Introduction

The Netherlands, known colloquially as Holland, is a Western European country of 17.7 million inhabitants, of whom approximately 74% are ethnically Dutch. It is one of the three Low Countries of Europe, along with its neighbour Belgium and the smaller Luxembourg. The Netherlands is a flat, low-lying country with 27% of the land being below sea level, much of which has been reclaimed from the sea and lakes through ingenious engineering.

Christianity in the Netherlands

From the tenth to the twentieth centuries, the Dutch were predominantly Christian. In the late nineteenth century around 60% of the population were still Protestant and 35% were Roman Catholic. Today over half the population identify as nonreligious. The latest data (from 2020) puts Roman Catholics at around 20% of the population, with Protestants accounting for around 15%.

History of the Dutch Bible

Before the days of the printing press several portions and Bibles in Dutch were produced. In the tenth century the Psalms were translated into Old Dutch. After that came the Historia Scholastica, a Bible history in Latin used as a school textbook. In 1271 Jacob van Maerlant produced the Rijmbijbel (rhyme Bible), a poetical version of the Historia in Dutch, which proved popular with those unlearned in Latin. Two further ‘History Bibles’ in Dutch followed, both strongly dependent on the Historia and the Rijmbijbel.

The final portion of the Scriptures that was translated before the invention of the printing press was the New Testament by lay brother Johannes Scutken of the Windesheim monastery. However, as with Wycliffe’s English Bible, it was hampered by being translated from the Latin Vulgate. Two important Protestant Bibles were produced in the 1500s: the Liesvelt (1526) and the Deux-Aes (1562). The Liesvelt was based on the available parts of Luther’s German Bible and supplemented by a rendering of the Latin Vulgate where Luther had not yet completed his German translation. The Deux-Aes was to become the standard church and household Bible until the arrival of the Statenvertaling. Its Old Testament was a translation of Luther’s German text; the New Testament was translated directly from the Greek Textus Receptus. The New Testament formed much of the Statenvertaling which was to follow.

The Statenvertaling

Surprisingly, given the significant involvement of the Dutch in the Reformation it wasn’t until relatively late in that era that a complete vernacular Dutch Bible translated from the Biblical languages was produced. The famous Synod of Dort (1618–1619), known for articulating the Canons of Dort, included eight sessions on Bible translation which resulted in a request for a Dutch Bible to be translated carefully from the Biblical languages. Six men from around the Netherlands discussed the Dutch to be used for the translation, taking into account the various dialects. The Statenvertaling was finally published in 1637. It enjoyed an excellent reception, not only amongst Dutch-speaking people but further afield too—in 1645 Theodore Haak was requested by the Westminster Assembly to translate the whole Dutch Bible with its notes into English.

Today the Trinitarian Bible Society is pleased to circulate editions of the Statenvertaling published by Gereformeerde Bijbelstichting (Reformed Bible Society, also known as GBS), our sister society in the Netherlands, founded in 1966 to preserve and promote the use of the Statenvertaling.