- You know,
somebody once asked me
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how many Bibles I actually own,
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and the truth is I lost
track after about the first 75,
00:00:03.57\00:00:08.30
and chances are, you
might also have multiple copies
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of the Bible at your house,
00:00:11.37\00:00:12.61
even if you're not
all that religious.
00:00:12.61\00:00:15.61
Yet, sometimes easy
access can make us forget
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just how difficult it was
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to get an English Bible
produced in the first place.
00:00:20.48\00:00:23.79
That's on today's
episode of "Authentic."
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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[uplifting
instrumental music continues]
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[uplifting
instrumental music continues]
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My Barbarian ancestors started
to adopt the Christian faith
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right around the
time of Charlemagne,
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which makes good sense
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because, well,
Charlemagne and the Franks
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kind of thought of themselves
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as the military force
of the Bishop of Rome.
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They kept themselves busy
pushing their way northward
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in order to
annex new territories,
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but at the same time,
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they wanted to bring
those hopeless Germanic heathens
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into the fold of the Church.
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It's a deeply fascinating
story, and wouldn't you know it?
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My own tribe was one of
the more stubborn holdouts.
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In time we did become Christian,
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and when we did, we
came into a situation
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where the
scriptures were not available
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in the common
tongue of the people.
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The official organized
church was deathly afraid
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that if
uneducated people like us
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read the Bible for themselves,
00:01:32.19\00:01:34.09
they might, through
their ignorance become heretics
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and break away
from the establishment.
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So they figured that
translating the Bible
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into a vulgar
language was frankly dangerous.
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Now, when you see the
word vulgar used in an academic
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sense, it's not
talking about rude behavior,
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or dirty jokes, the
word simply means common.
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You and I use vulgar
to describe crass behavior
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because once upon a time,
the upper crust of society
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thought that rude behavior
was something you could expect
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from the
commoners, the lower classes.
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Unrefined language was
thought of as common or vulgar,
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and over time we
started using the word vulgar
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to describe naughty words,
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but originally it
just meant common,
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which is why Jerome's
fourth century Latin translation
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of the Bible is
called the Latin Vulgate.
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It was a Bible translated
into the common language
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of the Roman Empire,
which of course was Latin.
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[suspenseful instrumental music]
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Naturally, Jerome
has been rightly praised
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for his achievement,
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but as the Church moved forward
into the medieval period,
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it developed a fear
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of letting everybody just read
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the scriptures for themselves.
00:02:37.92\00:02:39.69
It was far better they thought,
for church appointed experts
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to handle the matter of
biblical interpretation.
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That way you could control
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the religious
impulses of fanatics.
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[suspenseful instrumental music]
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The problem with that approach,
of course, was the fact
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that the Magisterium, the
teaching authority of the Church
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became incredibly insular,
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without external
checks and balances
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to keep it honest
about what the Bible said.
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By the time you
get to Wycliffe's Day,
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the Church was already notorious
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for its noticeable
theological problems,
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and unfortunately, the atrocious
behavior of the clergy.
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When Martin Luther made
his famous pilgrimage to Rome,
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he expected to find a
very high level of piety,
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but what he found was a lot
of drunkenness and debauchery.
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When the earliest
reformers like Wycliffe
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and Tyndale began to push back
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and started translating
the Bible into English,
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the Church blew a gasket.
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Wycliffe died before they could
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actually get their hands on him,
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but they declared him
to be a heretic anyway.
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They dug up his
body in 1428, burned it,
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and threw the ashes
into the Thames River.
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After all, a man who
made the Bible available
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to everybody must not be allowed
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to rest in the hallowed
ground of a church cemetery.
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To the amusement
of some historians,
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there's actually a chance
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they dug up the person
next to Wycliffe by mistake,
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which immediately highlights
the absurdity of thinking
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that the Church had the ability
to compromise your salvation
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by removing you from your grave.
00:04:06.94\00:04:09.51
I mean, what if the
guy they actually dug up
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was a good and
faithful church member?
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Would he be lost now?
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in the famous words
of Sebastian Castellio,
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an early reformer who preached
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about the importance
of religious liberty,
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"Yo kill a man is
not to defend a doctrine.
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It is to kill a man."
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Of course, they didn't
actually kill Wycliffe,
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but the principle still applies.
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Desecrating his
body doesn't do a thing
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to change his status with God.
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[somber music]
Tyndale, of course,
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was less fortunate.
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They really did kill
him by strangling him
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and then burning
his body at the stake.
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It was a really high price
to pay for personal convictions.
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Those who were there tell us
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that when Tyndale was a student,
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he one day told his teacher,
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"If God spare my
life, ere many years,
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I will cause a boy
that driveth the plow
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should know more of the
scripture than thou dost."
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As he breathed his last
Tyndale uttered a prayer
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that many people
consider to be prophetic.
00:05:03.80\00:05:05.57
He said, "Lord opened
the king of England's eyes,"
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and within three years,
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his prayer appears
to have been answered.
