Church Monarch And Bible In Sixteenth Century England

The King James Version of the Bible is seldom viewed as a radical text, yet the history of English Bible translation in the sixteenth century, culminating in the now-familiar King James Version, is a complex one, revealing that Bible translation did not occur in a vacuum but within a web of politics, shifting religious pressures and repressions. The struggle to translate the Bible into English is here examined within the political context of the age. Emphasis is placed upon the varying royal policies and how these resulted in policy swings and the subsequent encouragement or discouragement of religious change and new Bible translations. The book is arranged chronologically, spanning the changing environments for Bible translation under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I, and James, who varied from forbidding such translations to encouraging them. A bibliography and index are included.

A distinguished group of authors here illuminate a broad spectrum of themes in the history of biblical interpretation. Originally published in 1990, these essays take as their common ground the thesis that the intellectual and religious life of the sixteenth century cannot be understood without attention to the preoccupation of sixteenth-century humanists and theologians with the interpretation of the Bible. Topics explored include Jewish exegesis and problems of Old Testament interpretation and the relationship between the Bible and social, political, and institutional history. Contributors. Irena Backus, Guy Bedouelle, Kalman P. Bland, Kenneth G. Hagen, Scott H. Hagen, Scott H. Hendrix, R. Gerald Hobbs, Jean-Claude Margolin, H. C. Erik Midelfort, Richard A. Muller, John B. Payne, David C. Steinmetz

This collection of nine essays, with an introduction by Richard Griffiths, examines some of the broad themes relating to the way in which the reading, translation and interpretation of the Bible in the Renaissance could serve the specific and often practical aims of those involved. Moving from humanist issues concerned with the nature of the sacred texts and methods for interpreting them, the volume examines the uses of the Bible in different contexts, and looks at the social, political and religious impact of its translations in the sixteenth century.