Arguments Against Translating the Bible

Speaking against the translating of the Bible, Friar Buckingham used foolish arguments that were no credit to himself or his associates. In a sermon, he said: “Where Scripture saith no man that layeth his hand to the plough and looketh back is fit for the kingdom of God, will not the ploughman when he readeth these words be apt forthwith to cease from his plough, and then where will be the sowing and the harvest? Likewise also whereas the baker readeth, ‘A little leaven leaventh the whole lump,’ will he not be forthwith too sparing in the use of leaven, to the great injury of our health? And so also when the simple man reads the words, ‘If thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee,’ incontinent he will pluck out his eyes, and so the whole realm will be full of blind men, to the great decay of the nation and the manifest loss of the King’s grace. And thus by reading of the Holy Scriptures will the whole realm come into confusion.”—How We Got Our Bible, by J. Paterson Smyth.