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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At the end of 1534,
the Senate of Canterbury
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led by Thomas
Cranmer petitioned Henry VIII
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"to decree that
the holy scripture
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shall be translated into
the vulgar English tongue
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by certain
upright and learned men
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to be named by the
said most illustrious king."
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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Henry VIII who had broken
away from the Bishop of Rome
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and established
his own English church
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really liked this idea.
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So he commissioned a guy
by the name of Miles Coverdale
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to produce a Bible.
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Coverdale, took Tyndale's
unfinished work, revised it,
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and finished it using Jerome's
Latin Vulgate as a reference
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for the parts that Tyndale
had not been able to complete.
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Now, that was a little ironic
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because one of William
Tyndale's greatest achievements
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was to abandon the Vulgate
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and translate the scriptures
from the original Hebrew,
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Aramaic and Greek.
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But of course, Coverdale
wasn't really the scholar
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that Tyndale was, and
he had to do what he could
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to get the job done.
00:06:11.30\00:06:12.87
He also used Luther's Bible
and a few other manuscripts.
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The first edition
of the Coverdale Bible
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was released in 1535.
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Now, some people started
calling that the "chained Bible"
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because it was
usually chained to the wall.
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Today you'll hear
some people saying
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that the Bibles
were chained to the wall
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to keep common
folk from reading them,
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but that's not really
the reason they did it.
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I mean, yes, the
Bible was being kept away
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from regular
folks, but that was done
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by keeping it locked
up in a foreign language.
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The real reason
they chain Bibles
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to the wall was the same
reason the bank used to chain
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a ball point pen to the counter,
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to keep you from stealing 'em.
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Bibles, and
pretty much all books
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were really, really expensive,
00:06:54.94\00:06:57.51
even after the
inventing of the printing press.
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A couple of years later in 1537,
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there was another English Bible,
00:07:03.25\00:07:05.19
the work of a man who went
by the pseudonym Thomas Matthew.
00:07:05.19\00:07:08.99
Historically, we think
he was actually John Rogers,
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one of Tyndale's
friends who was later executed
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by the infamous Bloody Mary.
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So now we had two officially
sanctioned English translations
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of the scriptures, but
neither of these Bibles
00:07:21.00\00:07:23.94
proved to be satisfactory
00:07:23.94\00:07:25.41
because one,
Coverdale's Bible had not been
00:07:25.41\00:07:28.24
entirely translated
from the original languages.
00:07:28.24\00:07:30.98
And two, the Matthew
Bible had marginal notes,
00:07:30.98\00:07:34.48
and an introduction that said
00:07:34.48\00:07:35.92
some rather unflattering
things about the authorities.
00:07:35.92\00:07:39.55
But all that aside, it
was a triumph for the world
00:07:39.55\00:07:41.82
of
English-speaking Christianity.
00:07:41.82\00:07:44.49
But then Queen Mary,
affectionately known as Bloody
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Mary, came to
the throne in 1553.
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And English Protestant
suddenly found themselves
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in a really perilous place.
00:07:53.60\00:07:56.04
Up to 1000 leading
Protestant thinkers packed up
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and left the British
Isles for the European mainland,
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with most of them going to
either Germany or Switzerland.
00:08:02.64\00:08:06.68
It was during that
time that John Foxe wrote
00:08:06.68\00:08:09.35
"Foxe's Book of Martyrs,"
00:08:09.35\00:08:11.35
while living in
exile in the city of Basel.
00:08:11.35\00:08:14.32
[suspenseful instrumental music]
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In October 1554, a
group of these exiles
00:08:15.59\00:08:18.73
organized an English
speaking church in Geneva
00:08:18.73\00:08:21.80
with the illustrious
John Knox as their pastor.
00:08:21.80\00:08:25.40
Of course, Geneva
was home to John Calvin
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in the center of
his Protestant movement,
00:08:27.80\00:08:30.11
so it was a really comfortable
place for English Christians
00:08:30.11\00:08:33.78
who had a Calvinist bent.
00:08:33.78\00:08:36.11
But I'll tell you
what isn't comfortable,
00:08:36.11\00:08:38.31
the fact that the clock says
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it's time for
me to take a break,
00:08:39.68\00:08:41.18
so I'm gonna have to do that,
00:08:41.18\00:08:43.02
and I'll be
right back after this.
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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[bright instrumental music]
00:08:48.69\00:08:49.99
- [Narrator] Here at
The Voice of Prophecy,
00:08:49.99\00:08:51.39
we're committed to
creating top quality programming
00:08:51.39\00:08:53.46
for the whole family.
00:08:53.46\00:08:54.86
Like our audio adventure
series, "Discovery Mountain."
00:08:54.86\00:08:57.97
"Discovery Mountain" is a
Bible-based program for kids
00:08:57.97\00:09:00.94
of all ages and backgrounds.
00:09:00.94\00:09:02.87
Your family will enjoy
the faith-building stories
00:09:02.87\00:09:05.64
from this small
mountain summer camp Pen Town.
