How we Got the'Bible

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 August 1912, Page 3

How we Got the' Bible

A very interesting address was given on Sunday 17th at the Church of Christ. Mr Milner first pointed out how the Hebrew manuscripts has been perserved by the Jewish Massorites. They were a body of people who invented the Massorch which ia found in all the oldest Hebrew codices, it consists of an ingenious method of references which lock every word and line in its place so that the text could be reproduced in all its purity by anyone following its gui ianee. This careful transcribing continued until the end of the 9th century and since our oldest Hebrew manuscripts date back that far, we may rest assured, that we have fairly correct copies cf what was said by "holy men speaking as they were moved by the Holy Spirit". Now I must deal with the Aprocrypha, that is the 5 books the Roman Church adds to the 0. T. In the 4th century Latin versions grew so fast and be^ came so corrupt that the Roman Bishop and Damasus asked Jerome to translate a copy of the scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, This he did and it is noteworthy that he purposelj excluded the aprocrypha books by name, yet remarkable as it may seem, Rome will persist in sticking to those books. " The oracles of God were delivered to the Jews' and they always had the same books we have to-day, the early church had them. Miletus in the Ist century enumerates a list agreeing with ouis, this is quoted by Eusebius the Church historian who also tells us that Origen adheres to the Jewish canon : we have the testimony of Hillary, Cyrprian and Cyril, and all this is admitted by the great Roman controversialist Bellarmine. The speaker then referred to list of Roman Divines who rejected the Aprocrypha, especial]y commenting upon Cardinal Cajetan, the champion of Romanism and enemy of Luther, who ends his commentary on the 0. T. with these words, " Here we end our commentaries on the Historical books of the Old Test' amenta : for the remainder, Judith, Tobitt and the books of Maccabees, are not included by St Jerome among canonical books, but are placed along with Wisdom andjEcclesiasticus among the Aprocrypha " He uses similar language in several of his works, notably in a dedicatory epistle to Pope Clement VII, which received the latter's aprobation, and therefore Jerome's canon, which is the Jewish and Protestant canon, was recognised by the Roman Pontiff himself : Yet 12 years later they, at the Council of Trent, pronounced a curse upon all who rejected the Aprocrypha. Large reference was then made to the writings of the Fathers of the Church, including Polycarp, Justin Martin, Irenaeous, Cyprian, Clement, Tertullian, Origen and Eusebius, all of whom quote copiousely from the scriptures including every book which we have now and excluding all other?. Origen quotes some 6000 times and quotes every book in the N.T, Dr Treggelles says two thirds of the latter can be reproduced from hip, extant writing alone. In the year A. D. 331 the Emperor Constantino aakcd Eusebius to make 50 carefully transcribed copies of tha scriptures and in 1844 Dr Tischendorf discovered one of those very manuscripts in a convent at the foot of Mt Sinai. The corruptions of the latin versions were again referred to, it was pointed out that for ten centuries these versions held sway, the greek copies being lost sight of, that the faries and monks of the Roman Church kept the bible from the people who they kept in superstition and ignorance. But m the 14th century there was the great ' breaking: up of the Roman power, Wycliffe dared to produce the bible in English, for which he was bitterly persecuted and many who read hip bock were burned with it about their neck. A Bill was introduced, in Paiv liament to prevent the bible being circulated in English, but the sturdy John of Gaunt defended the rights of the people and it failed. Soon after printing was discovered and the greek language was greatly revived, then Tyndale was born and he became a great scholar. Being educated at Oxford afterwards moving to Cambridge he met Eiasinus who had just written a Greek testament. "With this work Tyndale became su enamoured that ne determined to translate it for the English people. To do this he had to nee to the continent and at Worms in 1529 his bible was printed, and now the problem was how to get it into England, for every port was watched and they had to smuggle the copies in,many of which were sei/ed and thousands burned by the Bishop of London at St Pauls Cross. This is how the Church, who claim to have given us the bible-triad to keep it from you but they oould no more suppress it than they could keep the sun from shining. In 1536 TyndiJe was burned at the stake, this is how the Church treated the one who gave us the bible. The Martyr's dying prayer, " Lord open the eyes of the King of England " was wonderfully answered, for three years later the king authorised the bible which was virtually a revision of Tyn dales work, 52 years later there was issued the authorised version which is used to this day, and in 1884 the revised version, which had the advantage of having access to three very old Greek mauuscripts. all of which helped us to obtain a purer copy of the original Scriptures.