Killing us with copyright. . .

William Tyndale, a clergyman, distinguished Oxford scholar, was not exactly the first person to translate New Testament (NT) from Greek to English.  Instead of accolades, he was martyred. Tyndale strongly believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible even though universal education was not yet in place and so it was limited in that regard. His translation served both as a tool of this conviction but, perhaps, more importantly as a key resource eventually for 1611 King James Bible. 

The history of English Bible translations in reality spans a millennium, beginning with early translations in Old English, of mere portions or sections of the Bible.  This was already done by Aldhelm and the Venerable Bede in the 8th century.  This was mostly the Gospels and Psalms.  John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin into Middle English in the 14th century, helping to formalize the language as well as the Scripture for the common people who could read.  His work was not well received and opposition from the church and crown led to his excommunication.

Significant efforts continued with William Tyndale's translation in 1526, which laid the groundwork for later versions including the venerable King James Bible.  Miles Coverdale produced the first complete Bible in English, using Tyndale's work and translating additional Old Testament passages.  It was also called the Geneva Bible. The Bishops' Bible was an official English edition of the Bible produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568.  It was substantially revised in 1572, and the 1602 edition was prescribed as the base text for the King James Version that was completed in 1611. 

Of course, these were not all new works nor were they works in isolation but depended upon and built upon those who went before.  Of course, if this had happened today, copyright rules would have stifled such piggybacking and all over the pursuit of dollars.  In the end, the actual translators were often forgotten along the way but their work continued as the editions were revised and updated until the whole idea of copyright law stopped it all or extracted a cost for those who acknowledged their dependence upon those who went before them.  

I read of some controversy in the Roman Catholic Church over the copyright rules and the authorization of the bishops to promote and preserve certain versions for more exclusive use.  It shows up even more powerfully when you consider that this is literally a bribe extracted by publishers for weekly missalettes and for the appointed readings published in them.  Copyrights have been pursued and obtained by those publishers even though they changed little from the versions that went before them.  In one account, merely one word in a Psalm!  The scandal of the copyright and its impact upon the availability and usage of Bibles is not, however, an exclusively Roman problem.

Yes, I get it.  We are living in times when people steal material for their own profit.  Yes, I get it.  You want to keep people from tinkering with the text and corrupting the work of those who labored to make it possible.  But copyright laws will not prevent those with nefarious desires and designs upon the text.  What they will do is prevent the faithful from building on the work of those who went before.  In the end, the Church ought to be more concerned with getting the Word out than giving credit to those who translated it.  At least there you have my frustration of the day.