00:09:05.64\00:09:08.51
With 24 seasonal
episodes every year,
00:09:08.51\00:09:11.01
and fresh content every week
00:09:11.01\00:09:13.11
there's always a new
adventure just on the horizon.
00:09:13.11\00:09:16.35
[bright instrumental music]
00:09:16.35\00:09:19.19
- Geneva was a key center
for the Protestant movement
00:09:19.19\00:09:21.92
in the middle of
the 16th century.
00:09:21.92\00:09:24.13
It was also a center
for textual scholarship,
00:09:24.13\00:09:26.86
producing a number of
new Bible translations
00:09:26.86\00:09:29.06
in everyday languages.
00:09:29.06\00:09:31.10
Geneva produced bibles in
Italian, Spanish and French,
00:09:31.10\00:09:34.57
and as you might expect
from a group of English exiles,
00:09:34.57\00:09:37.74
it also gave us a brand
new English translation,
00:09:37.74\00:09:41.91
the Geneva Bible,
which came out in 1560.
00:09:41.91\00:09:45.85
There's a deeply moving
preface in this translation
00:09:45.85\00:09:48.35
that spells out the motivation
for creating this book.
00:09:48.35\00:09:51.79
It is addressed to
quote, "Our beloved in the Lord,
00:09:51.79\00:09:54.89
the brethren of England,
Scotland, Ireland, et cetera."
00:09:54.89\00:09:58.59
And after it explains
00:09:58.59\00:10:00.33
that Christians should
be living in both the fear
00:10:00.33\00:10:02.90
and the love of God.
00:10:02.90\00:10:04.50
It says this, "for as much as
this thing chiefly is attained
00:10:04.50\00:10:09.17
by the knowledge and
practicing of the word of God,
00:10:09.17\00:10:11.94
which is the light to our paths,
00:10:11.94\00:10:13.58
the key of the
kingdom of heaven,
00:10:13.58\00:10:15.61
our comfort and affliction,
00:10:15.61\00:10:17.25
our shield and
sword against Satan,
00:10:17.25\00:10:19.58
the school of all wisdom,
00:10:19.58\00:10:21.32
the glass wherein
we behold God's face,
00:10:21.32\00:10:24.22
the testimony of his favor and
the only food and nourishment
00:10:24.22\00:10:28.12
of our souls,
00:10:28.12\00:10:29.62
we thought that we
could bestow our labors
00:10:29.62\00:10:31.79
and study in nothing which
could be more acceptable to God
00:10:31.79\00:10:35.40
and comfortable Church
than in the translation
00:10:35.40\00:10:38.67
of the holy Scriptures
into our native tongue."
00:10:38.67\00:10:42.44
Today, Christians
might read that and say,
00:10:43.64\00:10:46.11
"Well, of course,"
00:10:46.11\00:10:47.31
because we've become so used
00:10:47.31\00:10:49.44
to reading the
Bible for ourselves.
00:10:49.44\00:10:52.15
If you don't understand
the historical context,
00:10:52.15\00:10:55.08
that could be the introduction
00:10:55.08\00:10:56.95
to any number of
modern Bible translations.
00:10:56.95\00:11:00.49
But again, you've got
to remember that the people
00:11:00.49\00:11:02.89
who wrote this we're
starting a revolution.
00:11:02.89\00:11:06.63
They were willing to
risk their lives to be sure
00:11:06.63\00:11:08.73
that you and I have access
to the Bible in a language
00:11:08.73\00:11:12.87
that we actually understand.
00:11:12.87\00:11:14.97
Prior to the 16th century,
00:11:15.90\00:11:17.81
only the highly educated could
actually read the scriptures,
00:11:17.81\00:11:21.08
because if you didn't know
Latin, or Hebrew, or Greek,
00:11:21.08\00:11:25.48
you were just out of luck.
00:11:25.48\00:11:27.48
I guess it's like a
lot of other things today,
00:11:27.48\00:11:29.92
you and I take for
granted that regular people
00:11:29.92\00:11:32.15
should have a say when
it comes to government,
00:11:32.15\00:11:34.12
but in medieval
Europe, that was hardly true.
00:11:34.12\00:11:38.03
We easily forget
that our God-given rights
00:11:38.03\00:11:40.63
were not always available to us.
00:11:40.63\00:11:42.70
And it's easy from the
distance of nearly 500 years
00:11:42.70\00:11:45.67
to lose sight of
just how monumental
00:11:45.67\00:11:48.40
an English translation
of the Bible really was.
00:11:48.40\00:11:51.71
[uplifting instrumental music]
00:11:51.71\00:11:53.04
The fact that it had
to be published in exile
00:11:53.04\00:11:55.71
is an important reminder
that historically speaking,
00:11:55.71\00:11:58.51
our present
liberties are an anomaly.
00:11:58.51\00:12:01.75
And no matter how
secure our freedom seem to be
00:12:01.75\00:12:04.69
right now at this moment,
00:12:04.69\00:12:06.35
no matter how
comfortable we've become,
00:12:06.35\00:12:09.22
we are never more than one bad
idea away from losing it all.
