2019 marks 450 years since death of Bible translator
Miles Coverdale (1488–1569) produced the first complete translation of the Bible into English.
This year marks the 450th anniversary of his death.
He was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1488. He studied at Cambridge and was ordained as a priest in Norwich in 1514.
He joined the Augustinian friars at Barnwell Priory at Cambridge.
After 1526, Coverdale left the monastery to be a preacher. It is unclear where he was in the late 1520s and early 1530s. In 1534 he was in Antwerp, Belgium. He assisted William Tyndale in his revisions and partial completion of his English version of the Bible. Coverdale is responsible for the translation of four Bibles.
The Coverdale Bible was published Oct. 4, 1535. Coverdale used Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament and Tyndale’s translation of the Pentateuch and Jonah. Coverdale translated other Old Testament books from Martin Luther’s German translations and the works of others. Printed in Antwerp his Bible was the first one to be translated into English.
In 1538, Coverdale was in Paris overseeing the printing of the Great Bible, which was published in 1539. Henry VIII commanded the clergy to place one of the Great Bibles in every parish church.
The Geneva Bible was published in 1560. Queen “Bloody” Mary I, a Roman Catholic, persecuted Protestants and had their Bibles removed from churches. Many Protestants, including Coverdale, left England and settled in Geneva. Coverdale and John Knox published the New Testament in 1557. The entire Geneva Bible was finished in 1560. It was not printed in England until 1576. When Elizabeth I became queen in 1558 the Great Bible was reinstated in the churches.
Coverdale became Bishop of Exeter in the Church of England in 1551, but after Queen Mary’s reign he lost his position. He eventually returned to England in 1559, but he was not reinstated as bishop because of his Puritan views.
He became rector of St. Magnus the Martyr in London in 1564. He resigned in 1566 but continued to preach.
He died Jan. 20, 1569, immediately after standing in for a preacher at a church. He was buried in St. Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange in London. In 1840 his remains were moved to St. Magnus the Martyr Churchyard.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Joanne Sloan, a member of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, has been a published writer of articles and books for 30 years. She has a bachelor’s degree double majoring in history and English from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M–Commerce) and a master’s degree specializing in English from the University of Arkansas (1978).
Share with others: