Mungo
Member
The simple answer to this is of course - NO.
The early Church used the Greek LXX Old Testament and the NT was written Greek anyway. So those that could read, read it in Greek, which was the lingua franca of the day. Later translations were also made into Latin. At the end of the fourth century Jerome, tri-lingual in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, made an updated Latin translation using Hebrew and Greek as well as earlier Latin texts. This was completed around 405 AD.
As the Church expanded translations were made into local languages. For example at the beginning of the eighth century the Venerable Bede, living in his monastery in Jarrow in North East England, translated the Bible (or at least some of it) into Anglo-Saxon. Some say the whole Bible, but according to his scribe, the Deacon Cuthbert, he just completed translating John’s gospel before he died. I doubt he left that until last.
Saints Cyril and Methodius converted the Moravians in the 9th century and created the forerunner of the Cyrillic alphabet to translate the Bible into the local language.
Even earlier, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “In 406 the Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrob, who five years later completed a translation of the Old and New Testament from the Syriac version into Armenian.”
Returning to English here are a couple of relevant quotes from "Where We Got the Bible" by Father Henry G. Graham, chapter 11 which is entitled "Abundance of Vernacular Scriptures before Wycliff"
“To begin far back, we have a copy of the work of Caedmon, a monk of Whitby, in the end of the seventh century, consisting of great portions of the Bible in the common tongue. In the next century we have the well-known translations of Venerable Bede, a monk of Jarrow, who died whilst busy with the Gospel of St. John. In the same (eighth) century we have the copies of Eadhelm, Bishop of Sherborne; of Guthlac, a hermit near Peterborough; and of Egbert, Bishop of Holy Island; these were all in Saxon, the language understood and spoken by the Christians of that time. Coming down a little later, we have the free translations of King Alfred the Great who was working at the Psalms when he died, and of Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury; as well as popular renderings of Holy Scripture like the Book of Durham, and the Rushworth Gloss and others that have survived the wreck of ages.”
“....After the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Norman or Middle-English became the language of England, and consequently the next translations of the Bible we meet with are in that tongue. There are several specimens still known, such as the paraphrase of Orm (about 1150) and the Salus Animae (1050), the translations of William Shoreham and Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole (died 1349). I say advisedly 'specimens' for those that have come down to us are merely indications of a much greater number that once existed, but afterwards perished.....”
“Moreover, the 'Reformed' Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, says, in his preface to the Bible of 1540: 'The Holy Bible was translated and read in the Saxon tongue, which at that time was our mother tongue, whereof there remaineth yet divers copies found in old Abbeys, of such antique manner of writing and speaking that few men now be able to read and understand them. And when this language waxed old and out of common use, because folks should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain and be daily found.'”
Where we got the bible
Note that last line - And when this language waxed old and out of common use, because folks should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain and be daily found.'”
Here are some dates of translations into vernacular languages before Martin Luther printed his German translation.:
By 400AD translations existed in Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Georgian Languages.
405 Jerome’s translation in the Latin (common language of the Roman Empire in the West).
406 Translation into Armenian
7th Century – First translation into French, First translation into German.
8th Century – first translation into English (Anglo Saxon) by Bede
9th Century – first translation into the Slavic language by Cyril and Methodius
1170 –Eadwine's Psalterium triplex, which contained the Latin versions of the Psalms accompanied by Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon English language renderings.
13thcentury – first translation into Spanish under King AlfonsoV
1300 - first translation into Norwegian
1454 – Catholic Gutenberg produced the first printed Bibles (in Latin)
1466 – first printed German Bible , 58 years before Luther’s
1470 – first printed Scandanvian Bible
1477 – first printed Italian Bible In the years before Luther's Bible was published, the Catholics printed 20 different Italian editions of the Bible.
1475 – first printed Dutch Bible
1466 – first printed French Bible
All Catholic Bibles, and yet the claim is that the Catholics Church suppressed the translation of the Bible into the vernacular.
