The Lindisfarne Gospels with annoted Old English translations.
There has been a lot of common myths and propaganda spread against the Catholic Church suppressing the translation of Scripture into the vernacular. This is absolutely false and very easy to
disprove if we look at the Scripture translations throughout history and who they were translated by.
Here is a list of Catholic English Scipture Translations, keep in mind none of these translations were condemned by the Catholic Church:
Venerable Bede's Gospel of John: The beloved Doctor of the Catholic Church, Venerable Bede
(AD 672–735), translated the Gospel of John into Old English, which is written
to have been prepared just prior to his death. Unfortunately, this translation is now lost. Its existence is known from Cuthbert of Jarrow's account of Bede's death.1
Eadwine Psalter: 12th century translation of the book of Psalms in Latin,
Old English, and Anglo-Norman. It was kept in the Cathedral Priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, which was Catholic at the time, through most of the Middle Ages.2
Father Aldred the Scribe: in the late 10th century, he translated the Lindisfarne Gospels
into Old English via annotations.3 4
Father Ælfric of Eynsham (AD 955–1010):
He himself tells us, in De Veteri et de Novo Testamento, that he had translated Joshua and Judges in Old English
at the request of Bishop Aethelweard.5
Wessex Gospels
(AD 990-1175): "a translation of the four gospels of the Christian Bible into a West Saxon dialect of Old English." 6
Here is a list of Catholic German Bibles prior to the "Protestant Reformation" that started in 1517. These men were not persecuted by the Catholic Church for printing their
Bibles:
Mentelin-Bibel (AD 1466) by
Johann Mentelin (AD 1410‒1478), a German printer.7
Eggestein-Bibel (AD 1470)
by Heinrich Eggestein (AD 1415-1488), a German printer.8 9
Zainer-Bibel (AD 1475)
by Günther Zainer, a German printer, painter, and goldsmith.10 11
Pflanzmann-Bibel (AD 1477)
by Jodocus Pflanzmann (AD 1415-1488), a German printer.12 13 14
Sensenschmidt-Bibel (AD 1476-1478)
by Andreas Frisner (unknown),
and Johann Sensenschmidt, a German printer.15
Zainer-Bibel (AD 1477)
by Günther Zainer, a German printer, painter, and goldsmith.16 11
Sorg-Bibel (AD 1477)
by Anton Sorg, a German printer.17 18
Kölner Bibel (AD 1478/1479)
by Heinrich Quentell oder Bartholomäus von Unckell, a German printer. 19 20 21
This same Bible has two versions a Lower Saxon and a Lower Rhine version.
Sorg-Bibel (AD 1480)
by Anton Sorg, a German printer.22Anton Sorg published
another German Bible.
Koberger-Bibel (AD 1483)
by Anton Koberger, a German printer and publisher in Strasbourg.23
Grüninger-Bibel (AD 1485)
by Johann Grüninger, a German printer in Strasbourg.24 25
Schönsperger-Bibel (AD 1487)
by Johann Schönsperger, a German printer in Nuremberg.26 27 This Bible was
published again in 1490 AD.28
Lübecker Bibel (AD 1494)
by Stephanus Arndes, a German printer in Lübeck.29
Otmar-Bibel (AD 1507)
by Johann Otmar, a
German printer in Augsburg.30
Schönsperger-Bibel (AD 1518)
by Silvanus Otmar, a German printer in Augsburg.31 32
Halberstädter
Bibel (AD 1522)
by Lorenz Stuchs, printed in Halberstadt, most likely a German printer.33
This totals to 18 German Bible translations before 1517. The Catholic Church has banned & condemned some Scripture translations by Heretics so that they do not spread their heresies nor cause civil
unrest as they previously had done. The Catholic
Church was very critical of translating the Scriptures because most literate people in Europe knew Latin & they did not want errors or heresies to enter via translation errors. To put this
in perspective, the German translations did not have an objective spelling for words so, even within the same book you can find alternative spellings for the same word.
As we can see the vast majority of these publications were done by profesional & non-partisan printers.
Nouveau Testament (AD 1476), a French translation printed by Guillaume Le Roy.34
1Dobbie, E. Van Kirk (1937), The Manuscripts of Caedmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song with a Critical Text of the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae, New York: Columbia University Press, OCLC 188505
2https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=4487
3N.R. Ker, "Aldred the Scribe", Essays and Studies 28 (1942), pp. 7-12.
4Sara María Pons Sanz Aldred's Glosses to Numismatic Terms in the Lindisfarne Gospels. Department de Filologia Inglesa y Alemana.
5paragraph 41 https://www.bartleby.com/211/0704.html
6http://textusreceptusbibles.com/Wessex
7https://www.wdl.org/en/item/18191/ Accessed (6/11/2020)
8https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224671920003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
9https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/8426458 Accessed (6/11/2020)
10https://digi.vatlib.it/view/Stamp.Ross.1190/0001 Accessed (6/11/2020)
11https://www.wdl.org/en/item/17910/#q=G%C3%BCnther+Zainer Accessed (6/11/2020)
12https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21222659670003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
13Heimo Reinitzer: Pflanzmann, Jodocus. In: Verfasserlexikon. Band VII, Sp. 575–577. Accessed (6/11/2020)
14https://guenther-rarebooks.com/artworks/categories/3/9403/ Accessed (6/11/2020)
15https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224705870003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
16https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224705760003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
17https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224704030003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
18ADAMS R. M. JR. (2016) A Most Perilous Journey ERASMUS’ GREEK NEW TESTAMENT AT 500 YEARS. PITTS THEOLOGY LIBRARY. Retrieved from
http://pitts.emory.edu/exhibits/exhibitcatalogs/ErasmusExhibitCatalog.pdf Accessed (6/11/2020)
19https://digi.vatlib.it/inc/detail/11062537 Accessed (6/11/2020)
20https://archive.org/details/bibliagermanica00quen/page/n7/mode/2up
21https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224726590003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
22https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21224712410003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
23https://www.wdl.org/en/item/18183/ Accessed (6/11/2020)
24https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21218847200003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
25https://www.wdl.org/en/item/10675/#q=Johann+Gr%C3%BCninger Accessed (6/11/2020)
26https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/Discover/Search/#/?p=c+0,t+,rsrs+0,rsps+10,fa+,so+ox%3Asort%5Easc,scids+,pid+459e48c0-c21d-4df7-9c60-6511eabe0b49,vi+a6130a01-5107-4243-9bbf-5e9e9e19c849 Accessed (6/11/2020)
27https://www.wdl.org/en/item/8974/#q=Sch%C3%B6nsperger Accessed (6/11/2020)
28https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21220543020003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
29https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/Discover/Search/#/?p=c+0,t+,rsrs+0,rsps+10,fa+,so+ox%3Asort%5Easc,scids+,pid+a6859988-6fbc-4db3-9fd9-f9a432ce9b50,vi+84518636-4bf6-4672-b316-f7b9443885b6 Accessed (6/11/2020)
30https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21285872310003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
31https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21285872180003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE Accessed (6/11/2020)
32https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=1483 Accessed (6/11/2020)
33https://athenaeumcollecties.nl/collecties/topstukken/detail/0bee3852-3487-11e6-ace8-c3ddc3366913/media/ccdd2c9a-7817-aeb3-069c-39f6953ed869?mode=detail Accessed (6/11/2020)
34Les Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes - Fac-similés > Notice » [archive], sur www.bvh.univ-tours.fr (consulté le 6/11/2020)