Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000097S
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00:01 - You know, somebody once asked me
00:01 how many Bibles I actually own, 00:03 and the truth is I lost track after about the first 75, 00:08 and chances are, you might also have multiple copies 00:11 of the Bible at your house, 00:12 even if you're not all that religious. 00:15 Yet, sometimes easy access can make us forget 00:18 just how difficult it was 00:20 to get an English Bible produced in the first place. 00:23 That's on today's episode of "Authentic." 00:26 [uplifting instrumental music] 00:35 [uplifting instrumental music continues] 00:44 [uplifting instrumental music continues] 00:47 My Barbarian ancestors started to adopt the Christian faith 00:51 right around the time of Charlemagne, 00:52 which makes good sense 00:54 because, well, Charlemagne and the Franks 00:56 kind of thought of themselves 00:57 as the military force of the Bishop of Rome. 01:01 They kept themselves busy pushing their way northward 01:03 in order to annex new territories, 01:05 but at the same time, 01:07 they wanted to bring those hopeless Germanic heathens 01:10 into the fold of the Church. 01:11 It's a deeply fascinating story, and wouldn't you know it? 01:14 My own tribe was one of the more stubborn holdouts. 01:17 In time we did become Christian, 01:19 and when we did, we came into a situation 01:22 where the scriptures were not available 01:24 in the common tongue of the people. 01:27 The official organized church was deathly afraid 01:30 that if uneducated people like us 01:32 read the Bible for themselves, 01:34 they might, through their ignorance become heretics 01:36 and break away from the establishment. 01:37 So they figured that translating the Bible 01:40 into a vulgar language was frankly dangerous. 01:44 Now, when you see the word vulgar used in an academic sense, 01:47 it's not talking about rude behavior, 01:49 or dirty jokes, the word simply means common. 01:52 You and I use vulgar to describe crass behavior 01:55 because once upon a time, the upper crust of society 01:59 thought that rude behavior was something you could expect 02:01 from the commoners, the lower classes. 02:04 Unrefined language was thought of as common or vulgar, 02:08 and over time we started using the word vulgar 02:10 to describe naughty words, 02:12 but originally it just meant common, 02:15 which is why Jerome's fourth century Latin translation 02:19 of the Bible is called the Latin Vulgate. 02:21 It was a Bible translated into the common language 02:24 of the Roman Empire, which of course was Latin. 02:27 [suspenseful instrumental music] 02:29 Naturally, Jerome has been rightly praised 02:31 for his achievement, 02:32 but as the Church moved forward into the medieval period, 02:34 it developed a fear 02:36 of letting everybody just read 02:37 the scriptures for themselves. 02:39 It was far better they thought, for church appointed experts 02:42 to handle the matter of biblical interpretation. 02:46 That way you could control 02:48 the religious impulses of fanatics. 02:50 [suspenseful instrumental music] 02:51 The problem with that approach, of course, was the fact 02:53 that the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church 02:57 became incredibly insular, 02:59 without external checks and balances 03:01 to keep it honest about what the Bible said. 03:04 By the time you get to Wycliffe's Day, 03:06 the Church was already notorious 03:08 for its noticeable theological problems, 03:11 and unfortunately, the atrocious behavior of the clergy. 03:15 When Martin Luther made his famous pilgrimage to Rome, 03:17 he expected to find a very high level of piety, 03:22 but what he found was a lot of drunkenness and debauchery. 03:26 When the earliest reformers like Wycliffe 03:28 and Tyndale began to push back 03:30 and started translating the Bible into English, 03:33 the Church blew a gasket. 03:35 Wycliffe died before they could 03:36 actually get their hands on him, 03:38 but they declared him to be a heretic anyway. 03:40 They dug up his body in 1428, burned it, 03:44 and threw the ashes into the Thames River. 03:46 After all, a man who made the Bible available 03:48 to everybody must not be allowed 03:50 to rest in the hallowed ground of a church cemetery. 03:54 To the amusement of some historians, 03:56 there's actually a chance 03:58 they dug up the person next to Wycliffe by mistake, 04:01 which immediately highlights the absurdity of thinking 04:04 that the Church had the ability to compromise your salvation 04:06 by removing you from your grave. 