the blood-soaked scriptures

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The Blood-Soaked Scriptures SWO15

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Page 1: The Blood-Soaked Scriptures

The Blood-Soaked Scriptures

SWO15

Page 2: The Blood-Soaked Scriptures

The Importance of the English Bible

Imagine what the world would be like without the English Bible

No more: “In the Beginning”, “Let there be”, “Our Father in Heaven”, “Holy, Holy, Holy”, “For God so loved the world”, “The Lord is my Shepherd”

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The Importance of the English Bible

The most printed book in all of history

There have been more copies of the English Bible printed than all of the other best sellers of all time.

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A Tale of Two Cities - 200 Million

The Lord of the Rings - 150 Million

The Hobbit - 100 Million

The Harry Potter series - 450 Million

Goosebumps - 300 Million

Berenstain Bears - 260 Million

Twilight - 120 Million

Hunger Games - 50 Million

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The best estimation of the English Bible is 6,000,000,000

Every year 100 Million more copies are being printed

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How did we get the Bible in English?

Nine huge steps towards the Bible in English

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1. Original Manuscripts

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew from c1400 BC to c500 BC.

The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek from cAD 40 to cAD 70-95

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2. The Latin Vulgate

AD 383 St. Jerome translated the the whole Bible into Latin.

At this time nobody was reading Greek and Hebrew anymore.

“Vulgate” comes from the Latin vulgare which means “common”. This was the common spoken language of the day.

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3. The illuminated copies AD 800-900

Around AD 800 there was a renewed interest in the Bible so monasteries across England and Europe began making many hand copies of the Bible. This enabled the Church to preserve copies of the Bible.

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4. 1382 Wycliffe’s BibleJohn Wycliffe, “The Morningstar of the Reformation”

Born in 1324

Became a professor at Merton College, Oxford in 1361

1374 He became the chaplain for Edward III, King of England

1377 charged of heresy because of his writings and translations

Died in 1384

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Wycliffe and his followers (The Lollards) produced the first ever copies of the Bible in English.

These were handwritten copies of the Bible

They had been translated not from the Greek and Hebrew but from the Latin Vulgate.

Of Wycliffe’s work we have 20 copies of the whole Bible, 90 of the whole NT, and 250 incomplete manuscripts. This is huge considering we have only 64 copies of Canterbury Tales.

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Reaction to Wycliffe

This Master John Wyclif translated from Latin into English - the Angle not the angel speech - The Gospel that Christ gave to doctors and clergy of the Church… so that by his means it has become vulgar and more open to lay men and women who can read than it usually is to quite learned clergy of good intelligence. And so the pearl of the Gospel is scattered abroad and trodden underfoot by swine. - Henry Knighton, Chronicle

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Reaction to Wycliffe1401 - De heretico comburendo: An English statute that means “Concerning the Burning of Heretics” was passed in order to burn Christians who translated the Bible into English

1407-1409: Archbishop Arundel called a Provincial Council at Oxford and adopted the Oxford Constitutions: it was forbidden to “translate any text of Holy Scripture into the English or other language, by way of a book, pamphlet or tract, and that no book, pamphlet or tract of this kind be read, either recently composed at the time of the said John Wyclif, or since then, or that in future may be composed in part or in whole, publicly or privily, under pain of the greater excommunication.”

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Reaction to Wycliffe

March 17,1411: Wycliff was accused of 267 heresies and errors and his books were burned at Oxford

In 1428 (44 years after his death) his bones were dug up, burned and the ashes thrown into a stream at the request for a “posthumous execution” by Pope Martin V.

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5. 1455 The Guttenberg Bible

Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press and the first book he printed was the Bible.

This was printed in Latin

49 of these exist today, 21 are complete

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6. 1519 Erasmus Greek New Testament

This is a Greek/Latin interlinear Bible. For 1200 years the only Bible that people had access to was Jerome’s Latin.

Erasmus was a leading language scholar and he made around 400 changes to the Vulgate.

First reliable printed Greek NT, with good Latin translation and critical notes.

This helped unlock the Bible and fuel the Reformation. Used by Luther and Tyndale.

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Erasmus believed that the proper understanding of scripture was important for every Christian.

Christ wishes his mysteries to be published as widely as possible. I would wish all women to read the gospel and the epistle of St Paul, and I wish that they were translated into all languages of all Christian people, that they might be read and known, not merely by the Scotch and the Irish, but even by the Turks and the Saracens. I wish that the husbandmen might sing parts of them at his plow, that the weaver may warble them at his shuttle, that the traveller may with their narratives beguile the weariness of the way. - Erasmus Paraclesis

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Erasmus, however, was not a Reformer. He remained a member in good standing of the Catholic church.

He is widely known for his public debates with Martin Luther.

He was close friends with Thomas More, who burned Christians alive and joked about the misuse of Catholic power.

