Reply to Luigi

Submitted by jennifer solis (United States), May 15, 2008 at 03:39

And Mussolini got the trains to run on time.

So - I gather you would prefer the Latin Vulgate to the Greek and Hebrew?

Look, I'm not out to "bash" the Catholic Church. In no way do I hold the modern Catholic Church responsible for what happened in the Dark ages.

Yes, before, during, and after the "Reformation" their was civil unrest, riots, revolution. But I argue at the center of this was the "hold" (to put it mildly) the Catholic Church had over everyone because the Church alone claimed knowledge of God. This was possible because ONLY THE LATIN VULGATE was permitted - and only the priests could read it. The masses could not. Those of the populace in possession of translations OTHER than the Latin Vulgate were EXECUTED.

The "Reformation", in my opinion, started with Thomas Lincacre, in the 1490's. He was an Oxford professor and personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th. He decided to learn Greek. 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." The Latin had become so corrupt that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel - yet the Church still threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin... though Latin was not an original language of the scripture.

Then there was John Colet, another Oxford professor, who started reading the New Testament in Greek and translated it into English for his students at Oxford, and later for the public at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The people were so hungry to hear the Word of God in a language they could understand, that within six months 20,000 packed in (and around) the church. Colet was the son of the Mayor of London and a powerful man; he knew people in high places, so he amazingly managed to avoid execution.

The great scholar Erasmus, in 1516, with the help of printer John Froben, published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but a literal translation to Latin from the accurate Greek.

This was a milestone.

It was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millenium... and the first to ever come off a printing press. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus furthur focused attention on just how corrupt and inaccurate the Latin Vulgate had become, and how important it was to go back and use the original Greek (New Testament) and Hebrew (Old Testament) languages to maintain accuracy; and to translate them faithfully into the languages of the common people, whether they be English, German, whatever.

No sympathy for this "illegal activity" was to be found in Rome.

William Tyndale (1494-1536), with the help of Martin Luther, was the first to print the New Testament in the English language.

Martin Luther, in 1517, declared his intolerance for the Roman Catholic Church by courageously nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenburg Church door. Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him, would translate the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus. In the 1530's he would go on to publish the entire Bible in German.

The Tyndale - Luther connection is interesting; Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale had been forced to flee England, because of the wide-spread rumor that his English New Testament project was under way, which put a price on his head; bounty hunters were constantly on Tydale's trail. Despite this threat, in 1525-1526 the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in the English language.

The Tyndale New Testament books were burned as soon as the Bishop could confiscate them.

However, copies trickled through.

One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale's forbidden books.

Having God's Word available to the public at large, in the language of the common man, English, would have meant disaster to the church. No longer would they control access to the scriptures. If people were able to read the Bible in their own tongue, the church's income and power would crumble. They could not possibly get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sin) or selling the release of loved ones from a church-manufactured "Purgatory". People would begin to challenge the church's authority if the church were exposed as frauds and thieves.

Salvation through faith, not works or donations, would be understood.

Myles Coverdale, John "Thomas Matthew" Rodgers (first to print the complete Bible translated from Greek and Hebrew), Thomas Cranmer (1539, Archbishop of Canterbury), King Henry VIII and his mistress, the end of the "Marian Exile", the Angelican Church, all in their own way chipped at the power of the Roman Catholic Church.

By the 1580's, the Roman Catholic Church saw that it had lost the battle to suppress the will of God; that His Holy Word be available in the English language. They surrendered their fight for "Latin only" and decided that if the Bible was to be available in English, they would at least have an official Roman Catholic English translation.

However, all they did was translate the corrupt Latin Vulgate into English.

Now they use the King James version.

My point of all this is to illustrate the value of the Word of God; it cannot be suppressed and be expected the "suppression" will be rewarded with happiness and prosperity.

Sure, Luigi, after the Bible was no longer captive of the Roman Catholic Church, anyone and everyone could lay claim to, and capitalize on, whatever crazy interpretation they wish.

But this freedom also, with vast, unfathomable value, gave the chance of "rightly dividing the Word of Truth". -2 Tim. 2:15

Which is exactly what has occured.

Sure, different denominations; different interpretations; some real wackos lay claim to the Bible. But, as God designed, if your volition is positive and you desire the true Word, He will make it available to you.

The original languages, Greek and Hebrew, which became availiable after the Reformation, are "sharper than any two-edged sword." - Heb. 4:12

I am a Christian, and have never belonged to any "religion" (def. of religion - man by man's attempt to gain the approbation of God). I have, for quite a number of years, studied the Bible in it's original languages, Greek and Hebrew, under a pastor-teacher who is a scholar of these ancient languages.

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; and not of works, lest any man should boast." - Eph. 2:8-9

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved." - Acts 16:31

I KNOW WHY THEY FOUGHT TO MAKE AVAILIABLE THESE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES.

It is TRUTH.

.

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