YOU TH WAN T S TO KNOW
H O W W E GO T OUR BIBLE
By Rev. F. John Carter
young people’s meeting was about over. They were singing the closing hymn. Patricia Garland scribbled a A- note on the back of a church calendar and passed it over to Archie Green, the president. He read it, smiled, and nodded to her. “ Before we have the closing prayer,” he announced, “ let me remind you again that next Sunday our pastor, Mr. Wal ler, will lead us in a discussion on ‘How We Got Our Bible.’ That’s something you won’t want to miss.” After the meeting, Archie took -a second look at the note and immediately sought out Patricia, Fred Wilkins and Mary Peters. The four comprised the cabinet. He motioned them to follow him, and led the way to a corner of the church parlor. “ What’s on your mind, prexy?” inquired Fred. “We’ve got only five minutes before church service, so you better unload in a hurry.” “ I think I can make it,” Archie laughed. “ Believe it or not, Patricia has an idea!” “Hooray for Patricia!” teased Fred. “ Then there’s hope for our young people’s society. But what’s her idea? Tell us.” “ She thinks that if Mr. Waller could somehow work us into his plans for next Sunday, it would provide variety and put some life into the meeting. I think so, too, but we’d have to talk things over with him first. What do you say?” “ Let’s speak to him after church, and find out how he feels about it.” Patricia suggested. “After all, we don’t want to interfere with what he has in mind.” Mr. Waller was most hearty in his approval, and it was arranged to have the group meet in the parsonage early in the week to discuss matters. Eight o’clock Tuesday evening found the four young folks in a huddle with the pastor. It wasn’t long before they de cided that he should present the topic as he had planned, but that he should call on them to supplement his statements at appropriate times. The job now was to make the necessary assignments. Archie scratched his head reflectively. “ Pastor, don’t you think we ought to have a general idea of the entire subject before Sunday? It would help us to carry out our parts more intelligently.” Mr. Waller nodded his assent. “ I think you’re right,” he said positively, “ and you should get that general idea to night.” “Well, where do we begin?” asked Fred. “ I’m all set to go.” “ Suppose you just start asking questions,” the pastor sug gested. “ Okay,” said Fred, “here’s number one. Did King James write the Bible?” “ By no means,” the pastor replied. “ The Bible was written centuries before he was born. But in his time there was grow ing dissatisfaction with the existing translations of the Bible, and as a result, he gave the order for a new translation, and thus the King James Version was bom in 1611.” “ You said the Bible was written centuries before King James. When was it completed?” asked Archie. “All the writings which comprise our Bible were in exist ence by the end of the first century after Christ. But all hadn’t been gathered together as one collection, or, as we would say, under one cover. The entire Old Testament, how ever, had reached that stage, for that was the Bible used in our Lord’s day. But the writings which were to constitute the New Testament were not definitely decided upon until many years later, although all were being used by different groups of Christians—some in one place, and some in another.” “Mr. Waller,” put in Patricia, “ you mentioned the Bible that was in use when our Lord was on earth. In what lan guage was it written? Was it Hebrew?” “ The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew,” replied the pastor, “with a very small portion of it appear ing in Aramaic. Bqt as a result of the conquests of Alexan der the Great in the fourth century B.C., Greek became the S E P T E M B E R , 1 9 4 8
spoken language of most of the Jews, and they eventually forgot Hebrew. Therefore the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek for their benefit. That happened about 285 B.C. The translation is known as the Septuagint because tradition says that seventy men did the work. That was the Bible of the Jews when our Saviour lived on earth, and as I have just pointed out, it was written in Greek, as were also the original manuscripts of the New Testament.” “ I don’t suppose they had any pocket Testaments in those days,” smiled Mary. “ I should say not,” exclaimed the pastor. “ The New Testa ment hadn’t been formed, and of course, the Old Testament was far too large for any convenient pocket size. Moreover, writings were not bound in the form of books, but existed as scrolls, and each was written by hand.” “ Can you tell us how the Bible came to get translated into English?” Archie asked. “ Let’s take it step by step,” the pastor suggested. “ First, the Greek Bible, both Old and New Testaments, was trans lated into Latin by Jerome. There had been many other trans lations into Latin, but his was considered best. That was in the fourth century. His came to be known as the Latin Vul gate, and became the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. In factf it was about the only translation that the countries of Europe had, and only those persons who had a knowledge of Latin could read it. But very few individuals had copies of it for they were still written by hand.” “ But when was it translated into English?” “ I’m coming to that,” said Mr. Waller. “ In 1382 the entire Bible appeared in English for the first time, having been translated from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe. It, too, was written by hand, for printing by movable type was not known until 1454.” Page Nine
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