The History of the English
Bible
Subject:
[TheTruthZone] A Brief History of Christianity, 1st Century until now!
Date:
Fri, 24 Aug 2001 04:40:23 ‑0700 (PDT)
From:
Stacey Miller <[email protected]>
Reply‑To:
To:
TheTruthZone <[email protected]>
A Brief History of Christianity, 1st Century until
now!
The last books of the Newer Scriptures were written in
the 1st century. The Disciples did there
Preaching,Teaching, & Writing of YAHSHUA'S Word
everywhere they could. The Apostles then continued to
Preach & Teach, but the written Word stopped.
Christianity spread throughout Europe, & the other
lands where the Israelites were, like wildfire! Many
translations, commentaries, concordances, &
dictionaries have been written since then, but NO
Scripture for about 1,900 years. What has happen to
the Israelite people since then? There is NO
Scripture, but we have History. We know now the
Israelites are the Pure White Race, the tribes of
Benjamin are found in Iceland, Ephraim in England, Dan
in Denmark & Greece, Asher in Sweden, Issachar in
Finland, Naphtali in Norway, Reuben in Holland, Simeon
in Spain, Gad in Italy, Manasseh in America, Zebulun
in France & Hungary, Levi scattered throughout the
Kingdom as the Priesthood, & finally the Zarah branch
of Judah in Ireland & Scotland, & the Pharez branch in
Germany! Obviously, there are groups of these tribes
found elsewhere. YAHSHUA was the most controversial
person whoever walked the earth, because he told the
TRUTH, & was the ONLY person without sin! His
Disciples were also controversial because they also
told the TRUTH. If they, as supposed by the jew
controlled churches preached "all love", why would
YAHSHUA & the Disciples have all been killed so
violently??? The answer is; the churches LIE, or don't
know what they are talking about! They all Identified
the simple facts that the TRUE Israelites of the
Scripture, then called the "lost sheep of the house of
Israel" are the White Race! Also, they identified the
jews of the day as being the children of the devil!
(John 8:44) They also told the people that ALL the
prophecies of the older Scriptures had been fulfilled
in YAHSHUA! Also, they preached the Gospel of the
Kingdom! Not sweet syrupy "all love" as the phony
churches say. The satanic seedline jews hated the new
Christ‑Sons then, & now, & always will, until one or
the other is destroyed! (YHVH says we win, & they will
all be destroyed by fire!) At that time they wanted to
destroy Christians, & stop Christianity from
spreading, so they bribed the politicians of the Roman
Empire (like Washington D.C. today) to kill them by
crucifixion, throwing them to the lions, etc. It
didn't work well as Christianity continued to spread.
Next, Christianity was accepted on an equal footing as
all the other pagan religions in Rome! Next,
Constantine made it the "Official Religion of the
Roman Empire"! The jews needed a "plan B", so they
decided to "organize Christianity, & rule it"!
Christianity, was started by YAHSHUA, obviously, first
in Glastonbury England, during the time he was 12 to
30 years old, the so called "missing years" when
YAHSHUA was with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea there.
The Druid Priesthood was the continuation of the
Levitical Priesthood. They readily accepted the
Teachings & taught it in the University's. The Greek
Church was also well under way. The catholic (means
universal, not Christian) church was formed by the
jews & Roman convert Christians. The main theme was to
insert themselves between YHVH/YAHSHUA, & the
Israelites, now called Christ‑Sons, & if the people
wanted to talk to YHVH you must first pay the
catholic/jew priests. (Always the jews want money).
Well, at first it didn't go to well as people were
wise to the subtle satanic seedline jew. But, with
accepting other pagans & there rituals, holidays, &
bribery along the way etc., the phony catholic church
began to grow. It was necessary to their future to
suppress the truth in the Scripture, so they went on a
"book search, & destroy mission" of all the correct
Scripture's out there, & had Jerome the scribe
translate the Scripture into the almost dead language
of Latin, in Approx. 380 A.D. Now with the Scripture
out of the way, you had to pay the catholic/jew priest
not only for him to speak to YHVH on your behalf, but
also to ask him what the Scripture said! Naturally
they made up a lot of things that were not in the
Scripture, but suited their purpose. Purgatory being
one example. If you wanted to get the priest to pray
for your mother, father, or someone else, & to shave
off a thousand years from their "sentence" there, you
had to pay the priest, possibly leave all your worldly
possessions to the church, & not to your heirs! It
didn't take long with these tactics for the church to
become extremely wealthy! For the next 1,000 years the
catholic church ruled the world, also known as the
dark ages! Many believe this is the 1,000 years of
satan's rule! During that time certainly the
Israelite/Christ‑Sons had NO Scripture's to read, &
were lost to their Identity, as to their Israelite
Heritage, they did believe they were Christians, but
couldn't connect the two. Also, the Church went around
making & accepting "converts" without regard to Race!