00:12:09.22\00:12:13.23
In fact, one of the key
themes you'll find in the pages
00:12:13.23\00:12:16.10
of Bible
prophecy is a prediction
00:12:16.10\00:12:18.40
that the tide
will eventually turn
00:12:18.40\00:12:20.30
against intellectual
and religious freedom.
00:12:20.30\00:12:24.61
It's one of the
reasons I'm concerned about
00:12:24.61\00:12:26.34
what some people are
calling "cancel culture."
00:12:26.34\00:12:29.18
I'm hardly
alone with my concern.
00:12:29.18\00:12:31.61
In fact, I'm starting
to get some strange company
00:12:31.61\00:12:34.42
on that front, including
the likes of Bill Maher.
00:12:34.42\00:12:37.45
I'm talking about this
inclination we're developing
00:12:37.45\00:12:40.56
to silence
people we disagree with.
00:12:40.56\00:12:43.39
I know that some
people don't believe
00:12:43.39\00:12:45.69
it's actually happening, and
on the other side of the coin,
00:12:45.69\00:12:48.50
other people exaggerate
how often it does happen.
00:12:48.50\00:12:51.03
[uplifting instrumental music]
00:12:51.03\00:12:52.60
But the tendency, especially
on platforms like social media,
00:12:52.60\00:12:55.84
it does bother me.
00:12:55.84\00:12:57.37
Of course, social media
platforms are privately owned.
00:12:57.37\00:13:00.41
They're not
publicly-owned forums,
00:13:00.41\00:13:02.38
and the owners have every
right to control the content.
00:13:02.38\00:13:05.68
I don't believe for a moment
00:13:05.68\00:13:07.42
that the government should
intervene and force the owners
00:13:07.42\00:13:10.29
to host people and ideas
they don't happen to agree with,
00:13:10.29\00:13:13.52
because that would also
be a violation of liberty.
00:13:13.52\00:13:17.86
[uplifting instrumental music]
00:13:17.86\00:13:19.16
But all that aside, I
still find it concerning
00:13:19.16\00:13:21.90
that so many people,
instead of wrestling with ideas
00:13:21.90\00:13:25.40
and evaluating them carefully,
00:13:25.40\00:13:26.97
just want uncomfortable
opinions to go away.
00:13:26.97\00:13:30.47
That's actually
been the way it has been
00:13:30.47\00:13:33.11
for most of recorded history,
00:13:33.11\00:13:34.94
and we'd be foolish to forget
00:13:34.94\00:13:36.81
how rare our
current freedom actually is.
00:13:36.81\00:13:40.82
And I know
allowing everybody to speak
00:13:40.82\00:13:43.08
means that people with
bad ideas also get to speak,
00:13:43.08\00:13:46.96
but in a broken world,
that's the price you have to pay
00:13:46.96\00:13:49.92
for your freedom.
00:13:49.92\00:13:51.39
I'm quite happy to
endure the stupid corners
00:13:51.39\00:13:54.03
of the internet if it
means that I'm also free
00:13:54.03\00:13:57.43
to express what I wanna say.
00:13:57.43\00:13:59.87
Before we start
silencing people,
00:13:59.87\00:14:01.47
we really need to ask
ourselves how long it would be
00:14:01.47\00:14:04.11
before someone
would want to silence us,
00:14:04.11\00:14:06.98
or make our beliefs illegal.
00:14:06.98\00:14:09.38
It's almost like a secular
version of the Magisterium
00:14:09.38\00:14:12.51
that's growing today,
00:14:12.51\00:14:13.92
where a handful of
self-proclaimed intellectuals
00:14:13.92\00:14:16.45
reserve the right
to tell the rest of us
00:14:16.45\00:14:19.02
what we're
allowed to say or believe.
00:14:19.02\00:14:22.02
And sadly, if that attitude
ends up winning the day,
00:14:22.02\00:14:24.89
I fear that a secular
Magisterium might prove
00:14:24.89\00:14:27.50
to be even more
unpleasant than a religious one.
00:14:27.50\00:14:31.10
Now that we've
apparently abandoned the idea
00:14:31.10\00:14:33.74
of all objective morality.
00:14:33.74\00:14:36.20
But enough about that,
it's a bit of a sidebar.
00:14:36.20\00:14:39.21
Let's get back to one of
the most important developments
00:14:39.21\00:14:41.68
in the history of
English speaking Christianity,
00:14:41.68\00:14:44.55
the publication of
this, the Geneva Bible.
00:14:44.55\00:14:48.12
One of the most notable features
00:14:48.12\00:14:49.72
of this important translation
00:14:49.72\00:14:51.29
is the fact that it
doesn't list the names
00:14:51.29\00:14:54.09
of the people who did the work.
00:14:54.09\00:14:56.02
For the most
part, we've had to do
00:14:56.02\00:14:57.83
a little bit of detective
work to figure out who did this.
00:14:57.83\00:15:01.90
Of course, their
forerunners were persecuted
00:15:01.90\00:15:04.50
or even put to death
for doing the same thing.
