John Wycliffe:
It’s a fascinating story of how we got the Bible in its present form. It began over a thousand years. The Word of God was trapped in Latin only. Let’s go back to the 14th century when the scriptures were first written in the English language. The man who took center stage, and against all odds was John Wycliffe.
His work was hand written and produced in the 1380’s A.D. Wycliffe was a professor at Oxford, a scholar, and theologian. He was opposition to the teaching of the Latin Church, which he butted heads with concerning the word of God. With the help the Lollards, and others, he produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures. He translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was his only source. Of course, the Pope was infuriated by his translation of the Bible into English. When Wycliffe past away, it was ordered by the Roman Church that his bones be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river. Nice people!
John Wycliffe had some very loyal followers, one being a man called John Hus. Born in 1369, died on the 6th of July 1415. He was a Czech theologian, Catholic priest, philosopher, master, dean, and rector of the Charles University in Prague. He was a creative man, a key predecessor to Protestantism, a reformer and figure in the Bohemian Reformation.
He actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas, they being; the average citizen should be allowed to read the Scriptures for themselves and in their own language. And in the knowledge gained, oppose the tyranny of the Roman Catholic church.
But the church had threatened anyone with execution who possessed a Bible not written in the Latin language. Eventually the church caught up with John Hus and burned him at the stake in the year 1415 A.D., using the manuscripts of Mr. Hus to kindle the fire.
Just a small side note here: There are many out there today who say, “Nobody ever taught anything about the “catching away of the church, or of the Thousand Year reign of Christ until recently, bla, bla. What happened to Hus, Wycliff, Tindal and many others over the centuries that followed by the established church instilled great fear, preventing any personal study of scripture. The reigning church was brutal with anyone or any group of people who defied them. No-one was safe, there words were back by brutality and murder. Free thinking had been bound with chains.
Hus’s last words were; “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Some 100 years later, in the year 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention into the church door at Wittenberg. The list contained some 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church. “Good going Martin Luther, John Hus and John Wycliffe;” three men of great courage and loyalty to the God they worshipped.
Hus’s prophecy had come true! Martin Luther went on to be the first person to translate and publish the Bible in the common dialect of the German people; a translation far more appealing than any previous German Bible translations.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records, in the same year, 1517, seven more witnesses for Jesus Christ were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of teaching their children to say the Lord’s Prayer, in English, rather than the Latin of Rome. “May God have mercy on them!”
Johannes Gutenberg, born in 1398 in Mainz, Germany, died February 3ed 1468. He was a blacksmith, inventor, goldsmith, printer and publisher who introduced the printing press to Europe. It was in the 16th century about 1450 or so when he introduced the mechanical movable type printing, a technique that started the Printing Revolution and was regarded as the milestone of the second millennium. His invention ushered in the modern period of human history. It’s possible that the large Catholicon dictionary, 300 copies of 754 pages, printed in Mainz in 1460, was published in his workshop.
Gutenberg’s printing press played a key role in the development of the Renaissance; the Reformation; the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution. The press became the bedrock for the publication of the Christian Bible, eventually spreading the gospel to the masses.
The first book ever to be printed was a Latin Bible, printed in English by Gutenberg. It was surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated.
Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him poverty stricken. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.
Thomas Linacre:
Linacre was born in Brampton, Derbyshire England in the year 1460, died October 20th 1524. Linacre was an English humanist scholar and physician. He took no part in political or theological questions, but his career as a scholar was characteristic of the critical period in the history of learning through which he lived. In the 1490’s he was the personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th. Linacre decided to learn Greek, and after reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary,
“Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.”
Latin had become so corrupt it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel, yet the Roman Catholic Church threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any other language than Latin, even though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures.
John Colet was an Oxford professor; born January 1467, died September 1519. He was an English churchman and scholar; Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London England, an educational pioneer, Renaissance humanist, theologian, and a friend of Erasmus. Colet wanted people to see the scripture as a guide to life. Furthermore, he desired to restore theology and bring some vigor back into Christian faith. Colet is an important early leader of Christian humanism as he linked humanism and reform.
The people of his day were hungry to hear the Word of God in a language they could understand. And within six months there would be 20,000 people packed in the church and at least that many outside trying to get in. Colet was a powerful and influential man having many friends in high places, so he managed to avoid execution by the butchers of the Church.
Today, Saint Paul’s Cathedral remains the main church in London, but on a typical Sunday morning worship, there may be some 200 or 300 people in attendance, most being tourists.
William Tyndale, born 1494 in the United Kingdom, died October 6th, 1536. He was the Captain of the Army of Reformers, and was their spiritual leader. Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. He was a true scholar and genius, fluent in eight languages, and spoke each as if they were his own native tongue. He is called, “Architect of the English Language,” even more so than Shakespeare. Many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in use today.
Tyndale used the 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print for the first time in the history of the New Testament. One day in 1525 he showed up on Martin Luther’s doorstep in Germany, and by the end of the year had translated the New Testament into English.
He fled England because of the wide-spread rumor that his English New Testament project was underway, causing Catholic inquisitors and bounty hunters to be constantly on Tyndale’s trail to arrest him and prevent his project.
But the Lord foiled their plans, and in 1525-1526 the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in English.
Many of his works were burned as soon as the Catholic Bishops inquisitors could confiscate them, but one even ended up in the hands of King Henry VIII. The more the King and Bishop’s men resisted its distribution, the more fascinated the public became.
The Roman Catholic church declared his work contained thousands of errors, therefore burning hundreds of confiscated New Testaments. But the truth of the matter was, they could find no errors. Anyone caught with his translation of the N.T., risked being burned at the stake if caught in possession of these forbidden books.
Having the Word of God available to the public in the language of the common man would have meant disaster to the Catholic church. They would no longer control access to the scriptures if the common people were able to read the Bible in their own language. Their income would dry up, and their power would crumble. They could not possibly continue to get away with selling indulgences, meaning, the forgiveness of sins, or selling for money the release of loved ones from a church-manufactured doctrine of “Purgatory.”
Also, their authority would be challenged if the church were exposed as frauds and thieves they were. The contradictions between what God’s Word taught and the teaching of the priests would open up the public’s eye and expose their lies. The truth would have set the people free from the grip of fear that the institutional church held over them.
The Lord had declared that salvation through faith, not works, donations or bribes would be better understood if the people could read the scriptures for themselves. The need for priests would vanish, the veneration of church-canonized Saints, Peter, Joseph, Mary etc., would be called into question. The availability of the Holy Bible in English was the biggest threat imaginable to the Latin church, but neither side would give up without a fight.
Today, there are only two known copies left of Tyndale’s 1525-26 First Edition. Any copies printed prior to 1570 are extremely valuable. Tyndale’s flight was an inspiration to freedom-loving Englishmen who drew courage from the 11 years that he was hunted. Books and Bibles flowed into England in bales of cotton and sacks of flour. But ironically, Tyndale’s biggest and best customer were the King’s men. They would purchase every copy they could find, then burn them. But the money they received from the Bishop’s men, was then used to print even more New Testaments.
But in the end, he was caught: betrayed by a fellow Englishman he had befriended. Tyndale was incarcerated for some 16 months before he was strangled and then his body burned in 1536.
Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” This prayer would be answered just three years later in 1539, when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible known as the “Great Bible.”
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com