In Spain a jew was either exiled, Killed, or converted
to being a Christian! Can you imagine, converting a
child of satan to be a Christian!?! YAHSHUA NEVER
tried to convert them, & spoke in parables when they
came around. For that matter he told everyone,"He came
ONLY for the lost sheep of the house of
Israel(Matt.15:24), & told his Disciples to go &
preach ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel"!(Matt.10:5,6)
Approx. 1,380 A.D. John Wycliffe translated the Latin
Bible that Jerome wrote, into English! This was the
end of the 1,000 year rein of satan, & the beginning
of the Reformation! This made the catholic church
crazy! Others began to translate the Scripture into
there languages, Martin Luther translated the
Scripture into German when he saw that the catholic
church was so corrupt, selling "indulgences" (commit
any sin, & the priest's will pray it away, for a
price!) YHVH/YAHSHUA provided Gutenburg with the
knowledge of the "printing press" so more Scripture's
could be printed, & mass produced in the 1,450's! The
Tyndale‑Coverdale Scripture's were printed in
England. Henry the VIII wanted a divorce, but the pope
refused to grant one, so Henry told the catholic
church, He was now head of the church in England, &
the bishops had a choice, to die, go back to Rome, or
pledge obedience to him! Some stayed, & some went to
Rome. "Bloody Mary" came to the throne in England, &
wanted to go back under catholic rule, but that
wouldn't happen. She persecuted & murdered her people
& some of the scholars fled to Geneva Switzerland &
wrote the famous "Geneva Bible" with the marginal
notes! The notes spoke out against government & the
head of the church, & was very popular with the
people. It was the Bible of the Pilgrims, Puritans,
Shakespeare, & others. King James came to the throne
of England & made a law that anyone caught with the
Geneva Bible was to be put to death! He ordered his
scribes to print a new Bible, & remove the marginal
notes, & anything that spoke bad about the King or the
Head of the church, since he was both. At that point
you have the first "government controlled Bible"! The
catholic church was losing there power, & had to do
damage control. Having the Scriptures printed in
English was a must, to get there version out there,
called the Douay‑Rheims Version. Loyola, the so called
converted jew, formed the jesuits for the church, for
the purpose of re‑gaining control of the people &
getting them back into the catholic church! The
Renaissance had also began. So you had the
Christianity/Reformation, & Arts and
Science/Renaissance going on, plus the "discovery &
re‑gathering of the Israelite/Christ‑Sons in the
America's! But the catholic church, with the help of
some of the Kings, persecuted the Protestant's for
leaving the "mother" church, instigated by the
jesuits! It didn't work well, so "plan B" was to
infiltrate the Protestant churches, & take them over
from within! That worked well, so eventually, things
settled down in the area of Religion.
In the 1,800's John Wilson, & Edward Hine were
instrumental in "Discovering & Preaching" the Identity
of the Israelite people(again), as the White Christian
Anglo‑Saxon people! They proved it beyond any shadow
of doubt with Scripture, & Archeological findings of
the day! Also with more freedom of Religion, new
denominations were formed, which made the jesuits have
to infiltrate, & control them also. The jews again
went crazy & had to come up with a new LIE to cover
the old LIES! They agreed with the British Empire that
indeed they were the Israelites of the Scripture, but
the jews were the southern kingdom of Judah! They
showed the Brits that in Scripture, the 2 houses of
Israel were to be joined again in the end times, &
rule the world together, & bring in the kingdom here
on earth! The Brits fell for it. They figured with the
jew money power, & the British Military power (the
most powerful in the world at the time) it sounded
good. Obviously, the jews are NOT the House of Judah,
the Germans, Irish, & Scots are! Also, in about 750
A.D. the kazar/ashkenazi became jews by converting to
that so called satanic religion, & are 85% to 95% of
the jews today! Impossible for them to be the tribe
Judah also.