00:15:04.50\00:15:07.17
And given Queen
Mary's appetite for violence,
00:15:07.17\00:15:10.34
the anonymity
kind of makes sense.
00:15:10.34\00:15:13.14
Putting your name in the
credits might actually become
00:15:13.14\00:15:16.01
a matter of life and death.
00:15:16.01\00:15:18.25
In fact, in the preface
to this version of the Bible,
00:15:18.25\00:15:21.32
the translators pointed out
00:15:21.32\00:15:22.68
that the quote "time
was then most dangerous
00:15:22.68\00:15:26.49
and the
persecution sharp and furious."
00:15:26.49\00:15:29.92
Of course, the problem
resolved itself in 1558
00:15:29.92\00:15:32.73
because Queen Elizabeth
suddenly came to the throne,
00:15:32.73\00:15:35.73
and that made
conditions far more favorable.
00:15:35.73\00:15:38.90
And, you know, I
guess there's another reason
00:15:38.90\00:15:40.67
they might have
chosen to stay anonymous.
00:15:40.67\00:15:42.80
Maybe they were just humbled,
00:15:42.80\00:15:44.51
and they
understood that no human being
00:15:44.51\00:15:46.31
can actually take credit
for this incredible book.
00:15:46.31\00:15:49.78
Now, that's not to
say that the translators
00:15:49.78\00:15:51.78
deserve no credit.
00:15:51.78\00:15:53.48
The work of
translation isn't easy,
00:15:53.48\00:15:55.25
especially when you're working
00:15:55.25\00:15:56.62
with concepts from a
distant time and culture.
00:15:56.62\00:15:59.32
Sometimes there is no
exact English equivalent
00:15:59.32\00:16:02.22
for a word you find in
Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek,
00:16:02.22\00:16:05.56
and so you have to do your
very best to convey the meaning
00:16:05.56\00:16:08.06
to an audience who cannot
read the original language.
00:16:08.06\00:16:11.80
That's still true today.
00:16:11.80\00:16:13.54
In my family's native language,
00:16:13.54\00:16:15.17
there's this word, it's Dutch,
00:16:15.17\00:16:16.97
[speaking in foreign language]
00:16:16.97\00:16:18.21
and there is no
English equivalent.
00:16:18.21\00:16:20.08
And this is why it's
helpful to consult translations
00:16:21.34\00:16:23.58
in other modern languages to see
00:16:23.58\00:16:25.85
if the people who did that work
00:16:25.85\00:16:27.45
actually came up
with a better way
00:16:27.45\00:16:29.02
to express a difficult concept,
00:16:29.02\00:16:31.12
and then you find an English
equivalent for what they did.
00:16:31.12\00:16:35.16
Of course, we also have
the problem of textual variants
00:16:36.56\00:16:39.26
where you'll find minor,
itty bitty tiny differences
00:16:39.26\00:16:41.93
between various
ancient manuscripts.
00:16:41.93\00:16:44.43
Now, fortunately,
because we have so much
00:16:44.43\00:16:47.00
manuscript
evidence for the Bible,
00:16:47.00\00:16:49.07
it's generally
possible to figure out
00:16:49.07\00:16:51.11
these itty bitty differences
00:16:51.11\00:16:52.51
by considering
the weight of evidence
00:16:52.51\00:16:54.41
across all the
various ancient copies
00:16:54.41\00:16:57.21
that we have access to.
00:16:57.21\00:16:59.25
It might just be
a typo after all.
00:16:59.25\00:17:01.45
A copy mistake in
one ancient manuscript
00:17:01.45\00:17:05.25
and the other manuscripts
will help you catch it.
00:17:05.25\00:17:08.12
The Geneva Bible provided a
number of important features,
00:17:08.12\00:17:11.06
some of which you and
I now take for granted.
00:17:11.06\00:17:13.80
First of all, it was compact,
00:17:13.80\00:17:16.20
or considered
compact, which made it ideal
00:17:16.20\00:17:18.97
for personal Bible study.
00:17:18.97\00:17:21.17
This was portable.
00:17:21.17\00:17:22.70
It also divided
the text into verses,
00:17:22.70\00:17:24.57
which made it
easier to look things up,
00:17:24.57\00:17:26.47
so that you and I
could tell somebody
00:17:26.47\00:17:28.31
where to find something
in the pages of the Bible.
00:17:28.31\00:17:31.75
Additionally, when the
translators needed to use a word
00:17:31.75\00:17:34.62
that wasn't in
the original language
00:17:34.62\00:17:36.82
to help make a passage clear,
00:17:36.82\00:17:39.25
they printed that word in
italics to let the reader know
00:17:39.25\00:17:42.46
that it wasn't in the original.
00:17:42.46\00:17:44.66
A feature that still appears
in a lot of Bibles to this day.
00:17:44.66\00:17:48.90
And of course, where the
original meaning might be
00:17:48.90\00:17:51.40
unclear to an English reader,
they inserted marginal notes.
