There are evidences of God to be found in the books of the Bible, of God speaking to mankind. The words, “God said” and “Thus saith the Lord” are mentioned 3,808 times with “The word of the Lord” occurring 525 times. The Bible reveals God’s faithfulness, his loving care and his rulership over all mankind. (See Acts 17:25-28)
Original writings and translations
The Old Testament Scriptures were first written in Hebrew upon scrolls, or rolls of parchment, linen, or papyrus. These were later translated into Greek, the oldest translation being known as the Septuagint, or “Version of the Seventy” made at Alexandria, for the Alexandrian Library by a company of seventy learned Jews, under the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 285 BC. The original order for this translation is said to have been given by Alexander the Great, who previously, upon visiting Jerusalem in 332 BC, had learned from the prophecy of Daniel that Grecia was to overthrow the Persian kingdom.
The New Testament was originally written in Greek, except Matthew, which was first written in Hebrew, and later translated into Greek.
At an early date, Latin translations, both of the Septuagint and of the Greek New Testament, were made by different individuals, and the more carefully prepared Latin Vulgate of Jerome, the Bible complete, was made AD. 383 – 405.
How the Bible got its name
The word “Bible” came from the town of Byblos on the coast of Lebanon where papyrus was produced for the writers of the ancient world. The papyrus scrolls acquired the name of “biblia” or book from association with the town from which they came, much as china or porcelain took its name from the country where it was first made. The extensive copying of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures tended to connect the word “biblia” with that particular collection of documents, and so gave the name “Bible” to the whole.
Printing and the Bible
Until the invention of the art of printing about the middle of the fifteenth century, copies of the Bible could be produced only by the slow, laborious, and expensive process of handwriting. This process greatly limited its circulation.
The first Bible printed from movable type was the Bible in Latin, which came from the press of John Guttenberg, at Mentz, Germany, in 1456.
The translation of the Bible into English by John Wyclif, in 1380, was the chief event in the beginning of the Reformation. It also prepared the way for the revival of Christianity in England, and the multiplying there of the Word by the millions, for all the world that has followed.
For translating the Bible into English which he hoped that all could read and understand, Wyclif came under attack from various quarters, because, it was claimed, “he was introducing among the multitude a book reserved exclusively for the use of the priests.” In the general denunciation, it was declared that “thus was the gospel by him laid more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it had formerly been to the most learned of the clergy; and in this way, the gospel is cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine.” In the preface of his translation, Wyclif exhorted all the people to read the scriptures.
A sense of awe and a thrill of joy filled the heart of the great German Reformer, Martin Luther, when at the early age of twenty, while examining the volumes in the library of the University of Erfurt, he held in his hands, for the first time in his life, a complete copy of the Bible. “O God”, he murmured, “could I have one of these books, I would ask no other treasure.” A little later he found in a convent a chained Bible and to this he had constant access.
However, all Bibles of that time, except in England, were in an ancient language, and could only be read by the educated. Why thought Luther, should the living Word be confined to dead languages? Like Wyclif, therefore, he resolved to give his countrymen the Bible in their own language. This Luther did, the New Testament in 1522, and the complete Bible in 1534.
Another Englishman, William Tyndale, became gripped with the idea that people, in general, should read the Scriptures in their mother tongue and by 1525, gave to the English speaking people his translation of the New Testament, and later portions of the Old Testament. His ardent desire that they should know the Bible was well expressed in the statement that if God spared his life, he would cause the boy that drives the plough to know more of the Scriptures than was commonly known by the divines of his day.
The first complete printed English Bible was that of Miles Cloverdale, printed in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1535. Matthew’s Bible, Taverner’s Bible and the Great Bible prepared at the suggestion of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, appeared soon after.
Burning of Bibles
Bible burning commenced in England when copies of the Antwerp edition of Tyndale’s New Testament were heaped and burnt at St. Paul’s Cross, London, in 1527 followed by the burning of the second edition in 1530. A little later there were wholesale burning of the writings and translations of Wyclif, Tyndale, Basil, Barnes, Cloverdale and others.
Forty-three years after the death of Wyclif, or in 1428, by order of the Council of Constance, his bones were dug up and burned. Then on 6th. October, 1536, by order of Charles V of Germany, Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake at Vilvorde, near Brussels. At around the same time, we find Henry V111 of England writing, “If Luther will no retract let himself and his writings be committed to the flames.
