THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER
The translating of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues
Now though the Church were thus furnished with Greek and Latin translations, even before the faith of Christ was generally embraced in the empire (for the learned know that even in St. Jerome's time, the consul of Rome and his wife were both Ethnics, and about the same time the greatest part of the senate also) [S. Hieronym. Marcell. Zosim]; yet for all that the godly-learned were not content to have the Scriptures in the language which they themselves understood, Greek and Latin (as the good lepers were not content to fare well themselves, but acquainted their neighbors with the store that God had sent, that they also might provide for themselves) [2 Ki. 7:9]; but also for the behoof and edifying of the unlearned which hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they provided translations into the vulgar for their countrymen, insomuch that most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion, hear Christ speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt hereof, he may be satisfied by examples enough, if enough will serve the turn. First, St. Jerome saith, Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata, docet falsa esse quae addita sunt, etc.; i.e., "The Scripture being translated before in the languages of many nations, doth show that those things that were added (by Lucian and Hesychius) are false" [S. Hieron. praef. in 4. Evangel.]. So St. Jerome in that place. The same Jerome elsewhere affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the Seventy suae linguae hominibus, i.e., for his countrymen of Dalmatia [S. Hieron. Sophronio.] Which words not only Erasmus doth understand to purport, that St. Jerome translated the Scripture into the Dalmatian tongue, but also Sixtus Senensis [Six. Sen. lib. 4], and Alphonsus a' Castro [Alphon. a' Castro lib. 1 ca. 23] (that we speak of no more), men not to be excepted against by them of Rome, do ingenuously confess as much. So St. Chrysostom, that lived in St. Jerome's time, giveth evidence with him: "The doctrine of St. John," saith he, "did not in such sort" — as the philosophers' did — "vanish away; but the Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Ethiopians, and infinite other nations, being barbarous people, translated it into their (mother) tongue, and have learned to be (true) philosophers" — he meaneth "Christians" [S. Chrysost. in Johan. cap. hom. 1]. To this may be added Theodoret, as next unto him, both for antiquity and for learning. His words be these: "Every country that is under the sun, is full of these words (of the apostles and prophets) and the Hebrew tongue (he meaneth the Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue) is turned not only into the language of the Grecians, but also of the Romans, and Egyptians, and Persians, and Indians, and Armenians, and Scythians, and Sauromatians, and briefly into all the languages that any nation useth" [Theodor. 5. Therapeut.]. So he. In like manner, Ulpilas is reported by Paulus Diaconus and Isidor (and before them by Sozomen) to have translated the Scriptures into the Gothic tongue [P. Diacon. lib. 12, Isidor in Chron. Goth, Sozom. lib. 6 cap. 37], John, bishop of Sevil, by Vasseus to have turned them into Arabic, about the year of our Lord 717 [Vaseus in Chron. Hispan.]; Beda by Cistertiensis, to have turned a great part of them into Saxon; Efnard by Trithemius, to have abridged the French psalter, as Beda had done the Hebrew, about the year 800; King Alfred by the said Cistertiensis, to have turned the psalter into Saxon [Polydor Virg. 5 histor. Anglorum testatur idem de Alvredo nostro]; Methodius by Aventinus (printed at Ingolstadt) to have turned the Scriptures into Slavonian [Aventin. lib. 4.]; Valdo, bishop of Frising, by Beatus Rhenanus to have caused about that time the gospels to be translated into Dutch rhythm, yet extant in the Library of Corbinian [Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German. lib 2.]; Valdus, by divers to have turned them himself or to have gotten them turned into French, about the year 1160; Charles the Fifth of that name, surnamed the Wise, to have caused them to be turned into French, about 200 years after Valdus his time, of which translation there be many copies yet extant, as witnesseth Beroaldus. Much about that time, even in our King Richard the Second's days, John Trevisa translated them into English, and many English Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen with divers, translated, as it is very probable, in that age. So the Syrian translation of the New Testament is in most learned men's libraries of Widminstadius his setting forth, and the psalter in Arabic is with many of Augustinus Nebiensis' setting forth. So Postel affirmeth, that in his travel he saw the gospels in the Ethiopian tongue; and Ambrose Thesius allegeth the psalter of the Indians, which he testifieth to have been set forth by Potken in Syrian characters. So that to have the Scriptures in the mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up, either by the Lord Cromwell in England, or by the Lord Radevile in Polony [Thuan.], or by the Lord Ungnadius in the emperor's dominion, but hath been thought upon and put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of any nation; no doubt because it was esteemed most profitable, to cause faith to grow in men's hearts the sooner, and to make them to be able to say with the words of the Psalms, "As we have heard, so we have seen" [Ps. 48:8].