A 1777 Philadelphia edition of the English Bible – photo source here
Discover the fascinating story behind the preservation of the Bible, the best selling book of all times.
During the Dark Ages, superstition and ignorance controlled the minds of the masses.A few brave men obeyed God and brought the Scriptures to the world…..historical figures responsible for bringing us the Bible as we know and love it today: Wycliffe, Hus, Gutenberg, Colet, Erasmus, Tyndale, Luther and so on.
John Wycliffe, the brilliant 14th century Oxford scholar, translated the Bible from Latin into English in order to enlighten the masses oppressed through ignorance. His work was so despised by the established church, that Pope Martin the Fifth ordered Wycliffe’s bones to be dug up and burned forty years after his death.
Martin Luther was one of the few who challenged church authority in the 16th century and lived to tell the tale. In exposing the folly of indulgences (paying money to the church in order to obtain favor with God), he revealed what had always been written in Scripture, that justification was through faith and faith alone.
William Tyndale was not spared like his friend Luther. Tyndale spent the last 500 days of his life in a cold castle dungeon. He was then tied to a stake, strangled, and burned. His crime?.. printing Bibles in the English language!
This one-hour documentary takes us on a fascinating journey through time. It was shot all across Europe and shows all the important places of Christian history. Here you will learn how God’s Word was originally scribed and discovered and how the Word was preserved through the 1,000 year period of the Dark and Middle Ages. It will also enlighten you how the King James version was created.
There are many amazing facts worked into the presentation. Dr. Lampe shows a scroll that is 1000 years old, and tells the viewer that it is word-for-word the same as the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were written a full millennium before.
Being reminded of the blood that was shed to bring the Bible to common folk like us will make us consider just how flippantly we treat the Scriptures. It will make us truly realize how privileged our generation is to have not just one Bible but an entire stack of them in many outstanding translations. It will make us thank God for the faithful men and women who gave their lives that we can have unlimited access to His Word.
See also these other great links (some containing videos) -
- Battle For The Bible- The English Bible : John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer (Docummentary)
- The First (1385) English Bible Translator – John Wycliffe’s Life (Video)
- WILLIAM TYNDALE, Bible Translator (Video)
- William Tyndale Biography (c 1492-1536) Photos of Tyndale Bibles
- Church History -Jan Hus (1369-1415) – predecessor to the Protestant movement of the 16th century (video)
- Church History – John Wycliffe (1320-1384) translated the first English language Bible
- The impact of the printing press on the Reformation, the history of the Bible and the emergence of the Puritans by Gavin Finley
- The Bible and Martin Luther
- The Earliest Manuscript Evidence for the New Testament (via Justin Taylor)
- Possession of the Bible was once banned by the Catholic Church (and yes, unauthorized Bibles were burned)
- …some Church history – Athanasius (defending orthodoxy)
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