Lord’s Day 18 July 99

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE

The preservation of the Bible through the centuries continues to baffle mankind. It is nothing short of supernatural preservation as once the Bible was threatened to be wiped out of the face of the earth. But its amazing history reveals to us the sovereign intervention of God in preserving His Word for us down the centuries.

During 1947, in a series of caves near the Dead Sea, a discovery was made that would soon excite the entire religious world: the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr William F Albright states this find was “the most important discovery ever made concerning the Old Testament manuscripts.” These scrolls were probably hidden there sometime during the 2nd century BC by a Jewish group called the Essenes. They included fragments of every Old Testament book in the Hebrew Bible with the exception of the book of Esther.

The Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Especially exciting was a complete scroll on the book of Isaiah. The reason this discovery was so important was that until this event, the earliest copy we had of Isaiah’s writing was made during the 12th century AD. Now scholars could move back over a thousand years closer to the time when the prophet actually wrote (around 700 BC). When a comparison was made between the Dead Sea copy and the 12th century AD copy, they were found to be most identical, once again reassuring us that our copy of God’s Word today is indeed accurate and reliable. We have complete confidence and assurance in reading the Word of God today.

It is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language. This was done around 280 BC at the request of some Jewish leaders. The reason was because many Jews had moved into Egypt and other places outside of Palestine and, as a result, were unable to read or speak Hebrew. So a translation was prepared in the common Greek language of the day. It was called the “Septuagint” (the Greek word for seventy) because, according to tradition, it was supposedly translated by seventy Jewish scholars in seventy days. The Septuagint was the Bible in Jesus’ day.

Historians have classified the English language into three main periods.

1. Old English Period—from AD 450 to 1100.
2. Middle English Period—from AD 1100 to 1500.
3. Modern English Period—from AD 1500 to date.

Keeping this outline in mind, we shall now consider some major attempts to publish the Bible in English.

Here we will examine but one name—that of John Wycliffe. Before the Reformation, God appointed His forerunners.

John Wycliffe (1320–1384) has often been called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” He was a great Oxford University teacher, preacher, reformer, and translator. Wycliffe was the first man to completely translate the entire Bible into the English language (from the Vulgate). By placing God’s Word in the common language, he thus did for England what Martin Luther would later do for Germany. His was the only English Bible for 145 years.

Wycliffe’s Bible.
(B Edwards, Nothing But the Truth, 208)

His disciples were called the Lollards who were itinerant preachers, who went all over England preaching and distributing limited hand-copied Bibles and were persecuted bitterly by the Roman Catholic Church.

Perhaps no other single man in history did as much in translating the Word of God for the people of God as did William Tyndale. Tyndale worked in constant danger, for under Catholic Emperor Charles V, it was a crime punishable by horrible torture, or burning at the stake, for anyone to read, purchase, or possess any New Testament book. But prior to his martyrdom, it is estimated that some 50,000 copies of the New Testament were circulated by this fearless and faithful servant of God. Early in 1526, copies of Tyndale’s New Testament began pouring into England, concealed in cases of merchandise, barrels, bales of cloths, sacks of flour and corn, and every other secret way which could be found. Ironically enough the RC Church actually financed the printing of more Tyndale Bibles.

Tyndale’s New Testament was based on the printed Greek New Testament text of the great humanist scholar Erasmus (first printed on March 1, 1516), and that his Old Testament text was taken in part from the 1488 Hebrew publication. He also consulted the Latin Vulgate and Martin Luther’s translation, the New Testament of which was completed in German in 1522.

Miles Coverdale was born in 1488. He was converted to Christ and developed a strong love for Scripture. He was a friend of Tyndale and later finished his Old Testament translation and revised his New Testament. It was a secondary translation; that is, it was based on previous translations of the Bible into Latin, German and English. The reason for this was that Coverdale was not familiar with the Greek or Hebrew. The first edition came off the press on October 4, 1535. This was indeed a milestone for God’s Word, as it marked the first whole Bible printed in English.

This version was prepared by John Rogers, a Puritan, who used the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. The reason for this was that Rogers, known friend of Tyndale, felt his work would be more acceptable to various authorities if this relationship was not known. Rogers would later be burned to death during the reign of Mary Tudor in 1555. Matthew’s Version was the first revision of the Tyndale Bible. It was approved by King Henry VIII, who had hated Tyndale and his work. A divine irony is seen here as God answered the prayer of dying Tyndale.

The notes and prefaces of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s translations aroused so much argument that Henry VIII authorised a new version which would include no controversial footnote material. It was called the Great Bible because of its size. Due to its extreme value, it was usually chained to a “reading post” within a church. In 1538 the King issued an injunction to all churches to purchase a copy of the Great Bible. This was to be paid for by the parson and parishioners. The importance of the Great Bible was that it became the first official English Bible, “appointed to be read in all the churches” as decreed by King Henry VIII. The King James Bible is basically a revision of the Great Bible.

