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Scriptures in over 2,000 languages
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Bible translators of the 16th century gave
their lives to provide the Scriptures in English. They would be
delighted with the current emphasis on putting the Bible into
the common language of the people. Today all over the world,
people are able to read and understand the Holy Scriptures in
their mother tongue.
The most precious possession we have in our homes and in our
churches is our Bible. From it we draw inspiration and guidance
for our lives. In it we hear the voice of God speaking to us.
Yet as we read we do not often think of the wonderful story of
how it came to us.
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The Hebrew Old Testament
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This story began many centuries
before Christ. Scribes, priests, prophets, kings and
poets of the Hebrew people kept a record of their
history, of God's dealings with them and their inspired
insights and hopes. Because those writings were so
important a part of their life they were copied and
recopied many times. Generation after generation used
them in the temple and in their synagogues and homes.
As time went on, these sacred writings were gathered
into three collections known as �the Law,� �the
Prophets� and �the Writings.� These three collections,
especially the third, were not fixed and closed before
the Jewish Council of Jamnia (around 95 A.D.). The Law
contained the first five books of our Bible. The
Prophets consisted not only of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
and the Twelve Minor Prophets, but also of Joshua,
Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.
The books of the Old Testament were written on long
scrolls made of fine goatskin, and were copied by the
scribes with very great care. Usually each of the books
was written on a separate scroll, though the Law was
often inscribed on two large scrolls. The text was in
Hebrew script, written from right to left. (A few
chapters are written in the Aramaic dialect.)
The oldest excerpt of the Hebrew Old Testament now known
to exist is a scroll of Isaiah. It was probably written
during the second century B.C. and may be very similar
to the scroll used by Jesus in the synagogue at
Nazareth. It was found in 1947, as others have been
since, in a cave near the Dead Sea.
The Writings included the great book of poetry, the
Psalms, and also Proverbs, Job, Esther, Song of Solomon,
Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
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The Old Testament in
Greek
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The Hebrew language was
largely confined to Palestine, but long before
the time of Christ there were Jewish communities
in many parts of the ancient world. Due to the
conquests of Alexander and his successors, Greek
had become the most widely used language. Thus
in the third century B.C., the Hebrew Scriptures
were translated into Greek for the use of these
communities. This Greek translation is called
�the Septuagint�.
The Septuagint contains seven books not in the
Hebrew collection; they were not included when
the Old Testament canon (or official list) was
fixed by Jewish scholars at the end of the first
century A.D. The early church had generally
included these books in its Bible. They are
called �the Apocrypha� or "Deuterocanon", and
appear in the Bibles of many churches.
This Greek Old Testament was used in the
synagogues throughout the Mediterranean world,
and thus was of great help to the early
disciples of Jesus in their efforts to win
converts to Him. And because the Greek language
was understood everywhere, the writers of the
New Testament wrote in Greek.
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The Greek New
Testament
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The earliest writings
of the New Testament that have come down
to us are some of the letters of the
Apostle Paul written to individuals or
little groups of people in various
cities and towns who had come to believe
the gospel he preached to them. These
groups were the beginning of the
Christian church. They received these
letters and treasured and carefully
preserved them. Soon neighbouring groups
of believers wanted copies, and thus
Paul's letters began to circulate. The
need to teach new converts and the
desire to continue the witness of the
first disciples regarding the life and
teachings of our Lord also led to the
writing of the Gospels. They provide an
invaluable source of information about
Jesus and his teachings. These
manuscripts came to be in demand as the
churches grew and spread. Other letters,
exhortations, sermons and similar
Christian writings came into circulation
as well.
The oldest fragment of the New Testament
now known is a tine piece of papyrus
written early in the second century A.D.
It contains a few words from John
18:31-33, and on the other side words
from verses 37 and 38. A considerable
number of papyri of the New Testament
and of the Greek text of the Old
Testament have been found in the last
hundred years. These written materials
from those early days show scholars a
great deal about the life of the New
Testament world as well as about the
early test of the Bible.
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Early
Translations in Other Languages
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Translations
into other languages began to be
made for new Christians in
Coptic (Egypt), Ethiopic
(Ethiopia), Syriac (north of
Palestine), and most important
of all, Latin, which was more
and more widely used in the
West. By the middle of the
fourth century, there were so
many partial and unsatisfactory
versions in Latin that in 382
A.D. the Bishop of Rome
appointed the great scholar
Jerome to make an official
translation. To be able to
prepare the best translation
possible, Jerome went to
Palestine, where he lived for
the next twenty years. He
studied Hebrew with famous
rabbis and examined all the
manuscripts he could locate.
This translation came to be
known as �the Vulgate�, in the
language of the common people
(the �vulgus�). Though it was
not immediately accepted, it
eventually became the official
text of western Christianity. In
this form the bible spread into
the western Mediterranean world
and into northern Europe.
Christianity in Europe came into
conflict with invading Goths and
Huns, who destroyed much of
Roman civilization. In
monasteries, to which some men
retreated from the turmoil of
constant war, the Bible text was
preserved for many centuries. It
was particularly the Latin
Bible, usually in Jerome's
version, that was protected in
this way.
