Mr. (Dr. Prof.) Daniell's "Bible in English:" Ch. 1-2

          Daniell, David.  The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-English-History-Influence/dp/0300099304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385668294&sr=8-1&keywords=david+daniell+english+bible

1.      Introduction, pages 1ff.

To many, the Bible is “ridiculous irrelevance.” To others, varied course syllabi “have made men hostile to the Word of God.” For Christians, the Bible is “the Word of God” with the story of “the forgiving, redeeming and regenerating work of Jesus, the `Word made flesh.’” But, it began to be felt by “senior clergy in Rome (though not in the East, dominated by Constantinople), that ordinary people were not capable of understanding a book as complicated as the Bible” (9).  It was “too sacred to be touched by any but the most learned” (10). The Cathars of southern Franc, the Hussites of Bohemia, and the Lollards of England were “blocked by the increasing power of the Pope.”  The Greeks saw the hubris of Rome and were never amused by the claim to universal supremacy. The Reformation can be summarized: “the people reading Paul.” As a result of the English Reformation, there were 10 separate versions/editions of the English Bible from Tyndale’s to the 1611 KJV—compared to 2 editions in Germany, Luther’s in 1522 and another in 1600. There were 2 vernacular versions in France over the same period, but, as always, unlike Germany and England, never intended for the populace. The Bible was not to be “locked up,” like the Italians accomplished from Wycliffe’s times in 1380 to the 1970s, the very work of Anti-Christ himself, that foul devil.

PART 1: BEFORE PRINTING, pages 17ff.

2.      The Bible in Britain from the Earliest Times to AD 850, pages 19-48.

Mr. Daniell discusses Aldred, Old English, the Latin Bible in England, Jerome, the period after Jerome, Christian England, the mission from Rome, Celtic missions, the “Gospel Books,” Bede, Caedmon, Bible knowledge in Saxon times, and the Gothic Bible by bishop Ulfilas.

Lindisfarne Gospels

 

Lindisfarne Gospels.  It’s an early, large, elaborately decorated and medieval text produced by Eadfrith in c. AD 698 to c. AD 720ish on Lindisfarne, northeastern England, a missionary, educational, academic and monastic center.  AD 698 is the terminus a quo and 721 the terminus ad quem, the date of Eadfrith’s death. Lindisfarne was founded by Aidan in 625, not terribly long after Mr. (Canterbury) Augustine the Lesser arrived in 597ish.  The Gospels were requested by the King Edwin, King of Northumbria.  The Rule of Benedict stressed reading, privately and communally.  There was a high demand for such books.

Aldred.  Between AD 946—968, he provided “glosses” of Latin with running English translations in the Northumbrian dialect.  The four Gospels were included with the Psalter.  But, 100 years before this, the Psalter had been “glossed” in the Mercian dialect.  These were used in the monastery and collegiate church. Mr. Daniell, cryptically, notes without development that vernacular versions were also in use on the Continent.  By the 1380s, Mr. Daniell notes that the Lollards’ Bible was widespread (230 manuscripts which survived the repression of the 1401 Act of De Haeretico Comburendo and Canterbury Arundel’s 1409 Constitutions of repression; 230 surviving to this day compared to 60 of Chaucer’s).  By the 1520s with Tyndale circulating covertly, “large numbers of men, women and children,” like Europe itself, were reading the whole Bible.  

Old English.  Old English ranges from AD 450 to 1150. The language was brought by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.  There were 3 dialects: Wessex (south and west), Mercia (the midlands) and Northumbria (northeast and north of the Humber River).  The language merged with the French that had come with William the Conqueror in 1066.  While Old English continued, it fused with the dominant French language.  By 1450, Middle English developed, something that is still recognizable to English readers today.

Christian England.  By 200, Tertullian of Carthage, northern Africa, would state that the Gospel was firmly entrenched: Britannorum inaccessa Romanis locis, or, “places of the British not approached by the Romans.” As such, the Gospel must have, inferably, been taught to native speakers (not in Latin either and not with Pentecostalist gibberizing). The story of Alban in the early 3^rd century survives: a Roman officer, converted himself, hiding a Presbyter, and offering himself in the place of the discovered Presbyter. Alban dies; a church was built there and visited by a French bishop in AD 427.  Furthermore, three bishops from London, York and Colchester attend the Council of Arles in 314, a council to deal with Donatism and the schism amongst the north African churches.  Patrick, AD 390-460, is in the church annals. Pelagius, a British product, was Augustine’s antagonist in the late 4^th century.