In the 20th century we have great scholars of the
Scripture,like Bertrand Comparet, Wesley Swift,
William Gale, & many others, that have further
expounded on Wilson & Hine's "discovered again", the
other seedline from Gen. 3:15, Matt. 13:24 to 30, &
many other Scriptures that as YAHSHUA said, the jews
are the literal children of satan the devil! So we
have the Original TRUTH that YAHSHUA & the Disciples
preached, called today "The 2 seedline
Christian/Israel Identity message"! YAHSHUA said in
Matt. 23:30 to 36, that the jews were responsible for
all the righteous blood spilled from Abel (cain the
murderer, satan & Eve's offspring) to Zacharias! Since
NO Scripture has been written for almost 1,900 years,
I would say that the jews are responsible for all the
righteous White Christian blood spilled from YAHSHUA'S
time until now! It makes perfect logical sense, & when
we look at the jews persecution of Christ‑Sons in
YAHSHUA'S time, we see 10's of 1,000's of our White
Christian brother's & sister's slaughtered! We see in
the Reformation again, 10's of 1,000's killed for
practicing Christianity, & breaking away from the
satanic catholic church to form there own in the
Protestant movement, or printing the Scripture's, or
just reading them! In the 20th Century, we have seen
the slaughter of 70 MILLION White Christian Russ, in
Russia, between 1913 & 1945 by the satanic seedline
jews! This is Historical FACT! They jews declared WAR
on Germany in 1933 & have killed over 20 MILLION
German's in WW1 & WW2, but most of them AFTER WW2
ended! This is Historical FACT! They control all the
International & national banks. Those banks run all
those governments as "he who borrows is slave to the
lender". The media is jew controlled & feeds you the
propaganda to keep you unaware! The jews control your
schools, & indoctrinate your children to turn them
from YHVH & the Scripture, & be materialistic & a
satanic one worlder! The lawyers & judges are jew, or
jew controlled, & make up anti‑Christ laws to control
you. The military is controlled, by the jew controlled
governments, & would murder you in a second if told to
do so, as they would be "just following orders". The
police departments also, "just following orders". The
doctors are mostly jews, & murder over 300,000 people
a year, mostly White Christians from wrong diagnosis,
wrong medication, or botched operation's. The abortion
butcher shops have murdered over 40 MILLION so far,
plus 5 times that many at least, on birth control
poisons! Our water supply is filled with chemicals,
especially fluoride which is pure poison. Our air in
the cities are thick with pollution, & these days the
chemtrails add more poison I am sure! The jews own, &
run all the drug companies, including the "illegal"
drug market! You can hardly find any food in the
supermarkets that aren't packed with many chemicals!
We are in the middle of a chemical warfare operation,
& don't even realize it! The jews push the anti‑Christ
race mixing, & homosexuality lies on our people,
especially the children. 2 more evil forms of
destroying the White Race Christ‑Sons. You will find
behind every evil thing on this earth throughout
history, the satanic seedline jew is operating to
destroy the White Christians, the TRUE Israelites,
YHVH'S children as Luke Chapter 3:1 to 38 identifies!
You can trace your genealogy if you are Pure White
Race, back to Royalty in the European Country of your
decedents, when you find one, you can contact the
Library, Church or place of records, & ask for the
"fast track" genealogy records of that person, & you
will find them going back to one of the Tribes of
Israel, & then back to Adam (Aw‑daum)! So forward or
backward you can trace your Heritage to being a Son,
or Daughter of YHVH! You should be proud as can be of
that Heritage! You need to start acting like a child
of YHVH! So even though there hasn't been any
Scripture's written in 1,900 years, YHVH'S Word is
very much ALIVE! YAHSHUA identified his children, &
identified his enemy, the children of satan, the jews!
This is the TRUTH the jews want to keep from you! When
you fully understand that you are a child of YHVH, &
the jew is the child of satan the devil, not because I
say so, but because the Scripture says so, & you look
at the world today, & History to see it verify the
Scripture as a second witness then you understand the
true message of YAHSHUA! There is NO bigger or more
important TRUTH then to know the true Word of YAHSHUA!