00:17:51.40\00:17:55.27
Another thing that Bible
translators are still doing
00:17:55.27\00:17:57.94
to this day.
00:17:57.94\00:17:59.51
When it came to the
names of people or places,
00:17:59.51\00:18:01.94
they tried to stick as closely
00:18:01.94\00:18:03.51
to the Hebrew or
Greek as possible,
00:18:03.51\00:18:05.75
by simply transliterating
them into English,
00:18:05.75\00:18:08.68
spelling it out
with a Latin alphabet,
00:18:08.68\00:18:11.49
so that it kind of
sounds like the original.
00:18:11.49\00:18:14.79
The Geneva Bible was
physically beautiful,
00:18:14.79\00:18:17.26
featuring 26
woodcut illustrations
00:18:17.26\00:18:19.69
and five maps that would
help the reader understand
00:18:19.69\00:18:22.66
the geography of the Bible.
00:18:22.66\00:18:24.87
There were brief introductions
00:18:24.87\00:18:26.27
to each biblical book,
00:18:26.27\00:18:27.70
designed to help the
reader understand the reason
00:18:27.70\00:18:29.94
the book was written.
[uplifting instrumental music]
00:18:29.94\00:18:31.67
This was really one of
the first English study Bibles
00:18:31.67\00:18:34.74
specifically
designed to help lay people
00:18:34.74\00:18:36.95
navigate what they were reading.
00:18:36.95\00:18:39.38
And now I've got to
navigate the clock on the wall,
00:18:39.38\00:18:42.15
which means I'll be
right back after this.
00:18:42.15\00:18:44.65
[uplifting instrumental music]
00:18:44.65\00:18:47.42
[intense instrumental
music] - Dragons, beasts,
00:18:47.42\00:18:50.79
cryptic statues,
Bible prophecy can be
00:18:50.79\00:18:54.20
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:18:54.20\00:18:56.70
[transition swooshing]
00:18:56.70\00:18:57.97
If you've ever read
"Daniel: A Revelation,"
00:18:57.97\00:18:59.63
and come away scratching
your head, you are not alone.
00:18:59.63\00:19:02.37
[bright instrumental
music] Our free focus
00:19:02.37\00:19:03.94
on "Prophecy
Guides" are designed
00:19:03.94\00:19:05.61
to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:19:05.61\00:19:07.84
and deepen your
understanding of God's plan
00:19:07.84\00:19:10.31
for you and our world.
00:19:10.31\00:19:11.95
Study online or
request them by mail
00:19:11.95\00:19:14.38
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:19:14.38\00:19:18.05
- When the Geneva Bible first
hit the English marketplace,
00:19:18.05\00:19:20.89
it was an overnight success,
00:19:20.89\00:19:22.66
but there were
some power brokers
00:19:22.66\00:19:24.16
who really didn't like it
00:19:24.16\00:19:25.53
because of the way that
some of the marginal notes
00:19:25.53\00:19:28.20
actually condemned the
institution of the monarchy.
00:19:28.20\00:19:31.53
For example, in
Exodus one, in verse 19,
00:19:32.67\00:19:35.90
where the Hebrew midwives saved
the lives of the male babies
00:19:35.90\00:19:38.91
by defying Pharaoh,
00:19:38.91\00:19:40.61
the Geneva Bible had
a marginal note saying
00:19:40.61\00:19:43.35
"their
disobedience in this was lawful,
00:19:43.35\00:19:45.81
but their deception is evil."
00:19:45.81\00:19:47.72
In other words, they were
saying it was more important
00:19:47.72\00:19:50.19
to obey God than a monarch.
00:19:50.19\00:19:53.29
During the 1600s,
the idea of a monarchy
00:19:53.29\00:19:56.52
or the divine right of kings
00:19:56.52\00:19:57.96
came under a
great deal of scrutiny
00:19:57.96\00:19:59.96
by the English dissenters,
00:19:59.96\00:20:01.70
who'd been reading passages
like 1 Samuel Chapter Eight,
00:20:01.70\00:20:04.93
where God expresses his
displeasure over Israel's
00:20:04.93\00:20:08.00
decision to ask for a king.
00:20:08.00\00:20:10.31
That became one of the
biggest debates of the day
00:20:10.31\00:20:12.77
with luminaries like
John Bunyan, Thomas Hobbes,
00:20:12.77\00:20:15.61
and John Milton all
jumping into the fray.
00:20:15.61\00:20:18.71
So you can
understand in the beginning,
00:20:19.85\00:20:21.52
the Crown was not
entirely favorable
00:20:21.52\00:20:23.59
towards the Geneva Bible,
00:20:23.59\00:20:25.52
and a lot of people
continued to use the great Bible
00:20:25.52\00:20:28.16
or the Bishop's Bible instead.
00:20:28.16\00:20:30.73
Geneva Bibles were mostly
imported from Switzerland,
00:20:30.73\00:20:33.50
which really
hampered their circulation.