The early Church used the Greek LXX Old Testament and the NT was written Greek anyway. So those that could read, read it in Greek, which was the lingua franca of the day. Later translations were also made into Latin. At the end of the fourth century Jerome, tri-lingual in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, made an updated Latin translation using Hebrew and Greek as well as earlier Latin texts. This was completed around 405 AD.
As the Church expanded translations were made into local languages. For example at the beginning of the eighth century the Venerable Bede, living in his monastery in Jarrow in North East England, translated the Bible (or at least some of it) into Anglo-Saxon. Some say the whole Bible, but according to his scribe, the Deacon Cuthbert, he just completed translating John’s gospel before he died. I doubt he left that until last.
Saints Cyril and Methodius converted the Moravians in the 9th century and created the forerunner of the Cyrillic alphabet to translate the Bible into the local language.
Even earlier, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “In 406 the Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrob, who five years later completed a translation of the Old and New Testament from the Syriac version into Armenian.”
Returning to English here are a couple of relevant quotes from "Where We Got the Bible" by Father Henry G. Graham, chapter 11 which is entitled "Abundance of Vernacular Scriptures before Wycliff"
“To begin far back, we have a copy of the work of Caedmon, a monk of Whitby, in the end of the seventh century, consisting of great portions of the Bible in the common tongue. In the next century we have the well-known translations of Venerable Bede, a monk of Jarrow, who died whilst busy with the Gospel of St. John. In the same (eighth) century we have the copies of Eadhelm, Bishop of Sherborne; of Guthlac, a hermit near Peterborough; and of Egbert, Bishop of Holy Island; these were all in Saxon, the language understood and spoken by the Christians of that time. Coming down a little later, we have the free translations of King Alfred the Great who was working at the Psalms when he died, and of Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury; as well as popular renderings of Holy Scripture like the Book of Durham, and the Rushworth Gloss and others that have survived the wreck of ages.”
“....After the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Norman or Middle-English became the language of England, and consequently the next translations of the Bible we meet with are in that tongue. There are several specimens still known, such as the paraphrase of Orm (about 1150) and the Salus Animae (1050), the translations of William Shoreham and Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole (died 1349). I say advisedly 'specimens' for those that have come down to us are merely indications of a much greater number that once existed, but afterwards perished.....”
“Moreover, the 'Reformed' Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, says, in his preface to the Bible of 1540: 'The Holy Bible was translated and read in the Saxon tongue, which at that time was our mother tongue, whereof there remaineth yet divers copies found in old Abbeys, of such antique manner of writing and speaking that few men now be able to read and understand them. And when this language waxed old and out of common use, because folks should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain and be daily found.'”
Where we got the bible
Note that last line - And when this language waxed old and out of common use, because folks should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain and be daily found.'”
Here are some dates of translations into vernacular languages before Martin Luther printed his German translation.:
By 400AD translations existed in Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Georgian Languages.
405 Jerome’s translation in the Latin (common language of the Roman Empire in the West).
406 Translation into Armenian
7th Century – First translation into French, First translation into German.
8th Century – first translation into English (Anglo Saxon) by Bede
9th Century – first translation into the Slavic language by Cyril and Methodius
1170 –Eadwine's Psalterium triplex, which contained the Latin versions of the Psalms accompanied by Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon English language renderings.
13thcentury – first translation into Spanish under King AlfonsoV
1300 - first translation into Norwegian
1454 – Catholic Gutenberg produced the first printed Bibles (in Latin)
1466 – first printed German Bible , 58 years before Luther’s
1470 – first printed Scandanvian Bible
1477 – first printed Italian Bible In the years before Luther's Bible was published, the Catholics printed 20 different Italian editions of the Bible.
1475 – first printed Dutch Bible
1466 – first printed French Bible
All Catholic Bibles, and yet the claim is that the Catholics Church suppressed the translation of the Bible into the vernacular.
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