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A History of Bible Translation: Chapter 4 - After the Reformation

There were other translations carried out during the Reformation period. The Bible was translated into Slovene during the 16th century, and into Turkish during the 17th century, albeit by a Polish convert to Islam who called himself Ali Bey after his conversion.[1]

The result of all this translation activity – and I haven’t covered all languages translated in the reformation period – was that as Christians started to spread around the world as the result of persecution or to trade they took Bibles with them, and began churches, albeit in their language. So, the gospel began to reach parts of the world outside Europe such as North America, where many Puritans, both Reformed and Anabaptist, planted churches. This paved the way for the modern missions movement, which has tended to focus on Bible distribution, for very important reasons. Church planters and bible translators are often either the same people, or very closely related to one another i.e. working in close partnership.

Because of this focus on printed books, the main book being the Bible,[2] there has also been a focus on literacy. Without teaching people to read and write how could they have access to the Bible? Indeed, those who become committed followers of Jesus and join churches are positively encouraged to read their Bibles (and pray every day, as the song goes). Mission during this era tended to be centripetal – drawing people into a Mission compound, where they would gain education, join a church, be given work to do, and be generally looked after. Though we now look back on such work as colonialist, it was a product of its age. When the gospel first reached Britain via both Celtic and Roman missionaries, many monasteries were built, and the gospel spread via the work of those monasteries, which had a surprisingly outward focus, at least to when they first started.[3] It’s no surprise, therefore, that reformation and early missions used a similar model.

The real leap forward in terms of both missions and Bible translation began in the 19th century, however, and we will look at that expansion in the next chapter.


[1] This was commissioned by the Sultan of Turkey himself.
[2] The Greek term for Bible is ho biblios ‘the book’.
[3] Or when they were rejuvenated, or new movements began.
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