The politics of English bible translation in Georgian Britain: The Alexander Prize

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Volumn 9, Issue , 1999, Pages 67-92

  Hitchin, Neil W ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61149642521     PISSN: 00804401     EISSN: 14740648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3679393     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (130)

1. Earlier versions of this essay were given at the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference at St John's College, Oxford, 4 January 1997, and to the Cambridge Inter-faculty seminar 'Restoration to Reform, 1660-1832' at Pembroke College, 10 June 1997.
2. Historical Catalogue of English Bibles ..., ed. H. Darlow and F. Moule (Cambridge, 1966).
3. W. Chamberlin, Catalogue of English Bible Translations: a Classified Bibliography (New York, 1991), passim.
4. Christopher Hill's opinion that the Bible was ignored in the eighteenth century must be modified in the light of such a large amount of material. The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution (London, 1993), 7.
5. P. Sjolander, Some Aspects of Style in Twentieth Century English Bible Translation. One Man Versions of Mark and the Psalms (U.M.E.A., Stockholm, 1979) points out the existence of many manuscript and privately printed translations beyond those included in her study of translation this century. There is good reason to believe the same was true of the eighteenth century.
6. For the British and Foreign Bible Society's publishing and distribution operations, see L. Howsam, Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society (Cambridge, 1991).
7. William Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, saw that 'a translation by authority ought to supersede all others from its intrinsic excellence; and would of course supersede them by the frequency, correctness, and cheapness of its editions, as King James's Bible did that of Geneva, notwithstanding the preference given to it by the Calvinists'. Newcome, An Historical View of the English Biblical Translations: the Expediency of Raising our Present Translation: and the Means of Executing such a Revision (Dublin, 1972), 202-3.
8. For which, see G. E. Bentley, 'Bible Illustrations and Sales' and idem, 'The Holy Pirates: Legal Enforcement in England of the Patent in the Authorised Version of the Bible, c. 1800', Studies in Bibliography (University of Virginia), 50 (1997), 372-89, which discusses the debate over whether the Crown had copyright over all bibles, all English bibles, or merely over the current AV, which had been produced specifically by royal command;
9. 'Images of the Word: Separately Published English Bible Illustrations, 1539-1830', Studies in Bibliography, 47 (1994), 103-28 (esp. 107-8).
10. The question of royal copyright was raised in the light of the modern patent of Elizabeth I to the publisher Barker in 1577, which stated 'All and singular Bibles and New Testaments whatsoever, in the English tongue or in any other tongue whatsoever, and any translation with or without notes.' It was a decision of 1769 which clarified the Crown's copyright. 'Mr Salkeld, after positively and expressly denying any prerogative in the Crown over the press, or any power to grant an exclusive privilege, says "I take the rule in all these cases to be, that when the Crown has a property or right of copy, the king may grant it. The Crown may grant the sole printing of Bibles in the English translation, because it was made at the king's charge."' Quoted by Lord Mansfield, CJ, in Millar v. Taylor (1763-9), 4. Burrows Reports, 2303, from Salkeld's MS report, 2403-4
11. cited in H. Carter, A History of Oxford University Press, vol. 1, to 1780 (Oxford, 1975), 351, 348.
12. R. Lattimore, 'Practical Notes on Translating Greek Poetry', On Translation, ed. R. A. Brower (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 148.
13. H. Pope and S. Bullough, English Versions of the Bible (London, 1952) is the fullest treatment of the subject by far.
14. B. F. Westcott's A General View of the History of the English Bible (5th edn, 1905) is dismissive of the eighteenth-century translation activity.
15. W. F. Moulton, The History of the English Bible (London, Paris, New York, 1878), ignores it completely.
16. Mention must be made of New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce's compact survey The English Bible (Lutterworth, 1961), published to coincide with the launching of the New Testament of the New English Bible. These books are among the few to note seriously any activity between 1611 and 1881 but, like all others, lack an interpretive scheme.
17. H. Schwartz, The French Prophets. The History of a Millenarian Group in Eighteenth-century England (Berkeley, Ca., 1980), p. 53.
18. N. Sykes, 'The Religion of Protestants', The Cambridge History of the Bible. The West from the Reformation to the Present Day, ed. S. L. Greenslade, 111 (Cambridge, 1963), 175
19. citing Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants: a Safe Way to Salvation (1638).
