William Morgan Bible

The William Morgan Bible was the first complete Bible in the Welsh language, and it proved crucial to the standardization and preservation of Welsh. Published in 1588, it offered a complete Bible translated from the original Hebrew and Greek, its base text drawn from those languages alongside contemporary versions, and it stands as an original-language vernacular rendering rather than a translation made from Latin. It is best categorized as a fresh translation or revision, taking as its predecessor and base translation the Welsh New Testament of 1567. Distributed for use in parish churches, it gave Welsh-speaking congregations the whole of scripture in their own tongue and supplied the model for later Welsh biblical revisions, shaping literary and liturgical Welsh for centuries afterwards. It is included here for its significance within Britain and within the wider history of the vernacular Bible.