Embedded Files
Salesbury's New Testament was marred by his idiosyncratic alteration of Welsh words to make them resemble their Latin equivalents. As a result the book was suitable for scholars rather than for the common people.
Richard Davies and William Salesbury had planned to proceed with a Welsh translation of the Old Testament, but the partnership was dissolved, so tradition has it, because of a difference of opinion over one Hebrew word, and Wales had to wait another 21years for a complete Bible in Welsh.
Richard Davies (1501-1581) Bishop of St. David’s, may well have been instrumental in persuading Queen Elizabeth1st to pass the Act of 1563 which called for a Welsh translation of the Bible to be placed in every church in Wales by 1st March. 1566.For this task he gathered around him at Abergwili, Carmarthen – a circle of scholars who worked on the translation. Amongst these was William Salesbury (1520-1584), a brilliant Oxford classical scholar and linguist who translated from the original Greek text, and had already published a Welsh lectionary containing the gospels and epistles. Born in 1520 at Llansannan, Denbighshire, he translated most of the N.T. Together they published the first complete printed New Testament in Welsh in 1567.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse