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English Translations of the Scriptures

Wickliffe's Bible. This was the first translation made into the English language. It was translated by John Wickliffe, about the year 1384, but never printed, though there are manuscript copies of it in several public libraries. Tyndale's Bible. The translation of William Tyndale, assisted by Miles Coverdale, was the first printed Bible in the English language. The New Testament was published in 1526. It was revised and republished in 1530. In 1532, Tyndale and his associates finished the whole Bible, except the Apocrypha, and printed it abroad.

Matthews' Bible. While Tyndale was preparing a second edition of the Bible, he was taken and burned for heresy in Flanders. On his death, Coverdale and John Rogers revised it, and added a translation of the Apocrypha. It was dedicated to Henry VIII., in 1537, and was printed at Hamburg, under the borrowed name of Thomas Matthews, whence it was called Matthews' Bible. Cranmer's Bible. This was the first Bible printed by authority in England, and publicly set up in the churches. It was Tyndale's version, revised by Coverdale and examined by Cranmer, who added a preface to it, whence it was called Cranmer's Bible. It was printed by Grafton, in large folio, in 1539. After being adopted, suppressed, and restored under successive reigns, a new edition was brought out in 1562.