20. For which, see Hill, Bible, 64-5.
21. The revisions and distribution of the Catholic Douai-Rheims translation were similarly politicised, though the main purpose in providing a Roman Catholic translation in English was to give a safe alternative bible to Catholics. It need hardly be said that in the political climate of eighteenth-century Britain, there were no plans to invite Catholic scholars to join any translation committee. For the history of Catholic bibles in eighteenth-century Britain, see H. Cotton, Rhemes and Doway. An attempt to shew what has been done by Roman Catholics for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures in English (Oxford, 1855).
22. More accessible is Pope and Bullough, English Versions, 337-90.
23. There is no discussion of Catholic bible translation in Challoner and his Church. A Catholic Bishop in Georgian England, ed. E. Duffy (Cambridge, 1981)
24. though there is a chapter in E. H. Burton's earlier biographical treatment, The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner (1691-1781) (London, 1909), 1, 270-89.
25. For example, James MacKnight, 'Essay IV', A New and Literal Translation ... of all the Apostolical Epistles (London, 1795 [1821 edn]), 1, 85.
26. Anthony Purver, A New and Literal Translation of all the Books of the Old and New Testament ... (London, 1764), 202.
27. Nathaniel Scarlett, A Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek; humbly attempted ... (London, 1798), i.
28. Philip Doddridge, 'Preface', Family Expositor: or, a paraphrase and version of the New Testament: with critical notes, 12-vol. edn (London, 1765).
29. Cited in Newcome, Historical View, 133.
30. Richard Ormerod, A short specimen for an improvement in some parts of the present translation of the Old Testament (Cambridge and London, 1792).
31. Newcome, Historical View, 226.
32. For a discussion of the role of the Authorised version in constructing a protestant British identity before 1800, albeit a contested identity, see S. Mandelbrote, 'The bible and national identity in the British Isles, c. 1650-c. 1750', Protestantism and National Identity. Britain and Ireland, c. 1650-c. 1850, ed. T. Claydon and I. McBride (Cambridge, 1998), 157-81.
33. MacKnight, 'Preface', Apostolic Epistles, 1 and 9.
34. He referred to Anthony Johnson, An Historical Account of the several English translations of the Bible: and the opposition they met with from the Church of Rome (London, 1730)
35. and the low church whig John Lewis's Complete History of the several translations of the Bible in English (2nd edn, 1739). Lewis's 'strong protestant bias' 'excited the open hostility of his hearers' in 1712 when he preached a visitation sermon in Canterbury. DNB. His was the first published edition of Wycliffe's bible, in 1731.
36. Douay Rheims New Testament (1899 edition).
37. F. C. Grant, Translating the Bible (Edinburgh, 1961), 6-7.
38. M. Lobban, The Common Law and English Jurisprudence, 1760-1850 (Oxford, 1991), 7-16.
39. Jeremy Bentham's proverbial hostility to religion did not prevent him making the rather interesting observation that 'The forming of a Digest of the Law' was 'to lawyers, what the making of a translation of the bible was to churchmen'. That is, Bentham thought bible translation would expose priestcraft. Presumably he was describing pre-Reformation churchmen, though contemporary lawyers. Univ. Lond. MSS: UC. xxvii. 124, cited in D. Lieberman, The Province of Legislation Determined. Legal Theory in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge, 1989), 253.
40. For discussion of the neo-Roman idea of liberty, especially as it relates to the problem of monarchy and public liberty, see Quentin Skinner's inaugural lecture as Regius Professor, Liberty before Liberalism (Cambridge, 1998), 52-5.
41. Joseph Priestley was a notable exception to dissenting norms in preferring a revision, even to the point of resisting the views of strong-willed friends, like Thomas Belsham, William Frend and Theophilus Lindsay, whom he had commissioned to assist him in making a new translation. Priestley wanted to stay much closer to the wording of the AV than, specifically, Newcome and Blayney. See his Preface to the English edition of his Harmony of the Evangelists (111)
42. and, despite some inaccuracies, Marilyn Brooks, 'Priestley's plan for a "Continually Improving" translation of the Bible', Enlightenment and Dissent, no. 15 (1996), 89-106.
43. The new translation was within days of completion when it was destroyed in the fire of July 1792. Also Jenny Graham, 'Priestley and his Bible', Enlightenment and Dissent, no. 14 (1995), 88-104.
44. 'To be a useful instrument of social intercourse, language must be able to admit new knowledge and new organisations of knowledge. In a sense, it must fit reality or it is useless.' E. Nida, Toward a Science of Translating (Leiden, 1964), 3.
