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King Solomon

Moses ibn Ezra, a twelfth century Hebrew poet living in Spain, made the inanimate book the most intimate friend.

A book is the most delightful companion... An inanimate thing yet it talks... There is in the world no friend more faithful and attentive, no teacher more proficient... It will join you in solitude, accompany you in exile, serve as a candle in the dark, and entertain you in your loneliness. It will do you good and ask no favor in return. It gives and does not take.

"Of making many books there is no end" (Eccl. 12:12) said the wise king Solomon. In fact thousands of different kinds of books have been written, especially in these last days, but none of them could be equaled with the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Because of its content and importance it is appropriately called the Book of books as the Lord Jesus is called the King of kings.

The Bible is the only trustworthy book which tells us about the creation of this world. The entrance of sin in our planet, the fall of man, the plan of salvation, are all clearly and simply explained in its sacred pages. The Holy Scriptures tell us about the life, ministry and death of Jesus, Who by His own blood redeemed His elects from eternal ruin. The sacred book of God speaks to us of the wonderful promises of tender care and protection of God's chosen children and of the presence of the indwelling Spirit of Christ in their hearts. The soon coming of Jesus, the reward of the righteous, the end of the world, the punishment of the wicked, the eternal destruction of sin and its originator, the transformation of the elects into the image of Christ through which they reign in His eternal kingdom, are the wonderful themes which bring joy and hope to those who read with reverence its sacred pages.

The Bible is a living book. God's words are like seeds that spring up and bring forth fruit. They are spirit and life. The Bible contains power to change lives. Through this power many drunkards become sober. Many liars have become truthful. Many wicked were converted into righteous beings. Broken families have been reunited through the influence and the power of the Word of God.

It has been Satan's plan to destroy the Bible. Persecution arose against it. Thousands upon thousands of copies were destroyed. At the French revolution a fierce opposition arose against the Bible and, in 1793 a decree was issued to abolish the Christian religion and set the Bible aside. Though the enemy did all to abolish the Bible, it could not be destroyed.

The Bible is the chart and the compass that guides us through this life to the eternal port of heaven.

An early reformer had properly stated that "the Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers"; and it still stands unworn. And Jesus Himself declared: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Matthew 24:35.

THIS BOOK contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, in it heaven is opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, it fills our memory, rules our heart, and guides our feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life, will be opened in judgment, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibilities, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

With the invention of printing by Gutemburg, the circulation of the Bible expanded rapidly. With the Reformation, the wish to have the Bible available in people's own language became stronger. One such early work was the 'Luther Bible' written in German. The 'Reformers' did not accept the Apocrypha as scripture and did not include it in their versions of the Bible. Although the Apocrypha were included in some early Protestant Bibles, they where added between the Old and the New Testament. They where later on removed in order not mislead the people with spurious writings.

The first French Bible, based on the original Hebrew Massoretic Text and Greek Textus Receptus, was made in 1535 by Pierre Robert Olivetan, a Waldense or Vaudois and cousin of the great French Reformer, John Calvin. Prior to this, most Bibles were based on the Latin Vulgate. Only the Waldenses maintained a pure tradition of translations throughout history. Olivetan's Bible was the result of a resolution passed at the synod of Chamforans that the Waldensian Churches, should at their own cost, translate and print an edition of the Old and New Testament in the French tongue, and present it as a gift to the Churches of the Reformation.

A most appropriate and noble gift. That Book which the Waldenses had received in manuscript form from the primitive Church of Antioch (where the disciples were first called "Christians"), which their forefathers had preserved with their blood - which their barbes or elders had laboriously translated and circulated - they now put into the hands of the Reformers, constituting along with themselves the custodians of this, the ark of the world's hope.

Beza

This work cost no less than 1,500 crowns of gold, a large sum for so poor a people; yet it was cheerfully subscribed. Calvin himself made a revision of Olivetan's Bible in 1540 that became known as the "Bible de l'Épée" (Bible of the Sword). Later on Beza, Calvin's associate, produced his own revision of this Bible in 1588 that became known as the famous Geneva Bible. It is to be noted that there was two Geneva Bible at that point in history, one in French and one in English. This revision of Olivetan's Bible by Beza is known today to the French Christians as the Martin Bible (1855) and the Ostervald Bible (1996), both witch are still available.

The first printed edition of the New Testament in English was the translation by William Tyndale, probably printed by Peter Schoeffer, the Younger, at Worms, in 1525 or 1526. Only one complete copy of that first printing still exists. for the translation had been officially condemned by the English bishops, and all copies that could be found were burned. Tyndale himself was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake in 1536, the year in which the edition shown here was printed. Tyndale's translation was influenced by a number of the earlier versions of the New Testament including the Vulgate, Luther's German translation, and Erasmus's translation (3rd edition) as well as earlier Greek and Hebrew texts. The result of Tyndale's labors was a particularly felicitous English translation which more heavily influenced the King James Version than all the others combined.

