authority continued... (part 3)

(part 3 of 3)

FROM HEBREW AND GREEK MANUSCRIPTS TO MODERN ENGLISH

The following is a brief outline of the history of the English Bible.

· 315 A.D. - Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, identifies the 27 books of the New Testament

· 405 – Jerome translates the Latin Bible (Vulgate)
The Bible of the “common people” took shape in the form of wood carvings, stain glass windows, etc.

· 1382 – 1st English translation by John Wycliffe (handwritten)

· 1414 – Capital Punishment is declared for reading Scripture in one’s native tongue. In 1428, Wycliffe’s bones were dug up and burned

· 1454 – printing press invented

· 1526 – William Tyndale published first printed New Testament

· 1530’s – Martin Luther works on German Bible

· 1535 - William Coverdale prints first full English Bible, burned at the stake in 1536

· 1560 – Geneva Bible : first Bible in America, used by Pilgrims and the Puritans, also by Shakespeare

· 1611 – King James the 1st broke away from Catholic Church to get a divorce, started Anglican church and printed their own Bible, the King James Version.
(many errors are made, revised many times)

· 1881 – English Revised edition

· 1901 – The American Standard

· 1952 – Revised Standard Version

· 1963 – New American Standard

· 1978 – New International Version

· 1982 – New King James Version

· 1989 – New Revised Standard Version

· 2001 – English Standard Version

· 2004 – Holman Christian Standard Version

As Americans, the fact that we have our own Bibles, and for many of us,
multiple copies, should give us pause. People were killed for trying to give
a copy of the Bible to people in their own language.
It is a blessing, not a right, that we have God's word in our own language. It is to our detriment and our shame if we do not read it, learn it, and obey it.