45. Dryden, 'Preface', Ovid's Epistles (1680), in Essay on Dramatic Poesy and other Prose Works, ed. George Watson, 1, 262-73.
46. Also Nida, Science, 17-18.
47. See literature review in 'Preface' to John Locke, Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, ed. A. W. Wainwright (2 vols) (Oxford, 1987), 1, 22-5.
48. John Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (8 vols, London, 1817-58), IV, 853.
49. citing G. Campbell, The Four Gospels (2 vols, London, 1789). Nida also appreciated Campbell's introductory volume, which he called 'an outstanding scholarly treatment of translation principles and procedures, especially as they are related to the problems of the Bible translator' (5, note).
50. Anthony Blackwall, The Sacred Classics defended and illustrated; or, an essay humbly offer'd towards proving the purity, propriety, and true eloquence of the writers of the New Testament (London, 1725-31).
51. Edward Harwood, A New Introduction to the Study and Knowledge of the New Testament (2nd edn, London, 1773), xiii.
52. See his appendix concerning classical Greek and bibles.
53. Purver, 'Introductory Remarks', New and Literal Translation, v.
54. Harwood, 'Introduction', A Liberal Translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate the sacred writings (London, Bristol and Warrington, 1768), iv.
55. Harwood, Advertisement of subscription for Liberal Translation (1765), 3.
56. Harwood, Liberal Translation, v.
57. The model of formal and dynamic equivalent in translating was proposed by the twentieth-century missionary translator Eugene Nida. Nida, Science, 159.
58. The shift in emphasis away from the traditional christology of redemption through sacrifice in favour of redemption through moral instruction is noticeable in Harwood's translation of this passage.
59. DNB.
60. Addison, Spectator, No. 405, 14 June 1712.
61. For the importance of candour to dissenters, see R. K. Webb, 'Rational Piety', Enlightenment and Religion. Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain, ed. K. Haakonssen (Cambridge, 1996), 219-40.
62. A debate which persists even today among translators of the English bible.
63. Edmund Paley noted that while writing Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy his father 'fell in with times when uncourtly language became the fashion in politics'. E. Paley, An Account of the Life of WIlliam Paley, D.D. (London, 1825), 344-5.
64. Also E. Barker, Traditions of Civility. Eight Essays (Cambridge, 1948), 232.
65. W. Jones, A Course of Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Holy Scripture, and the Interpretation of it from Scripture itself (London, for the author, 1787), 2-10.
66. See also N. W. Hitchin, 'The Evidence of Things Seen: Georgian Churchmen and Biblical Prophecy', Prophecy. The Power of Inspired Language in History, 1300-2000, ed. B. Taithe and T. Thornton (Stroud, Glocs., 1997), 133.
67. H. Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative. A Study in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Hermeneutics (New Haven and London, 1974), 52.
68. W. Jones, Figurative Language, 1.
69. Monthly Review (1789), 110-17.
70. MacKnight does not himself use the scientific metaphor, but the practical point is evident in his writing. 'Preface', Apostolic Epistles, 45.
71. E. Said, Orientalism (Harmondsworth, Middx, 1978), 3.
72. E. S. Shaffer, 'Kubla Khan' and The Fall of Jerusalem. The Mythological School in Biblical Criticism and Secular Literature, 1770-1880 (Cambridge, 1972), 14.
73. For example, Johan-David Michaelis, Introductory Lectures to the Sacred Books of the New Testament, translated anonymously (London, 1761). Latterly translated from the 4th German edition by Herbert Marsh, with considerable additional notes (3 vols, Cambridge and London, 1793-1801).
74. J. White, Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford, noted the increased knowledge of eastern customs as one reason for a new revision in a sermon of 1778. A Revisal of the English Translation of the Old Testament Recommended (Oxford, 1779).
75. R. L. Mack, 'Introduction', Oriental Tales (Oxford, 1992), xlvii-xlviii.
76. For instance, St Jerome corresponded with St Augustine on the textual discrepancies they encountered.
77. MacKnight, 'Supplementary Essays', Apostolical Epistles, 1, 69-70.
78. William Whiston's Greek text was based on the eccentric but important codex Beza at Cambridge. It provided the foundation for his English version (1745) which, together with his commitment to the priority of the Apostolic Constitutions, formed the core support for his idea of Primitive Christianity.
79. Autobiography of Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. J. S. Macauley and R. W. Greaves, University of Kansas Library Series, no. 49, (Lawrence, Kansas, 1988), 169. Durell was also responsible, as vice-chancellor in 1768, for passing sentence against the six evangelical 'martyrs' of St Edmund's Hall.