This is it! To understand the Identity of who the
Scripture is written to & for, & who is the
anti‑Christ, & against our Father in the Heavens! The
jews crucified Him, & have been murdering Christians
before, during, & after the crucifixion, especially
now! The 20th Century was the bloodiest of all, way
over 200 MILLION of your Christ‑Sons, Brother's &
Sister's were murdered by the jews! This is not a
secret, you just have to read the Scripture, &
History. How do you feel about the jews murdering your
family? Those were your Brothers & Sisters & can be
traced so, in genealogy records & the Scripture! Why
aren't the jews arrested, & put on trial for all these
mass murders & genocide of the White Race? Will you
stand up & speak the TRUTH that YAHSHUA & the
Disciples spoke? Are you more afraid of satan & his
kids the jews, than being for YHVH? You will have to
stand in judgment before YHVH some day, not satan or
his kids! Even if you didn't believe in YHVH or the
Scripture, the evidence about the jews being the mass
murderers of all the times in History is overwhelming!
The times of today, who can deny that the jews are at
the top of all the major political, religious, &
economic industries? The evidence is there, just take
a look! I could have written many other things here,
but I wanted to keep it as brief as possible, but make
the point as clear as possible. I hope you have
learned something & take this message to heart, &
spread it to your fellow Brothers & Sisters of your
TRUE family, the White Race! May YHVH bless you in your studies.
The first hand‑written English language manuscripts of the Bible were produced in 1380's AD by Oxford theologian John Wycliff (Wycliffe). Curiously, he was also the inventor of bifocal eyeglasses. Wycliff spent many of his years arguing against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. Though he died a nonviolent death, the Pope was so infuriated by his teachings that 44 years after Wycliff had died, he ordered the bones to be dug‑up, crushed, and scattered in the river!
Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was the Bible. It was, however, in Latin rather than English. With the onset of the Reformation in the early 1500's, the first printings of the Bible in the English language were produced...illegally and at great personal risk of those involved.
William Tyndale was the Captain of the Army of reformers, and was their spiritual leader. He worked most of his translating years alone, but had help from time to time as God discerned he needed it. Indirectly, he had the help of Erasmus in the publication of his Greek/Latin New Testament printed in 1516. Erasmus and the great printer, scholar, and reformer John Froben published the first non‑Latin Vulgate text of the Bible in a millennium. Latin was the language for centuries of scholarship and it was understood by virtually every European who could read or write. Erasmus' Latin was not the Vulgate translation of Jerome, but his own fresh rendering of the Greek New Testament text that he had collated from six or seven partial New Testament manuscripts into a complete Greek New Testament.
The Latin that Erasmus translated from the Greek revealed enormous corruptions in the Vulgate's integrity amongst the rank and file scholars, many of whom were already convinced that the established church was doomed by virtue of its evil hierarchy. Pope Leo X's declaration that "the fable of Christ was very profitable to him" infuriated the people of God.
With Erasmus' work in 1516, the die was cast. Martin Luther declared his intolerance with the Roman Church's corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg 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 from Erasmus' Greek/Latin New Testament and publish it in September of 1522. Simultaneously, William Tyndale would become burdened to translate that same Erasmus text into English. It could not, however, be done in England.
Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale was fluent in eight languages and is considered by many to be the primary architect of today's English language.
Already hunted because of the rumor spread abroad that such a project was underway, inquisitors and bounty hunters were on Tyndale's trail to abort the effort. God foiled their plans, and in 1525/6 Tyndale printed the first English New Testament. They were burned as soon as the Bishop could confiscate them, but copies trickled through and actually ended up in the bedroom of King Henry VIII.
The more the King and Bishop resisted its distribution, the more fascinated the public at large became. The church declared it contained thousands of errors as they torched hundreds of New Testaments confiscated by the clergy, while in fact, they burned them because they could find no errors at all. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale's forbidden books.
Having God's Word available to the public 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 continue to get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) 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. The contradictions between what God's Word said, and what the priests taught, would open the public's eyes and the truth would set them free from the grip of fear that the institutional church held. Salvation through faith, not works or donations, would be understood. The need for priests would vanish through the priesthood of all believers. The veneration of church‑canonized Saints and Mary would be called into question. The availability of the scriptures in English was the biggest threat imaginable to the wicked church. Neither side would give up without a fight.
