described it as 'faithfully translated out of Latin and • Dutch'.' Chap. iii. Nothing, it might be supposed, could be more ex- Its sources. plicit or intelligible or consistent with Coverdale's aims; but his critics have been importunately eager to exalt his scholarship at the cost of his honesty. If the titlepage, said one who had not seen it, runs so, 'it contains 'a very great misrepresentation.' To another the notice appears to be a piece of advertising tact. Expediency, a third supposes, led Coverdale to underrate his labours. And yet it may be readily shewn that the words are simply and literally true. Coverdale certainly had some knowledge of Hebrew by which he was guided at times in selecting his rendering; but in the main his version is based on the Swiss-German version of Zwingli and Leo Juda, Zurich (1524-9, 1539, &c.), and on the Latin of Pagninus. He made use also of Luther and the Vulgate. His fifth version may have been the Worms German Bible of 1529, or the Latin Bible of Rudelius with marginal renderings from the Hebrew (1527, 1529), or (as is most likely), for he does not specify that his 'five inter'preters' are all Latin or German, the published English translations of Tyndale to which he elsewhere refers. 1 See pp. 58, 59. p. 59 n. It 5: Dan. iii. 25. [Since this was Whittaker, Historical Inquiry, written I find that Dr Ginsburg has In support of this bold already pointed out the falsity of Dr statement Dr Whittaker quotes four Whittaker's argument: Kitto's Cypassages from Coverdale (pp. 52 ff.), clopædia, s. v. Coverdale. To him and compares them with all the ver- therefore belongs the credit of having sions which, as he affirms, he could first clearly proved the dependence of have consulted. As Coverdale differs Coverdale on the Zurich Bible. from these, he is pronounced to have was indeed from the reference to Dr translated from the Hebrew and Ginsburg in the Dictionary of the Bi'from nothing else' (p. 50). Un- ble, that I was led to examine in dehappily Dr Whittaker was not ac- tail the Zurich Versions. Hencequainted with the German-Swiss Ver- forth it may be hoped we shall hear sion-a sufficiently famous book- no more of Dr Whittaker's mistake.] from which they are all rendered. 3 Compare p. 76. Ex. xxxiv. 30: Num. x. 31: Is. lvii. Chap. iii. Coverdale's translation The examination of a few chapters will place the History. primary dependence of Coverdale in the Old Testament on the Zurich Bible beyond all doubt. Thus in the four of Malachi. short chapters of Malachi there are about five-and-twenty places where he follows the German against the Hebrew and Vulgate. Three sample instances may be quoted. In i. 4, it is said 'they shall be called The border of wickedness,' in the Hebrew and Latin as in the Authorised Version, but in Coverdale A cursed land, a literal translation of the German. Again in i. 13, 'it is weari'ness to me,' a single word, but in Coverdale and the German we read it is but labour and travail. Once again in iii. 8, 'will a man rob God?' is represented in Coverdale and the German by 'should a man use falsehood and deceit with God?' And such coincidences occur not in one book only but throughout the Old Testament'. But at the same time on rare occasions Coverdale prefers to follow some one of the other translations which he consulted. Thus in two passages, ii. 3; 14, 15, of which the latter is a very remarkable one, he adopts the renderings of Pagninus and Luther in preference to those of the Zurich Bible. General character of his Bible. It is not therefore surprising that notwithstanding his acknowledged partiality for the German translators, Coverdale availed himself freely of the work of Tyndale as far as it was published, the Pentateuch, Jonah', and the New Testament. His Pentateuch may, indeed, 1 Other examples are given more at length in § 4, and App. VII. 2 A verse from Jonah (iv. 6) may be quoted to shew the extent of the resemblance. The variations of Tyndale are noted in italics and given below: and the Lord God pre'pared a wild vine which sprung 'up over Jonas that he might have shadow above his head, to deliver him out of his pain. And Jonas 'was exceeding glad of the wild vine.' om. Tyndale. add as it were. Tyndale. over, Tyndale. One singular phrase in ii. 3 common to Cov. and Tyn. may be noted, all thy waves and rowles of water 'went over me.' 3 Like Rogers he neglected the fragmentary 'Epistles.' See p. 181. unless a partial examination has misled me, be fairly described as the Zurich translation rendered into English by the help of Tyndale, with constant reference to Luther, Pagninus and the Vulgate. In the remaining books of the Old Testament the influence of the Zurich Bible greatly preponderates'. In the Apocrypha Coverdale moves with comparative freedom, and his translation has far more originality. The New Testament is a very favourable specimen of his labour. Its basis is Tyndale's first edition, but this he very carefully revised by the help of the second edition and yet more by the German. Thus on a rough calculation of