John Davies of Mallwyd
In the story of the translation of the Bible into Welsh, the names of William Salesbury and William Morgan are perhaps well-known, the former being identified with the New Testament published in 1567, the latter with the complete Bible in 1588. So what of John Davies? His name may not be as well known, but he too had an important, if somewhat hidden, role. Who was he, and what was his role?
John Davies was born around 1567 in the parish of Llanferres in Denbighshire. A promising young scholar, he seems to have been William Morgan’s secretary when Morgan took up his post as Bishop of Llandaff in 1595. It seems likely that he may have assisted Morgan with various scholarly tasks, including the production of a revised Book of Common Prayer in Welsh, published in 1599. Davies may also have assisted Morgan earlier when Morgan was working on the 1588 Bible. Davies’s indebtedness to the experience he gained with Morgan is reflected in the fact that he describes Morgan as his Gamaliel, a reference to the Apostle Paul’s rabbinic teacher.
In around 1603, Davies was appointed rector of Mallwyd. (Those who have travelled to Bryn y groes from South Wales along the infamous A470 will have driven through Mallwyd and passed the church where he served, set back from the road on the right-hand side heading North between Machynlleth and Dolgellau.) It was here that he spent the rest of his days and from where he made his contribution to the story of the Bible in Welsh. Through marriage to Jane, he became the brother-in-law of Richard Parry, who was appointed Bishop of St Asaph in 1604. Both of these men were part of the ongoing story of the Bible in Welsh, being responsible for producing a revision in 1620 of William Morgan’s translation.
It was Parry, as the Bishop, who penned the preface to the 1620 Bible. In it, he explains the motivation for undertaking the revision and a key aspect related to the success of the English Authorised Version (AV), published in 1611. He wanted to do similarly for the Welsh Bible.
In his preface, he is at pains not to ‘condemn’ the work of previous translators. Rather, using the imagery of a building project, he describes the task as improving the construction.
In what follows, I want to consider one interesting feature of the revision, namely the way in which the revision was carried out in light of the English AV; an aspect which might be of particular interest to those who don’t speak Welsh.
Revisions in the 1620 Bible
The late Isaac Thomas undertook a detailed study of both the Old and New Testaments of the 1620 Bible to evaluate the nature of the revision and the types of changes that had been adopted. The study showed that there were judicious and informed decisions in terms of considering what use to make of the AV in the process of revising William Morgan’s translation. It might be worth noting that Bible translators make use of many sources when seeking to produce or revise a translation. The translators of the AV itself make the point that they consulted translations in various languages in undertaking their work.
It is striking that many of the revisions to the text of the Welsh Bible reflect readings in the English AV. However, the adoption of these readings was only made if they were deemed to improve the translation.
Space will only permit consideration of a few of these changes noted by Thomas in his study.
Chapter summaries
The first example could be described as a matter of presentation and relates to the summaries at the beginning of each chapter of the Bible. In every case where Morgan’s summaries differed from those of the AV, the 1620 Bible has changed these to conform to those found in the AV.
Text changes
Next, some examples of where the text of the 1620 Bible followed the AV, first from the Old Testament.
In Ruth 1:3, in describing Naomi and her two sons, following the death of her husband, the 1620 Bible followed the AV in stating that she ‘was left’ [adawyd]. This was done to correct a mistranslation by William Morgan, who had put ‘she remained/stayed’ [arhosodd].
Now, an example from the New Testament where the 1620 Bible has followed the AV.
In the record of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:5, the meek are described in William Morgan’s translation as ‘possessing’ [feddiannant] the earth. However, the 1620 Bible describes them as ‘inheriting’ [etifeddant], following the AV, and thereby more accurately reflecting the meaning of the underlying Greek verb.
However, it’s clear that the readings of the AV were critically evaluated, and there are a number of instances where the AV’s rendering was not followed. Here is one example:
Leviticus 1:1 uses a phrase, occurring in many other places too, to describe the Tabernacle. The AV uses the phrase ‘tabernacle of the congregation’. However, that is misleading; the significance of the term is to denote a place of meeting. Thus, the 1620 Bible has retained Morgan’s more accurate rendering, ‘tent of meeting’ [pabell y cyfarfod].
Theological terms
A further interesting aspect to consider is where specific terms used in Morgan’s translation have been changed in the 1620 Bible in light of the AV. Here is one particularly notable example. In Exodus 29:36, the 1620 Bible uses the term ‘cymod’, reflecting the AV’s ‘atonement’ rather than ‘iawn’, as used by Morgan, a term which reflects more closely the theological concept of ‘making satisfaction’.
The achievement of the two men associated with the 1620 Bible, Bishop Richard Parry and John Davies, cannot be overestimated, especially when you consider that there were close to fifty scholars involved with the production of the AV. Although it is common to refer to the William Morgan Bible as the ‘traditional’ Welsh Bible (it was the only complete translation of the Bible into Welsh until 1988), in fact, the 1620 revision was that long-lived ‘traditional’ Bible. In that respect, Parry’s desire to ensure a success for the Welsh Bible was certainly achieved.
An essential role
At the beginning of this article, I wrote that John Davies’s role was ‘somewhat hidden’. This is because Richard Parry makes no mention of him in his preface to the 1620 Bible. Davies himself is very self-effacing when he writes of himself as ‘an unworthy helper to both translators of the Holy Scriptures of the Bible into Welsh’, undoubtedly referring to his role with both Morgan and Parry.
However, John Davies’s role was not a mere ‘helper’. Contemporary poets of the period, in celebrating the publication of the 1620 Bible, were in no doubt as to Davies’s key role, if not primary role. Modern scholarly consensus affirms Davies’s key role, so whilst Richard Parry writes in the preface to the 1620 Bible solely of his own role, it could not have been achieved without the scholarly contribution of his brother-in-law, John Davies of Mallwyd. Though obscured by Parry himself, Davies’s role is commemorated publicly in the memorial to the translators of the Welsh Bible, which can be seen outside St. Asaph Cathedral.