00:20:33.50\00:20:36.16
But then in 1575,
00:20:36.16\00:20:37.80
after the death of an archbishop
00:20:37.80\00:20:39.37
who favored other translations,
00:20:39.37\00:20:41.60
the Geneva Bible started to
come off of English presses.
00:20:41.60\00:20:44.91
Between 1575 and 1618, there
was at least one new edition
00:20:44.91\00:20:49.84
of the Geneva
Bible every single year.
00:20:49.84\00:20:52.51
In fact, between 1575 and 1611,
00:20:52.51\00:20:56.42
the year King James came out,
00:20:56.42\00:20:58.65
there were more than 120
editions of the Geneva Bible.
00:20:58.65\00:21:02.76
And speaking of
the King James Bible,
00:21:02.76\00:21:05.16
the Geneva Bible was one
of the key resources used
00:21:05.16\00:21:08.03
to create that.
00:21:08.03\00:21:09.60
In fact, when you read a Geneva
Bible and a King James Bible
00:21:09.60\00:21:12.80
side by side, you'll notice
an awful lot of similarity.
00:21:12.80\00:21:16.71
The scholar Charles
C. Butterworth said this,
00:21:16.71\00:21:19.81
"In the lineage of
the King James Bible,
00:21:19.81\00:21:22.48
the Geneva
Bible is by all means,
00:21:22.48\00:21:24.45
the most
important single volume.
00:21:24.45\00:21:26.92
Only in the New Testament,
00:21:26.92\00:21:28.45
and the Pentateuch is
its contribution overshadowed
00:21:28.45\00:21:31.32
by the work of William Tyndale."
00:21:31.32\00:21:34.12
You know, to really
appreciate just how much
00:21:34.12\00:21:36.39
the King James is
indebted to the work
00:21:36.39\00:21:38.33
of these Genevan scholars,
00:21:38.33\00:21:40.43
let me read you a well-known
passage from both translations.
00:21:40.43\00:21:44.73
Now, if you happen
to be watching this,
00:21:44.73\00:21:46.30
instead of listening to
it on the radio or Spotify,
00:21:46.30\00:21:49.84
you're gonna miss the
fact that I've retained
00:21:49.84\00:21:51.21
the original spelling,
00:21:51.21\00:21:52.57
but I'm guessing
there aren't a lot of people
00:21:52.57\00:21:54.61
who enjoy waiting their way
00:21:54.61\00:21:56.11
through the rather
inconsistent spelling
00:21:56.11\00:21:58.21
of medieval English.
00:21:58.21\00:21:59.75
So here we go, John 3:16 and 17,
00:22:00.68\00:22:03.99
one of our all time favorites,
00:22:03.99\00:22:05.75
this time from the Geneva Bible.
00:22:05.75\00:22:07.59
It says, "For God
so loved the world
00:22:07.59\00:22:10.43
that he hathe given
his only begotten Son,
00:22:10.43\00:22:13.09
that whoever believeth
in him should not perish
00:22:13.09\00:22:15.33
but have everlasting life.
00:22:15.33\00:22:17.37
For God sent not
his Son into the world,
00:22:17.37\00:22:19.30
that he should
condemn the world,
00:22:19.30\00:22:21.07
but that the world
through him might be saved."
00:22:21.07\00:22:24.34
Now, remember, that was 1560.
00:22:24.34\00:22:27.78
51 years later in 1611,
we got the King James Bible,
00:22:27.78\00:22:31.41
which is easily
the longest lasting
00:22:31.41\00:22:33.21
and most popular
English translation in history.
00:22:33.21\00:22:36.32
Here's that same
passage now in 1611.
00:22:37.32\00:22:40.16
It says, "For God
so loved the world
00:22:40.16\00:22:42.76
that he gave his
only begotten Son
00:22:42.76\00:22:44.46
that whoever believeth
in him should not perish
00:22:44.46\00:22:46.90
but have everlasting life.
00:22:46.90\00:22:48.93
For God sent not
his Son into the world
00:22:48.93\00:22:50.73
to condemn the world,
00:22:50.73\00:22:52.13
but that the world
through him might be saved."
00:22:52.13\00:22:55.50
You know,
without the Geneva Bible,
00:22:55.50\00:22:57.14
we probably
wouldn't have the King James.
00:22:57.14\00:22:59.57
Roughly one out of five passages
00:22:59.57\00:23:01.31
in the King James
was pretty much lifted
00:23:01.31\00:23:03.04
out of the Geneva Bible,
00:23:03.04\00:23:04.71
which is slightly more
than the number of passages
00:23:04.71\00:23:07.38
that were lifted
from Tyndale's work.
00:23:07.38\00:23:09.58
The Geneva Bible was
so popular back in the day
00:23:10.72\00:23:13.66
that the King
James actually struggled
00:23:13.66\00:23:16.06
to get a foothold in
the hearts of the public.
00:23:16.06\00:23:18.06
Initial sales were weak,
00:23:18.06\00:23:19.73
and it didn't actually take off
00:23:19.73\00:23:21.20
until King James
himself banned the printing
00:23:21.20\00:23:24.43
of the Geneva Bible.
