1588 Wm. Morgan

1588 William Morgan

Revised in 1620, it was the version in general use until the 

It was a huge task for one man to undertake. On its success depended not only the survival of Welsh Protestantism and non-conformity, but also the survival of the Welsh language.   If William Morgan had not produced his translation, the Welsh language would almost certainly have died out as did Cornish and other Celtic tongues. Thanks to him Welsh remains the oldest living language in Europe.  For William Morgan, however, the translation was solely for the purpose of giving his people a knowledge of the inspired Word of God. In his dedication to the Queen he wrote, “Unless religion is taught in the common tongue it will remain hidden and unknown”. Thus he made it possible for the people of Wales to follow the example of the people of Berea who “searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11)  

1588 saw the publication of the first Welsh translation of the complete Bible. It was the work of William Morgan, 1545-1604, a native of Penmachno, Conwy and a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge. It was printed by the deputies of Christopher Barker, the Queen's Printer, and intended for church rather than home use. The Acts of Union (1536 and 1542) meant that few people could have foreseen the publication of a Welsh Bible before the end of the century.

Welsh had been denied official status and had been banned from the spheres of law and administration.  Furthermore it had been decreed that the English Bible was to be read in every church in the land.  The bardic order, the traditional guardian of the literary language, was also in decline.  It was probable that the language would die out. The fact that it did not is largely due to the belief that the Scriptures should be available to all.

In 1563 Parliament passed an Act ordering that the Bible be translated into Welsh by Saint David's Day, 1567. Although this did not come to pass, a translation of the New Testament did appear in 1567. This was chiefly the work of William Salesbury, c.1520-1584. His translation was seriously flawed by archaisms and idiosyncratic orthography.

end of the twentieth century. No other Welsh book has been as influential or significant. The translator not only produced a version of unfailing accuracy but also skilfully moulded the classical language of the poets into the literary Welsh known to us today. In short, the book is the foundation stone on which modern Welsh literature has been based.

William Morgan was born at Ty Mawr, Wybrnant, Penmachno in 1541 and entered St. John’s College Cambridge in 1563. It was at Cambridge that Tyndale and Coverdale, pioneers of the English Bible, were educated and Morgan was caught up in the prevailing spirit of reform. William Morgan studied Hebrew, Greek and Latin and the year after he started in Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth I visited his college and made speeches in Greek and Latin. It is therefore quite likely that this visit could have inspired young Morgan to be the one who, 24 years later, would present this same queen with the first complete Bible in Welsh. William Morgan graduates in 1568 and became a minister at Llanbadarn Fawr near Aberystwyth. Ten years later he moved to Llanrhaedr ym Mochant, six miles from the English border near Oswestry. He stayed there until he was made Bishop of Llandaf in 1595 at the request of Queen Elizabeth. It was during the first ten years at Llanrhaedr ym Mochant that Morgan devoted all of his energies to the work of translating the Bible into Welsh. For this purpose he went back to the original languages as well as using the English Bibles of Tyndale and Coverdale and the Welsh New Testament of Salesbury and Davies.

In 1587 William Morgan set out on horseback for a 200 mile journey, carrying his precious manuscript. London was the only place where it could be printed, and the printer, Christopher Barker, was English. This meant that he had to remain in London in order to supervise the printing and thus avoid errors.  All went well and the following year, 1588, William Morgan presented a copy of his Bible to Queen Elizabeth. William Morgan died in 1604, and he was buried in the choir of St. Asaph’s cathedral where he had been Bishop for the last three years of his life. He died a poor man, but he bequeathed incalculable riches to the Welsh nation. His translation was revised by Richard Parry in 1620. When you examine William Morgan’s Bible, remember that it was written so that men and women could reads and understand the Word of the living God. The Bible is a living book with a message for today; we neglect it at our peril. “For the sake of your eternal salvation don’t just look at the Bible – read it!”       More...... Even More......

The superb complete Bible published in 1588 was the work of William Morgan who appears to have taken it upon himself to undertake the huge task in about 1578. It involved original translation as well as the adaptation of Salesbury's New Testament. Morgan translated from the Hebrew and Greek originals, consulting also the English Bishops' and Geneva versions. His volume brought the Scriptures to the people of Wales.