ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22434, 22 June 1938, Page 7

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE

TO TBS EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Allow me to tell the world, also the Rev. F. Seward, the facts about Wyclif and the whole Bible. Having been silenced from preaching in Oxford he withdrew to his cure at Lutterworth. Finishing his translation (1380), he gave one manuscript of the Old Testament (written on vellum with his own hand) to St. John’s College in Oxford. In spite of all the efforts to deprive Wyclif of this honour, it remains his own. All the search made by antiquaries establishes the fact. He gave the whole Bible to the people, and he was the first man that did so His translation of the Bible found its way to all classes, and became the book of the people. Wyclif fully expected to die a martyr, and was prepared to do so, but God ordained otherwise. —Yours, etc., ' S. J. WEBB. Wakanui, June 21, 1938.

TO THE EDITOR OF TBX PRESS. Sir,—ln “The Press” of Monday Frank B, Seward says that no proof has ever been advanced of the statement made by Froude that the Catholic Church forbade or discouraged the translation of the Bible into the vernacular. Can F. B. Seward prove that Froude is wrong? Froude is recognised by students of history as one of the best English historians. I should like to ask F. B. Seward why Wyclif’s bones were dug up and burned 40 years after his death. Hundreds of French Huguenots were hung, drawn, and quartered because they preferred to read the Bible in French instead of the language the Catholic Church ordered. Seventy thousand Huguenots were murdered in their beds at night for the same reason (this event is known as St. Bartholomew’s Day). Latimer and Cranmer were tied to a stake alive, - then burnt to death because they read the Bible to their congregations in English and not Latin. Why did the Catholic Church try to stamp out the selling of Bibles in Spain not so many years ago?— Yours, etc.,

THE OPEN BIBLE, Hangiora, June 21. 1938.