It may surprise the reader that England was one of the last nations in Europe to receive a Bible translation in their own language.
It wasn’t for fame or fortune that Miles Coverdale compiled the Scriptures in English. In the preface to the Coverdale Bible, he wrote: “It was neither my labor nor desire, to have this work put in my hand: nevertheless, it grieved me that other nations should be more plenteously provided for with the Scripture in their mother tongue, than we.”
Coverdale translated and compiled the Bible into English during a time when participating in such a project would get you killed. And yet he was willing to work on a host of translation projects in a plethora of challenging settings, such that God used this selfless attitude to produce the first complete English Bible ever printed.