Translators to the Reader_6

Installment six. Okay, so brevity was not exactly an ancient virtue. In this next section I’m struck by the lack of confidence in Truth these Translators see in those who oppose such “new” works as their own – as if their work could either suppress or even stop the Word of God, or that by pursuing such a “new” translation they were claiming that the Word of God had somehow been obscured or even lost in translations made up to that point. I find the same irony when those who most loudly affirm the value of the Word and the sovereignity of the God who gave it seem to put so much more weight in the imperfect efforts of man as though we can stifle or suppress that Word through supposed bad translations. As if puny man can stop the Word that God says “will not return void to him.” The fact is, our imperfect efforts at translation (and all human efforts at translation are imperfect) at worst are like devilish birds that consume the seed fallen on the wayside – only to spread that Word in ways unanticipated as the seed passes out the other end.

And another thought. The Translators respect ancient efforts at translation enough to be spurred by them to do the same in their own generation. For them to be content with past translations, however brilliant, and to attempt no further of their own would be to "glory in men above that which was in them." A common affliction indeed!

Two pull-quotes here – the first one with a variety of applications, the second just for fun:

It is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the touchstone.

Many men's mouths have been open a good while. (Not the full quote, but a fitting one considering our human tendency to go on and on and on and on…as seen on most cable news programs and not a few pulpits.)

The Unwillingness of Our Chief Adversaries, that the Scriptures Should Be Divulged in the Mother Tongue, etc.

Now the Church of Rome would seem at the length to bear a motherly affection towards her children, and to allow them the Scriptures in their mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deserving to be called a gift, an unprofitable gift: they must first get a licence in writing before they may use them, and to get that, they must approve themselves to their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen in the dregs, yet soured with the leaven of their superstition. Howbeit, it seemed too much to Clement the Eighth that there should be any Licence granted to have them in the vulgar tongue, and therefore he overruleth and frustrateth the grant of Pius the Fourth. So much are they afraid of the light of the Scripture, (Lucifugae Scripturarum, as Tertulian speaketh) that they will not trust the people with it, no not as it is set forth by their own sworn men, no not with the Licence of their own Bishops and Inquisitors. Yea, so unwilling they are to communicate the Scriptures to the people's understanding in any sort, that they are not ashamed to confess, that we forced them to translate it into English against their wills. This seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both. Sure we are, that it is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the touchstone, but he that hath the counterfeit; neither is it the true man that shunneth the light, but the malefactor, lest his deeds should be reproved [John 3:20]: neither is it the plain-dealing Merchant that is unwilling to have the weights, or the meteyard brought in place, but he that useth deceit. But we will let them alone for this fault, and return to translation.

The Speeches and Reasons, both of Our Brethren, and of Our Adversaries against this Work

Many men's mouths have been open a good while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches about the Translation so long in hand, or rather perusals of Translations made before: and ask what may be the reason, what the necessity of the employment: Hath the Church been deceived, say they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been mingled with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine with water, her milk with lime? (Lacte gypsum male miscetur, saith S. Ireney.) We hoped that we had been in the right way, that we had had the Oracles of God delivered unto us, and that though all the world had cause to be offended and to complain, yet that we had none. Hath the nurse holden out the breast, and nothing but wind in it? Hath the bread been delivered by the fathers of the Church, and the same proved to be lapidosus1, as Seneca speaketh? What is it to handle the word of God deceitfully, if this be not? Thus certain brethren. Also the adversaries of Judah and Jerusalem, like Sanballat in Nehemiah, mock, as we hear, both at the work and workmen, saying; What do these weak Jews, etc. will they make the stones whole again out of the heaps of dust which are burnt? although they build, yet if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stony wall. [Neh 4:3] Was their Translation good before? Why do they now mend it? Was it not good? Why then was it obtruded2 to the people? Yea, why did the Catholics (meaning Popish Romanists) always go in jeopardy, for refusing to go to hear it? Nay, if it must be translated into English, Catholics are fittest to do it. They have learning, and they know when a thing is well, they can manum de tabula3. We will answer them both briefly: and the former, being brethren, thus, with S. Jerome, Damnamus veteres? Mineme, sed post priorum studia in domo Domini quod possums laboramus. That is, Do we condemn the ancient? In no case: but after the endeavors of them that were before us, we take the best pains we can in the house of God. As if he said, Being provoked by the example of the learned that lived before my time, I have thought it my duty, to assay whether my talent in the knowledge of the tongues, may be profitable in any measure to God's Church, lest I should seem to have laboured in them in vain, and lest I should be thought to glory in men, (although ancient,) above that which was in them. Thus S. Jerome may be thought to speak.

1 lapidosus – stony, full of stones, gritty
2 obtrude – to impose, to push forward
3 manum de tabula – I’ve only dabbled in Latin (so correct me please!) but this looks like “handwriting on a tablet” i.e. they can put it in writing.