The Tyndale New Testament was the first ever printed in the English language. Its first printing occurred in 1525/6, but only one complete copy of the first printing exists. Any Edition printed before 1570 is very rare and valuable, particularly pre‑1540 editions and fragments. 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. In the end, Tyndale was caught: betrayed by an Englishman that he had befriended. Tyndale was incarcerated for 500 days before he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. His last words were, "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Myles Coverdale and John Rogers were loyal disciples the last six years of Tyndale's life, and they carried the project forward and even accelerated it. Coverdale finished translating the Old Testament, and in 1535 he printed the first complete Bible in the English language, making use of Luther's German text and the Latin as sources. Thus, the first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible.
John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. He printed it under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew," as a considerable part of this Bible was the translation of Tyndale, whose writings had been condemned by the English authorities. It is a composite made up of Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament (1534‑1535 edition) and Coverdale's Bible and a small amount of Roger's own translation of the text. It remains known most commonly as the Matthews Bible.
In 1539, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, hired Myles Coverdale at the bequest of King Henry VIII to publish the "Great Bible." It became the first English Bible authorized for public use, as it was distributed to every church, chained to the pulpit, and a reader was even provided so that the illiterate could hear the Word of God in plain English. It would seem that William Tyndale's last wish had been granted...just three years after his martyrdom.
Cranmer's Bible, published by Coverdale, was known as the Great Bible due to its great size: a large pulpit folio measuring over 14 inches tall. Seven editions of this version were printed between April of 1539 and December of 1541.
The ebb and flow of freedom continued through the 1540's...and into the 1550's. The reign of Queen Mary (a.k.a. "Bloody Mary") was the next obstacle to the printing of the Bible in English. She was possessed in her quest to return England to the Roman Church. In 1555, John Rogers ("Thomas Matthew") and Thomas Cranmer were both burned at the stake. Mary went on to burn reformers at the stake by the hundreds for the "crime" of being a Protestant. This era was known as the Marian Exile, and the refugees fled from England with little hope of ever seeing their home or friends again.
In the 1550's, the Church at Geneva, Switzerland,
was very sympathetic to the reformer refugees and
was one of only a few safe havens for a desperate
people.
Many of them met in Geneva, led by
Myles Coverdale and John Foxe (publisher of
the famous Foxe's Book of Martyrs, which is to
this day the only exhaustive reference work on the
persecution and martyrdom of Early Christians
and Protestants from the first century up to the
mid‑16th century), as well as Thomas Sampson
and William Whittingham.
There, with the protection of John Calvin and John Knox, the Church of Geneva determined to produce a Bible that would educate their families while they continued in exile.
The New Testament was completed in 1557, and the complete Bible was first published in 1560. It became known as the Geneva Bible. Due to a passage in Genesis describing the clothing that God fashioned for Adam and Eve upon expulsion from the Garden of Eden as "Breeches" (an antiquated form of "Britches"), some people referred to the Geneva Bible as the Breeches Bible.
The Geneva Bible was the first Bible to add verses to the chapters, so that referencing specific passages would be easier. Every chapter was also accompanied by extensive marginal notes and references so thorough and complete that the Geneva Bible is also considered the first English "Study Bible." William Shakespeare quotes thousands of times in his plays from the Geneva translation of the Bible. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for over 100 years of English speaking Christians.
Between 1560 and 1644 at least 144 editions of this Bible were published. Examination of the 1611 King James Bible shows clearly that its translators were influenced much more by the Geneva Bible, than by any other source. The Geneva Bible itself retains over 90% of William Tyndale's original English translation. The Geneva in fact, remained more popular than the King James Version until decades after its original release in 1611! The Geneva holds the honor of being the first Bible taken to America, and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims.
With the end of Queen Mary's bloody rein, the reformers could safely return to England. The Anglican Church, under Queen Elizabeth I, reluctantly tolerated the printing and distribution of Geneva version Bibles in England. The marginal notes, which were vehemently against the institutional Church of the day, did not rest well with the rulers of the day, however.
Another version, one with a less inflammatory tone was desired. In 1568, the Bishop's Bible was introduced. Despite 19 editions being printed between 1568 and 1606, the version never gained much of a foothold of popularity among the people. The Geneva may have simply been too much to compete with.
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. In 1582, the Church of Rome 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. And so, using the Latin Vulgate as a source text, they went on to publish an English Bible with all the distortions and corruptions that Erasmus had revealed and warned of 75 years earlier.
