The Welsh language has had the whole Bible since 1588. This is the story …
The Welsh language
The Welsh language itself is classified linguistically as a Celtic language. The old British language (which linguists call Brythonic) was the forerunner of the three modern forms called Welsh (spoken in Wales), Cornish (the original language of Cornwall) and Breton (spoken in Brittany, now part of France). These three languages have a certain degree of mutual understandability, although they look quite different because they have developed different writing and spelling systems (which linguists call orthographies). Until Tudor times, Welsh was also still called British or the British language, but it is called ‘cymraeg’ in Welsh.
Until the Reformation, like the rest of western Europe, Christians in Wales used the Bible in Latin. It is remarkable to note the growth of Christianity in Europe despite not having the Bible in their own languages. St David and other missionary monks evangelised other Celtic lands using the British language and the Bible in Latin. There were a few verses translated into Welsh here and there, but the Welsh Bible itself was a product of the Reformation.
The Tudors
The Welsh background to the Reformation goes back to 1485, when the throne of England was taken by Henry Tudor, son of Edmund Tudor, who was descended from the Tudors of Anglesey, and his royal descent came through his English mother Elizabeth Beaufort. During the reign of King Henry VII many Welsh people came to the royal court in London. The heraldic coat of arms of England during the Tudor period included a Welsh dragon, which was only changed to the Scottish unicorn during the reign of King James I/VI.
Church of England
Henry VII’s son Henry VIII created the Church of England in 1534. He also united England and Wales administratively into one kingdom by the Act of Union in 1536. This meant that the Church of England also covered Wales. In 1539, the Great Bible in English was placed into every parish church in the kingdom. This was popular across England but resented in parishes in Wales which spoke Welsh and some parishes in Cornwall which spoke Cornish. In places which did not speak English they preferred Latin, which they were used to, even if they did not fully understand it.
Queen Elizabeth I
After Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536, Henry VIII’s daughter Princess Elizabeth was largely brought up by Blanche Parry, who was a native Welsh speaker. Parry came from the area west of the River Wye in Herefordshire, which was then a Welsh-speaking area. She remained Elizabeth’s companion throughout her life, and it is recorded that when they had private conversations at court, they used Welsh. Her story is told in ‘Mistress Blanche: Queen Elizabeth I’s Confidante’ by Ruth Richardson. It is not known how fluent Elizabeth’s Welsh was, but certainly Elizabeth was a noted linguist and spoke Welsh to a certain level. In 1558 her older half-sister Queen Mary I died, and Elizabeth became Queen. Queen Mary I had reverted the Church of England to the Roman Catholic fold, and Elizabeth could have left it that way, but she chose to restore the Church of England to the Protestant faith.
Queen Elizabeth had a personal Christian faith. She was happy to retain some of the old Catholic traditions and styles of worship, and tolerated moderate Catholics so long as it did not threaten the state and amount to treason. Elizabeth was very conscious and proud of her Tudor Welsh roots, although her mother Anne Boleyn was English.
Commissioning the Welsh Bible
The settlement of the Church of England effectively built the principle of female authority into the Anglican DNA, because Henry VIII’s daughters and all subsequent ruling queens were able to become Supreme Governor, and hold authority over the bishops. Queen Elizabeth’s authority was very real, and she used it to appoint bishops, and to sanction them to revise the Great Bible in English. This revision was published as the Bishops’ Bible in 1568.
Queen Elizabeth was also determined that the Bible should be in Welsh. There were many factors to this, but a combination of her Protestant faith and her knowledge of Welsh were key. In the fifth year of her reign in 1563, there was an Act of Parliament to require the bishops of Wales and Hereford to ensure that the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were translated into the “British or Welsh tongue” and placed in every parish church in those areas.
Psalter 1567
William Salesbury translated the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh from English. He also translated the Psalter from Hebrew, which was the first complete book of the Bible to be translated into Welsh. The Book of Common Prayer including the Psalter were published on 6 May 1567.
New Testament 1567
The New Testament was translated from Greek by three men. Richard Davies, Bishop of St David’s, translated St Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, and the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistle from St James, and the two epistles from Peter. The bishop’s cantor Thomas Huet translated the book of Revelation. However, most of the work was done by William Salesbury. This was published as ‘Y Testament Newydd’ on 7 October 1567. These translations helped to strengthen the loyalty of Queen Elizabeth’s Welsh subjects to the Tudor dynasty.
Full Welsh Bible 1588
Later Salesbury’s New Testament and the Psalms were revised, and the rest of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha were translated and published together as the first full Welsh Bible in 1588. This was the authorised version for Wales. The work was largely the work of William Morgan, and it was known as ‘Y Beibl Cyssegr-Lan’ but is commonly known as the ‘Beibl William Morgan’ (the William Morgan Bible). An original copy kept at Westminster Abbey was recently shown at an exhibition at St David’s Cathedral in Wales in from June to July 2025.
The version of this Bible which is used today is the revised edition from 1620. This was completed after Morgan's death by Bishop Richard Parry and Dr John Davies, who improved the language and updated the spellings.
Significance
Welsh was about the twentieth language in the world to get a full Bible, after ancient translations like Greek, Coptic, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and Slavonic; mediaeval translations like Czech and English; and Reformation translations like German and French. Unlike Welsh, most of these were major languages with millions of speakers.
The Welsh Bible helped to preserve the Welsh language and keep the Bible in the core of the culture, which laid the ground for Wales to become a land of Revivals. The Welsh Revival of 1904 has had a massive impact on world Christianity.
New Welsh Bible 1988
The William Morgan Bible was the standard Welsh Bible until ‘Y Beibl Cymraeg Newydd’ (which translates into English as the New Welsh Bible) was published by the Bible Society in 1988. This was translated from Hebrew and Greek to mark the 400th anniversary of the original 1588 Bible. This was revised in 2004 as ‘Beibl Cymraeg Newydd Diwygiedig’ (Revised New Welsh Bible) which is the edition used in most Welsh-speaking churches today. This is now the authorised version for the Church in Wales.
Beibl.net 2013
Many Welsh speaking Christians now prefer to use a newer translation called ‘beibl.net’. It was translated from Hebrew and Greek into normal everyday colloquial Welsh. It was first published online on the website https://beibl.net/ (hence its name) and was completed in 2013 and published by the Bible Society in 2015.
Online
Over the years many other people have translated parts of the Bible such as the Psalms and the Gospels and the New Testament, but none of these have gained the popularity of these three versions. Today the Welsh Bible is still loved and used by Welsh speakers and has been kept up to date with technology. All these Welsh versions are on YouVersion and a popular Welsh Bible app called ‘ap Beibl’ which can be downloaded for free onto mobile phones.
Originally published by Christian Today.
