Welsh Journals

CEREDIGION CYLCHGRAWN CYMDEITHAS HYNAFIAETHWYR CEREDIGIOJ^T JOURNAL OF ffr THE CEREDIGION ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY CYFROL/VOLUME XI 1988-9 RHIFYN/NUMBE^g THE 1588 TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE AND THE WORLD OF RENAISSANCE LEARNING The year 1988 is something of an annus mirabilis for the people of Wales; at least it is so for those of our number who are aware of their heritage and of the unique place of the Bible in that heritage. A special event in our celebration was the publication, on Saint David's Day, of the complete New Welsh Bible- Y Beibl Cymraeg Newydd-a full quarter of a century after work on it was begun. It is appropriate that we should recall the important part played by the people and institutions of Ceredigion, both in initiating that work and in bringing it to completion. It was the late Reverend W. R. Williams, then Principal of the United Theological College at Aberystwyth, who first proposed to the Council of Churches for Wales that the time was ripe for a new translation of the Scriptures into Welsh to be undertaken. Principal Williams was appointed first Director of the project, but failing health prevented him from devoting to the task the energies which he would have wished, and he died before the work of translating the Bible began. In 1963 the vacant Directorship fell to Professor Bleddyn Jones Roberts, then Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Studies at Bangor, a scholar of international repute and one whose experience as a translator for The New English Bible was a priceless boon for the Welsh project. It should, however, be remembered (without, it is hoped, indulging in too much county partisanship) that Professor Roberts was himself for many years a teacher at the Aberystwyth United Theological College. Others from Aberystwyth were closely involved with the work. The Reverend S. Hor Enoch, for example, was a member of the New Testament and Apocrypha Panel from the beginning. The late Sir Thomas Parry, during