04:09 I mean, what if the guy they actually dug up 04:11 was a good and faithful church member? 04:13 Would he be lost now? 04:16 in the famous words of Sebastian Castellio, 04:18 an early reformer who preached 04:20 about the importance of religious liberty, 04:23 "Yo kill a man is not to defend a doctrine. 04:26 It is to kill a man." 04:27 Of course, they didn't actually kill Wycliffe, 04:29 but the principle still applies. 04:32 Desecrating his body doesn't do a thing 04:34 to change his status with God. 04:36 [somber music] Tyndale, of course, 04:37 was less fortunate. 04:39 They really did kill him by strangling him 04:41 and then burning his body at the stake. 04:44 It was a really high price to pay for personal convictions. 04:48 Those who were there tell us 04:49 that when Tyndale was a student, 04:51 he one day told his teacher, 04:52 "If God spare my life, ere many years, 04:55 I will cause a boy that driveth the plow 04:57 should know more of the scripture than thou dost." 05:01 As he breathed his last Tyndale uttered a prayer 05:03 that many people consider to be prophetic. 05:05 He said, "Lord opened the king of England's eyes," 05:09 and within three years, 05:11 his prayer appears to have been answered. 05:13 [uplifting instrumental music] 05:14 At the end of 1534, the Senate of Canterbury 05:17 led by Thomas Cranmer petitioned Henry VIII 05:21 "to decree that the holy scripture 05:23 shall be translated into the vulgar English tongue 05:26 by certain upright and learned men 05:28 to be named by the said most illustrious king." 05:31 [uplifting instrumental music] 05:32 Henry VIII who had broken away from the Bishop of Rome 05:35 and established his own English church 05:37 really liked this idea. 05:40 So he commissioned a guy by the name of Miles Coverdale 05:43 to produce a Bible. 05:44 Coverdale, took Tyndale's unfinished work, revised it, 05:47 and finished it using Jerome's Latin Vulgate as a reference 05:51 for the parts that Tyndale had not been able to complete. 05:55 Now, that was a little ironic 05:57 because one of William Tyndale's greatest achievements 06:00 was to abandon the Vulgate 06:01 and translate the scriptures from the original Hebrew, 06:04 Aramaic and Greek. 06:06 But of course, Coverdale wasn't really the scholar 06:08 that Tyndale was, and he had to do what he could 06:11 to get the job done. 06:12 He also used Luther's Bible and a few other manuscripts. 06:17 The first edition of the Coverdale Bible 06:19 was released in 1535. 06:22 Now, some people started calling that the "chained Bible" 06:25 because it was usually chained to the wall. 06:28 Today you'll hear some people saying 06:30 that the Bibles were chained to the wall 06:31 to keep common folk from reading them, 06:33 but that's not really the reason they did it. 06:36 I mean, yes, the Bible was being kept away 06:39 from regular folks, but that was done 06:41 by keeping it locked up in a foreign language. 06:44 The real reason they chain Bibles 06:46 to the wall was the same reason the bank used to chain 06:49 a ball point pen to the counter, 06:51 to keep you from stealing 'em. 06:53 Bibles, and pretty much all books 06:54 were really, really expensive, 06:57 even after the inventing of the printing press. 07:00 A couple of years later in 1537, 07:03 there was another English Bible, 07:05 the work of a man who went by the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. 07:08 Historically, we think he was actually John Rogers, 07:11 one of Tyndale's friends who was later executed 07:14 by the infamous Bloody Mary. 07:16 So now we had two officially sanctioned English translations 07:21 of the scriptures, but neither of these Bibles 07:23 proved to be satisfactory 07:25 because one, Coverdale's Bible had not been 07:28 entirely translated from the original languages. 07:30 And two, the Matthew Bible had marginal notes, 07:34 and an introduction that said 07:35 some rather unflattering things about the authorities. 07:39 But all that aside, it was a triumph for the world 07:41 of English-speaking Christianity. 07:44 But then Queen Mary, affectionately known as Bloody Mary, 07:48 came to the throne in 1553. 07:51 And English Protestant suddenly found themselves 07:53 in a really perilous place. 07:56 Up to 1000 leading Protestant thinkers packed up 07:59 and left the British Isles for the European mainland, 08:02 with most of them going to either Germany or Switzerland. 