During the vicious Protestant persecution under Mary Tudor, many reformers fled to Geneva, Switzerland, and was under the tutelage of Geneva’s great leader, John Calvin. It was here that Calvin’s brother-in-law, William Whittingham, translated the Scriptures into the Geneva Version. This Bible became important for the following reasons:

1. It was the first version to divide the text into verses.
2. It was the first to omit the Apocrypha.
3. It was kissed by Queen Elizabeth (daughter of Henry VIII) at her coronation, a policy which is still followed by English kings and queens.
4. It was the most-loved Bible of the common people up to that time and went through more than 160 editions.
5. It was the Bible of Shakespeare and John Bunyan.
6. It was the Bible the pilgrims brought with them on the Mayflower in 1620 to America.
7. The text of the Geneva Bible was based on that of the Great Bible.

This version was translated because of the following reasons:

It was translated by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, aided by nine other bishops; thus its name, the Bishop’s Bible. The Bishop’s Bible was the second “Authorised Version” of the church, but was never accepted by the common people. In fact, Queen Elizabeth simply ignored it. The Bishop’s Bible has gone down in history as the most unsatisfactory and useless of all the old translations.

This version was an attempt by the Pope to win England back to the Roman fold, but he utterly failed. It was headed by William Allen and Gregory Martin, two Protestant turncoats from Oxford University. The name came from the two places where the Old Testament and New Testament were produced. The Douai Version was therefore the first Catholic English Bible and was taken almost literally from the Latin Vulgate. The footnotes in this version strongly attacked all Protestant “heresies,” and defended all Roman Catholic doctrine and practices. It was a biased and inaccurate translation that is to be read with great caution, if not discarded totally.

One of the first tasks which King James I faced upon mounting his throne at the beginning of the 17th century was the reconciliation of various religious parties within his kingdom. The King James Version began with a request by Puritan spokesman, Dr John Reynolds of Oxford, concerning the feasibility of a new Bible translation. James agreed almost at once. He had disliked the popular Geneva Bible because of its footnotes. He also realised that neither the Geneva, nor the Great nor the Bishop’s version could be held up by him as a rallying point for Christians.

The following quote is from H S Miller (italics are modified from the original quote):

The King James Version also doubtless made use of the four available printed Hebrew Old Testament Bibles at that time, and Erasmus’ fifth edition of the Greek New Testament. The King James Version is remarkable for many reasons. It was, first of all, undoubtedly the most beautiful, beloved and popular translation of all time. It was also probably the only translation in which no parties involved had an axe to grind. In other words, it was a national undertaking in which no one had any interest at heart, save that of producing the best possible translation of the Scriptures. It is an excellent, faithful and reliable translation in English and is not archaic and unreadable as some claim it to be.

The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years over 40 generations, written by over 40 authors from all walks of life, written on three continents, and in three languages, and in different places, but yet there is a consistent harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. There is one unfolding story that threads the whole Bible together: God’s plan of redemption for man. This proves that there is only one author, the Holy Spirit superintending the infallible writing of the entire Bible through human instruments.

The story is told of a visitor who toured a blacksmith shop. Viewing heaps of discarded hammers but only one huge anvil, he asked: “How often do you replace your anvil?” With a smile the owner replied, “Never! It is the anvil that wears out the hammers, you know!”

So it is with the Word of God. The hammers of persecution, ridicule, higher criticism, liberalism, and atheism have for centuries pounded out their vicious blows upon the divine anvil, but all to no avail. There they lie, in rusting piles, while the mighty anvil of the Scriptures stands unbroken, unshaken, and unchipped.

Its indestructibility in spite of political persecutions (from the Roman Emperors). In AD 303, Emperor Diocletian thought he had destroyed every Bible. After many tireless years of ruthless slaughter and destruction, he erected a column of victory over the embers of a burned Bible. The title on the column read: “Extinct is the Name of Christian.” Twenty years later, the new Emperor Constantine offered a reward for any remaining Bibles. Within 24 hours, no less than 50 copies were brought out of hiding and presented to the king and Christianity was made a national religion and the Bible was freely available to the people again.

Its indestructibility in spite of religious persecutions. As seen through the persecutions by Roman Catholic popes. The Bible survived all the vicious attacks of men. Almost without exception, the early popes opposed the reading and translating of the Bible. In 1199, Pope Innocent III ordered the burning of all Bibles. The Bible prevails until this day, and will be forever (Isa 40:8), while Innocent passed into eternity.

As seen through the persecutions levelled at other names are so closely associated with the Word of God as the names of Wycliffe and Tyndale. It is therefore no surprise to read of the vicious attacks levelled against them.

Wycliffe lived at a time (the early part of the 14th century) when the burning question was: Who shall rule England, the king or the pope? Wycliffe believed the best way to break the grievous yoke of Romanism would be to place the Bible into the hands of the common people. This he did by translating (for the first time in history) the complete Bible into English. He then organised and sent forth a group of preachers called the Lollards) to teach the Word of God all across England.

On December 28, 1384, while conducting a service in the Lutterworth Church, he was providentially stricken with paralysis and taken home to be with the Lord three days later (this would have saved him from martyrdom). His work was succeeded by William Tyndale about 150 years later.

