500 years ago, the first New Testament in English was published – and stirred up a hornet’s nest
In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up.
For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.
Today, 500 years later, Christians take for granted that anyone should be able to read the Bible in a language they understand. But at the time, vernacular Bibles were associated with heresy. The Catholic Church preferred to use the Latin version of the sacred text.
In England, there were legal prohibitions against unauthorized Bible translations. And critics were suspicious about the religious views of the translator, William Tyndale. One of those critics was the Renaissance humanist and statesman Thomas More, who entered a bitter debate with Tyndale.
In the present day, when artificial intelligence is taking over much translation work, this 500-year-old conflict reminds us that translation is never a simple matter of substituting one word for another. It requires human interpretation.
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Nelson Searcy is the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. By God’s grace, he identified and developed the Eight Systems of a Healthy Church® that he has used to coach over 5,000 churches in the US and around the world to adapt those eight systems to their unique ministry fields, resulting in great health and growth.
Nelson regularly coaches pastors online and in-person through the Church Leader Insights and Renegade Pastors Network ministries that he founded. He also leads several annual pastor in-person conferences and online training events. In ministry for more than 25 years, Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.”
