Abstract

My talk focuses on the ideas of Tyndale's contemporaries about bible translation. Special attention is paid to Luther's ideas. The main Dutch (Flemish) bible translations of the sixteenth century, Liesvelt's, Vorsterman's and Van Winghe's, are discussed.

Tyndale's ideas on bible translation appear to be in line with those of Luther and his Dutch followers. After Tyndale's death there was a Calvinistic turn in Dutch bible translation (Mierdman/Gheylliaert, Deux Aes and the Statenvertaling) that distanced itself from Lutheran bible translation. Only recently, with the NBV-project, can one speak of a reorientation towards a more reader and target-language oriented bible translation and thus of a revaluation of the ideas of early sixteenth-century bible translators such as Tyndale.