08:06 It was during that time that John Foxe wrote 08:09 "Foxe's Book of Martyrs," 08:11 while living in exile in the city of Basel. 08:14 [suspenseful instrumental music] 08:15 In October 1554, a group of these exiles 08:18 organized an English speaking church in Geneva 08:21 with the illustrious John Knox as their pastor. 08:25 Of course, Geneva was home to John Calvin 08:27 in the center of his Protestant movement, 08:30 so it was a really comfortable place for English Christians 08:33 who had a Calvinist bent. 08:36 But I'll tell you what isn't comfortable, 08:38 the fact that the clock says 08:39 it's time for me to take a break, 08:41 so I'm gonna have to do that, 08:43 and I'll be right back after this. 08:45 [uplifting instrumental music] 08:48 [bright instrumental music] 08:49 - [Narrator] Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 08:51 we're committed to creating top quality programming 08:53 for the whole family. 08:54 Like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 08:57 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program for kids 09:00 of all ages and backgrounds. 09:02 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 09:05 from this small mountain summer camp Pen Town. 09:08 With 24 seasonal episodes every year, 09:11 and fresh content every week 09:13 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:16 [bright instrumental music] 09:19 - Geneva was a key center for the Protestant movement 09:21 in the middle of the 16th century. 09:24 It was also a center for textual scholarship, 09:26 producing a number of new Bible translations 09:29 in everyday languages. 09:31 Geneva produced bibles in Italian, Spanish and French, 09:34 and as you might expect from a group of English exiles, 09:37 it also gave us a brand new English translation, 09:41 the Geneva Bible, which came out in 1560. 09:45 There's a deeply moving preface in this translation 09:48 that spells out the motivation for creating this book. 09:51 It is addressed to quote, "Our beloved in the Lord, 09:54 the brethren of England, Scotland, Ireland, et cetera." 09:58 And after it explains 10:00 that Christians should be living in both the fear 10:02 and the love of God. 10:04 It says this, "for as much as this thing chiefly is attained 10:09 by the knowledge and practicing of the word of God, 10:11 which is the light to our paths, 10:13 the key of the kingdom of heaven, 10:15 our comfort and affliction, 10:17 our shield and sword against Satan, 10:19 the school of all wisdom, 10:21 the glass wherein we behold God's face, 10:24 the testimony of his favor and the only food and nourishment 10:28 of our souls, 10:29 we thought that we could bestow our labors 10:31 and study in nothing which could be more acceptable to God 10:35 and comfortable Church than in the translation 10:38 of the holy Scriptures into our native tongue." 10:43 Today, Christians might read that and say, 10:46 "Well, of course," 10:47 because we've become so used 10:49 to reading the Bible for ourselves. 10:52 If you don't understand the historical context, 10:55 that could be the introduction 10:56 to any number of modern Bible translations. 11:00 But again, you've got to remember that the people 11:02 who wrote this we're starting a revolution. 11:06 They were willing to risk their lives to be sure 11:08 that you and I have access to the Bible in a language 11:12 that we actually understand. 11:15 Prior to the 16th century, 11:17 only the highly educated could actually read the scriptures, 11:21 because if you didn't know Latin, or Hebrew, or Greek, 11:25 you were just out of luck. 11:27 I guess it's like a lot of other things today, 11:29 you and I take for granted that regular people 11:32 should have a say when it comes to government, 11:34 but in medieval Europe, that was hardly true. 11:38 We easily forget that our God-given rights 11:40 were not always available to us. 11:42 And it's easy from the distance of nearly 500 years 11:45 to lose sight of just how monumental 11:48 an English translation of the Bible really was. 11:51 [uplifting instrumental music] 11:53 The fact that it had to be published in exile 11:55 is an important reminder that historically speaking, 11:58 our present liberties are an anomaly. 