History tells us that some of Luther’s first translations of the Bible were sought out and burned. In the city of Thorn, the Catholic authorities searched the whole city for every copy. Then they made a huge bonfire in the marketplace. After the fire had built up into a great blaze, the copies of the Bible were tossed into the fire. Suddenly, however, a terrific storm came and the wind blew many of the burning Bibles out of the fire and scattered the pages all over the city. These were picked up, and by nightfall pieces of the Word of God were being read in hundreds of homes that would not otherwise have had the opportunity.
However, this opposition changed to support when King Henry, by Cromwell’s advice, ordered a translation of the Bible to be made in English, and a copy to be placed in every church. There had been English translations before but they had not been in the hands of the people generally and had only been read secretly and in fear. Cromwell then appointed Crammer and the bishops to revise the Bible, and publish it without note or comment; and in the year 1539, a copy of the English Bible was chained to the reading desk of every parish church. From that time the Bible has never ceased to be printed and sold freely.
Bible Societies
In England and other countries, Bible Societies were organised for the purpose of giving the Bible to the world. The British and Foreign Bible Society was commenced in 1804 and in just over its first one hundred years of operation had published the Scriptures, or portions of them, in 487 languages and dialects, with a total of over 65 million entire Bibles, 96 million New Testaments, and 102 million portions of the Bible, or in total more than 263 million copies.
The American Bible Society in a similar period of just over one hundred years published around 100 million copies.
By the year 1916, there were twenty-seven Bible societies disseminating the Scriptures.
The Bible – “The Living Word”
The Bible contains proof in itself of its divine origin. No other book can answer the questionings of the mind or satisfy the longings of the heart as does the Bible. It is adapted to every age and condition of life and is full of that knowledge which enlightens the mind and satisfies the soul.
In the Bible we have the revelation of the living God; received by faith, it has the power to transform peoples lives. During all its history a divine watch-care has been over it and preserved it for the world.
This is the greatest book on earth,
Unparalleled it stands;
Its author God, its truth Divine,
Inspired in every word and line,
Tho’ writ by human hands
This is the living rock of truth
Which all assaults defies.
O’er every stormy blast of time
It towers with majesty sublime;
It lives, and never dies.
This is the volume of the Cross;
Its saving truth is sure;
Its doctrine pure, its history true,
Its Gospel old, yet ever new,
Shall evermore endure.
The Power of God’s Word
Captain William Blyth had been sent by the British Government to introduce the breadfruit plant into the West Indies and on his way home had stopped off at Tahiti. After leaving the island a number of the crew mutinied and took over the ship “Bounty”, setting Captain Bligh and eighteen officers adrift in a small boat.
Fletcher Christian and eight mutineers took the ship back to Tahiti where they convinced twelve pretty girls to go with them. They set off again for fear of getting caught. They had no plans and came across Pitcairn Island an island paradise. They took as much of their things as possible onto the island and then set fire to the ship.
What looked like paradise turned out to be ten years of hell. One of the sailors used a copper kettle to make a distillery. They drank the ‘fire-water’ made from the tree roots. The men spent days, weeks and months on end ‘plastered’ by the spirits. Some of the men went mad and became like animals. They fought among themselves. One jumped off a cliff. After several years there were only two men left, Edward Young and Alexander Smith. Young was old, ill and asthmatic.
One night the women seized the guns and barricaded themselves and their eighteen children off from the men. Neither the women nor the children would go near the two men.
One day Young went to the ship’s chest and, at the bottom among the papers, he found a book. It was a leather-bound, old, mildewed and worm-eaten Bible. He had not read for years and Smith could not read at all. So Young taught him. The two men frightened, disillusioned and utter wrecks, together read the Bible. They started at Genises. They saw from the Old Testament that God was holy and that they were sinful. They did their best to pray.
The little children were the first to come back to the men. They noticed a change in the men. Then the children brought the women. They sat and listened to them read. During this time Young died. Then Smith came to the New Testament. Something important happened to him as he read the story of Jesus in the Bible.
‘I had been working like a mole for years’, he said ‘and suddenly it was as if the doors flew wide open, and I saw the light, and I met God in Jesus Christ, and the burden of my sins rolled away, and I found a new life in Christ.’
Eighteen years after the mutiny on the “Bounty”, a ship from Boston came across the island of Pitcairn and the captain came ashore. He found a community of people who were godly. They had a love and peace about them that he had never seen before. When the captain got back to the United States he reported that in all his travels he had never seen or met a people who were so good, gracious or so loving. They had been changed by the message of the Bible and the power of God.
Compiled by Ivan Badcock