Mission from Rome.  After the Romans pulled out, a power vacuum developed, and the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded. Christianity suffered.  By Gregory the Great’s time, England was viewed as “pagan and barbaric, worshipping stocks and stones.”  According to Bede, Gregory was moved by the presence of English slave-boys in Rome.  As an aside, it is noteworthy that the Imperial center of power had moved from Rome to Constantinople (along with the elites); further, it is noteworthy that varied invasions of Italy had further reduced Italy to a shell of its former self; furthermore, the city of Rome, once populated by about 1,000,000 in Paul’s time, had been reduced to about 60,000 by Gregory the Great’s time (cf. Gibbon’s Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire). So, one beggar, Gregory the Great, noteworthy in several respects, organizes a mission to England.  Augustine the Lesser, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in England in AD 597ish with 40 assistants.

Augustine the Lesser.  Augustine was successful with the conversion of King Aethelbert and his Frankish wife, their seat of power being located in Canterbury.  Gregory the Great would crow that within 1 year, 10,000 baptisms had been registered in southern England. Augustine established York and Canterbury (at this point, we have some questions for Mr. Daniell, but we’ll press onwards). Bp. Paulius at York was successful in seeing the King of Northumbria converted (only and exclusively by God’s grace).  But, the political disorders were common.  Between the Romans’ departure and the Conqueror’s arrival in AD 1066, there were 200 kings. Notably, the Synod of Whitby, AD 664, was the final arrangement that finalized Italy’s dominion in England, not to be broken until the English Reformation (although there were plenty of chest-pounding between the English state and the Romanist-church-state).

Theodore of Tarsus. AD 669—690. He became an Archbishop of Canterbury.  He came via Antioch, Constantinople and Rome; he was fluent in several languages. He was learned; he attracted students.  Yet, Rome controlled Canterbury for the next 900 years. Educational and academic centers would be established, Monksearmouth in AD 674 and Jarrow in AD 681.  Jarrow would nurture Bede, a man who had the entire Psalter memorized (and he wasn’t alone).

Celtic missions.  Western islands were evangelized by Celtic missionaries. Also, as Mr. Daniell tells it, they sent “missionaries to the darkness of Continental Europe.” As an aside, I’ve enjoyed joking with some (serious, Confessional) Lutheran friends that England gave the Gospel to the Germans in the 7^th-8^th centuries;  Luther obliged and sent the Gospel back to England in the 16^th century; as always, God worked the details of His eternal plans for individuals, families, cities, churches and nations—He does so with infinite ease. Iona evangelized the north and west of England. From Iona in the west, Aidan in AD 635 founded Lindisfarne, noted above, a center for the energetic evangelization of northeastern England.

Gospel Books.  Lest one think the Lindisfarne Gospels are alone or unique; it is not. There is the “Book of Armagh,” dated about AD 800, an instrument for use with the Irish. Similarly, the “Book of Kells,” c. AD 750 to c. AD 850, was used in Ireland. In short, the complete English Bible was published in England before AD 700.  The Codex Grandior of Cassiodorus was brought from Italy to Northumbria and at least three copies were put into Old English.  Two of those copies, made at the scriptorium of Jarrow, were put in the church “for anyone to read.”  This tells one something about English scholarship of this time.   The Codes Aureus was put forth in Kent, again, in Old English. Boniface (c. AD 650 to c. AD 750) notes that manuscript productions were occurring in southern England and that other Christian literature, patristic commentaries and Bible studies were circulating in England and Ireland.

Venerable Bede. His History of the English Church and People was written at Jarrow c. AD 731. He told stories about the Churchmanship and ministries of Patrick, David, Augustine, Ninian and Columba. Bede was influenced by the historical labors of Eusebius of Caesarea and Gregory of Tours.

Bible Knowledge in Anglo-Saxon Times.  Among the learned, it was “moderately wide knowledge.”  The Life of Gregory the Great cited quotations from the Psalter and 7 OT books. The Life of Saint Guthlac (AD 730-740) had 35 direct quotations. Bede’s Life of St. Cuthbert abounded and was rich with Biblical references. Bede’s knowledge was “wide and deep.”  He had access to the entire Bible.  He died in AD 735. Viking raids disrupted English life.  Lindisfarne was sacked in AD 793.