|
|
The history of the Bible starts with a phenomenal account of history! It's not one book
like I always thought -- It's an ancient collection of writings, comprised of 66 separate
books, written over approximately 1,600 years, by at least 40 distinct authors. The Old
Testament contains 39 books written from approximately 1500 to 400 BC, and the New Testament
contains 27 books written from approximately 40 to 90 AD. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) is the same
as the Christian Old Testament, except for its book arrangement. The original Old Testament was
written mainly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while the original New Testament was written in common
Greek.
The history of the "Bible" begins with the Jewish Scriptures. The historical record of the
Jews was written down on leather scrolls and tablets over centuries, and the authors included
kings, shepherds, prophets and other leaders. The first five books are called the Law, which
were written and/or edited primarily by Moses in the early 1400's BC. Thereafter, other
scriptural texts were written and collected by the Jewish people during the next 1,000
years. About 450 BC, the Law and the other Jewish Scriptures were arranged by councils of
rabbis (Jewish teachers), who then recognized the complete set as the inspired and sacred
authority of God (Elohim). At some time during this period, the books of the Hebrew Bible
were arranged by topic, including The Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebiim), and the Writings
(Ketubim). The first letters of these Hebrew words - T, N and K -- form the name of the Hebrew
Bible - the Tanakh. 1
Beginning as early as 250 BC, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek by Jewish scholars in
Alexandria, Egypt. This translation became known as the "Septuagint", meaning 70, and referring
to the tradition that 70 (probably 72) men comprised the translation team. It was during this
process that the order of the books was changed to the order we have in today's Bible: Historical
(Genesis - Esther), poetic (Job - Song of Songs), and prophetic (Isaiah - Malachi). 2
Although the Jewish Scriptures were copied by hand, they were extremely accurate copy to copy. The
Jews had a phenomenal system of scribes, who developed intricate and ritualistic methods for counting
letters, words and paragraphs to insure that no copying errors were made. These scribes dedicated
their entire lives to preserving the accuracy of the holy books. A single copy error would require
the immediate destruction of the entire scroll. In fact, Jewish scribal tradition was maintained until
the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400's AD. As far as manuscript accuracy, the recent
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has confirmed the remarkable reliability of this scribal system over
thousands of years. 3
After approximately 400 years of scriptural silence, Jesus arrived on the scene in about 4 BC. Throughout
his teaching, Jesus often quotes the Old Testament, declaring that he did not come to destroy the Jewish
Scriptures, but to fulfill them. In the Book of Luke, Jesus proclaims to his disciples, "all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." 4
Starting in about 40 AD, and continuing to about 90 AD, the eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus, including
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter and Jude, wrote the Gospels, letters and books that became
the Bible's New Testament. These authors quote from 31 books of the Old Testament, and widely circulate
their material so that by about 150 AD, early Christians were referring to the entire set of writings as
the "New Covenant." During the 200s AD, the original writings were translated from Greek into Latin, Coptic
(Egypt) and Syriac (Syria), and widely disseminated as "inspired scripture" throughout the Roman Empire (and
beyond). 5 In 397 AD, in an effort to protect the scriptures from various heresies and offshoot religious
movements, the current 27 books of the New Testament were formally and finally confirmed and "canonized"
in the Synod of Carthage. 6
King James Bible - The History
The King James Bible, published in 1611, was England's authorized version of the Bible translated from the
original Hebrew and Greek languages into English at the request of King James I of England. At the time, other
English Bibles existed, but King James did not like the most popular translation, the Geneva Bible, because he
felt that some of the marginal notes encouraged disobedience to kings. So when a Puritan scholar, Dr. John Reynolds,
suggested a new English translation of the Bible at a 1604 conference of bishops and theologians at Hampton Court
Palace, King James readily agreed. By June of 1604, fifty-four of England's foremost scholars and linguists were
formed into six panels to translate particular groups of Old Testament and New Testament books and the Aprocrypha
(the Aprocrypha was dropped from later editions) into English. Even though King James agreed to the new Bible translation,
and the translators dedicated their work "to the most high and mighty prince James," the King James Version was never
officially recognized by the king, nor was it ever authorized as the only text permitted to be read in church. Despite
this, it soon replaced both the Bishops' Bible and the Geneva Bible in popularity and became the leading text for
private use.
King James Bible - The Translators
Of the original 54 men chosen to translate the King James Bible, only 47 finished the more than seven-year project, which
was governed by very strict rules of translation. The translators were scholarly men who were experts in the biblical
languages, and they were convinced of the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Dr. Henry M. Morris, President of the
Institute for Creation Research, said of these men, "It is almost certain that no group of Bible scholars before or since
has ever been as thoroughly fit for their task as was the King James Translation Team."
The planning of the translation project stipulated that the translators should be broken up into six panels, and each panel
was given certain books of the Bible to translate. After the translations were done, a committee of 12-two translators from
each of the six panels-reviewed the work based on a detailed set of guidelines that was established to ensure that the
translators' personal eccentricities and political prejudices were not included in this new version.
King James Bible - The Purpose
The King James Bible was developed to be read out loud at church services, so in light of this, the translators gave diligent
attention to rhythm and punctuation to give the text a fresh oral quality that no other translations to date could match. These
men were so dedicated to their task of translating the Bible into the common language of the people that they included the
following in the Bible's preface entitled, "The Translators to the Reader:"
Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that
putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most Holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come
by the water, even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban were watered.
King James Bible - Comparison to the Original Manuscripts
The King James Version translation effort was based primarily on the Bishops' Bible, but the translators also used the Tyndale,
Matthew, Coverdale, Great, and Geneva Bibles; and because many of the translators were skilled in both Hebrew and Greek, they
could also refer to the Masoretic text (Hebrew Old Testament) and the Septuagint (Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures) during
their work. If all of the Bibles listed here were traced back to their origins (a work beyond the scope of this writing) the
path would lead directly back to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments that exist today.
Because its translators strove for accuracy, beauty, power, and literal faithfulness to the Greek and Hebrew texts, the King
James Bible has endured as one of the most beloved translations for centuries. In fact, it was unrivaled in its first 250 years.
In 1881, 50 scholars developed the English Revised Version, and they had this to say about the King James Version:
We have had to study this great Version carefully and minutely, line by line; and the longer we have been engaged upon it
the more we have learned to admire its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy,
and, we must not fail to add, the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm.
The King James Bible is still found in many homes and churches today, and it is living proof that the beauty and inerrancy of
God's Word has been safeguarded over the centuries.
Footnotes
1 Henry H. Halley, Halley's Bible Handbook, 25th ed., Zondervan Publishing House, 2000, 1071. Return to text
2 Ibid. Return to text
3 Various, Zondervan Handbook to the Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, 1999, 64-65. Return to text
4 Luke 24:44, The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982. Return to text
5 F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th rev. ed., Intervarsity Press, 1960, 21-28. Return to text
6 Ibid., 27. Return to text
|
|