changes, not simply of form or rhythm, more than three-fourths of the emendations introduced by Coverdale into Tyndale's version of 1 John are derived from Luther, but the whole number of changes, and they are nearly all verbal, is, if I have counted rightly, only a hundred and twenty-three. Thus the claims of Coverdale, as far as his Bible is concerned, must be reduced to the modest limits which he fixed himself. But though he is not original yet he was endowed with an instinct of discrimination which is scarcely less precious than originality, and a delicacy of ear which is no mean qualification for a popular translator. It would be an interesting work to note the subtle changes of order and turns of expression which we owe to him3. In the epistle from which most of our 1 His various renderings throw reading iii. 11, that ye should love, great light on the authorities which and in one error of grammar, iv. 20, he consulted. These are traced to hateth, both of which were corrected their sources in App. IV. by Tyndale on revision, and would not have been reintroduced. 2 In 1 John he appears to follow the first and second editions where The changes are such as would they differ in about an equal number easily have been made while the book of places. But it is evident that the was passing through the press. first edition was his foundation, for 8 See Note at the end of the Seche follows it in one clear mistake of tion. Chap. iii. His account of his work. illustrations have been taken 'the pride of life' and 'the 'world passeth away,' are immeasurable improvements on Tyndale's 'the pride of goods,' and 'the world vanish'eth away;' and the rendering 'shutteth up his heart, (due to Luther) is as much more vigorous than Tyndale's 'shutteth up his compassion' as it is more touching than the strange combination of the Authorised Version shutteth up his bowels of compassion. Coverdale has a tendency to diffuseness, which in some places (as Ecclus. xliv.) leads him to long paraphrases of his text. The fault is one from which the Zurich Bible also suffers, and he may have fallen into it from imitating the style of his model too closely even when he abandoned its words. But his phrasing is nearly always rich and melodious. The general character of his version as compared with that of Tyndale may be very fairly represented by that of the Prayer Book Version of the Psalms as compared with the Authorised Version in the Bible. In both cases Coverdale's work is smooth rather than literal. He resolves relatives and participles and inserts conjunctions, if in that way he may make the rendering easier1. Just as Coverdale valued highly the existence of many translations' so he claimed for himself the right to extend this characteristic of diversity to his own work. He thought that he could thus attain comprehensiveness by variety, and secure in some measure for one translation the advantages which he found in many. 'Whereas the most famous interpreters of all give sun'dry judgments of the text, so far as it is done by the 'spirit of knowledge in the Holy Ghost, methink no 'man should be offended thereat, for they refer their 'doings in meekness to the Spirit of truth in the congre1 See p. 208. P. 60. 2 See 'gation of God...Be not thou offended therefore, good 'reader, though one call a scribe that other calleth a lawyer; or elders that other calleth father and mother; 'or repentance that another calleth penance or amend'ment...And this manner have I used in my translation, 'calling it in some place penance that in other place I 'call repentance; and that not only because the inter'preters have done so before me, but'-and this introduces a second characteristic reason-'that the adver'saries of the truth may see how that we abhor not this 'word penance, as they untruly report of us1...' There may be some weakness in this, and Coverdale suffered for it; yet it may not be lightly condemned. In crises of great trial it is harder to sympathize with many views than with one. There is a singularity which is the element of progress; but there is a catholicity which is the condition of permanence; and this Coverdale felt. As the Holy Ghost is one working in 'thee and me as He will, so let us not swerve from that 'unity but be one in Him. And for my part I ensure 'thee I am indifferent to call it as well with the one 'term as with the other, so long as I know that it is 'no prejudice nor injury to the meaning of the Holy 'Ghost..." He may have carried his respect for some so-called 'Ecclesiastical' words to an excessive length, but even in this respect his merit was substantial. It was well that Tyndale should for a time break the spell which was attached to words like charity, confess, church, grace, priest, and recall men to their literal meaning in love, [ac]knowledge, congregation, favour, elder; but it was no less well that the old words, and with them the historical teaching of many centuries, should not be wholly lost from our Bibles. That they were not lost Chap. iii. The work which he did for the English Bible. |