherer of reformed religion, and he that caused the first Bible at his costes to be Englisshed by Mr Myles Coverdal inAndwarp, the w’h his father, with Mr Edward Whytchurch, printed both inParis andLondon."[10] Coverdale was employed as a translator byJacobus van Meteren. Rogers began assisting the work around 1535, and married J. van Meteren's niece Adriana in the same year that the Matthew Bible was first published (1537). Rogers was living in London again at the time of the second printing of the Matthew Bible in 1549.
