410 Years of the Reina-Valera!

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

---

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.

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.”

---

[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.

---

[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.