DOWN THROUGH THE AGES

Text: Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Intro: The Bible is God, expressing Himself to man. He promised that His word would endure and by the power of God it has endured in spite of Satan and sinful men! Not only has it endured, but the preaching of it is as powerful today as ever!

I. The beginning of the Scripture

A. Not written by men who were writers by trade, but rather by a host of different men of different occupations.

To name a few:

David and Solomon - Kings

Moses -A Jew by birth, Egyptian Prince by adoption, a shepherd by necessity, leader of Israel by the power of God.

Daniel - A captive made Prime minister in Babylon

Ezekiel - A Priest

Amos - A Gatherer of figs

Matthew - A Tax-Collector

Luke - A Physician

Paul - A Lawyer

Peter - A fisherman

II The reverence of the Hebrew scribes.

Each word and each letter counted. Always wiped their pen before writing the name of God in any form and bathed completely before the most holy name, ‘Jehovah’. Completed document was examined and destroyed if ONE mistake was found!

III The Translations of the Scripture

A. Septuagint - 70 translators - original Hebrew to Greek

B. Latin Vulgate - ‘commonly used’ 384 a d

C. Parts translated into English by different men but no complete English translation till Wycliffe. From Latin Vulgate into English.

D. Tyndale - 1530 - 1536? A result of the desire to free man’s minds and souls from the bondage of Rome. Tyndale’s last words: "Lord, open the king of England’s eyes."

E. The Great Bible - 1539- Three years after Tyndale died, this bible, ( a ’revision’ of sorts of Tyndale’s) was decreed to be ‘set up upon every church door!’ Multitudes would assemble just to hear the word read. Boys left their games to hear and old folks learned to read!

F. The ’Geneva Bible’ - By a group of scholars in Switzerland during the reign of ’Bloody Mary’. The first Bible to be divided into verses and the first English to leave out the Apocryphal books.

G. The King James Bible. Much wisdom used in spite of the fact it was actually a work of Political expediency and not of reverence. In 1603, James of Scotland took the throne
And in 1604, in order to strengthen the position of the throne and the ’divine rights of kings’ commissioned 47 men to write or translate what became the King James version.

They were to translate exactly, yet were not to contradict the Church of England in any of its practices. Therefore, when they came to the word ‘baptizo’ (to dip, immerse, bury) they had a problem , because the Church of England sprinkled. They solved the problem by transliterating rather than translating; hence our word ‘baptize’ which is used to define whatever method is used for this ordinance. The word translated 'church' is, in the original Greek, 'ecclesia' (english spelling) which means 'assembly' or 'congregation', ruling out a universal church, a theory of both the Catholic (universal) and the Episcopal church.