80. For all of whom, see DNB.
81. DNB and Newcome to Toulmin, 7 Sept. 1794, Monthly Repository [of Theology and General Literature] (1800), vol 1, pp. 519-20.
82. Newcome included the catalogue, A List of various editions of the Bible, and parts therof, in English from the year 1526 to 1776 (London, 1778) in his Historical View.
83. Twelve Minor Prophets (London and Dublin, 1785), 229-46.
84. Lowth, Preliminary Dissertation to Isaiah (London, 1778), lxix.
85. The tooled inscription 'E. Law 1757' on the front cover of each volume, with the note inside, confirm that he purchased this bible in 1757, the year after he became Master of Peterhouse (1756-87).
86. Holy Bible (Tomson's Geneva version as printed in 1599, without the Apocrypha, 4to), 3 vols (Robert Barker, 1606), 1, MS page iii. British Library reference C. 45. g. 13. This bible has hitherto been overlooked by historians and biblical scholars, perhaps because it has been stored in the Early Printed Collections of the British Museum, rather than in the Manuscript Students' Room.
87. Francis Blackburne to Rev Mr Turner, from Monthly Magazine (Dec. 1796), 888.
88. Cited in F. Blackburne, 'A Life of Francis Blackburne', Works, 7 vols (London, 1804), 1, iv-v.
89. For which, see John Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (9 vols, London, 1812-15), IV, 313, 323, 350-62.
90. The discovery of Law's annotated bible provides a valuable mirror to Jebb's two heavily annotated Greek testaments. Dr Williams's Library, Jebb MSS, 24, 168-73.
91. Paley, for his part, undertook the surprising measure of gently introducing the problems of text criticism and translation into his parochial sermons. For example, Sermons on Several Subjects, xxii (331) and xxvii (407-8) (2nd edn, London, 1808).
92. Paley's Greek testament, well stocked with annotations, is in the British Library (Add MS 12080). He replaced Disney as chaplain, and may well have assisted Law in his edition of John Locke's Works (1777).
93. N. W. Hitchin, 'Probability and the Word of God: William Paley's Anglican method and the defence of the scriptures', Anglican Theological Review, 77 (Summer, 1995), 396.
94. Pilkington's Remarks upon several passages of Scripture, rectifying some errors in the printed Hebrew text (Cambridge and London, 1759) refers to 'the uncouth and obsolete words and expressions that are met with in our English version', though admitting their intelligibility and accuracy. But language had improved in 'politeness and correctness since that version was made', so that some people pretend to have delicate ears, and to be disgusted with every uncouth sound as an excuse for not reading the Bible.
95. Francis Blackburne to Theophilus Lindsey, 23 Feb. 1759, Dr Williams's Library MSS, 12. 52 (60)/2.
96. Free and Candid Disquisitions, 12-21.
97. Dr Williams's Library MSS, 12. 64/15.
98. This meant primarily dropping the Trinitarian creeds and prayers. Free and Candid Disquisitions, 22-157.
99. Beilby Porteous described a copy of Benjamin Franklin's edited Prayer Book, in which Franklin used the excuse of shortening the service to make heavy amendments in doctrine. Lambeth Palace Library MS 2099/59-62, 130-2. See also A. E. Peaston, The Prayer Book Reform Movement of the XVIIIth Century (Oxford, 1940), passim.
100. Reference to the 'Editors of these papers, being intrusted with the care of them, by the Gentlemen, who were principally concerned in drawing them up' (Free and Candid Disquisitions, i) seems to suggest that Jones was not alone in editing it. Blackburne disavowed any role in the project, apart from reading it over without making any comment or notation. The Calendar of the Correspondence of Philip Doddridge, DD (1702-1751) (Northamptonshire Record Society Publication, xxix), ed. G. F. Nuttall (London, 1979) reveals the identities of several correspondents to include, besides Philip Doddridge, the MP George Lyttelton, Gilbert West and John Barker. The tone of their letters suggests that though friendly towards Jones, they did not hold him in unqualified regard, and were perhaps not wholly aware of the uses Jones was making of their letters. (See letters no. 1225, 1309, 1314, 1323-4, 1481, 1487.)
101. Free and Candid Disquisitions, v-ix. 'The design, it seems, has been under consideration, and carrying on leisurely, from time to time, for some years. When the observations ... were brought together ... [and] digested into some order' it was presented to 'a very eminent and worthy Prelate, with an humble request to his Lordship, that he would ... communicate the contents of it to the Synod at one of their meetings' (iii).
