8. Translation: The Englishing Of The Bible
8
TRANSLATION: THE ENGLISHING OF THE BIBLE
It is clear that King James was delighted with the proposal for a new English translation of the Bible. The bishops of the Church of England, led by Richard Bancroft, bishop of London, may have been initially opposed to the translation, despite James's enthusiasm. By the summer of 1604, however, the Anglican establishment was fully on board. Richard Bancroft—by now confirmed as the new archbishop of Canterbury—had become the leading Anglican supporter of the proposed new translation, and was actively engaged in setting in place the measures needed to produce it. Everyone, it seemed, was happy.
While still bishop of London, Bancroft set in motion the procedures to appoint the panel of translators necessary for the new translation. Lancelot Andrewes (then dean of Westminster) and the Regius Professors of Greek and Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge Universities were invited to name suitable persons qualified for this task. There seems little doubt that Bancroft ensured that a satisfactory number of his own protégés found their way onto the translation panel. Yet the translators would not be paid for their work; in a letter of June 30, James indicated that the best that the “certain learned men, to the number of four and fifty” could expect was potential preferment in their careers. There were no royal funds available to support the translation. James's coffers were seriously depleted, and there was no prospect of the English Parliament doing anything to remedy his financial situation. On July 31, 1604, Bancroft wrote to his fellow bishops, asking them to help find positions for the translators, as and when suitable openings became available. A sum of not less than twenty pounds was regarded as a suitable remuneration for their efforts.
Bancroft was determined to ensure that the translation process was judiciously guided, and limit the freedom of the translators. The translators were instructed to follow strict “rules of translation,” drawn up by Bancroft and approved by James, designed to minimize the risk of producing a Bible that might give added credibility to Puritanism, Presbyterianism, or Roman Catholicism. The deliberate exclusion of any form of marginal annotations or notes was regarded as a matter of special importance, given James's clear anxieties concerning the content and tone of the Geneva Bible's marginal comments.