[Page 1]In 1526 William Tyndale’s English-language The New Testament started showing up in England, printed in the Low Lands and smuggled into England because it was an illegal book. It represented an unapproved translation of the scriptures into the English language. In theory, a translation would have been allowed if the Church had approved it in advance. In reality, the Church was not interested in any translation of the scriptures since that would allow lay readers to interpret the scriptures on their own and to come to different conclusions regarding Church practices and doctrine. Moreover, scripture formed a fundamental role in the rise of the Protestant Reformation and, in particular, Lutheranism, which King Henry VIII had officially opposed, in the governing of his realm and in his own writings in defense of the Catholic Church (for which the Church had honored him with the title of Defender of the Faith).

Tyndale’s translation was vigorously attacked by Sir Thomas More, the King’s minister and counselor (and later chancellor), in his Dialogue, published in 1528. (Today this work of More’s is generally referred to as Dialogue concerning Heresies, but that was not its original title.) More not only attacked Tyndale for his supposed Lutheranism but also for how he had translated the Greek original into English in his 1526 New Testament. In part III, section 8 of Dialogue, More argues against Tyndale’s 1526 translations of ecclesia as ‘congregation’, presbyteros as ‘senior’, and agape as ‘love’. Near the end of this section, More also mentions his disapproval of Tyndale referring to ‘penance’ as ‘repentance’. In his later translation of the New Testament [Page 2](1534), Tyndale adopted ‘elder’ for presbyteros, which More had nonetheless ridiculed in his Dialogue, giving the argument that “elders” in the New Testament were not necessarily old. In More’s view, these “elders” were priests, even though the Latin word in the Vulgate was either the Greek loanword presbyter or the Latin senior. In all these cases, the New Testament never used the Greek or Latin word for ‘priest’ (hieros or sacerdos). And the argument over ‘penance’ later became one of whether the Greek verb for ‘repent’, metanoeo, should be translated as ‘repent’ or as the more Catholic ‘do penance’, from the Vulgate (paenitentiam ago).

The Protestant Reformation adopted much of Tyndale’s terminology, as in, for instance, the names of churches: the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and the Congregational Church in New England. This tradition continues in the use of synonyms for congregation in church names, such as “the Assembly of God” and “the Community of Christ”. Throughout the 1500s and early 1600s, we can see a tug of war over which of all these debated terms would end up in the English Bible. By the time we get to the 1611 King James Bible (KJB), the translation issues that Thomas More viciously attacked William Tyndale over were settled as follows: (1) love is used throughout except in the latter part of the New Testament where charity is sometimes used in place of love, chiefly in the letters of Paul; (2) church is used for both the general organization and the individual congregation, with the reader determining which meaning is meant in any given passage; (3) elder is used for the church office, not priest; and (4) repent is used throughout, never the Catholic do penance.

In reviewing these decisions in the King James Bible, we can see that some deference is paid to More in the epistles with the use of charity rather than love in certain phrases (thus “faith hope charity” in 1 Corinthians 13:13), otherwise the New Testament word is love, Tyndale’s word, especially in the gospels where even the Vulgate has amo ‘love’ (thus “lovest thou me” in John 21). For sure, More wins with the word church; the Protestant congregation is avoided, although one can tell from [Page 3]context which meaning for church is intended. But Tyndale wins with elder and repent. (The word priest occurs in referring to the Jewish priests, but not as an office in the Christian church.)

In the following summary, I set out the history of these four words for certain key New Testament passages. We see for selected translations how the original Greek and the secondary Latin (the Vulgate) ended up in the English Bible in the 1500s and early 1600s. I also provide a modern translation from the 1989 Revised English Bible (REB), which has been approved by both the Catholic Church and Protestant churches for use in the British Isles. Even the Catholics have now accepted the King James translation of all these terms.

The Debate Over the Four Words in the 1500s and 1600s

(1) agape ‘love’ versus ‘charity’ (from the Latin caritas)

in the epistles, the Rheims New Testament
and the King James Bible use charity as well as love

1 Corinthians 13:13

in the gospels, all use love, never charity

[Page 4]Matthew 22:39

(2) ecclesia ‘congregation’ versus ‘church’

(3) presbyteros ‘elder, senior’ versus ‘priest’

Acts 15:4

Note that church is decided early on (for instance, in the 1560 Geneva Bible, a Protestant Bible).

(4) metanoeo ‘repent’ versus ‘do penance’ (from the Latin paenitentiam ago)

Mark 6:12

The Ecumenical Book of Mormon!

Interestingly, the Book of Mormon is in full agreement with the vocabulary decisions made in the King James Bible, yet it makes adjustments for the original debate by making sure that you, the reader, correctly understand how to interpret these words. Thus we find that the Book of Mormon often tells the reader that the word charity is ’love’ – that is, in various places [Page 6]it adds the word love so that you won’t think that the text is referring to alms giving (Tyndale’s complaint about the Latinate word charity). When the word church is used in the Book of Mormon, the text will let you know that church can be used to mean both the organization and the individual congregation. And interestingly, the church in the Book of Mormon has both elders and priests, not just one or the other. In each case the Book of Mormon builds upon the original debate, yet resolves it according to the King James translation. Even then, the resolution follows Tyndale’s interpretation.

love and charity

church and churches

elders and priests

Note that Moroni 3:1 sets the elders hierarchically over the priests and teachers.

repent, but no “do penance” at all in the Book of Mormon

Alexander Campbell claimed in his early review of the Book of Mormon (in 1831) that Joseph Smith’s golden bible was simply commenting on the religious issues of the early 1800s in America. To the contrary, there is considerable evidence that the issues and the cultural milieu of the text date more from the late 1600s than the early 1800s, during a time when the conflicts between the low-church Protestants, high-church Anglicans, and Catholics had been basically resolved (or at least reached a kind of peaceful truce in England). References to “secret combinations” and to “standing at the bar of God to be judged” can be more reasonably traced to this period, not to the early 1800s (or to biblical usage). The translation issues that Thomas More attacked William Tyndale over were basically settled in the King James Bible (1611), yet the Book of Mormon takes those translation issues to their final conclusion by explicitly resolving the conflict by (1) frequently declaring charity to be love, as in the “pure love of Christ”, (2) allowing for both elders and priests as offices in the church, and (3) explicitly stating that the word church refers to both congregation and God’s [Page 8]organization. The Book of Mormon resolves the controversy in favor of the King James solution but from the point of view of William Tyndale.