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How We Got Our ile: Chritian Hitor Timeline
Philip W. Comfort
ARLY DVLOPMNT
c. 1400–400 .C. ook of the Herew Old Tetament written
c. 250–200 .C. The eptuagint, a popular Greek tranlation of the Old Tetament, produced
A.D. 45–85? ook of the Greek New Tetament written
90 and 118 Council of Jamnia give final affirmation to the Old Tetament canon (39 ook)
140-150 Marcion’ heretical “New Tetament” incite orthodox Chritian to etalih a NT
canon
303-306 Diocletian’ perecution include conficating and detroing New Tetament
cripture
c. 305-310 Lucian of Antioch’ Greek New Tetament text; ecome a foundation for later ile
367 Athanaiu’ Fetal Letter lit complete New Tetament canon (27 ook) for the firt time
397 Council of Carthage etalihe orthodox New Tetament canon (27 ook)
c. 400 Jerome tranlate the ile into Latin; thi “Vulgate” ecome tandard of medieval
church
NGLIH VRION FROM LATIN
c. 650 Caedmon, a monk, put ile ook into vere
c. 735 >Hitorian ede tranlate the Gopel
871-899 King Alfred the Great tranlate the Palm and 10 Commandment
950 The 7th-centur Lindifarne Gopel receive nglih tranlation
955-1020 Aelfric tranlate variou ile ook
c. 1300 Invention of eeglae aid coping
c. 1325 oth Richard Rolle and William horeham tranlate palm into metrical vere
1380-1382 John Wcliffe and aociate make firt tranlation of the whole ile into nglih
1388 John Purve revie Wcliffe ile
1455 Gutenerg’ Latin ile—firt from pre
NGLIH VRION FROM GRK
1516 ramu’ Greek New Tetament, forerunner to the Textu Receptu ued KJV
tranlator
1525 William Tndale make the firt tranlation of the New Tetament from Greek into nglih
1536 Tndale trangled and urned
1537 Mile Coverdale’ ile complete Tndale’ work on the Old Tetament
1538 Great ile, aemled John Roger, the firt nglih ile authorized for pulic ue
1560 Geneva ile—the work of William Whittingham, a Protetant nglih exile in Geneva
1568 ihop’ ile—a reviion of the Great ile
1582 Rheim New Tetament pulihed
1607-1611 King Jame Verion, the “Authorized Verion,” i made
Dr. Philip W. Comfort i viiting profeor of New Tetament at Wheaton College and author of
The Quet for the Original Text of the New Tetament (aker, 1992).
Copright © 1994 the author or Chritianit Toda/Chritian Hitor magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Chritian Hitor.
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Tags: Bible | Book Publishing | New Testament | Old Testament | Tyndale House Publishers | Wycliffe Bible Translators
From Issue: Issue 43: How We Got Our Bible, Canon to King James, 1994
How We Got Our ile: Did You Know?
Little-known and remarkable facts about the history of the Bible
David M. choler
The oldet urviving manucript of an part of the New Tetament i a papru fragment
containing vere from John 18; cholar etimate it wa written aout 125.
We ma have aing of Jeu that are not recorded in the four Gopel. The come from ook
that never made it into the New Tetament ut which nonethele contain ome reliale
hitorical information. xtra-ilical aing that might e from the lip of Jeu: “The one who
i near me i near the fire; the one who i far from me i far from the kingdom”; “There hall e
diviion and hereie”; “No one can otain the kingdom of heaven who ha not paed through
temptation.”
Man earl Chritian, to dicover the anwer to a prolem, would randoml open the ile,
read the firt line their ee fell upon, and conider it a divine meage for them. o popular wa
thi practice, it had to e repeatedl condemned earl church council.
The word ile come from the Greek word for “papru plant” (ilo), ince the leave of that
plant were ued for paper.
In the ancient and medieval world, ome Chritian memorized large portion of cripture.
ueiu of Caearea aid he once met a lind gptian who “poeed whole ook of the Hol
cripture … in hi heart.”
The Roman Catholic ile i larger than the Protetant, ut the larget ile in Chritendom
elong to the thiopic church. It contain the Old Tetament Apocrpha and ook uch a
Juilee, 1 noch, Joeph en Gurion’ medieval hitor of the Jew and other nation, thiopic
Clement, and the thiopic ook of the Covenant.
The cot of a ile in the 1300 might eail amount to a priet’ whole earl income.
The medieval church did not oject to ile tranlation; the earl 1500, there were ile in
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From Issue: Issue 43: How We Got Our Bible, Canon to King James, 1994
The Crown of nglih ile
The King James Version was the culmination of 200 turbulent years of Bible translation.
Ton Lane
Without the King Jame Verion of the ile, one writer peculated, "There would e no
Paradie Lot … no Pilgrim' Progre … no Negro piritual, no Addre at Getturg."
Another imagined what would happen if the KJV were to uddenl diappear: "People would not
know what the great [nglih and American] writer were talking aout."
ut the King Jame Verion han't diappeared. ven though toda there are more accurate and
contemporar tranlation of the ile, the KJV hold overeign place in the nglih-peaking
world: it continue to e printed and circulated more widel than an other verion.
