History of Bible Translation

God must want people to read his Word - he always speaks their language.

Through Old Testament authors, he spoke in Hebrew, the language his people understood best. In the New Testament, he spoke in Koine Greek, the trade language of the 1st century. Today he continues to speak to many people in many languages through translated Scripture.

The first translations

The early church needed few translations. Believers copied and circulated Scriptures in Greek that everyone could read.

But during the 4th century, Latin began to replace Greek as the common language. Several Latin translations, often inaccurate, leaked into circulation. The Church needed an official translation.

Pope Damasus assigned the job to Jerome, his theological advisor and perhaps the most learned man of the time. Jerome’s translation, called the Latin Vulgate (meaning vulgar or common) became the Bible of the Middle Ages.

Reformation struggles

The Vulgate would outlast its purpose. As centuries passed, Latin became the language only of the highly educated. Common people could no longer understand the Church’s liturgy or Scripture reading. Instead of promoting new translations, clergy clung to the Vulgate because it forced people to rely on their teaching.

John Wyclif (or Wycliffe), often called the Morning Star of the Reformation, defied the clergy. He was the driving force behind the translation of the first complete Bible into English, using the Latin Vulgate as source text. He recruited travelling preachers, called Lollards, to spread God's Word in English. Wyclif's Bibles, and later his bones, were burned, but he had sparked a Reformation.

William Tyndale, a scholar fluent in 7 languages, left England to work on the first English translation based on the original Hebrew and Greek. In 1525, smuggled copies of his New Testament began circulating England.

• I had perceaved by experyence how that it was impossible to stablysh the laye people in any truth, excepte the scripture were playnly layde before their eyes in their mother tongue.

Martin Luther later published about 100,000 copies of his German translation, and soon translators across Europe made God’s Word available in every major language.

• I have undertaken to translate the Bible into German. This was good for me; otherwise I might have died in the mistaken notion that I was a learned fellow.

James I (1564-1625), King of England, alarmed by all the versions appearing, commissioned a group of biblical scholars to produce an authorised version, combining the best of earlier translations. The Authorized Version, written in the language of the day, appeared in 1611, the first Bible produced by an authorized group of scholars.

The Bible goes global

The Bible, however, was virtually a European book since the majority of Scripture translations were done in languages spoken only in Europe. Missionaries changed that. Matthew's gospel in Malay, which appeared in 1629 was the first non-European Scripture. In America, John Eliot translated the Bible into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. His translation appeared in 1662 and became the first Bible for missionary use in America.

By 1800 there were 66 languages with some portion of Scripture, 40 with the whole Bible. God used an English cobbler named William Carey to forward translation in India and Asia. Believing that the Bible was the most effective way to advance Christianity, Carey translated or helped translate Scripture in over 20 Indian languages. With his colleagues he translated and printed Scripture in 45 languages and dialects in Asia, 35 for the first time. This work was done between 1793 and 1834.

Beginning in 1804 Bible societies were formed for the translation, publication and distribution of the Scriptures, and translation became a worldwide effort to reach people who had never heard the Good News.

Missionary efforts in our twentieth century have resulted in giant leaps in Bible translation. More translations were done in the last 100 years than in the entire previous history of the Church.

A new vision

In 1917, a young missionary named William Cameron Townsend found it difficult to evangelise the Cakchiquel people of Guatemala with a Spanish Bible. Townsend caught the vision for translation when a Cakchiquel man challenged him: 'If your God is so great, why doesn't He speak my language?'

While working on the Cakchiquel New Testament, Townsend caught a new vision for Bible translation--every people group, no matter how small or remote, should have a Bible they could read. Borrowing the name of the pre-Reformation hero, John Wycliffe, who first translated the Bible into English, Townsend founded 'Camp Wycliffe' in 1934 as a linguistics training school, which became the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

In 1942, Townsend founded Wycliffe. For over 50 years, these two organisations have worked with others, united in the belief that God wants people to read his Word.

The first Wycliffe Bible translation (done by Wycliffe personnel Kenneth Pike and Donald Stark) was completed in 1951 in the San Miguel Mixtec language of Mexico. 27 years later, in 1978, the 100th was completed - in the Amuesha language of Peru. Just seven years later, the 200th was completed - in the Hanga language of Ghana, Africa. In January 1989 the 300th was completed - the Cotabato Manobo of the Philippines. In March 2000 the 500th New Testament, the Suriname Javanese, was dedicated. Today, over 611 translations have been completed, with over seventeen hundred more in progress

Today, Wycliffe Australia International and SIL International work together to translate scripture, train field personnel in linguistics and promote interest in translation.

History of Wycliffe Australia

The Australian national office of Wycliffe began in 1954 in the basement of the Keswick Bookshop in Collins Street Melbourne. Wycliffe soon outgrew this and other premises in Carlton.

In 1967 the Director, David Cummings raised the need for bigger facilities with the Wycliffe Council. The Council reminded him of the perennial money problem and moved on to other business. However, within a month Wycliffe had received a $20,000 donation and a gift of land for its national centre. The funds, together with the proceeds of the land sale, were sufficient to buy suitable property so the Council began looking.

God had already selected the site – land in Kangaroo Ground dedicated to God by an elderly lady Mrs Elsie Graham many years previously. A well-known architect offered his services free of charge and became instrumental in creating a design which was both suitable to Wycliffe and acceptable to the Eltham Council. The Council’s building guidelines required minimal development in accord with the environment.

The architect was a mud brick specialist and urged Wycliffe to build in mud brick. Soil testing proved this land to be the best mud brick soil in Australia. The bricks needed straw and even though there was a drought straw was given free of charge. Many volunteers came to help with the building. Church youth groups came on Saturdays to make mud bricks and competed to see which group could make the most bricks.

Wycliffe began building in 1969, starting with a workshop and four flats. The main block was opened in 1972 and various additions have been built over the years, including facilities for the South Pacific Summer Institute of Linguistics School (now EQUIP Training) in 1983 and the Media Centre in 1991.

Wycliffe’s property at Kangaroo Ground is a testimony to God’s faithfulness, his leading and provision. Many people have worked hard and given generously over the years and the centre has blessed many and furthered the goal of giving people God’s Word in their own language.