First, we need to realize that the King James Version of the
Bible is also a translation. I once had a woman say to me when I was talking
about versions of the Bible that “All I need is the King James version. If it
was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me.” I had to inform her that
the Bible Jesus used was written in Hebrew, it was many scrolls, and the New
Testament was not even written while Jesus was alive and it was written in
Greek. Well, she thought I was a communist or a space alien.
I would like to explore some of the things I would have
liked to teach this woman if she would have stayed and listened. The King James
Version was published in 1611 because King James wanted an English translation
of the Bible. Before that, the only other translation was the Vulgate, which
was used by the Catholic Church. King James wanted people to convert and stay
Protestant and he hoped that by having a Bible that the common people could
understand he could accomplish this.
I am not doing this justice, I am trying to cram into a few
sentences a very big controversy, and the start of what is called Protestism. I
love the way my seminary church history professor put it: in those times,
Theology was the blood sport of the times. Let me try to explain all this. Up
until 1517, there was only one church and it was the Catholic Church. On Oct
31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses asking the church to debate him on
what he saw as problems in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church would not
debate him and through a long series of events, the Catholic Church with a
price made him an outlaw on his head. This is why non Catholic Churches are
called Protestant churches, because they were in protest against the Catholic
Church. The Prince of Germany of the time liked Martin Luther and arranged for
Luther to be kidnapped and hid in a tower to protect him. While Martin Luther
was in that tower, he took copies of the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Old
Testament and translated it into the German Language. Martin Luther believed
the people should be able to read the Bible for themselves. This is the first
widely distributed non-Vulgate Bible.
While this was going on in Germany Henry VIII was in
England. At first, he was against what all was going on in Germany, but later
on Henry wanted to divorce Ann Bolin. The Catholic Church would not give him
the divorce so he decided that England would separate from the Catholic Church.
Henry set up the Anglican Church, which is sometimes called the Church of
England, with himself as the head of the church. Then he let himself have his
divorce. When Henry died, he had no male heir so Mary, the daughter of Ann
Bolin was the oldest and made queen. Mary was Catholic so she wanted everyone
to turn back to the Catholic Church, the common people did not want to do this
so there were many uprisings and Mary put them down very violently and that is
how she got the name as Bloody Mary. This goes back to what my church history
teacher said. When Mary died young, she left the country to Queen Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth wanted to have a peaceful Kingdom, so did not take sides in the two
church debate and allowed them both to be in the country. When she passed, it
was left to King James. Protestantism had greatly grown in England, especially
Scotland, with the influence of a man called John Knox. King James was greatly
influenced by him and others and wanted to pull more people into Protestantism.
That is why he authorized the writing of the English version. I hate to inform
some of you when it says in the King James Bible that it is the Authorized Version;
it is not authorized by God as many say, but authorized by King James. This is
how we got the King James Version of the Bible.
Bible was not written in English but the languages of the
time. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and some Aramaic. The biggest
portion of Aramaic is the last few chapters of Daniel where the end time
prophecies can be found. Hebrew was the language of the Jews of Old Testament
time and English was not around. It just makes sense that it was written in the
language of the times. Aramaic is a language that came along later that is a
mixture of several languages, one of which was Hebrew. Aramaic is very similar
to Hebrew and became the common language of the Jews in Jesus’ time. In fact,
we have Jesus using it on the cross Mark 15:33-34 “33 at the sixth hour
darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour,
Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” —which
means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” “Eloi, Eloi lama
Sabachthani” is Aramaic.
The New Testament was written in what is called Coina Greek,
which is a very common or simple Greek. It was the language of the Greek
soldiers started by Alexander the Great so all the Greek soldiers could talk to
one another. Therefore, in all the lands that they conquered, this from of
Greek was the language of business, as English is today. Therefore, it makes
sense that if you wanted to tell everybody about Jesus in that day you would
put it in the Greek language.
Jerome made the first translation of the Bible and he
translated it into Latin, which has been the business language until the last
few centuries. One very funny thing about this translation is when Moses came
down the mountain from talking with God it says that his face glowed, and he
put a veil over his face to keep from frightening the people, but Jerome
translated this as horns. Therefore, when Michelangelo made a statue of Moses
he included horns.
The Bible was written over a two thousand year period with
many different men writing it, but only one author, which is God. 2 Timothy
3:16 says:
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness.
What this scripture is saying is that God inspired all
Scripture. I love the word Inspiration, it means to breathe in. I like to think
of a picture of God giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the writers of the
Bible. That is what I think of when I think of God giving us the Bible. Because
God gave it to us, it is good for doctrine for reproof and correction and for
instruction.
Most Scholars believe the first book of the Bible written is
the book of Job. The last book written is believed by most scholars to be
Revelation. Job is believed to be written before Abraham and Abraham live
roughly around 2000 B. C. Revelation was written in the 90’s A. D. The Old
Testament was finished being written in 400 B. C. The New Testament was not
started until around the 40’s A.D. Therefore, the whole New Testament was not
written until after Christ’s death and took 40 to 50 years to write.
What some other people do not know is that the books we have
in our Bible are the result of what is called the canonization process. Back in
the 300’s A. D. The Christians were having many problems with a group that was
called the Gnostics. They were making books that supported their beliefs and
then attributing them to apostles, confusing the people. Therefore, the church
fathers of the time got together and decided what should be in the Bible. The
Old Testament was easy for them; they accepted the same 39 book that the Jews
had decided on a couple of centuries earlier. For the New Testament they went
with the books that had been widely accepted in the early church and had good
evidence that they were authentic. That is why every few years you see an ad
for the lost books of the Bible. It is these books that 1700 years ago the
church fathers could not put their faith in to be Holy.
I hope I have not bored you with all of this history, but
most people do not know this very important information about the Bible.
