410 Years of the Reina-Valera!

September marks the 410th anniversary of the publication of the 1602 Reina-Valera Bible.

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At the end of Cipriano de Valera’s revision to his friend Casiodoro de Reina’s 1569 Spanish translation of the Bible, he wrote:

For the glory of God and the good of the Spanish Church, this Bible was finished in September.

Year M. DC. II.

Some 33 years after the original publication, and some 20 years after Valera began his revision, the Reina-Valera Bible was published in 1602. Even today, the most popular Spanish version of the Bible bears the title “Reina-Valera” and bears testimony to the work of these two latecomers to the Protestant Reformation. Thus, the Reina-Valera predates and has outlasted even its English cousin, the King James Version of the Bible.

Cipriano de Valera (c.1532 – c.1602) was one of the last of the Reformers, born late in time and in a land that would never embrace the Protestant Reformation. When Valera was born in 1532, Martin Luther was already 49 years old and would die before Valera turned 15. The Counter-Reformation had already begun and the Council of Trent was well under way when Valera and his companions at the monastery of San Isidoro in Seville were converted after reading the Scriptures and Protestant literature. He was 25 when he and the others fled Spain to escape persecution. He studied for a short time under John Calvin in Geneva before relocating to England. This short overlap with these pillars of the Reformation, combined with his determination and zeal to see the true light of the gospel take root in his home country of Spain, made him a man out of place and out of time, an exile who would never return to his homeland except through his writings. He was the last of his contemporaries, outliving his good friend Casiodoro de Reina who died in 1594. Indeed, in his Exhortation at the beginning of his 1602 revision Valera allows himself a moment of personal reflection concerning his fellow Spaniards and Bible translators who had all since passed on, saying, “I knew Juan Perez, Casiodoro, and Julian [Hernandez] and considered them friends.”

To date I’ve not been able to find any record of his death. A letter from Jacobus Arminius in 1602 mentions Valera’s new Bible and asks that Maurice of Nassau be petitioned to provide passage for Valera to return to England. Many biographies I’ve read suggest he died near the end of 1602 at the age of 70.

Though Valera’s efforts to see the Protestant Reformation catch on in Spain were never realized, his revision of the Bible has played the part in the conversion of countless millions across the globe, both Spanish-speakers and the converts of Protestant Spanish-speaking missionaries.

It is significant that the last words printed in Valera’s 1602 revision of the Bible could just as easily sum up his life and ministry:

For the glory of God and the good of the Spanish Church, this Bible was finished in September.

Year M. DC. II.

May we continue his legacy, living and ministering for the glory of God and the good of His Church.

Faith without the Word?

Saint Peter exhorts every faithful Christian to be prepared to give account of his Hope. And what account will he give of his Hope, or Faith, he who neither reads nor hears the word of God? Because you know, that like the wick does not burn in the oil lamp, or lamp, unless it has oil, so neither Faith lives, unless it has the word of God. He that doesn't read, doesn't hear, doesn't meditate on the word of God, what Faith can he have?

—Cipriano de Valera, Dos Tratados

San Pedro exhorta a todo fiel Cristiano que esté aparejado [es decir, preparado] a dar cuenta de su Esperanza. Y ¿qué cuenta dará de su Esperanza, o Fe, el que ni lee, ni oye palabra de Dios? Porque sabed, que como la mecha no arde en el candil, o lámpara, mas de cuanto tiene aceite, así tampoco la Fe vive, mas de cuanto tiene palabra de Dios. El que no lee, no oye, no medita la palabra de Dios, ¿qué Fe puede tener?

—Cipriano de Valera, Dos Tratados [ortografía actualizada]

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 6

This is the sixth and last post in a series. Access prior posts below:

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1 published September 20, 2011

A Forgotten Reformer (sbcIMPACT!) published September 23, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 2 published September 27, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 3 published October 6, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 4 published October 12, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 5 published October 20, 2011

Here’s a section from the end of the short biography[1] on Cipriano de Valera:

Valera draws a flattering picture when he writes in the Exhortation addressed to the reader of his Bible: “There is no city nor is there, so to speak, any borough or any mansion in Spain that has not had, and has not even now, one or more persons whom God in his infinite mercy has enlightened with the light of his gospel. It has become proverbial in Spain when they speak of a learned man, to say: he is so learned that there is danger of his becoming a Lutheran [Protestant]. Our adversaries have done all that they could, to quench this light of the gospel, and then they have outraged many in Spain by the loss of property, of life and of honour. And it is to be observed that the more they outrage, the more they scourge, expose in sanbenitos, send to the galleys or to perpetual imprisonment and into the flames, so much the more do the evangelicals multiply, for ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’” (157, brackets mine).

