The Who’s Who of The Matthew Bible
The Who’s Who of The Matthew Bible
Why did John Rogers sign the Bible with the name “Thomas Matthew”?
The Greek word Thomas means “Twin” and the Greek word Matthew means “Gift from God.” When these two words are combined (Θωμάς Ματθαιος) they mean, A twin to the original gift from God.
The idea that forms this theory is that John Rogers wanted to be both truthful and inconspicuous when signing the first original languages-to-English Bible ever printed. Using the name William Tyndale would have resulted in, at the least, a rejection of a printing license and at the worst, being burned at the stake. There is no difficulty to postulate that John Rogers intentionally used the Greek language to confound his enemies while also honestly articulating the person who was responsible for its translation.
Who died trying to translate the Bible into English and have it printed?
William Tyndale: Strangled and burned at the stake because the Bible and his preaching of the Bible exposed the sin of the King and many within the church of England at that time to the English-speaking people. Tyndale refused to recant.
John Rogers: Rogers, was burned at the stake because The Matthew Bible exposed sin among the newly appointed queen and exposed the sin of the Roman Catholic religious system of that era. Rogers compiled the complete and up-to-date translations of Tyndale into the first original languages-to-English Bible ever to be printed and interpreted some on his own. John Roger’s, when ordered to recant his reformation stance, said, “That which I have preached I will seal with my blood.”
Thomas Cranmer: Under the pressure of a changing political environment, he weakened and helped Coverdale with the rewriting of The Matthew Bible, changing it to The Great Bible. While under pressure, he wrote a letter to the queen and recanted but later regained his strength and withdrew the recantation. He was sentenced to be burned at the stake. At the fire, he held his writing hand in the flame (the one he recanted with) and said, “this has offended.” That grand gesture forever cemented and empowered the resolve of the protestant movement. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer fell out of favor in part because he helped secure the original printing permit for the Matthew Bible by writing a letter to Thomas Cromwell, King Henry’s Vicar-General to license it, claiming that it was the best version he had ever read.
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Myles Coverdale: Although not killed, he was at one time persecuted; however he was later supported in his rewriting of the Bible. Often Miles Coverdale is attributed with the work of Rogers, but Coverdale is one who scholars have called an adapter and not a translator. He reportedly knew neither Hebrew nor Greek and relied on “five sundry interpreters” of Latin. C.S. Lewis said Coverdale was “of all the translators…the least scholarly” an ignorant yet sincere man, “a rowing boat among battleships” who “might perhaps be regarded as a mere hack” and whose selection of vocabulary was a reliance on aesthetics and “determined by taste” though not always bad; giving such phrases as “loving-kindness,” “respect of persons,” and “tender mercies.” Coverdale survived his initial persecution and went on, with Cranmer, to change The Mathew Bible by rewriting the portions that were “offensive” to the church (this work subsequently received the moniker, The Great Bible).