Truly, the pioneer of the English Bible is William Tyndale who published the New Testament in 1525. At a time when it was illegal to translate, read, or even possess a Bible written in the English language, William Tyndale spoke these words to some fellow-students:

"If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the scriptures than the Pope."

The Spirit of God presided over Tyndale's calling and training. He passed through Oxford University and went on to Cambridge to learn Greek under Erasmus who taught there from 1510-1514. Herman Buschius, a friend of Erasmus and one of the leaders in the revival of letters, spoke of Tyndale as "so skilled in seven languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin. Italian, Spanish, English, French, that whichever he spoke you would suppose it his native tongue." (Life of Tyndale - Demaus, pp 130).

Some felt that the Church should be the only instructor of the Bible, but Tyndale said that the people had a right to know what was promised to them in the Bible and that they could not be expected to read Latin.

He found no encouragement for an English translation of the Scriptures in all of England and, financially aided by a London merchant, Humphrey Monnouth, he went to Germany. In the freer atmosphere of the reformation, he had opportunity for his task. In 1525 he was in Cologne, making arrangements for the printing of the New Testament with Peter Quentel. Before many pages had been printed, church authorities were aroused; Tyndale fled with the manuscript up the Rhine to the city of Worms, where 3,000 copies of his translation late in 1525 - the first printed English New Testament.

However, he had to smuggle his Bibles into England in barrels and bales of woolen goods. 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 best speech of the people. Readers and owners were arrested and copies destroyed, but more and more were printed on the continent, smuggled across the channel and eagerly read and discussed. Tyndale himself remained on the continent, working on his Old Testament translation. A simple man, his only break with study and writing was the two days a week when he went about Antwerp visiting the sick, the poor, and the troubled. He was indeed a man of mercy and compassion.

The fact that the authorities were angry and because Bibles were forbidden, made the people want to read it all the more. Outside St Paul's Cathedral, Bishop Tonstall, the Bishop of London, burnt all the copies he could get his hands on, but he still wasn't satisfied. So he decided to buy up all the copies in Germany before they got to England, and destroy them. He asked a friend of his, Augustine Packington, to help him. Tonstall promised him all the money he needed to buy every New Testament he could find. But the poor Bishop didn't know that this merchant was also a great friend of William Tyndale.

The Bishop's scheme played right into Tyndale's hands because the high price he received for his New Testament funded the production and distribution of his improved translation and the Old Testament translation as well.

In 1530, his edition of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament) appeared, but about May 21, 1535, before he had completed the Old Testament, he was arrested. For sixteen months he was held in Vilvorde Prison near Brussels. 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 before his execution were a prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes"...

...and the King's eyes were soon opened. Already Miles Coverdale had revised Tyndales's Pentateuch and New Testament and translated the rest of the Old Testament as well. This was issued in 1535 - the first complete English printed Bible. Within a year of Tyndale's death, an Edition of this Tyndale-Coverdale Bible was printed in England (1537) with the King's most gracious licence, and another Bible containing a revision of Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament, with his previously unpublished translation of Joshua to II Chronicles, edited by Thomas Matthew was also published in England.

Complete Bibles appeared as early as 1535 such as Miles Coverdale's edition. Thomas Cromwell had the Matthew Bible another English version of the time revised by Coverdale to become the Great Bible in 1539. It is interesting to note that about 90 percent of Tyndale's original translation made it into the King James Version that we know today. King James had sponsored a new translation of the Bible at request of the Puritans in 1604. It appeared in 1611, but apparently drew heavily on previous translations.

A leaf from the editio princeps (that is, the first printed edition) of the complete Bible in English, translated and edited by Miles Coverdale, a Yorkshireman. It was probably printed in Zurich. Coverdale leaned heavily on Tyndale's translation, Luther's German version, and a Swiss-German text by Zwingli and Leo Juda, and the Latin version of Sanctes Pagninus rather than the Greek and Hebrew originals. Coverdale's version included the Apocrypha (the books between the Testaments) from which a page of the Book of Esdras is shown.

Issued in a smaller, more convenient format than its predecessors, the Geneva Bible was produced by Protestant refugees in Switzerland, after having fled the Roman Catholic persecution in England under Queen Mary. This was the first English Bible to use verse divisions and the first to be printed in Roman type. It was sometimes called the "Breeches Bible," because of the translation of Genesis 3:7: "they [Adam and Eve] knewe that they were naked, and they sewed fig tre leaues together, and made them selues breeches."

James I

When James I came to the English throne in 1603 there existed in the Church of England a considerable party of reformers called Puritans, whose purpose was to purify the English Church by removing from it all remnants of Roman Catholicism. Among other things, they objected to the Bishop's Bible and the Great Bible, which they regarded as corrupted. They also found fault with the Prayer Book, the biblical quotations of which had been taken from the Great Bible. The Puritans, therefore, were calling for a revision of the English Scriptures, and it was the Puritan leader, Dr. John Reynolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who first suggested this to King James at an ecclesiastical conference which that monarch had convened at Hampton Court in 1604.

This suggestion appealed to James, who was himself a student of theology and of the Scriptures, and he began immediatly to make the necessary arrangements for carrying it out.