Valera truly believed the Reformation could catch on in Spain. He’d seen it in his own life and in the lives of many others he’d known through the years. Even now I’ve read stories of missionaries in Spain praying that believers would make themselves known and join a church. If it occurs in our day, it is likely that there were many believers during Valera’s time who managed to avoid persecution and death, but at the expense of an open gospel proclamation.

Today in most Muslim and some Asian countries the ability to speak openly about the gospel is limited. The danger is real. Yet for those who truly look into the claims of Christianity, there is hope. Just as in Spain, those who take the claims of the Bible for what they are run the risk of becoming a Christian.

The Reformation was not just an exercise in rhetoric and polemics—it cost “property, life, and honor”. Yet, for all the persecution, the church continued to grow. Valera was not alone in his faith. Many Spaniards preceded and followed after him. Today there is a surge of Evangelicalism amongst Hispanics in the U.S. and in former Spanish colonies. Perhaps revival will one day make its way back to Spain, as Valera hoped and prayed it would.

Where Christians are willing to die for their faith God is raising up new believers to take their place. After all, as Tertullian once said, and Valera has repeated, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

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[1] Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 5

This is the fifth post in a series. Access prior posts below:

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1 published September 20, 2011

A Forgotten Reformer (sbcIMPACT!) published September 23, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 2 published September 27, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 3 published October 6, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 4 published October 12, 2011

Cipriano de Valera, the great Spanish reformer and editor of the 1602 Reina-Valera translation of the Bible, made changes to Casiodoro de Reina’s 1559 translation regarding the apocrypha:

In relation to the order of the sacred books Valera introduced an improvement into Reina's Bible, for he distributed them again into two parts, those which had been translated from the Hebrew, and the apocryphal books, which had been translated out of Greek or Latin; whilst Reina following the Septuagint and the Vulgate had mingled the protocanonical with the deuterocanonical books… Nor did Valera admit marginal references to the apocrypha. (155).[1]

Early editions of various translations of the Bible into modern languages typically contained the apocrypha, which Roman Catholics prefer to call the deuterocanonical books since apocrypha doesn’t mean “hidden” so much anymore as it means “false”.

The apocrypha were never considered part of God’s inspired writings. When Jerome set about translating the Latin Vulgate he was at first hesitant to include them but was finally persuaded by Augustine. That’s not to say they believed the writings were inspired by God. Actually, Jerome noted that they were not, and Augustine criticized an opponent for having so poor an argument as to have to appeal to the apocrypha for support.

It wasn’t until the Council of Trent, partially as a response to Martin Luther and the growing Protestant Reformation, that the Roman Catholic Church officially added the apocrypha to the canon of Scripture. Some important Roman Catholic practices doctrines, such as purgatory and prayers for the dead, are founded on passages from the apocrypha.

Cipriano de Valera, like other Reformers, recognized the value of the apocrypha for historical and cultural information from the period between the Testaments leading up to the birth of Christ. But they also recognized that these works were not inspired by God. Valera intentionally kept these books distinct.

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[1] Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 4

This is the fourth post in a series. Access prior posts below:

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1 published September 20, 2011

A Forgotten Reformer (sbcIMPACT!) published September 23, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 2 published September 27, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 3 published October 6, 2011

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The remainder of my series on Valera will focus on the 1602 Reina-Valera Bible and draws from the short biography[1] I found on GoogleBooks.

When seventy years of age, Valera edited in 1602 the whole Spanish Bible. … Reina was the first to publish the whole Bible in Spanish. His edition of 1569 was repeatedly re-read by Valera, who besides enriching it with fresh annotations, occasionally varied the text after consultation with learned and pious men. This process of revision extended over a period of twenty years before Valera committed the work to the press. … When he calls his Bible a second edition, he wishes thereby to state that the translation is on the whole the same in both editions, the second being a revision of the first. (154).

As I’ve stated before, Valera stood on the shoulders of giants. He was, however, somewhat of a contemporary of these giants. Reina did the real leg work of producing a Spanish translation of the Scriptures, but it was Valera who took it in, processed it, and edited it into the translation that would become the standard Spanish text.

