Origin of the
English Bibles

"...for simple little lambs..."

In the Family

William Whittinham was married to Calvin's sister-in-law. He took the pulpit after John Knox at the English congregation in Geneva in 1599. Whittingham brought a marked new look at translations, as he aimed it at a different audience. It was a revision of Tyndale's, with an introduction by Calvin, but the presentation was far different.

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William Whittingham's Innovation

While traveling between Paris and Lyons in 1551, printer Robert Estienne had hastily marked up verses in one of his editions of the Greek Testament. In spite of the fact that his mark-ups were questionable, the practice gained purchase. Whittingham used this technique in his Bible translation. In addition, when he came to a word that was "supplied" (meaning it wasn't in the original text), he used a dissimilar type face for the word -- just as we see in the King James and others today.

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Whittingham's version was addressed to "simple lambs which partly are already in the fold... and partly wandering, through ignorance."

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With the intent of employing the vernacular with the lay person, Whittinham broke the text into individual verses for the first time and he used everyday Anglo-Saxon words rather than literary words derived from Latin. Thus, a parable was a "biword" and regeneration was given as "gainbirth"; rather than the Latin-derived crucified, this Bible spoke of being "crossed."

His edition, published in 1557, has been called "the first critical edition of the New Testament in English" due to the extent of his analyses and notes.

Coverdale		Matthew