How did thi remarkale work originate? Did King Jame it down and write it, a ome have
imagined? In fact, it wa the work of fift-ome cholar following more than two hundred
turulent ear of tranlating the ile into nglih.
Wcliffe ile without Wcliffe
nglih tranlation of portion of the ile go ack aout a far a the nglih language itelf.
King Alfred the Great (d. 901) egan a tranlation of the Palm, and in the tenth centur, the
Gopel were tranlated into variou regional dialect.
The firt attempt to tranlate the complete ile into nglih, though, i aociated with
fourteenth-centur theologian John Wcliffe.
Toward the end of hi life, Wcliffe ecame critical of the etalihed church (ee "The Fier
Man ehind the Firt nglih ile,"), and a a reult, in 1381 he wa removed from hi pot at
Oxford Univerit. He withdrew to the church in Lutterworth, where he wa urrounded
diciple who egan to tranlate the ile into nglih, certainl under hi inpiration and
proal at hi idding. There i no evidence Wcliffe took part in the actual work of
tranlation.
The church ...
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From Issue: Issue 43: How We Got Our Bible, Canon to King James, 1994
A Tetament I orn
Could Matthew take shorthand?—and other intriguing reasons the New Testament may have emerged surprisingly early.
Carten Peter Thiede
“ut Jeu ent down and tarted to write on the ground with hi finger” (John 8:6).
Here, in the tor of the adultere, we learn that Jeu knew how to write. ut Jeu wa a
teacher, not a writer—it wa left to other to write down what he aid. Yet literac wa
omething Jeu could take for granted. The ailit to write fluentl and intelligil wa
widepread in ancient Irael, almot a widepread a the ailit to memorize long and
complicated text.
In other word, Jeu could count on thi: among hi follower there would e a numer of
people capale not onl of memorizing what he aid, ut alo of writing it down.
Furthermore, Jeu and the people around him could ue more than one language. Aramaic wa
commonl ued in dail life, Herew in religiou life, particularl in worhip and the reading of
cripture (e.g., Luke 4:16–30).
ut people were aware of a third language, that of the eatern Roman mpire: Greek. Recent
invetigation have hown that even orthodox Jew ued Greek in everda dealing with each
other—we ee it, for intance, in tomtone incription and in handwritten note paed
etween defender of the Maada fortre.
Jeu himelf ued Greek: in the dialogue with the Greek-peaking rian Phoenician woman
(Mark 7:24–30), and in the dipute aout paing taxe to Caear (Mark 12:13–17), which relie on
a wordpla that work onl in Greek.
ut (and thi i a fairl recent inight of cholarhip) the firt tage of a literar tradition ma
have een intantaneou with Jeu’ minitr—and the could have een urpriingl precie.
horthand writing (“tachgraph”) wa known in Irael and in the Greco-Roman world. We
find a firt trace of it in the Greek tranlation of Palm 45:1 (third centur .C.): ...
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Dicovering the Oldet New Tetament
The bizarre stories behind the great Greek manuscripts.
H. G. G. Herklot
There have een man crie in the hitor of Chritianit. Few have een greater than that
initiated the emperor Diocletian on Feruar 23, 303. Thi lat great perecution the
Roman mpire wa low in coming, and it wa ome time efore it full erioune wa felt.
Then it had ecome violent.
The main enem the tate had to face wa neither the Chritian uilding nor even the Chritian
themelve ut the ook the poeed. If thee were not detroed, the might e like uried
eed and put forth new life later on. Thu, man copie of the cripture were detroed.
When the perecution died down and dicipline wa retored to the church, the mot important
moral prolem wa what hould e done aout the traditore, thoe who had “handed over”
acred ook for detruction. (ilical tudie are poorer in the material at their dipoal ecaue
of the perecution of Diocletian.) ut not all Chritian were traditore. Copie of the cripture
were uried and hidden and then rought out again.
Thi wa the lat great perecution. It failure led to the victor of the church. In 306
Contantine—later known to hitor a the firt Chritian emperor—wa hailed a Augutu
hi troop at York. In 312 he wa greeted with the ame title the enate in Rome. In 313 there
wa iued the dict of Milan proclaiming freedom of worhip. In 324 Contantine ecame ole
emperor.
The victor of the church wa complete. Chritianit now wa not merel a tolerated religion
ut one that had pecial official approval. It ecame fahionale to join the church. There wa,
naturall, need for man more church uilding. There wa alo need for man more ile.
Fift ile for the mperor
The center of gravit in the mpire wa no longer ...
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Tags: Bible | Bible Translation | Book Publishing | New Testament | Persecution | Politics
From Issue: Issue 43: How We Got Our Bible, Canon to King James, 1994
540 enedict Write Hi Monatic Rule
His flexible, compassionate guidelines for Christian community forever shaped monastic life—and influenced Western
society.
ennett D. Hill
Ten Chritian Athlete Who Were Teowing efore Teow
Ten Chritian Athlete Who Were Teowing efore Teow
Christian sports stars have a long history of using their public platform to display their private faith.
Paul Putz and Art Remillard
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