“Basic Baptist Doctrine, Lesson 3”
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Bethel MBC

Basic Baptist Doctrine

January 23, 2008

From a lesson taught by Elder Aaron Hood

10/23.2001 at Calvary MBC

The English Bible:
 The Source of our Doctrine

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Definitions:

a. Translation – Implies the rendering from one language to another of something spoken or written

b. Version – Applied to a particular translation of a particular work.  i.e. The King James Version

c. Canon – Refers to the list of individual books that were eventually judged as authoritative and included as part of the Old and New Testaments  (canonical = “Ke non’ eh kal”)

d. Codex – The forerunner of the modern book.  A codex was formed by folding several sheets of papyrus in the middle and sewing them together along the fold.  More convenient for reading than the SCROLL, the codex could be written on both sides.

OUR BIBLE

ü      66 books (39 OT, 27 NT)

ü      Originally written in 3 languages: OT in Hebrew and Aramaic (parts of Daniel and Ezra) a sister language to Hebrew / NT in ancient Greek

ü      First 5 books (Pentateuch) written approx 1446 B.C. and over the next 1000 years to the last OT book in 444 B.C.

ü      400 silent years between the last OT book and the coming of Christ / NT

ü      RE: the NT, the primary standard applied to a book was that it must be written either by an apostle or by someone close to the apostles.  This ensured an eyewitness account of the things being written.  None of the books written after the death of the apostles were included in the NT.  The canon of the NT was closed in a series of church councils. 

ü      Narratives of the life and ministry of Christ were repeated orally for two or three decades before they were written down (first was the Gospel of Mark 64 A.D.) – 30 years after Christ left. 

ü      None of the original biblical documents – bearing the handwriting of any of the biblical authors – has survived or been discovered.  We do have copies which were passed down and ultimately, they were what our translations are based upon.

ü      Apocrypha, a term coined by the 5^th century biblical scholar Saint Jerome for the biblical books received by the church of his time as part of the Greek version of the OT (“Septuagint” which means 70, as 70 scholars were involved in the work upon it), but not included in the Hebrew Bible.  Written between the OT and NT.  Jesus never quoted from them or made reference to them.  The Apocrypha includes the books: Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Sirach, Baruch, Bel and the Dragon, and the two books of the Maccabees.  Also generally included are the two books of Esdras, additions to the book of Esther, additions to the book of Daniel, and the prayer of Manasseh.  Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians include all the Apocrypha in the biblical canon, except for the two books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh.  The Apocrypha was in the Septuagint, which Jesus, the apostles, and the early church used. 

Passing Down the Scriptures

ü      Obviously no printing presses, copiers, etc were available in these times.  All done by hand.

ü      Jewish scribes utilized.  Very strict rules and very serious.

ü      The Talmud (book of Jewish law) outlines how a scribe was to write the letters of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Torah). Could only be written in square letters called K’tav Ashuri. Had to be precise and consistent.

ü      The purpose of the law was to protect the scriptures from variants and errors.

ü      Only could use certain materials (no metals used for weapons could be used) and parchment and ink had to be perfect.

ü      Scribe had to speak and sing aloud each word as he wrote it.

ü      Washed their hands before each session and prayed.  Before writing God’s name Jehovah, they had to clean their pen and wash their entire body in a pool of natural running water.

ü      Not allowed to write anything from memory

ü      Once a page was complete, it had to be counted and compared to the original.  Each letter had to be clear, legible, and no 2 letters could touch.  If ONE error was found, the whole page had to be re-done.

ü      Once each sheet was completed, it had to be checked by 3 rabbis before being sewed together with the other sheets to form a Torah scroll (1 scroll = 250 individual sheets and would be up to 10 yards long!)

ü      Reviewed again in 30 days.  If one or two errors were found, they could be corrected and the scroll used.  Three or more and the entire scroll would be deemed unfit for use. 

ü      Old and worn out scrolls were dangerous (faded and smudged), but because they wouldn’t destroy scriptures, they would be buried in a special hiding place called a genizah.

ü      Later, people began to question whether all copies had errors; however, in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found (written about 100 B.C.) by a shepherd boy looking for a lost goat and they verified the accuracy of the scribes work.  Compared to the Masoretic Text (1000 A.D.), they matched 99% of the time!

Sacrifice of the Martyrs

Many people have suffered for and even given their lives for the Bible as we have it today.  Here are a few of the more prominent people involved in this process,

The Dark Ages

• As the Universal church grew, clergy became corrupt and began to take the Word of God out of the hands of the common people.
• Rather than translating the Bible into the vernacular, the Universal church locked it up in Latin, which the common man could not read.  Thus, people were forced to rely upon what the priest told them the Bible said.
• Clergy used this practice to force people into buying indulgencies (and got rich!).  They also taught transubstantiation of the bread and fruit of the vine as well as salvation by works.
• They also persecuted those who attempted to translate the Bible into English.

