Richard Taverner

Richard Taverner (1505 – 14 July 1575) is best known for his Bible translation, The Most Sacred Bible whiche is the holy scripture, conteyning the old and new testament, translated into English, and newly recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars by Rychard Taverner, commonly known as Taverner's Bible.

Taverner was born at Brisley (about 20 miles northwest of Norwich) (Schaff-Herzog p. 278). In his youth at Christ Church, Oxford, Taverner got into trouble for reading William Tyndale's New Testament, which was being circulated and promoted there by Thomas Garret. In February 1528, Cardinal Wolsey attempted to apprehend Garret, who escaped temporarily with the help of his friend Anthony Dalaber. After being brought back to Oxford, Garret and Dalaber participated in a public act of penance along with Taverner and others who would play a significant part in the Reformation. He studied at Corpus Christi College and Cardinal College at Oxford University, later earning at an MA at Cambridge University. He entered the Inner Temple to study law in 1534.

Later, under Thomas Cromwell's direction, Taverner became actively engaged in producing works designed to encourage the Reformation in England, which included the publication of his translation of the Bible in 1539, and a commentary published in 1540 with Henry VIII's approval. Taverner's Bible was largely a revision of the Matthew Bible. Taverner brought strong Greek scholarship to the task, but his Hebrew was not as good as his Greek, so that the revisions of the New Testament are considered better than those of the Old. In 1539, Taverner published Proverbs or Adages by Desiderius Erasmus Gathered out of the Chiliades and Englished, which was reprinted several times (White 1944).

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