Translations of parts of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

into Cornish have existed since the 17th century. The early works involved the translation of individual passages, chapters or

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

of the Bible. The first full translation of the Bible into the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...

was published in 2011. The New Testament and Psalms in another translation went online in 2014.

Early translations

Two chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel survive from the hand of William Rowe (aka William Kerew) of Sancreed (fl. 1650–1690). There are ten versions of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

from the 1600s and 1700s. A translation from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

was produced in John Davies' ''Llyfr y Resolusion'' in 1632. Another translation was published in William Scawen's 1680 ''Antiquities Cornu-Brittanick'', and two versions were produced in John Chamberlayne's 1715 ''Oratio Dominica in diversas linguas versa''. Also from this period, John Keigwin produced two versions,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Thomas Boson one each, and William Gwavas also produced two. There are eight versions of the

Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". "Its title is first found c.390 (Ep. 42.5 of Ambro ...

from the same period, and seven versions of the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

. Two translations of Genesis 1 survive from the 1700s, one by John Boson and another by John Keigwin. William Kerew produced translations of Genesis 3, Matthew 2:1–20 and Matthew 4. Henry Jenner suggests that some other translations from the same period, of

Proverbs A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

30:5–6 and of

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

2:11, 7:11, 35:1 and 2, were also produced by William Kerew. There is also an anonymous line-for-line translation of

Psalm 100 Psalm 100 is the 100th psalm in the Book of Psalms in the Tanakh. In English, it is translated as "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands" in the King James Version (KJV), and as "O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands" in the Book of C ...

located as part of the Gwavas MS at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Modern translations

In the modern period, a translation of

5:1–14 by Henry Jenner was published in 1918, and in 1936 A. S. D. Smith produced his own translation of St. Mark's gospel, a revised edition being published by Talek ( E.G. Retallack Hooper) in 1960. A translation of St Matthew's Gospel by D. R. Evans appeared in 1975, and a version of St John's Gospel was translated by John Page, published in 1984. Ray Edwards published his translation of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

and of a number of

epistles An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...

in 1986, and St Luke's Gospel appeared in 1989. Furthermore, the Cornish version of the order for

Evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which ...

contains a translation of

I Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in Anc ...

13 by

Robert Morton Nance Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959) was a British writer and leading authority on the Cornish language, a nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society. Nance wrote many books and pamphlets on the Cornish language, incl ...

Nicholas Williams's Bible

A translation of the whole New Testament, by Nicholas Williams, was published in 2002 by Spyrys a Gernow; it used

Unified Cornish Revised Unified Cornish (UC) (''Kernewek Uny '', ''KU'') is a variety of the Cornish language of the Cornish revival. Developed gradually by Robert Morton Nance during and before the 1930s, it derived its name from its standardisation of the variant sp ...

orthography. His complete translation of the Bible into Cornish, ''An Beybel Sans'', was published in 2011 by

Evertype Michael Everson (born January 1963) is an American and Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over one hundred books since 2006. His ...

. It was translated by Nicholas Williams, taking a total of 13 years to complete. Having completed the New Testament, Williams translated the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

into Cornish from a variety of sources, including

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

texts, starting with Leviticus, which he regarded as one of "the boring bits". This Bible contains 10 maps, which label the place names in Cornish.

Cornish Bible Translation Project

The Cornish Bible Project was initiated in 1997, with the aim of translating the whole Bible into Cornish from the original Hebrew,

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

and Greek. The Project is run under the auspices of the Cornish Language Board, and the Bishop of Truro's Ecumenical Advisory Group for Cornish Language Services. The Cornish Bible is written in the Common Cornish spelling system. It has the ecumenical support of all members of Churches Together in Cornwall. In 2004 An Testament Nowydh (The New Testament) was published by Kesva an Taves Kernewek;. In July 2014 the New Testament and Psalms were posted on-line on YouVersion (Bible.com) and BibleSearch by the Bible Society. The Cornish Bible Project, including the Old and New Testaments, was completed in 2017, titled ''An Bibel Kernewek''.Downloadable Bible
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Translation comparisons

The following is a comparison of various Cornish translations of the

from the ''Gospel of Matthew'', chapter 6, verses 9–13, together with the corresponding English translation from the ''

Authorized King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

'' of 1611, 1769 edition.

Bibliography

*Brown, Wella, J. H. Chesterfield, J. M. Davey, Ray J. Edwards. Graham Sandercock, and R. K. R. Syed, trans. (2004
''An Testament Nowydh''
Ewny Redreth: Kesva an Taves Kernewek. * Williams, Nicholas, trans. (2002
''Testament Noweth agan Arluth ha Savyour Jesu Cryst''
Ewny Redreth: Spyrys a Gernow. * Williams, Nicholas, trans. (2011
''An Beybel Sans: The Holy Bible in Cornish''
Cathair na Mart:

References

{{Cornish language Cornish Cornish-language literature History of Cornwall Christianity in Cornwall