Because it was translated at the Roman Catholic College in the city of Rheims, it was known as the Rheims (or Rhemes) New Testament. The Old Testament was translated by the Church of Rome in 1609 at the College in the city of Doway (also spelled Douay and Douai). The combined product is commonly referred to as the "Doway/Rheims" Version.
In 1589, Dr. Fulke of Cambridge published the "Fulke's Refutation," in which he printed in parallel columns the Bishops Version along side the Rheims Version, attempting to show the error and distortion of the Roman Church's corrupt compromise of an English version of the Bible.
With the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. The Protestant clergy approached the new King in 1604 and announced their desire for a new translation to replace the Bishop's Bible first printed in 1568. They knew that the Geneva Version had won the hearts of the people because of its excellent scholarship, accuracy, and exhaustive commentary.
However, they did not want the controversial marginal notes (proclaiming the Pope an Anti‑Christ, etc.) Essentially, the leaders of the church desired a Bible for the people, with scriptural references only for word clarification when multiple meanings were possible.
This "translation to end all translations" (for a while at least) was the result of the combined effort of about fifty scholars. They took into consideration: The Tyndale New Testament, The Coverdale Bible, The Matthews Bible, The Great Bible, The Geneva Bible, and even the Rheims New Testament.
The great revision of the Bishop's Bible had begun. From 1605 to 1606 the scholars engaged in private research. From 1607 to 1609 the work was assembled. In 1610 the work went to press, and in 1611 the first of the huge (16 inch tall) pulpit folios known as "The King James Bible" came off the printing press.
A typographical error in Ruth 3:15 rendered the pronoun "He" instead of the correct "She" in that verse. This caused some of the 1611 First Editions to be known by collectors as "He" Bibles, and others as "She" Bibles.
It took many years for it to overtake the Geneva Bible in popularity with the people, but eventually the King James Version became the Bible of the English people. It became the most printed book in the history of the world. In fact, for around 250 years...until the appearance of the Revised Version of 1881...the King James Version reigned without a rival.
Although the first Bible printed in America was done in the native Algonquin Indian Language (by John Eliot in 1663), the first English language Bible to be printed in America (by Robert Aitken in 1782) was a King James Version. In 1791, Isaac Collins vastly improved upon the quality and size of the typesetting of American Bibles and produced the first "Family Bible" printed in America...also a King James Version. Also in 1791, Isaiah Thomas published the first Illustrated Bible printed in America...in the King James Version.
In 1841, the English Hexapla New Testament was printed. This wonderful textual comparison tool shows in parallel columns: The 1380 Wycliff, 1534 Tyndale, 1539 Great, 1557 Geneva, 1582 Rheims, and 1611 King James versions of the entire New Testament... with the original Greek at the top of the page. (Hexaplas are available on our Book Vault Page).
Consider the following textual comparison of John 3:16 as they appear in many of these famous printings of the English Bible:
1st Ed. King James (1611): "For God so loued the world, that he gaue his only begotten Sonne: that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life."
Rheims (1582): "For so God loued the vvorld, that he gaue his only‑begotten sonne: that euery one that beleeueth in him, perish not, but may haue life euerlasting"
Geneva (1557): "For God so loueth the world, that he hath geuen his only begotten Sonne: that none that beleue in him, should peryshe, but haue euerlasting lyfe."
Great Bible (1539): "For God so loued the worlde, that he gaue his only begotten sonne, that whosoeuer beleueth in him, shulde not perisshe, but haue euerlasting lyfe."
Tyndale (1534): "For God so loveth the worlde, that he hath geven his only sonne, that none that beleve in him, shuld perisshe: but shuld have everlastinge lyfe."
Wycliff (1380): "for god loued so the world; that he gaf his oon bigetun sone, that eche man that bileueth in him perisch not: but haue euerlastynge liif,"
It is possible to go back to manuscripts earlier than Wycliff, but the language found can only be described as the "Anglo‑Saxon" roots of English, and would not be easily recognizable as similar to the English spoken today.
For example, the Anglo‑Saxon pre‑English root language of the year 995 AD yields a manuscript that quotes John 3:16 as: "God lufode middan‑eard swa, dat he seade his an‑cennedan sunu, dat nan ne forweorde de on hine gely ac habbe dat ece lif."