12:01 And no matter how secure our freedom seem to be 12:04 right now at this moment, 12:06 no matter how comfortable we've become, 12:09 we are never more than one bad idea away from losing it all. 12:13 In fact, one of the key themes you'll find in the pages 12:16 of Bible prophecy is a prediction 12:18 that the tide will eventually turn 12:20 against intellectual and religious freedom. 12:24 It's one of the reasons I'm concerned about 12:26 what some people are calling "cancel culture." 12:29 I'm hardly alone with my concern. 12:31 In fact, I'm starting to get some strange company 12:34 on that front, including the likes of Bill Maher. 12:37 I'm talking about this inclination we're developing 12:40 to silence people we disagree with. 12:43 I know that some people don't believe 12:45 it's actually happening, and on the other side of the coin, 12:48 other people exaggerate how often it does happen. 12:51 [uplifting instrumental music] 12:52 But the tendency, especially on platforms like social media, 12:55 it does bother me. 12:57 Of course, social media platforms are privately owned. 13:00 They're not publicly-owned forums, 13:02 and the owners have every right to control the content. 13:05 I don't believe for a moment 13:07 that the government should intervene and force the owners 13:10 to host people and ideas they don't happen to agree with, 13:13 because that would also be a violation of liberty. 13:17 [uplifting instrumental music] 13:19 But all that aside, I still find it concerning 13:21 that so many people, instead of wrestling with ideas 13:25 and evaluating them carefully, 13:26 just want uncomfortable opinions to go away. 13:30 That's actually been the way it has been 13:33 for most of recorded history, 13:34 and we'd be foolish to forget 13:36 how rare our current freedom actually is. 13:40 And I know allowing everybody to speak 13:43 means that people with bad ideas also get to speak, 13:46 but in a broken world, that's the price you have to pay 13:49 for your freedom. 13:51 I'm quite happy to endure the stupid corners 13:54 of the internet if it means that I'm also free 13:57 to express what I wanna say. 13:59 Before we start silencing people, 14:01 we really need to ask ourselves how long it would be 14:04 before someone would want to silence us, 14:06 or make our beliefs illegal. 14:09 It's almost like a secular version of the Magisterium 14:12 that's growing today, 14:13 where a handful of self-proclaimed intellectuals 14:16 reserve the right to tell the rest of us 14:19 what we're allowed to say or believe. 14:22 And sadly, if that attitude ends up winning the day, 14:24 I fear that a secular Magisterium might prove 14:27 to be even more unpleasant than a religious one. 14:31 Now that we've apparently abandoned the idea 14:33 of all objective morality. 14:36 But enough about that, it's a bit of a sidebar. 14:39 Let's get back to one of the most important developments 14:41 in the history of English speaking Christianity, 14:44 the publication of this, the Geneva Bible. 14:48 One of the most notable features 14:49 of this important translation 14:51 is the fact that it doesn't list the names 14:54 of the people who did the work. 14:56 For the most part, we've had to do 14:57 a little bit of detective work to figure out who did this. 15:01 Of course, their forerunners were persecuted 15:04 or even put to death for doing the same thing. 15:07 And given Queen Mary's appetite for violence, 15:10 the anonymity kind of makes sense. 15:13 Putting your name in the credits might actually become 15:16 a matter of life and death. 15:18 In fact, in the preface to this version of the Bible, 15:21 the translators pointed out 15:22 that the quote "time was then most dangerous 15:26 and the persecution sharp and furious." 15:29 Of course, the problem resolved itself in 1558 15:32 because Queen Elizabeth suddenly came to the throne, 15:35 and that made conditions far more favorable. 15:38 And, you know, I guess there's another reason 15:40 they might have chosen to stay anonymous. 15:42 Maybe they were just humbled, 15:44 and they understood that no human being 15:46 can actually take credit for this incredible book. 15:49 Now, that's not to say that the translators 15:51 deserve no credit. 15:53 The work of translation isn't easy, 15:55 especially when you're working 15:56 with concepts from a distant time and culture. 15:59 Sometimes there is no exact English equivalent 16:02 for a word you find in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, 16:05 and so you have to do your very best to convey the meaning 16:08 to an audience who cannot read the original language. 16:11 That's still true today. 