102. N. Sykes, Church and State in England in the XVIIIth Century (Cambridge, 1934), 385, quoting Herring to Newcastle, 12 Sept. 1748. BL Add MSS 32716/213.
103. Sykes, Church and State, 385, quoting Herring to Newcastle, 10 Oct. 1754. BL Add MSS 35599/217.
104. Secker Autobiography, 170.
105. Eight charges delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Oxford and Canterbury: to which [is] added ... a Latin speech intended to have been made at the opening of the convocation in 1761. Published from the original manuscripts by Beilby Porteous, D.D. and George Stinton (London, 1769).
106. and Carter, History of Oxford University Press, 358.
107. R. Lowth, A Sermon preached at the visitation of the Hon. and Rt Rev. Lord Bishop of Durham ... 27 July, 1758 (London, 1758).
108. W. McCane, 'Benjamin Kennicott: an eighteenth century researcher', Journal of Theological Studies (n.s., Oct. 1977), 28: 2, 445-64.
109. The History of the University of Oxford. The Eighteenth Century, ed. L. Sutherland and L. Mitchell (Oxford, 1986), v, 540.
110. History of the University of Oxford, v, 540.
111. Antecedently, William Whiston responded to the deist Anthony Collins's argument that the scripture texts were simply too badly corrupted ever to be recovered, by urging '"a Great Search" for the most ancient Hebrew copies "in all Parts of the World".' J. E. Force, 'Hume and Johnson on Prophecy and Miracles: Historical Context', Journal of the History of Ideas, 43 (1982), 469.
112. Secker contributed 10 guineas a year to this project from 1759 to 1766. Autobiography, 170.
113. He published annual reports for subscribers to the work from 1760 to 1769 (DNB).
114. D. Katz, Sabbath and Sectarianism in Seventeenth-Century England (Leiden and New York, 1988), 196.
115. Madame d'Arblay, Diaries and Letters, 1778-1840 (6 vols), ed. C. Barnet (London, 1905), 111, 237.
116. History of the University of Oxford, V, 541.
117. The collations included Spanish and Arabic MSS, and especially the text of the Syraic MS of Origen's Hexapla in the Ambrosian library in Milan. 'Assistants are employed by him at Oxford; at the British Museum; at the Grand Duke's Library in Florence; in the ducal librar[ies] at Este [and] Parma; in the royal library at Turin; and in the Vatican, Caranattan, and Vallicellan libraries at Rome, and in that belonging to the College De Propaganda Fide in this last city.' Letter 2: Bishop Newcome to Rev. Dr Joshua Toulmin, Waterford, 24 December 1788. Monthly Repository (1806), 1, 457-8.
118. Newcome to Toulmin, 458.
119. Newcome, Twelve Minor Prophets, xii.
120. W. Bussby, Winchester Cathedral, 1079-1979 (London, 1979), 198, citing the Treasury Books.
121. The particulars of the project are related by Newcome in two letters (Newcome to Toulmin, Waterford, 24 Dec. 1788 and 26 April 1790) published in the Monthly Repository (1806), I, 457-8 and DNB for Holmes.
122. William Green, Poetical Parts of Old Testament: being the blessing of Noah and other poetical pieces (Cambridge, 1781), vi.
123. Benjamin Blayney, 'Preliminary Discourse', Jeremiah, and Lamentations. A new translation, with notes critical, philological and explanatory (Oxford, 1784), ix.
124. R. Mant, History of the Church of Ireland from the Reformation to the Revolution ... (2 vols, London, 1840), 11, 234.
125. N. Scarlett, 'Preface', New Testament.
126. DNB and Monthly Repository (1817), 11, 1-, 65-, 193-; (1818), 111, 5-;
127. Scarlett's 'Preface', New Testament.
128. Monthly Repository (1817), XII, 66.
129. A time-conscious man, Scarlett 'estimated that it took 1 hour, 8 minutes to read the Gospel of Matthew; 1 hour, 9 minutes the Gospel of Mark; 2 minutes 2 John; the whole New Testament 14 hours' (noted in E. Carpenter, 'The Bible in the Eighteenth Century', The Church's Use of the Bible, Past and Present, ed. D. E. Nineham (London, 1963), 113.
130. S. Johnson to W. Drummond, 13 Aug. 1766, Letter 184, Letters of Samuel Johnson, LLD, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill (2 vols) (Oxford, 1892).