It is no exaggeration to say that the work of Wycliffe and Tyndale live on today with many reading the Bible in English.

Tyndale was one of the greatest translators of God’s Word who ever lived. He was born in England, and so skilled in seven languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English and Dutch), that whichever he might be speaking one would believe that language was his native tongue. Our own King James Version is practically a fifth revision of Tyndale’s, and it retains many of the words and much of the character, form, and style of his version. In 1525, he printed the first copy ever produced of the New Testament in English. His overall goal in life was perhaps expressed through a statement he made in 1521:

Tyndale had been driven from England and had fled to Germany, but had continued producing copies of the New Testament and slipping them back into England and he successfully translated the NT in 1525 and the whole Bible in 1536, but he paid dearly for his work, with his blood in martyrdom.

Opening page of Acts from Tyndale’s 1526 NT.
(B Edwards, Nothing But the Truth, 211)

To quote from the historian Miller’s textbook:

But the Word of God lives on and two years later, in 1538, God answered Tyndale’s prayer when the Bible was commanded to be placed in every parish in England by the king.

Less than a century ago, the agnostic took great glee in sneeringly referring to the “hundreds of historical mistakes” in the Bible. But then came the science of archaeology and with each shovel-full of dirt, the sneers have become less visible until today they scarcely can be seen. When one thinks of historical scholarship and the Bible, three brilliant scholars come to mind. These three are:

For many years Ramsey was professor of humanity at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was, in his time, the world’s most eminent authority on the geography and history of Ancient Asia Minor (Turkey today). In his zeal to study every available early document concerning that period and area, he undertook an intensive research of the New Testament book of Acts and also the Gospel of Luke. This study, however, was approached with much scepticism. At that time, he penned the following description of the book of Acts, “. . . a highly imaginative and carefully coloured account of primitive Christianity.”

But after many years of intensive study, this scholar, who began an unbeliever, became a staunch defender of the Word of God. The absolute historical accuracy of Luke’s writings, even in the minutest details, captured first his brain and then his heart. Ramsey authored many books, but one of his better known is entitled The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. Ramsey’s overall opinion of the Bible is perhaps best seen in the following quote:

One of the greatest and most respected oriental scholars who ever lived was William F Albright. He writes the following concerning the Bible and his historical findings:

Probably the most qualified Old Testament linguist of all time was Robert Dick Wilson. He was born in 1856 and took his undergraduate work at Princeton University, graduating in 1876. He then completed both the MA and the PhD. After this, he spent two years at the University of Berlin in further post-graduate studies. Wilson taught Old Testament courses at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh and returned to Princeton where he received international fame as a Hebrew scholar without peer. He was perfectly at home in over 40 ancient Semitic languages.

Halley’s Bible Handbook lists some 112 examples. Unger’s Bible Handbook lists 96. A summary of both these lists would include the following, all given to prove the historical accuracy of the Bible.

The universal flood (Gen 6:1–9:29). There is so much evidence concerning the flood in Noah’s day that one scarcely knows where to start. It can be demonstrated that without exception, every major culture has a flood tradition. Especially is this true in the ancient Babylonian civilisation, as seen by their Epic of Gligamesh. Some years ago, the new tribes missionary named Rod Wallin began his work among a primitive people in the highlands of New Guinea. He was the first white man ever to set foot in that area. Many years were spent learning their difficult language. He then discovered to his astonishment that these natives had a detailed flood tradition. The Grand Canyon, other natural wonders can only be best explained by an universal catastrophic flood.

The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9). Over two dozen ancient temple towers in Mesopotamia called ziggurats have been excavated.

The destruction of Jericho around 1450 BC had also been authenticated by recent archaeological findings by Dr Bryant Wood, Director of Association of Biblical Research.

Abraham’s birthplace (Gen 11:27–31). World-famous archaeologist C L Wooley’s excavation in 1922–34 in Mesopotamia has made Ur of the Chaldees one of the best known ancient sites of all times. When Abraham left Ur in 2000 BC, the city was at the height of its splendour as a commercial and religious centre (see also Joshua 24:2).

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18–19). William Albright found at the Southeast corner of the Dead Sea great quantities of relics of a period dating between 2500 and 2000 BC, with evidence of a dense population which for some reason ceased abruptly around 2000 BC. The evidence indicated an earthquake and an explosion consistent with biblical records.

(Modified and summarised from Wilmington Guide, pages 805–814.)

The prophet Isaiah, in 40:8, says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” And the hymnwriter also adds,

The history of the English Bible is a history of supernatural Providence and preservation. Today we do well as a Christian and as a church to be guided by this inspired, inerrant and infallible record of God’s Word, and not by church traditions or personal experiences, in these last confusing and deceptive perilous days.

—Jack Sin

At the Pulpit
Theme for the Quarter: “Building Christian Character / Virtue”
Our Pastor, Rev Jack Sin, speaks on
“The Nature of Christian Contentment”
(Philippians 4:11–19; 1 Timothy 6:6–11).