16:13 In my family's native language, 16:15 there's this word, it's Dutch, 16:16 [speaking in foreign language] 16:18 and there is no English equivalent. 16:21 And this is why it's helpful to consult translations 16:23 in other modern languages to see 16:25 if the people who did that work 16:27 actually came up with a better way 16:29 to express a difficult concept, 16:31 and then you find an English equivalent for what they did. 16:36 Of course, we also have the problem of textual variants 16:39 where you'll find minor, itty bitty tiny differences 16:41 between various ancient manuscripts. 16:44 Now, fortunately, because we have so much 16:47 manuscript evidence for the Bible, 16:49 it's generally possible to figure out 16:51 these itty bitty differences 16:52 by considering the weight of evidence 16:54 across all the various ancient copies 16:57 that we have access to. 16:59 It might just be a typo after all. 17:01 A copy mistake in one ancient manuscript 17:05 and the other manuscripts will help you catch it. 17:08 The Geneva Bible provided a number of important features, 17:11 some of which you and I now take for granted. 17:13 First of all, it was compact, 17:16 or considered compact, which made it ideal 17:18 for personal Bible study. 17:21 This was portable. 17:22 It also divided the text into verses, 17:24 which made it easier to look things up, 17:26 so that you and I could tell somebody 17:28 where to find something in the pages of the Bible. 17:31 Additionally, when the translators needed to use a word 17:34 that wasn't in the original language 17:36 to help make a passage clear, 17:39 they printed that word in italics to let the reader know 17:42 that it wasn't in the original. 17:44 A feature that still appears in a lot of Bibles to this day. 17:48 And of course, where the original meaning might be unclear 17:51 to an English reader, they inserted marginal notes. 17:55 Another thing that Bible translators are still doing 17:57 to this day. 17:59 When it came to the names of people or places, 18:01 they tried to stick as closely 18:03 to the Hebrew or Greek as possible, 18:05 by simply transliterating them into English, 18:08 spelling it out with a Latin alphabet, 18:11 so that it kind of sounds like the original. 18:14 The Geneva Bible was physically beautiful, 18:17 featuring 26 woodcut illustrations 18:19 and five maps that would help the reader understand 18:22 the geography of the Bible. 18:24 There were brief introductions 18:26 to each biblical book, 18:27 designed to help the reader understand the reason 18:29 the book was written. [uplifting instrumental music] 18:31 This was really one of the first English study Bibles 18:34 specifically designed to help lay people 18:36 navigate what they were reading. 18:39 And now I've got to navigate the clock on the wall, 18:42 which means I'll be right back after this. 18:44 [uplifting instrumental music] 18:47 [intense instrumental music] - Dragons, beasts, 18:50 cryptic statues, Bible prophecy can be 18:54 incredibly vivid and confusing. 18:56 [transition swooshing] 18:57 If you've ever read "Daniel: A Revelation," 18:59 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 19:02 [bright instrumental music] Our free focus 19:03 on "Prophecy Guides" are designed 19:05 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 19:07 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 19:10 for you and our world. 19:11 Study online or request them by mail 19:14 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 19:18 - When the Geneva Bible first hit the English marketplace, 19:20 it was an overnight success, 19:22 but there were some power brokers 19:24 who really didn't like it 19:25 because of the way that some of the marginal notes 19:28 actually condemned the institution of the monarchy. 19:32 For example, in Exodus one, in verse 19, 19:35 where the Hebrew midwives saved the lives of the male babies 19:38 by defying Pharaoh, 19:40 the Geneva Bible had a marginal note saying 19:43 "their disobedience in this was lawful, 19:45 but their deception is evil." 19:47 In other words, they were saying it was more important 19:50 to obey God than a monarch. 