00:23:24.43\00:23:26.10
Even then, some
of the translators
00:23:26.10\00:23:28.37
who worked on the King
James continued to preach
00:23:28.37\00:23:30.61
from the Geneva Bible.
00:23:30.61\00:23:32.27
That's how popular it was.
00:23:32.27\00:23:34.94
You know, if it wasn't
for the anti-monarchist
00:23:34.94\00:23:37.48
marginal notes of the Geneva,
00:23:37.48\00:23:39.68
we might not have
gotten the King James.
00:23:39.68\00:23:42.25
It was at a conference in 1604
00:23:42.25\00:23:44.39
that a Puritan suggested
a new English translation,
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and some
historians seemed convinced,
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in addition to
looking for something to unite
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a very polarized English public,
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it was the marginal notes
that convinced James Stewart
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that a new
Bible was a good idea.
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And here, in the
United States of America,
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well, there's more
than a passing chance
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that there was a
copy of this Geneva Bible
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in the Ill-fated
Jamestown colony in 1607.
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And we know for sure there
was a copy on the Mayflower
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when it arrived
in Plymouth in 1620.
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The Puritans really
liked this translation,
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and it was the
favorite Bible of Christians
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living in both the
Plymouth and Virginia colonies.
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I'll be right back after this.
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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[dispirited piano
music] - Life can throw
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a lot at us.
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Sometimes we don't
have all the answers,
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but that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:24:40.91\00:24:42.78
[bright instrumental
music] It's our guide
00:24:42.78\00:24:44.05
to a more fulfilling life.
00:24:44.05\00:24:46.41
Here at The Voice of Prophecy,
00:24:46.41\00:24:47.98
we've created the
"Discover Bible Guides"
00:24:47.98\00:24:50.12
to be your guide to the Bible.
00:24:50.12\00:24:51.72
They're designed to
be simple, easy to use,
00:24:51.72\00:24:54.22
and provide answers to many
of life's toughest questions,
00:24:54.22\00:24:57.23
and they're absolutely free.
00:24:57.23\00:24:59.26
So jump online
now or give us a call
00:24:59.26\00:25:01.56
and start your
journey of discovery.
00:25:01.56\00:25:04.43
- Of course, the
question is so what?
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Why does it matter
that a bunch of exiles
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living in Geneva decided
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to translate the
Bible into English?
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It's not like the English
people didn't have access
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to other
versions because they did,
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ever since Henry VIII.
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And of course, hardly anybody
still uses the Geneva Bible
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except for
history buffs like me,
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so I spent half an
hour talking about this.
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It's because it represents
something really important,
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the astonishing
preservation of the scriptures.
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Somehow with the collapse
of the Western Roman Empire
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and the descent of Europe
into the relative darkness
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of the Medieval period,
the Church itself lost sight
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of just how
important the Bible is.
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Prior to the rise of
the Church-State Alliance
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that appeared in
the wake of Constantine,
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the Christian scriptures in
particular were being copied
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and distributed very freely.
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One of the reasons we have
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so many ancient New
Testament manuscripts
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is because the early
Church let anybody who wanted to
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make a copy.
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That also meant that there
were a lot of copy mistakes
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because many copies
were made very quickly,
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as opposed to the
work of Hebrew scholars
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who were very, very,
very careful to make sure
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that their Old Testament copies
were unbelievably accurate.
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Even under those conditions,
there were still copy mistakes,
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but with Christianity,
that problem kind of blossomed.
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Of course, if you have thousands
and thousands of copies,
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it's really not all
that hard to figure out
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what the original said
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because the
mistakes become obvious.
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But now the real point is this.
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The earliest Church
wanted the Word of God
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to be freely and
widely distributed.
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They wanted you to have it,
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but then came the
marriage of Church and State
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where the issues
of power and control
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tragically became more important
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than the spread of the gospel.
[intense instrumental music]
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Back in Jerome's day, the Bible
was made available in Latin,
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and it made good sense.
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That was the language of Rome.
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It was actually liberated
by translating it into Latin.
00:26:58.48\00:27:02.12
But then that very same
feature kept my ancestors
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from reading the book, even
after they joined the Church,
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because the Church insisted
it had to stay in Latin,
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but there was no way it
could ever stay that way.
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Here's what it
says in Proverbs 4:18,
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and you know I'm
gonna use the Geneva,
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"But the way of the
righteous shineth as the light
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that shineth more and
more unto the perfect day."
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In other words, no
matter how dark you and I
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try to make things, no
matter how big a mess we make
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of this Christian
faith, God has promised
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that he will restore the light,
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and that light
will continue to spread
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and grow until Jesus returns.
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[intense instrumental music]
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The Bible was restored to
God's people against all odds.
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And when I read the
stories of these people
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risking everything for it,
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some might call
it a coincidence,
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but I see the hand of God
pulling us closer and closer
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to the perfect
consummation of history.
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Thanks for joining me today.
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I'm Shawn Boonstra, and
this has been "Authentic."
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[uplifting instrumental music]
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instrumental music continues]
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