Whereas the King James Version of the English Bible has largely seen its heyday as the English translation, being surpassed in sales volume by the NIV, the derivatives of the 1602 Reina-Valera Bible still exercise a strong majority control over the Spanish-speaking world over the more modern translations (such as the NIV and NASB Spanish equivalents).

One thing that stands out is that Valera was not 100% satisfied with Reina’s work. Through “consultation with learned and pious men” he made corrections and improvements to the Spanish translation of the Bible. The 1602 Reina-Valera version came out just before his death. There is nothing indicating he thought his revision was the end-all be-all. People make mistakes. Translations can be improved.

What I like best is that even with the changes, updates, and revisions, Valera still gave credit where credit was due, recognizing the work of Reina before him. No Spanish Bible translation can exist without first paying respects to Reina and Valera. To fail to continue their work, through textual criticism, updated and revised translations, and brand new translations, would be to disrespect and disregard their work to provide an accurate and accessible translation of the Bible in the language of the people.

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[1] Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 3

This is the third post in a series. Access prior posts below:

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1 published September 20, 2011

A Forgotten Reformer (sbcIMPACT!) published September 23, 2011

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 2 published September 28, 2011

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To continue with our brief look at the life and work of Cipriano de Valera, here’re a few more quotations from the small biography[1] I found:

In 1596 Valera reedited the Spanish translation of the Geneva catechism according to the Spanish edition of 1559. From the same work he had already in the Two Treatises[2] of 1588 extracted the agenda of the Lord's Supper, which he repeated in the edition of 1599 of those Treatises. 

In 1596 likewise he reproduced with some retouches the New Testament of Reina who had died in 1594.


In the succeeding year appeared Valera's Spanish translation of Calvin's Institutes. (153).

I briefly touched on one of Valera’s treatises in my previous post and my sbcIMPACT! article. I haven’t had time to pour over his translation of the Geneva catechism, his Two Treatises…, the 1594 New Testament, or Calvin’s Institutes, so I can’t comment directly on any of those works.

But may I draw your attention to something very important? Each of the works mentioned in that biography were all written in Spanish. Though at first this may seem obvious, it is important to remember that many of Valera’s contemporaries were penning their treatises in Latin. True, Valera was building on the foundations of others here (such as Casiodoro de Reina and Juan Pérez), but the point remains that virtually all of Valera’s works that I’ve encountered were written in Spanish.

I haven’t been able to adequately study all of what Valera has written. But I have been fortunate to have translated a small section of one of his works in my last post. His concern both for believers and his homeland is expressed in powerful language. His life of making available in Spanish the word of God and the works of the Reformers backs up that language.

In our day when information is instantaneous we’ve lost the value of the printed word. The Reformers, including Valera, went to great lengths to make the truth known at great cost to themselves personally.

Whether you are a Spanish-speaker or not, God has greatly blessed you with access to His word. You should read the works of the Reformers. But even if you don’t, you should read the Bible. It is so accessible to us now that we have no excuse before these men who sacrificed so much to make it available, much less before the Great God who used these men as a means to reach us with the gospel.

[1] Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

[2] The work was called “Two Treatises on the Pope and on the Mass…” Neither was very flattering to its subject.

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Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 2

This is the second post in a series. Access prior posts below:

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1 published September 20, 2011

Apart from the Reina-Valera Bible (1602) and his one-volume work Two Treatises on the Pope and on the Mass (1588), it appears his third most popular work was A Treatise to Confirm the Captives of Barbary (1594). The short biography I found on Valera had this to say about it:

In 1594 he printed a treatise addressed to the Spanish prisoners in Berbery, among whom there had been an evangelical revival. Valera, wishing to strengthen their faith against Popery [Roman Catholicism] and Mahometanism [Islam], expounds to them the doctrine of the Bible, and also refers to the three œcumenical symbols. He exhorts them to show a model life to the heathens. And pray for Spain, he says at the end. (153).

During this time Spain was under constant threat both from the Ottoman Empire and from Barbary (or Berbery) Pirates. Some Spaniards had been captured by the Muslims and Valera heard of their plight. He wrote to them to encourage them in the midst of their current suffering at the hands of both the Papists and Islamists.

The three ecumenical symbols Valera refers to are the Apostles’ Creed (called simply “the Creed”), the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. This section of his letter deals with Trinitarian themes and he calls them to appropriate the faith as their own, unlike their enemies who simply state “we believe what the Church believes” without really knowing or holding to such doctrines.

