The First English Translation of The Bible

And why its translator was exhumed with nefarious intent

(By William Frederick Yeames, 1835–1918 — http://www.bible-researcher.com/wyclif/wyclif.html., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2118531)

Millions of people take it for granted that they can go to almost any bookstore in the United States, pull a Bible off the shelf, and read it in English. In fact, we take the Bible so much for granted that the biggest debate is often over what English translation is the best one to use for personal study. Is it King James? Or New King James? Or NIV? Or ESV?

The idea that the Bible is in English has lost all sense of wonder or meaning.

But there was a time when the Bible was not in English. In fact, for hundreds of years, the Bible was only available in a few languages, including Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. The problem was that in the Medieval Period, most people didn’t speak Greek, Hebrew, or Latin. And even if they could, many of them couldn’t read it. This made the Bible something that only the most learned and trained could actually read for themselves. Even then, the interpretation and translation of the Bible were jealously guarded by the church. A layperson could not simply learn to read Latin, find a Bible, and then begin to teach his peers about what he was reading.

As literacy rates began to rise in Europe and questions were being raised about the legitimacy of the papacy and the structure of…