My church here in Cardiff, Mackintosh Evangelical Church, has been doing a series on how we got the Bible, and I’ve been asked to do a piece on how we got the Bible in Welsh. Here’s what I had to say:
In 1533, Henry VIII passed the Acts of Union, formally bringing Wales comprehensively under English power and administration. English was now the official language of the country, and there was no future in the Welsh language.
But something happened to change that. Europe was in the throes of the Protestant Reformation, as great thinkers were busy trying to take Christianity back to its Biblical roots, and strip away the centuries of tradition and corruption within the Catholic Church.
But the changes were also intensely political. Queen Elizabeth I was head of the Anglican Church, created at the beginning of her reign in 1566. Those in the kingdom who acknowledged the Pope as a higher authority were viewed not only as heretics, but traitors to the crown as well.
In Wales, Protestantism was slow in taking hold. As yet, there were very few Welsh writings on the subject, and amongst a largely rural and illiterate population, change was a slow process and the country remained largely Catholic. The Queen was afraid that Wales could be the foothold from which Catholic powers such as France and Spain could launch an invasion to try and re-establish Catholicism.
So only a few short years after Welsh had been banned as an official language, the Queen and her government decided to allow the translation of the Bible into Welsh. Holding the same beliefs was more important than speaking the same language.
William Morgan’s translation was a brilliant work – he drew on the rich heritage of Welsh culture, with all its bards and their tales, while faithfully working from the Biblical texts, to produce a translation that is still in use today.
It’s widely believed that the translation of the Bible into Welsh saved the Welsh language. Generations in Wales grew up learning the language from the Welsh Bible. The English may have hoped that Wales would be united to England through a common religion, but through the Chapels, Welsh language and identity persevered.
Mary Jones was a young Welsh girl who lived just the other side of the mountain Cadair Idris from where I come from in North Wales. She walked an hour each day to get to school, where she learned to read. She wanted a Bible, but her family were poor and couldn’t afford to buy one. For the next six years, she worked hard to save up the money to buy one. But even that wasn’t the end of her difficulties. The nearest place in which she could buy a Bible was Bala, 25 miles away.
When at home, I travel over to Bala by car each Sunday to the evangelical church there, which takes 25 minutes. But in the summer of 1800, Mary Jones, on the other hand, walked the 25 miles from her home to Bala bare-footed, all to get a Bible.
When she got there, however, the last Bible was already promised to another. But the Rev. Thomas Charles, who sold the Bibles, gave it to her instead. Mary was overjoyed to receive a Bible at last.
Thomas Charles was so impressed by her desire for a Bible, that he told her story to a number of other Christians, including the Clapham group of which William Wilberforce was a member. Her story and the need for Bibles helped inspire the founding of the Bible Society. One girl’s dedication continues to be remembered and have an impact today.
True Biblical Christianity is cross-cultural. Although the different languages began at Babel as a way of stopping mankind from being united in rebellion against God, in Christ, all tribes, languages and nations are united together. Not by being made the same, but through everyone coming together to worship God through the riches of their own language and culture.