JOHN WYCLIFFE

• 1300s – “Morning Star of the Reformation”
• Spoke out against the abuses of the Catholics
• Teacher at Oxford
• Convinced that every man, woman, and child had the right to read God’s Word in their own language
• Translated first English version in 1382
• No printing presses existed, so he and an assistant copied by hand – took 10 months for one person to make one complete copy
•  “Lollards” were his followers. Left their life and went to spread the gospel in English.
• Universal church set out to kill them, making it illegal to teach or have the Bible in English
• If caught, Lollards were tortured and burned at  the stake
•  44 years after Wycliffe’s death, Catholics still furious with him, dug up his bones, burned them and dumped them into the river Thames along with his writings.

WILLIAM TYNDALE

"The Reformation Bibles" The Coverdale Bible

In 1535, Henry VIIIs Secretary of State, Cromwell, asked Myles Coverdale to prepare a new translation since Henry would never sanction Tyndale's New Testament.

Coverdale was not the scholar that Tyndale was. He used Tyndale's New Testament and those portions of the Old Testament that Tyndale had translated and filled in the other areas with either the Latin Vulgate or the German translations.

The Matthews Bible

John Rogers, who had been entrusted by Tyndale with most of his manuscripts, prepared an edition of Tyndale's New Testament and his own translation of the Old Testament as far as 2 Chronicles.  But fearful that King Henry might discover the connection between the two Bibles, he printed under thepseudonym of Thomas Matthews. In 1537, a copy of the Bible was passed to Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and then to Thomas Cromwell who submitted to Henry VIII for approval and permission. The king scanned the book, thinking it might be a useful instrument to weaken the grip of Rome on England and declared his permission to print it.

The king did not see the large initials "W.T." that Rogers had placed at the end of the Old Testament in recognition of William Tyndale's contributions. He did not realize the Bible had any connection with the hated Tyndale, and so he gave the Bible his blessing.

No longer forced to be sold on the black market and smuggled into England, a Bible in the English language, the Matthews Bible, was now printed with the king's authorization.

But freedom for the English Bible did not last long. When Mary Tutor ("Bloody Mary") came to the throne and restored the Catholic religion, the first martyr to be burned at the stake was John Rogers. His crime - printing the Bible in the English language. Once again, the English Bible would be outlawed.

The Great Bible

With the king's permission, in 1539 Cromwell (Henry VIII Secretary of State) arranged for a Bible to be printed in France where they had a superior printing press and much finer paper.  The large size of the pages (9" x 15") and beautiful lettering caused the name "The Great Bible." English Bibles were so valuable that it was also called the "Chain Bible" because it was frequently chained to the pulpits to deter theft.  Within two years over 20,000 copies had been sold. Every church in England was required to buy one and it remained the primary English Bible for use in churches for 20 years.  It was the last Bible printed in the reign of Henry VII and was authorized by the king.  What irony that King Henry at first burned and persecuted the English Bible (Tyndale), then tolerated it (Coverdale Bible), then permitted it (Matthew Bible) and finally commanded it (Great Bible).

The Geneva Bible

In 1553, after more than 20 years of Protestant domination, Mary Tudor took the throne in England. She was the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, and she quickly brought back the yoke of papal authority and the old religion with a vengeance.

She married Phillip H of Spain- a powerful Catholic monarch who aided her plans to return England to the fold of the Catholic Church.

A flood of migration to Europe began as many reformers left all behind for a safer climate. Soon Geneva became filled with the deans and bishops of England and Scotland- men like John Knox, Miles Coverdale, and John Calvin. In Geneva, these great reformers "could think of nothing which could be more acceptable to God and as comfortable to His Church, than in the translating of the Scriptures into our native tongue." These men began pouring over every detail of the texts available as they painstakingly produced a Bible of such quality that it never needed to be revised. One advantage at this point was that they had more manuscripts available to them. Their method of translation worked so well that the translators of the King James Bible later adopted it. The Geneva Bible was printed in 1560 A.D. and became immediately popular with the common people. It had more than 160 editions being printed as late as 1644 .

It was the first Bible to be divided into verses and contained marginal notes largely Calvinistic as well as anti-papal.

The Geneva Bible was the first English Bible in use in America, landing with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and used at the early settlement of Jamestown.

The Bishop's Bible

With the early providential death of Bloody Mary Tudor in 1558, the final hope of the Pope and the Catholic Church to control England died with her.  Over 300 men, women, and children had been burned at the stake for refusing to deny their faith and return to the Catholic Church. Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VJJI and Anne Boleyn, had been raised Protestant and she quietly returned England back to the Protestant fold.  The common people had a Bible in then- own language that lifted them from the dark depths of ignorance into the light of the truth of God's Word. They would never be the same.  Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, organized a committee of bishops to undertake a new translation of the Bible that would not undermine their authority as the Geneva did — therefore, the name "The Bishop's Bible".