As I looked for the reference about praying for Spain I became enamored with Valera’s writing. It reminds me of the language of Paul’s letters and Peter’s letters—due largely in part because it is dripping with Scripture. His language is both beautiful and surprisingly easy to translate. I’ve not found an English translation, so I translated it myself:

Pray for our Spain and principally for the king and for all those who have [charge over] the government of the republic, that God give them the grace to read and meditate on the Holy Scripture, without knowledge of which it is impossible for them (as by the same Scripture and by the ancient doctors we have already sufficiently covered) to do their duty, nor for their subjects to be well-governed in the true fear of God: pray also for me. …

I truly remember you in my prayers, asking the Father of mercies to add to your faith, give you patience in your afflictions and captivity, make you firm in the confession of His name, and enrich you with His spiritual gifts, so that when the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead He might find you as such, having made you as such, saying: Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

To the one who, with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns eternally, be glory and honor forever. Amen.

[translation, paragraphing, and minor punctuation mine]

Had the Reformation caught on in Spain I have no doubt that we would be reading his writings just as much as those of Calvin, Luther, and others. It is my hope that as more Hispanics come to faith in Christ they will develop a holy curiosity about their faith heritage. As they study and learn, they will write and share. And who knows? Perhaps in our day we may see the English speaking peoples introduced to these forgotten Reformers who were willing to lose everything for the sake of gaining Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Resources:

I have a longer section of the Valera’s treatise translated into English on sbcIMPACT!

Sources:

Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

Cipriano de Valera. (1854). Tratado para Confirmar en la Fe Cristiana a los Cautivos de Berbería. Reformistas Antiguos Españoles, Tomo VIII. I.R. Baroja. Google Books. Digitized Jul 3, 2008.

Image credit.

A Forgotten Reformer

Luther. Calvin. Zwingli. These men and others dominate the discussion about the Reformation. And for good reason. Their work outlived them. They left an unmistakable legacy that the Pope couldn’t eradicate.

Yet there were others who don’t get as much press in the history books. Men and women from Italy, France, Spain, and other places that didn’t see as much fruit from their labors. But they left a legacy.

Cipriano de Valera, a Spaniard, was one Reformation voice of many to his people. Born just 15 years after Luther tacked his 95 theses to door the Wittenberg Cathedral, he stood on the shoulders of giants in his own day. He fled Spain as a young man and studied under Calvin. Shortly after Elizabeth I came to power he moved to England. It was there that he began editing and revising his late friend Casiodoro de Reina’s Spanish translation of the Bible. In 1602, at the age of 70, the first complete Reina-Valera Bibles began rolling off the press. Shortly thereafter, it is believed, he died, his magnum opus done.

Such a man should not be forgotten. Today on sbcIMPACT! I’ve published an article about the man, briefly translating the conclusion to one of his works. I pray that you read it, enjoy it, and learn something from the man known to his enemies as the Spanish Heretic.

Cipriano de Valera: A Spanish Reformer, Part 1

I’ve looked in vain for a decent and thorough biography of Cipriano de Valera. Valera was a Spanish Reformer, a contemporary of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Unfortunately, the Reformation never caught on in Spain like it did in Germany, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere. As such, much of the history of Spanish Reformers has been neglected in modern works.

Yet the Reina-Valera translation of the Bible stands as the most popular Spanish Bible translation today. Cipriano de Valera served as its chief editor after his good friend Casiodoro de Reina passed away.

Though I know little and am still in pursuit of a descent biography, I felt it worth sharing what little I could find through GoogleBooks.

A theologian of Seville, Pedro de Fuentidueña, had said in a sermon which he delivered before the members of the Tridentine Council, that the protestant heretics sought to subvert the two pillars of the church, viz. the mass and the Pope. Valera did his best to merit this reproach. (152, emphasis mine).

Valera, like Luther, recognized the abuses in the Catholic Church and sought both to identify them and call people to the true faith, not just empty practice. To do this, he adamantly opposed the absolute authority of the Pope. One quote I found from his work “Two Treatises on the Pope and on the Mass,” should give you a feel for why Pedro de Fuentidueña leveled this charge against the Protestants:

“Money is the Holy Spirit that elects the Pope.”

Though the Reformers first set out to reform the Catholic Church, it became apparent quite early on that such a reformation would not be permitted. As such, they had to choose between bowing to the ecclesiastical structures or to their convictions based on the Bible as their sole authority. Praise God they went with conviction!

Boehmer, Edward & Benjamin B. Wiffen. (1904). Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520. Karl J. Trübner: Strassburg. Google Books. Digitized May 15, 2008.

Image credit.