When and how the Bible reached
the British Isles is not exactly
known. Missionaries carried the
Gospel to Ireland, Scotland and
England and there were
undoubtedly Christians in the
Roman armies there in the second
and third centuries. The
earliest translation in the
language of the people of this
region is probably that of the
Vernable Bede. At his death in
735 he is reported to have been
dictating a translation of the
Gospel of John, but none of his
translation has survived.
Gradually, translations of
passages and of whole books were
made. But since most rulers and
church authorities were afraid
to let the people have the
Scriptures in their own tongue,
they were secretly copied and
circulated among the people.
Increasingly church and state
sought by edict and persecution
to stop this circulation of the
vernacular Scriptures.
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Other
Writings
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In addition
to the books in our present New
Testament, there were others
that circulated in the early
centuries of the Christian era,
such as the Letters of Clement,
the Gospel of Peter, the
Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache
(or Teaching of the Twelve). For
many years, although the gospels
and the letters Paul were
generally accepted, there was no
attempt to determine which of
the many writings were really
authoritative. Gradually,
however, the judgment of the
churches, guided by the Spirit
of God, drew together a
collection of the writings that
testified most surely to Jesus
Christ, to His life, His
authority and His influence. By
the fourth century, there was
general agreement recorded by
the church councils, and the New
Testament was formed.
The two oldest manuscripts of
the Greek Bible may have been
written at this time � the great
Codex Sinaiticus and Codex
Vaticanus. These two valuable
manuscripts give almost the
entire text of the Bible in
Greek. Altogether we have some
twenty manuscripts of the New
Testament written in the first
five centuries.
When Theodosius proclaimed and
imposed Christianity as the only
official religion of the Roman
Empire towards the end of the
fourth century, there appeared a
new and wider demand for good
copies of the New Testament
books. The great historian
Eusebius of Caesarea may have
shown the Emperor how battered
and worn the books of the
Christians were, for the Emperor
ordered fifty large copies for
the churches of Constantinople.
Probably for the first time the
Old and the New
Testaments came together in one
book, now called the Bible.
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John Wycliffe
and the First English
Bible
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In
England, late in the
fourteenth century, John
Wycliffe, Oxford
scholar, churchman and
political figure,
claimed that the Bible
set forth Gods Law and
that Gods Law was above
all laws. But the bible
was in Latin and the
language of the royal
court and nobles was
French. The people could
not understand those
languages; they spoke a
newly developing
language called English.
Wycliffe prevailed on
some of his followers to
translate the Scriptures
into this new language.
This translation of the
Bible was completed
about 1384, the year of
Wycliffe's death.
Copies of the Wycliffe
translation had to be
made by hand, so
complete Bibles were
scarce and very
expensive. But in spite
of this, Bibles and
Testaments were eagerly
sought, particularly by
the gradually developing
merchant class, who
found in them support
for independence of
thought and action. The
poorer folk, few of whom
knew how to read,
eagerly listened to the
wandering poor preachers
or Lollards, who went
about the countryside
reading to little groups
of people. To them it
was new and thrilling to
hear the wonderful
biblical story in their
own language.
But the authorities did
all they could to
suppress this English
Bible. In 1408 its use
or the use of any new
translation was
forbidden, and in 1428
Wycliffe's body was dug
up and burned. A few
persons received
permission to read
vernacular Scriptures
because they were too
strong politically to be
punished, but many
common people were
publicly persecuted for
copying or reading them.
As the sixteenth century
approached, new forces
were at work in Europe.
The long period of
laboriously making books
by hand was to come to
an end. The revival of
learning spread north
and west from Italy.
Literatures were
developing in the newly
emerging vernacular
languages.
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The
First Printed
Scriptures
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In Germany,
about the middle
of the fifteenth
century, a
goldsmith named
Johann Gutenberg
developed the
art of casting
movable metal
type and
perfected and
efficient ink.
The first large
book produced by
his press and
type was a Bible
in Latin. Copies
decorated by
hand rivaled the
most beautiful
of hand-written
manuscripts.
This new art was
used to print
Bibles in six
languages before
1500 � German,
Italian, French,
Czech, Dutch and
Catalan; and in
eight more by
the middle of
the sixteenth
century �
Spanish, Danish,
English,
Swedish,
Hungarian,
Icelandic,
Polish and
Finnish. Now the
Scriptures could
really speak in
the languages of
the people. But
translation was
still tied to
the Latin text.
By the beginning
of the sixteenth
century
manuscripts of
the Greek and
Hebrew texts of
the Bible,
preserved in the
Eastern
churches, began
to reach Western
Europe. There
were scholars
who could help
western
churchmen use
and appreciate
these
manuscripts.
Outstanding in
this new period
of scholarship
and learning was
Erasmus of
Rotterdam. He
spent some years
teaching at
Cambridge
University in
England. In 1516
his edition of
the New
Testament in
Greek was
published with
his own parallel
Latin
translation. For
the first time
scholars in
western Europe
had the New
Testament in its
original
language,
although
unfortunately
the manuscripts
available to
Erasmus were of
fairly recent
origin and thus
not completely
dependable.