I hope that this short essay has served to enhance your appreciation for the Bible of our language. Should you wish to learn more...or see full‑color pictures of all of these Bibles...or even purchase any of these ancient treasures, please visit our online Book Vault. We also have a special information section on selected Four‑Century Old English Bibles from under $1,500 on our Family Heirloom Page.
Of course, the most affordable way to begin a Bible collection is to obtain a single leaf from one or more of these famous Bibles. Visit our unique online Giftshop for more information, pictures, and prices. You may also wish to read about the chronology of the famous printings of the Bible on our 2,500 Year Bible Timeline Page. May the Lord richly bless you as you study and appreciate His Word.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Greatsite Marketing
The Transmission of the Bible
to English
500 BC: Completion of All Original Hebrew Manuscripts which make Up The 39 Books of the Old Testament.
200 BC: Completion of the Septuagint Greek Manuscripts which contain The 39 Old Testament Books AND 14 Apocrypha Books.
1st Century AD: Completion of All Original Greek Manuscripts which make Up The 27 Books of the New Testament.
390 AD: Jerome's Latin Vulgate Manuscripts Produced which contain All 80 Books (39 Old Test. + 14 Apocrypha + 27 New Test).
500 AD: Scriptures have been Translated into Over 500 Languages.
600 AD: LATIN was the Only Language Allowed for Scripture.
995 AD: Anglo‑Saxon (Early Roots of English Language) Translations of The New Testament Produced.
1384 AD: Wycliffe is the First Person to Produce a (Hand‑Written) manuscript Copy of the Complete Bible; All 80 Books.
1455 AD: Gutenberg Invents the Printing Press; Books May Now be mass‑Produced Instead of Individually Hand‑Written. The First Book Ever Printed is Gutenberg's Bible in Latin.
1516 AD: Erasmus Produces a Greek/Latin Parallel New Testament.
1522 AD: Martin Luther's German New Testament.
1525 AD: William Tyndale's New Testament; The First New Testament to be Printed in the English Language.
1535 AD: Myles Coverdale's Bible; The First Complete Bible to be printed in the English Language (80 Books: O.T. & N.T. & Apocrypha).
1537 AD: Matthews Bible; The Second Complete Bible to be Printed in English. Done by John "Thomas Matthew" Rogers (80 Books).
1539 AD: The "Great Bible" Printed; The First English Language Bible to be Authorized for Public Use (80 Books).
1560 AD: The Geneva Bible Printed; The First English Language Bible to Add Numbered Verses to Each Chapter (80 Books).
1568 AD: The Bishops Bible Printed; The Bible of which the King James was a Revision (80 Books).
1609 AD: The Douay Old Testament is added to the Rhemes New Testament (of 1582) Making the First Complete English Catholic Bible; Translated from the Latin Vulgate (80 Books).
1611 AD: The King James Bible Printed; Originally with All 80 Books. The Apocrypha was Officially Removed in 1885 Leaving Only 66 Books.
1782 AD: Robert Aitken's Bible; The First English Language Bible (a King James Version without Apocrypha) to be Printed in America.
1791 AD: Isaac Collins and Isaiah Thomas Respectively Produce the First Family Bible and First Illustrated Bible Printed in America. Both were King James Versions, with All 80 Books.
1808 AD: Jane Aitken's Bible (Daughter of Robert Aitken); The First Bible to be Printed by a Woman.
1833 AD: Noah Webster's Bible; After Producing his Famous Dictionary, Webster Printed his Own Revision of the King James Bible.
1841 AD: English Hexapla New Testament; an Early Textual Comparison showing the Greek and 6 Famous English Translations in Parallel Columns.
1846 AD: The Illuminated Bible; The Most Lavishly Illustrated Bible printed in America. A King James Version, with All 80 Books.
1885 AD: The "Revised Version" Bible; The First Major English Revision of the King James Bible.
1901 AD: The "American Standard Version"; The First Major American Revision of the King James Bible.
1971 AD: The "New American Standard Bible" (NASB) is Published as a "Modern and Accurate Word for Word English Translation" of the Bible.
1973 AD: The "New International Version" (NIV) is Published as a "Modern and Accurate Phrase for Phrase English Translation" of the Bible.
1982 AD: The "New King James Version" (NKJV) is Published as a "Modern English Version Maintaining the Original Style of the King James."
(Taken from this url web site http://www.greatsite.com/engbibhis/)