The reception of the Bible in the vernacular sidestepped the controversies that accompanied the circulation of the Bible in early modern Europe. However, unwittingly, it produced the movements of indigenisation and liberation. The stimulus of indigenous theology was often a corollary and consequence of the creation of the vernacular Bible, with the work of field inquiry opening the door to indigenous inquiry and reflection. Bible translation evoked and reinforced the religious substratum of traditional society, with biblical stories opening the way for the recovery of local narrative traditions. With the impetus of the Bible Society of Java, which was founded in 1816, Portuguese gave way to Malay in Bible translation. The religious motive of the missionary vocation often encouraged missionaries to try to produce translations of enduring value. The message of the Bible ended the isolation of tribe and language, slowed the process of neglect and indifference, and allowed translators use obscure languages to produce a simple communication system.

The activities of Abbot Ceolfrith and the missionary Boniface give us valuable insights into the history of the Anglo-Saxon Bible. This chapter gives fair weight to part-bibles, from both the Old and New Testaments, and the less numerous complete bibles. The foundations of scripture in English were laid during the Anglo-Saxon period. Irish influence is especially visible in the style of decoration of Northumbrian gospel-books. A number of Uncial gospel-book leaves now bound with other books were probably also copied at Wearmouth-Jarrow. Lindisfarne, Durham and Echternach are characteristic of the complex story of the Northumbrian gospel-book. The chapter also deals with the beginnings of the vernacular Bible. The Latin Vulgate remained the official Bible of the English church from the Anglo-Saxon period until the Reformation, but the concept of the part-bible in the contemporary English vernacular was already established by the end of the tenth century.