Thus far, however, the Bible had been published only in ancient tongues, now little understood by the common people. Without the Word of God in their hands, the good seed sown among them was easily destroyed. “O,” said the advocates of its pure teachings, “if the people only had the Word of God in their own language, this would not happen! Without this it will be impossible to establish the laity in the truth.”

And why should they not have it in their own tongue? they reasoned. Moses wrote in the language of the people of his time; the prophets spoke in the tongue familiar to the men whom [pg 016] they addressed; and the New Testament was written in the language then current throughout the Roman world.

The translation of the Bible into English by John Wyclif, in 1380, was the chief event in the beginning of the Reformation. It also prepared the way for the revival of Christianity in England, and the multiplying there of the Word by the millions, for all the world, that has followed.

To make such a translation at that time, says Neander, “required a bold spirit which no danger could appal.” For making it Wyclif was attacked from various quarters, because, it was claimed, “he was introducing among the multitude a book reserved exclusively for the use of the priests.” In the general denunciation it was declared that “thus was the gospel by him laid more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it had formerly been to the most learned of the clergy; and in this way the gospel pearl is cast abroad, and trodden underfoot of swine.” In the preface to his translation, Wyclif exhorted all the people to read the Scriptures.

A sense of awe and a thrill of joy filled the heart of the great German Reformer, when, at the age of twenty, while examining the volumes in the library of the university of Erfurt, he held in his hands, for the first time in his life, a complete copy of the Bible. “O God,” he murmured, “could I but have one of these books, I would ask no other treasure.” A little later he found in a convent a chained Bible. To this he had constant recourse.

But all these Bibles here, as elsewhere, save in England, were in an ancient tongue, and could be read only by the educated. Why, thought Luther, should the living Word be confined to dead languages? Like Wyclif, therefore, he resolved to give his countrymen the Bible in their own tongue. This he did, the New Testament in 1522, and the Bible complete, the crowning work of his life, in 1534.

Impressed with the idea that the people should read the Scriptures in their mother tongue, William Tyndale, likewise, in 1525, gave to the English his translation of the New Testament, and later, of portions of the Old Testament Scriptures. His ardent desire that they should know the Bible was well expressed in the statement that if God spared his life he would cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than was commonly known by the divines of his day.

The first complete printed English Bible was that of Miles Coverdale, printed at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1535. Matthew's Bible, Taverner's Bible, and The Great Bible prepared at the suggestion of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, appeared soon after. Thus the light of truth began to shine forth once more; but not without opposition.