**The King James Bible**

In 1603, King James VI of Scotland succeeded Queen Elizabeth and took the throne in England as King James I. The stage was set for a translation of the Bible that, together with Shakespeare, would have a great influence on the English language and become the most cherished Bible translation of all time.

James I had been brought up with anti-Catholic convictions, and before he even took the throne in London he was approached by a group of puritans with the "Millenary Petition." This petition requested Church reform, and was signed by 800 clergy. The petition prompted the King to call for a conference in 1604 at Hampton Court to address concerns for reform. It was at this Hampton Court conference Dr. John Reynolds, an influential educator and leader among puritans, presented a strong case for the need of a new translation of the Bible in English. The Bishop's Bible was the standard in churches, but the Geneva was the most popular translation for private use. The Bishop's was of inferior quality as a translation, so Reynolds urged the King to either make the Geneva Bible the authorized version of England, or set about the task of creating a better translation. King James, as well as others in England at the time, were not in favor of the Geneva because of its Calvinist commentary. For one thing, he felt some of the notes allowed for disobedience to kings- a marginal note for Exodus 1:9 says that Hebrew midwives were correct in disobeying the Egyptian king, for instance. The bishop of London, Richard Bancroft, was not in favor of a new translation, but consented that if a new translation was to be undertaken, marginal notes must be kept to a minimum. On this the King agreed.

On July 22, 1604, King James announced a decision that history would show was the greatest and most memorable of his reign: a new translation of the Bible was to be undertaken and he had appointed 54 scholars for the project. The translation was to be a collaborative work, something which was not true of any English Bible that had gone before. Futhermore, detailed guidelines were set forth for the translation process. The group of scholars and linguists (numbering 47 by the time the translation was begun) was divided into six committees. Two committees would work at Oxford, two at Cambridge, and two in Westminster and each committee was assigned books of the Bible to translate. The scholars were proficient in Hebrew and Greek, and used the Massoretic text of the Complutensian Polyglot (1514-1517) for the Old Testament. For the New Testament they used the Textus Receptus published by Estienne, Beza, and Stephanus from 1550 onward. Technically, they were not supposed to create a new English translation, "but make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principle good one." Therefore they not only looked at the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, but carefully consulted prior English translations, especially the Geneva and Tyndale.

The Catholic religion was also an enemy of King James. Papists (as King James called them) attempted to assassinate him a number of times. Most notably, in 1605 Roman Catholic Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament when the king was to have been present. The conspiracy was discovered and all co-conspirators were executed. This failed attempt is celebrated on November 5 in England each year and is known as Guy Fawkes Night.

The reason the King James Version is so rich in the nobility of its language is that the translators were careful to make it so. The text was to be used at church services and read aloud, so the translators would read their versions aloud to one another, and rewrite again and again to achieve the best emphasis of punctuation and the best rhythm in prose. It took three years for the committees of scholars to complete the translation. Then, two scholars were selected for each committee to form a review committee of twelve, and three more years were spent reviewing and revising the work. After another nine months preparing the Bible for press, it was ready to be printed by the King's Printer, Robert Barker.

The First Edition was published in London in 1611 in a black-letter folio (10.25" x 15.5"). The "1611 First Edition" actually has two versions, called "He" Bibles and "She" Bibles. The "He" editions have Ruth 3:15 rendered as "he went into the city, while the "She" editions read, "she went into the city." Despite the careful translation process of the King James, numerous typographical errors appear in the First Edition "He" and "She" Bibles. The 1613 Edition is similar to the 1611, but there are over 400 variations in the text, mostly because of typographical mistakes. Nevertheless, the King James was an instant success, immediately replacing the Bishop's as the version of choice in churches and for public reading. By the 1650's, it also surpassed the Geneva as the most commonly used translation for personal Bible reading as well. The King James Version is commonly called the "Authorized Version," but in reality King James never declared it the official Bible of England. Yet his approval of the Bible, its eloquence in language, and its scholarly translation made it the indisputable authority as the Word of God. It was over 250 years before a revision of the text was attempted, when the English Revised Version was published. Even the editors of that version said of the King James, "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..." Today, nearly four hundred years after its first printing, it is still greatly loved for its artistic beauty and inspirational translation of the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

Even as the Bible is a precious treasure, the King James Bible is a treasure among Bible translations. No work of English literature has sold more copies or been so widely used. It is a masterpiece of literary art, an achievement of Biblical scholarship, a memorial to martyr sacrifices, a landmark to the birth of a nation, and a testimony to God's love.

