I love the Bible! Without it, the world would have been in complete disarray and in a decomposed state.I concur with Abraham Lincoln when he said, “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this book.” The Bible has survived through severe testing and challenges yet has stood the fiery trial of times. French philosopher and acclaimed atheist, Voltaire called for its extinction yet he himself was eaten by worms. The Bible rose to prominence yet again. Indeed, the truth cannot be buried; it always endures from its scaffold. The history of English Bible is one that is so rich and a slight glimpse into the making of the Bible will wake and stir our lazy minds to treasure it more affectionately.
Little is known about the two Bible translators who traded their lives for one single task: to translate the Bible into English language. I’m talking about John Wycliffe and William Tyndale. Wycliffe translated the Latin Bible into English in the year 1382. He died of paralysis stroke two years after completion of his translation project. The Wycliffe Bible opened the eyes of ignorant and simple minds. The common people were being swayed by the traditions, superstitions and corruptions of the Church in this period of Church history (Late Middle Ages). Bible illiteracy was one sole reason behind this malaise. The practice of selling of indulgences (purchasing of ticket to heaven), idolatrous worship of saints, praying for the dead, petitioning in heaven and so on were the outcome of ignoring the Biblical truth of God’s book. Thanks to Jerome who translated the Hebrew and Greek Bible into Latin in 405 AD but following the succeeding centuries, the Latin language became out-dated. Only the higher authorities in the clergy ranks could understand the archaic language. The people attended the Church meetings but were foreign to what was happening in the service. In such a milieu, God raised this one man, Wycliffe, who studied meticulously and translated the Latin Bible into English. The Church was not supportive of this translation work as they thought it is tampering and corrupting the Holy Scriptures. Nonetheless, the translation works was finished. It was through this English Bible that propelled a wave of reawakening in the lives of many people to understand and realize the ignorance of their blind beliefs and practices. It gave a huge setback to the Church authorities from making money and brought misunderstanding and confusion among the people. This was just the beginning of a huge reformation movement that was about to climaxed in the 16th century. But for now, the Churches tried to quench the movement by calling forth the Council of Constance in 1415 and pronounced John Wycliffe as heretic and a forerunner of anti-Christ. His works were burned. They even went to the extent of digging out the grave of Wycliffe and exhumed his corpse and burned into ashes casting that into the river Swift. The motivation behind all these cold-hearted drudgery was unmistakably the enemies’ work. The truth now has triumphed once again after being suppressed for some time.
Although the work was commendable; since the translation work of Wycliffe had some minor discrepancies and inconsistencies. Adding to that, it was translated from Latin language. Therefore, in the 15th century, God raised a man named William Tyndale. From his early age, he was addicted to the reading of Scriptures. He translated the Bible from the original Bible languages, Hebrew and Greek into English. He was a genius as he mastered seven languages distinctively. He started the translation process in England but due to threats from the royal indictment, he had to flee from his own home to Germany. Tyndale came into contact with Martin Luther and he completed the translation work in the year 1525. The prints of these copies were shipped into London and it spread like wild fire.
People bought it and spend the whole night listening and reading it. They even paid to hear portions of the letters of James and Paul being read in English. Nevertheless, as the news reached the higher authorities, the copies were all seized from every house and localities. They burned it publicly. Only two copies survived out of all the thousand copies printed.
It was such distressing news for Tyndale but he persevered even to this end. When his work was burnt in London, Tyndale wrote: “In burning the New Testament they did no other thing than I looked for; no more shall they do if they burn me also, if it be God’s will it shall be so. Nevertheless, in translating the New Testament I did my duty.” He did not stop the work. An Englishman, Henry Phillip befriended him but in reality was a disguised spy. Tyndale was finally arrested and thrown in a dungeon. The officials ordered him to recant but he refused. Ultimately, Tyndale was strangled and burned at stake. His last words rang, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Two years after his death, the prophetic prayer of Tyndale was fulfilled. King Henry VIII ordered that the Great Bible of Tyndale’s work be disseminated to all the Churches in England for the purpose of preaching, teaching and reading. He set the stage for the reformation in the persons of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli and others. Praise God! The 1611 King James Version which was a work of 54 scholars (some say 47 scholars) was a complete dependence on the translation work of William Tyndale. It was through these two towering personalities that the English Bible was completed. Today, we are enjoying the fruit of their labours. May their souls be remembered and praise given to God for his unchanging, flawless, infallible and inspired book transmitted to the present generation intact and unbroken.
In the bygone days, scores of precious souls have been burnt at stake and martyred for teaching and preaching the Bible. Even today, there are places in the world where Bibles are restricted and Christian missionaries are smuggling the Bible into these countries and regions. Conversely, God has been so good to us! We have dozens of Bibles in our possessions and our book shelves are flooded with it. But that don’t mean a thing if we don’t care enough to open the pages of the inspired text. We take pride in that the Bible is the best-selling book in the world but the recent survey shows that the Bible is the least read book even among the Christian communities. Not surprised at all!! The weak state of our Churches is apparent as God’s book is less underscored by many Christians. May I then propose that if Christians in our land are saturated andsteeped in the Bible, it will certainly give birth to reformation! Therefore, the sound of reviving the Scriptures in our Churches should be the cry of every awakened soul. One key to overcome materialism over spiritual values will be through the recovery of God’s word in our Churches. Jesus said in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away.”
Vebu Khamo, Bible student
