Jan Utenhove

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Jan Utenhove (Ghent 1516 – London January 6, 1566) was a writer from the Low Countries best known for his translations into the Dutch language of the Psalms and the New Testament.

Utenhove was born into a Flemish patrician family that counted Erasmus among its friends. Utenhove was forced to leave Ghent in 1544, probably due to the backlash caused by an ill-received morality play written by him in 1532 and performed in 1543. From here on, he would have no fixed residence but travel the width and breadth of Europe, visiting among others the Swiss church reformer Heinrich Bullinger and living in Strasbourg, London, Emden and Poland, where he met and married his wife, Anna van Hoorne. From 1559, Utenhoven once more took up residence in London, where he remained until his death in 1566.

During his stay in London, where he played an important role in the local Dutch church community, Utenhove translated the Psalms, which were published in 1566 as De Psalmen Davids ("The Psalms of David"). That same year saw the publication of his translation of the New Testament, Het Nieuwe Testament na der Griekscher waerheyt in Nederlandsche sprake grondlick end trauwelick overghezett ("The New Testament Translated Thoroughly and Faithfully into the Dutch Tongue According to the Original Greek") at the request of the church community of Emden.

His translation of the New Testament is important for Dutch literary history as it is the first complete translation of any Bible part into Dutch, and as it borrows significantly from the eastern Low Saxon dialects of Dutch, it is also one of the first literary documents from that part of the Low Countries. His attempt to translate the Greek text as literally as possible and highbrow choice of vocabulary, however, prevented widespread acceptance of the translation.