Below is an excerpt of The Nativity according to Luke, first in Old English, then in Middle English (two translations, about 225 years apart). If you look at them carefully, you can see the similarities ~ and the striking differences. Those who know German or a Scandinavian language can see why English is called a sister language of German. Also, there was a time back in the Old English period when the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic) and English were mutually understandable. English is certainly the one that has broken farther away from the other four (Scandinavians can still pretty much understand each other's dialects), but the strong influence of Latin (mostly through the church and scholars) and the Norman invasion of England brought about significant changes in the language, as did a host of smaller influences.

The Nativity was chosen because the gospels are available in all three "languages".

Old English

Soblice on bam dagum wass geworden gebod fram bam casereAugusto, bast eall ymbehwyrft wasre tomearcod. I>eos tomearcodneswass asryst geworden fram bam deman Syrige Cirino. And ealle hig eodon,and syndrige ferdon on hyra ceastre. Da ferde losep fram Galilea of basreceastre Nazareth on ludeisce ceastre Dauides, seo is genemned Bethleem, for bam be he wass of Dauides huse and hirede; bast he ferde mid Marianbe him beweddod wass, and wass geeacnod. Soblice wass geworden ba hi bar wasron, hire dagas wasron gefyllede bast heo cende. And heo cende hyre frumcennedan sunu, and hine mid cildclabum bewand, and hine on binne alede, for pam be hig nasfdon rum on cumena huse. And hyrdas wasron on bam ylcan rice waciende, and nihtwasccan healdende ofer heora heorda. ]?a stod Drihtnes engel wip hig, and Godes beorhtnes him ymbe scean; and hi him niycelum ege adredon. And se engel him to cwasS, Nelle ge eow adrasdan; soblice mi ic eow bodie mycelne gefean, se bi5 eallum folce; for bam to dasg eow ys Haslend acenned, se is Drihten Crist, on Dauides ceastre. And bis tacen eow by5: Ge gemeta5 an cild hrasglum bewunden, and on binne aled. And ba wass fasringa geworden mid bam engle mycelnes heofenlices werydes, God heriendra and bus cwebendra, Gode sy wuldor on heahnesse, and on eor5an sybb mannum godes willan.

Middle English

(translation by John Wvcliffe. c. 1380-83)

And it was don in tho daies, a maundement wente out fro the emperour August, thatal the world schulde be discryued. This firste discryuyng was maad of Cyryn, iustice of Sirie. And alle men wenten to make professioun, ech in to his owne citee. And Joseph went vp fro Galilee, fro the citee Nazareth, in to Judee, in to a citee of Dauid, that is clepid Bethleem, for that he was of the hous and of the meyne of Dauid, that he schulde knouleche with Marie, his wijf, that was weddid to hym, and was greet with child. And it was don, while thei weren there, the daies were fulfillid, that sche schulde bere child. And sche bare hir first borun sone, and wlappide hym in clothis, and leide hym in a cratche, for ther was no place to hym in no chaumbir. And scheepherdis weren in the same cuntre, wakynge and kepynge the watchis of the nygt on her flok. And lo! the aungel of the Lord stood bisidis hem, and the cleernesse of God schinede aboute hem; and thei dredden with greet drede. And the aungel seide to hem, Nyle ye drede; for lo! Y preche to you a greet ioye, that schal be to al puple. For a sauyoure is borun to dai to you, that is Crist the Lord, in the citee of Dauid. And this is a tokene to you; ye schulen fynde a yong child wlappid in clothis, and leid in a cratche. And sudenli ther was maad with the aungel a multitude of heuenli knygthod, heriynge God, and seiynge, Glorie be in the higeste thingis to God, and in erthe pees be to men of good wille.

(King James version, c. 1604)

And it came to passe in those dayes, that there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was gouemor of Syria) And all went to bee taxed, euery one into his owne citie. And Joseph also went vp fro Galilee, out of the citie of Nazareth, into Judea, vnto the citie of Dauid, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and linage of Dauid,) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that while they were there, the dayes were accomplished that she should be deliuered. And she brought foorth her first borne sonne, and wrapped him in swadling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no roome for them in the Inne. And there were in the same countrey shepheards abiding in y field, keeping watch ouer their flocke by night. And loe, the Angel of the Lord came vpon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the Angel said vnto them, Feare not: For behold, I bring you good tidings of great ioy, which shall be to all people. For vnto you is bome this day, in the citie of Dauid, a Sauiour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a signe vnto you; yee shall find the babe wrapped in swadling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heauenly hoste praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.

Chronology of Major English Translations of the Bible

The English Bible in Manuscript (translated from Latin)

A laundry list of English language Bibles may be found in the back portion of a Thompson Chain reference Bible.  Specifically, listing #4220 and pages 1586-1588.