19:53 During the 1600s, the idea of a monarchy 19:56 or the divine right of kings 19:57 came under a great deal of scrutiny 19:59 by the English dissenters, 20:01 who'd been reading passages like 1 Samuel Chapter Eight, 20:04 where God expresses his displeasure over Israel's decision 20:08 to ask for a king. 20:10 That became one of the biggest debates of the day 20:12 with luminaries like John Bunyan, Thomas Hobbes, 20:15 and John Milton all jumping into the fray. 20:19 So you can understand in the beginning, 20:21 the Crown was not entirely favorable 20:23 towards the Geneva Bible, 20:25 and a lot of people continued to use the great Bible 20:28 or the Bishop's Bible instead. 20:30 Geneva Bibles were mostly imported from Switzerland, 20:33 which really hampered their circulation. 20:36 But then in 1575, 20:37 after the death of an archbishop 20:39 who favored other translations, 20:41 the Geneva Bible started to come off of English presses. 20:44 Between 1575 and 1618, there was at least one new edition 20:49 of the Geneva Bible every single year. 20:52 In fact, between 1575 and 1611, 20:56 the year King James came out, 20:58 there were more than 120 editions of the Geneva Bible. 21:02 And speaking of the King James Bible, 21:05 the Geneva Bible was one of the key resources used 21:08 to create that. 21:09 In fact, when you read a Geneva Bible and a King James Bible 21:12 side by side, you'll notice an awful lot of similarity. 21:16 The scholar Charles C. Butterworth said this, 21:19 "In the lineage of the King James Bible, 21:22 the Geneva Bible is by all means, 21:24 the most important single volume. 21:26 Only in the New Testament, 21:28 and the Pentateuch is its contribution overshadowed 21:31 by the work of William Tyndale." 21:34 You know, to really appreciate just how much 21:36 the King James is indebted to the work 21:38 of these Genevan scholars, 21:40 let me read you a well-known passage from both translations. 21:44 Now, if you happen to be watching this, 21:46 instead of listening to it on the radio or Spotify, 21:49 you're gonna miss the fact that I've retained 21:51 the original spelling, 21:52 but I'm guessing there aren't a lot of people 21:54 who enjoy waiting their way 21:56 through the rather inconsistent spelling 21:58 of medieval English. 22:00 So here we go, John 3:16 and 17, 22:03 one of our all time favorites, 22:05 this time from the Geneva Bible. 22:07 It says, "For God so loved the world 22:10 that he hathe given his only begotten Son, 22:13 that whoever believeth in him should not perish 22:15 but have everlasting life. 22:17 For God sent not his Son into the world, 22:19 that he should condemn the world, 22:21 but that the world through him might be saved." 22:24 Now, remember, that was 1560. 22:27 51 years later in 1611, we got the King James Bible, 22:31 which is easily the longest lasting 22:33 and most popular English translation in history. 22:37 Here's that same passage now in 1611. 22:40 It says, "For God so loved the world 22:42 that he gave his only begotten Son 22:44 that whoever believeth in him should not perish 22:46 but have everlasting life. 22:48 For God sent not his Son into the world 22:50 to condemn the world, 22:52 but that the world through him might be saved." 22:55 You know, without the Geneva Bible, 22:57 we probably wouldn't have the King James. 22:59 Roughly one out of five passages 23:01 in the King James was pretty much lifted 23:03 out of the Geneva Bible, 23:04 which is slightly more than the number of passages 23:07 that were lifted from Tyndale's work. 23:10 The Geneva Bible was so popular back in the day 23:13 that the King James actually struggled 23:16 to get a foothold in the hearts of the public. 23:18 Initial sales were weak, 23:19 and it didn't actually take off 23:21 until King James himself banned the printing 23:24 of the Geneva Bible. 23:26 Even then, some of the translators 23:28 who worked on the King James continued to preach 23:30 from the Geneva Bible. 23:32 That's how popular it was. 23:34 You know, if it wasn't for the anti-monarchist 23:37 marginal notes of the Geneva, 23:39 we might not have gotten the King James. 23:42 It was at a conference in 1604 23:44 that a Puritan suggested a new English translation, 23:47 and some historians seemed convinced, 23:50 in addition to looking for something to unite 23:52 a very polarized English public, 23:54 it was the marginal notes that convinced James Stewart 23:58 that a new Bible was a good idea. 24:02 And here, in the United States of America, 24:05 well, there's more than a passing chance 24:07 that there was a copy of this Geneva Bible 24:09 in the Ill-fated Jamestown colony in 1607. 24:13 And we know for sure there was a copy on the Mayflower 24:17 when it arrived in Plymouth in 1620. 