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7. 1526 The Tyndale BibleWilliam Tyndale: Born in 1494 (probably)

Brilliant Oxford scholar translated the New Testament from the original Greek into English in 1526. This was the first ever translation from the Greek (not Latin) into English and it was printed (not handwritten).

By October 1526 this was banned by Bishop Tunstall (even though the first edition had a print run of 3,000)

In 1534 he printed a revision after learning Hebrew (probably one of 2 people in England).

In his life he translated all the NT from the Greek and Genesis - 2 Chronicles and Jonah from the OT Hebrew.

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He was betrayed by Henry Phillips in 1535 and condemned for heresy and imprisoned for 16 months.

On October 6, 1536 he was strangled and burned.

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1519: 7 Lollards (followers of Wycliff) were burned alive for teaching their children The Lord’s Prayer in English

John Frith, one of Tyndale’s closest friends was burned alive in 1531

Richard Bayfield was arrested and burned alive for transporting copies of Tyndale’s Bible to England.

John Tewkesbury, whipped in Thomas More’s garden and burned alive.

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Why would the Church burn Christians for having the Bible?

First, they claimed that any time you translated into another language then you could get errors.

They believed that you couldn’t trust common people with the Bible because it was intended for priests and doctors.

The deeper issue is that it came down to the translation of 5 words that undercut the authority of Church:

presbuteros = as “elder” instead of “priest

ekklesia = as “congregation” instead of “church”

metanoew = as “repent” instead of “do penance”

exomologew = as “acknowledge or admit” not confess

agaph = as “love” not “charity”

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Why would the Church burn Christians for having the Bible?

“He cannot possibly have been unaware that those words in particular undercut the entire sacramental structure of the thousand year church throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. It was the Greek New Testament that was doing the undercutting.” - David Daniell, Tyndale

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Tyndale’s InfluenceTyndale gave the English speaking world more than the Bible, he gave us the English language.

In his Bible translations, Tyndale’s conscious use of everyday words, without inversions, in a neutral word-order, and his wonderful ear for rhythmic patterns, gave to English not only a Bible language, but a new prose. England was blessed as a nation in that the language of its principal book, as the Bible in English rapidly became, was the fountain from which flowed the lucidity, suppleness and expressive range of the greatest prose thereafter. - David Daniell - William Tyndale: A Biography

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Tyndale’s Influence

He translated 2/3 of the Bible so well that most of it endures today.

In the Scripture that he had translated before his martyrdom the King James version retained almost 90% of his words. This makes Tyndale the most quoted individual in the history of the English language.

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Tyndale’s Influence“Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)

“The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be merciful unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

“There were shepherds abiding in the field” (Luke 2:8).

“Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

“Fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12).

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Tyndale’s Influence“Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9).

“The signs of the times” (Matthew 16:3)

“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).“He went out . . . and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). Those two words are still used by almost all modern translations (NIV, NASB, ESV, NKJV). It has not been improved on for five hundred years in spite of weak efforts like one recent translation: “cried hard.” Unlike that phrase, “the rhythm of his two words carries the experience.”20

“A law unto themselves” (Romans 2:14)

“In him we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

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Tyndale’s InfluenceYour cause is Christ’s gospel, a light that must be fed with the blood of faith. . . . If when we be buffeted for well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is thankful with God; for to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps, who did no sin. Hereby have we perceived love that he laid down his life for us: therefore we ought to be able to lay down our lives for the brethren. . . . Let not your body faint. If the pain be above your strength, remember: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will give it you.” And pray to our Father in that name, and he will ease your pain, or shorten it. . . . Amen

From Tyndale to his friend John Frith before he was burned alive.

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Tyndale’s Final Words

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”

Within one year (August 1537), this king authorized for “Matthew’s Bible” (based on Tyndale’s work) to be printed and distributed to all 9,000 churches in England.

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8. The Geneva Bible 1560Substantially based on Tyndale’s translation

Used by Reformers in England and very beloved

First English translation with verses and cross-references

First study Bible, filled with hundreds of notes

First time that the last 25 books of the OT were translated from Hebrew to English

Used by many of the early American settlers

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9. The King James 1611

By far the most popular and widely read version of the English Bible. Still the best selling version of the Bible.

This single book has influenced the English language more than any other book.

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The Influence of the KJVAsk, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Matt 7)

In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17)

Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim 6)

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12)

Behold, I stand at the door and knock (Rev 3)

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The Influence of the KJVAm I my brother’s keeper? (Gen 4)

Escaped with the skin of my teeth (Job 19)

Saying peace, peace, when there is no peace (Jer 6)

They have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8)

The signs of the times (Matt 16)

A law unto themselves (Rom 2)

Wages of sin (Rom 6)

The powers that be (Rom 13)

The patience of Job (James 5)

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What does this mean to me today?

Realize the importance of what you have and how many people died so that you could have it.

Be humbled by this amazing gift that God has given you and love, read, and meditate on it.