CONCLUSION
On issuing his translation, and again when sending forth his translation
revised, Tindale solicited the aid of scholars in amending his version
wherever they could. This was not a mere fashion of speech. It was the
expression of his sincerity and his modesty. This one thing he desired,
as he cared for nothing else, that the Bible in English be as perfect as
possible.
Succeeding generations of scholars responded to his invitation; in a
spirit like his they labored. The Bibles of Coverdale, Matthews, the
Bishops; the Geneva Version and the Authorized Version, are mile-stones
by the way—evidence with what ardor the work of revising and perfecting
the English version was carried on age by age.
[Illustration: NORTH NIBLEY, TINDALE'S MONUMENT.]
To find on the one hand this devotion in rendering the Bible into
English, it is most strange on the other to find the larger vision
completely disappear, the larger vision of Erasmus that it should be
rendered into every language. It is as if no such ideal had been
conceived.
Now, three hundred years had to pass by before we find it being
recovered, or before men were moved with any degree of sympathy for the
ideal which the Dutch scholar had so bravely ventured to describe.
The universal destiny of the book had stirred his heart and fired his
imagination: but not until the Evangelical Revival had deeply moved the
people of England, and the modern Missionary Movement had come in its
train did any men catch the vision of the Bible for every nation in the
native speech.
"With the vision came the power". A group of men, God-fearing and very
courageous, resolved to enter upon this vast enterprise, and thus in
1804 was born the British and Foreign Bible Society.
The undertaking was greater than they could foresee. It was decried as
chimerical; but month by month, year by year, they pursued their high
purpose: their successors continued it, and now, 1925, when a hundred
and twenty-one years have sped, the Society has published or has had in
circulation the Scriptures translated into five hundred and seventy
distinct languages.
Moreover in other lands the establishment of independent Bible Societies
was encouraged. In the United States of America, soon after the
formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1816, the
American Bible Society was established. Noble service has been rendered
by it. It has aided in the translation and circulation of the Scriptures
in 175 languages; some of which are included in the total, 570, given
above.
Translation seldom fails to exact great sacrifice. Often life itself
succumbs. The roll of honor is a long one, nearly every language taking
its toll in one form or another. Tindale's was the first English
sacrifice.
But the end, is it not worthy even at so great a price? To spell out, in
the tongue they understand, to those sitting in the land of the shadow
of death the tidings of Truth and Grace; to set men free in the liberty
of Christ; and to widen the bounds of His kingdom so that all nations
may become His inheritance—what mission can be named so worthy of the
uttermost devotion?
Much remains to be done; but if the morale of these men awaken
admiration in us and we share their faith, great as is the undertaking
that remains, it will be overtaken in the good providence of God.
INDEX
A.
Alcala, 5
Authorized Version, 43
American Bible Society, 52
B.
Bainham, 7
Bilney, 12
B. & F. Bible Society, 51
Buschius, 35
C.
Cambridge, 11, 12
Centenaries, xviii.
Cochlaeus, 28, 32
Colet, 2
Cologne, 32
Colportage, 33
Complutensian Polyglot, 5
Controversy, 26
D.
Demaus, 16
E.
Erasmus, 2, 11, 16
F.
Fisher, 47
Foxe, 15, 17
Froude, 29, 38, 46
Fust, 30
G.
Gloucestershire, 4
Gutenberg, 30
H.
Hall, E., 8
Hamburg, 31
Henry VIII, 2
Huss, 30
I.
Innes, xvii.
Influence of English Bible, 38
K.
Knox, John, xvii.
L.
Lee, E., 33
Luther, 25
M.
Monmouth, 20
More, 2, 6, 25
O.
Oxford, 11
P.
Papini, xvii.
Pavier, 7
Printing, 22, 30
R.
Rietschel, 29
S.
St. Dunstan's, 21
Savonarola, 30
Schoeffer, 30, 32
Skelton, 4
Sodbury, 14, 19
T.
Tindale, xv.
Birth, 11
College, 11
Tutor, 13
Prophecy, 16
Last Words, 24
On Continent, 29
Translation, 29, 32, 37, 40, 42
Tunstal, 19
V. W.
Vulgate, 5
Waldo, 30
Walsh, 14, 18
Westcott, 36
Wishart, xvii.
Wolsey, 1, 11, 21
Worms, 29, 32
Wyclif, xvi., 22, 23, 30, 40
X.
Ximenes, 5