24:20 The Puritans really liked this translation, 24:23 and it was the favorite Bible of Christians 24:25 living in both the Plymouth and Virginia colonies. 24:29 I'll be right back after this. 24:31 [uplifting instrumental music] 24:34 [dispirited piano music] - Life can throw 24:36 a lot at us. 24:37 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 24:40 but that's where the Bible comes in. 24:42 [bright instrumental music] It's our guide 24:44 to a more fulfilling life. 24:46 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 24:47 we've created the "Discover Bible Guides" 24:50 to be your guide to the Bible. 24:51 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 24:54 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 24:57 and they're absolutely free. 24:59 So jump online now or give us a call 25:01 and start your journey of discovery. 25:04 - Of course, the question is so what? 25:06 Why does it matter that a bunch of exiles 25:08 living in Geneva decided 25:10 to translate the Bible into English? 25:12 It's not like the English people didn't have access 25:14 to other versions because they did, 25:17 ever since Henry VIII. 25:18 And of course, hardly anybody still uses the Geneva Bible 25:22 except for history buffs like me, 25:25 so I spent half an hour talking about this. 25:28 It's because it represents something really important, 25:31 the astonishing preservation of the scriptures. 25:34 Somehow with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire 25:36 and the descent of Europe into the relative darkness 25:39 of the Medieval period, the Church itself lost sight 25:43 of just how important the Bible is. 25:45 Prior to the rise of the Church-State Alliance 25:48 that appeared in the wake of Constantine, 25:50 the Christian scriptures in particular were being copied 25:53 and distributed very freely. 25:55 One of the reasons we have 25:56 so many ancient New Testament manuscripts 25:59 is because the early Church let anybody who wanted to 26:02 make a copy. 26:04 That also meant that there were a lot of copy mistakes 26:07 because many copies were made very quickly, 26:10 as opposed to the work of Hebrew scholars 26:12 who were very, very, very careful to make sure 26:16 that their Old Testament copies were unbelievably accurate. 26:20 Even under those conditions, there were still copy mistakes, 26:23 but with Christianity, that problem kind of blossomed. 26:27 Of course, if you have thousands and thousands of copies, 26:30 it's really not all that hard to figure out 26:32 what the original said 26:33 because the mistakes become obvious. 26:36 But now the real point is this. 26:38 The earliest Church wanted the Word of God 26:40 to be freely and widely distributed. 26:42 They wanted you to have it, 26:44 but then came the marriage of Church and State 26:47 where the issues of power and control 26:48 tragically became more important 26:50 than the spread of the gospel. [intense instrumental music] 26:52 Back in Jerome's day, the Bible was made available in Latin, 26:55 and it made good sense. 26:56 That was the language of Rome. 26:58 It was actually liberated by translating it into Latin. 27:02 But then that very same feature kept my ancestors 27:04 from reading the book, even after they joined the Church, 27:07 because the Church insisted it had to stay in Latin, 27:11 but there was no way it could ever stay that way. 27:13 Here's what it says in Proverbs 4:18, 27:15 and you know I'm gonna use the Geneva, 27:17 "But the way of the righteous shineth as the light 27:20 that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 27:24 In other words, no matter how dark you and I 27:26 try to make things, no matter how big a mess we make 27:29 of this Christian faith, God has promised 27:31 that he will restore the light, 27:33 and that light will continue to spread 27:35 and grow until Jesus returns. 27:37 [intense instrumental music] 27:39 The Bible was restored to God's people against all odds. 27:41 And when I read the stories of these people 27:43 risking everything for it, 27:45 some might call it a coincidence, 27:47 but I see the hand of God pulling us closer and closer 27:50 to the perfect consummation of history. 27:53 Thanks for joining me today. 27:55 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic." 27:59 [uplifting instrumental music] 28:08 [uplifting instrumental music continues] 28:16 [uplifting instrumental music continues] 28:23 [uplifting instrumental music continues] |
Revised 2024-04-10