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William
Tyndale
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By this
time the
English
of
Wycliffe
had so
changed
that his
text was
little
used,
and the
future
of the
English
Bible
lay in
the
hands of
an
obscure
young
scholar
named
William
Tyndale.
To him
we owe
our
first
truly
English
New
Testament.
He came
to feel
the
necessity
of a
more
widespread
knowledge
of the
Scriptures.
Some
leaders
felt
that the
church
should
be the
only
instructor
and
interpreter
of the
Bible,
but was
promised
to them
in the
Scriptures
and that
they
could
not be
expected
to read
Latin.
He went
to
London
but
found
there
was no
encouragement
for an
English
translation
of the
Scriptures
in all
of
England.
Financially
aided by
a London
merchant,
he went
to
Germany
and in
the
atmosphere
of
Luther's
Reformation
he found
freedom
for his
task. In
1525 he
was in
Cologne,
making
arrangements
for the
printing
of the
New
Testament.
Before
many
pages
had been
printed,
church
authorities
were
aroused.
Tyndale
fled
with the
manuscript
to
Worms,
where
3,000
copies
of the
book
were
published
late in
1525 �
the
first
printed
English
New
Testament.
Based on
the
Greek
text of
Erasmus
and
compared
with
Luther's
New
Testament,
Tyndale's
text
used a
simple,
living
form of
English
that
represented
the
speech
of the
people.
Copies
were
smuggled
into
England,
secretly
purchased
and
secretly
read.
Readers
and
owners
were
arrested
and
copies
destroyed;
but more
and more
were
printed
on the
Continent,
some in
a
revised
edition,
and
smuggled
across
the
Channel
and
eagerly
read and
discussed.
Tyndale
himself
remained
on the
Continent,
mostly
in
Antwerp,
working
on his
translation
of the
Old
Testament.
An
edition
of the
Pentateuch
(the
first
five
books of
the Old
Testament)
was
published
in 1530.
Then on
May 21,
1535,
before
he had
completed
this
work, he
was
arrested.
For
sixteen
months
he was
held in
prison
near
Brussels.
Finally
he was
condemned
as a
heretic,
and
early in
October
1536 he
was
publicly
strangled
and his
body
burned
at the
stake.
His last
words
are
reported
to have
been,
"Lord,
open the
King of
England's
eyes!"
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Tyndale's Successors
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Miles Coverdale revised Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament and translated the rest of the Old Testament. This was published in 1535 and became the first complete English Bible. It was probably printed in Germany. Within a year of Tyndale's death, an edition of this Tyndale-Coverdale Bible was printed in England (1537) with the kynges most gracious license. In 1539 appeared the Great Bible, Coverdale's own revision, which filled the need created by an injunction of 1538 that a large-print Bible be placed in every parish. People gathered in the churches to listen to the reading of the Scriptures by those fortunate enough to be able to read.
Three important versions were published between the Great Bible and the King James Version of 1611. The first one was the Geneva bible, published in 1560 by church leaders who had escaped to Geneva to avoid Queen Mary's persecution. Then in 1568 the Bishops� Bible replaced the Great Bible as the Bible to be used in the Anglican Church. It was to a considerable extent simply a revision of that Bible. Finally in 1610, the complete Bible in the Rheims/Douai version was published; it was the only English version authorized for use by English-speaking Roman Catholics until recently.
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The King James Version
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When King James came to the throne, there were serious religious controversies within the Church of England. At a conference at Hampton Court in January 1604 to discuss these matters, Dr. John Reynolds, a leader of the puritans, suggested the authorization of a new translation. Published in 1611, this translation is known as the king James or Authorized Version. In the early years there was considerable opposition to its acceptance. But since then, for almost four hundred years, it has held first place in the hearts of English speaking people.
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Later English Versions
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If translations of single books of the Bible are included, there have been almost 500 new translations or revisions of older versions of the Scriptures in English. Some recent versions are:
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Revised Standard Version 1946-1952
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Phillips New Testament 1957
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Jerusalem Bible 1966
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New English Bible 1970
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New American Bible 1970
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Good News Bible (Today's English Version) 1966-1976
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New International Version 1973-1978
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Contemporary English Version 1995
Almost all of these have appeared in revised versions.
The production of so many new translations in our day is really an encouraging sign; it is an indication of the desire of many people to present the message of the Bible in a language that will be understood by people of all kinds of background: there are versions for those who speak English as a second language, for children who have a limited vocabulary, for newly literates who need an easy-to-read wording, as well as for those who have a mature mastery of the language.
Which translation is the best one for people today? That will vary from person to person: it is the one whose message speaks most clearly to a particular individual.
Bible studies are conducted most meaningfully when they are based on two types of translation:
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A formal equivalent translation, which is a more or less literal rendering of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Example: King James Version, Revised Standard Version. These translations provide the flavour of the original languages.
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An idiomatic equivalent translation that expresses the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts in the natural language of today. Example: Good News Bible (Today's English Version), Contemporary English Version. These translations are easy to understand since they are expressed in the common language that people use every day.
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