The Bible

Due to all the false Gospels being produced the Christian leaders decided to collect together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles, who had the truth first hand. The division of the Hebrew Scriptures and the classical Christian documents came to be known as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The word “covenant” translated in Latin is “testamentim”. Hence the Old and New Testament.
By 100 AD the different parts of the New Testament had been written, but not yet collected and defined as ‘Scripture’. Early Christian writers such as Polycarp and Ignatius quoted from the Gospels and Paul’s letters, as well as from other Christian writings and oral sources. Paul’s letters were collected late in the first century. Matthew, Mark and Luke were brought together by AD150.
The New Testament canon originated when due to many false gospels being produced. The church leaders of about AD200 decided to get together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles. This was also done as a true statement of faith to refute the criticisms of those who misunderstood Christianity. Around this time Tertullian was writing of the ‘New Testament’ which he placed on a level with the Old as regards divine inspiration.
The first evidence for a canonical list which completely matches that widely accepted for the New Testament today is the 39th Easter letter of Athanasius written in 367, which designated 27 books of the New Testament alongside the canon of the Old Testament.
In 397 At the Council of Carthage the western church agreed on the same New Testament canon as the Eastern church.

Bible Timeline

285BC The Old Testament is translated into Greek. This version is called the Septuagint meaning “70” as 70 noted Jewish scholars worked on it.

100 AD All the different parts of the New Testament had been written, but not yet collected and defined as ‘Scripture’

200AD The church leaders decided to get together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles. This is also done as a true statement of faith to refute the criticisms of those who misunderstood Christianity.

200AD Tertullian is writing of the ‘New Testament’ which he placed on a level with the Old as regards divine inspiration.

367AD The first evidence for a canonical list which completely matches that widely accepted for the New Testament today is the 39th Easter letter of Athanasius written in 367, which designates 27 books of the New Testament alongside the canon of the Old Testament.

375 AD The Goths in Germany were introduced to Christianity by Roman prisoners, whom they had taken captive during raids into the Empire. Now Ulfilas, a missionary bishop to the Goths, has translated the Bible into their everyday speech, a monumental task as in order to achieve this task, he had to first of all devise a Gothic alphabet. He has omitted the books of Kings as he is concerned the accounts of the military campaigns of the Hebrews in those books will urge the warlike Gothic tribes to acts of war. This is the first barbarian translation of the Bible and the first done specifically for missionary purposes.

397 At the Council of Carthage the Western church agrees on the same New Testament canon as the Eastern church.

C720 Rather than copying from any one source, The Venerable Bede researched from several sources to create single volume bibles, a practice which was highly unusual for the time: previously, the bible had circulated as separate books.

1205 Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris, inserts chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible. He is the first person to divide the Bible into defined chapters. Langton later became the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1408 In England the Council of Oxford forbids translations of the Scriptures from Latin into English unless authorized by the Church.

1466 First German bible is printed in Strasbourg by Johannes Mentelin.

1514: The first section of the Complutensian Polyglot (the world's first multi-language Bible) was printed at Alcala, Spain. (The complete translation was published in 6 volumes in 1517.)

1521 Martin Luther translates the New Testament into German. His German New Testament had a profound effect on the development of the German language and contributed largely to restructuring German literature.

1523 The New Testament is first translated into French.

1525 William Tyndale begins the printing of his English New Testament, the first complete translation from the original Hebrew and Greek text. After being forced to flee, he completes it clandestinely in Worms.

1526 William Tyndale's New Testament is completed. When it is read in church it’s popular reception is the 16th century equivalent of the popular soaps of today. The common people flock to hear the humour, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories. Despite its popularity the Bishop of London orders all copies to be seized and burned but these are soon replaced and copies continue to circulate.

1535. Miles Coverdale’s English Bible is printed. It is the first complete translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha to be printed in English. When Henry VIII, at Archbishop Cranmer’s request, authorises that it can be bought and read by all his subjects there is a tremendous widespread excitement. So much the English King is forced to draw back and issue new regulations restricting the reading of the Bible to wealthy merchants and aristocrats.

1539 Having banned Tyndale’s translation of the Bible, Henry VIII has a change of heart and orders a new version with an image of himself on the title page. The Great Bible is the first complete translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha to be printed in English. When Henry VIII, at Archbishop Cranmer’s request, authorizes that it can be bought and read by all his subjects there is a tremendous widespread excitement.

1540 The Bishop of London, Edmund Bonner, places six copies of the Great Bible in St Paul's Cathedral. So enthusiastic are the people to hear the humor, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories that the overwhelming crowds are constantly disrupting his services. Consequently Bonner has to threaten to remove the Bibles unless the common people calm down.

1545 A law is passed by Parliament restricting the reading of the Bible in the new English translations to churchmen, aristocrats and wealthy merchants. It is now illegal for artisans, labourers or servants or women (except noblewomen) to read the Bible for fear the effect it will have on them

1557 Whilst Jewish Masoretes divided the Old Testament Hebrew text into verses, the New Testament was not divided into verse numbers until Robert Stephens’ Greek and Latin versions in 1557.

1560 The Geneva Testament under the leadership of William Whittingham is produced in Geneva. It is the first English Bible to be divided into chapter and verses. The Geneva Bible is the Bible taken to America by the Pilgrim Fathers.

1611 The King James Bible is completed and published, using much of the original Hebrew and Greek.

1646 The Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law making it a capital offence to deny that the Bible is the Word of God. Any person convicted of the offence is liable to the death penalty.

1653 The ‘Unrighteous’ Cambridge Bible is published in England. It includes the following two mistakes: 1 Corinthians 6 v 9 “know yet not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God”. And Romans 6 v 13 “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin.”

1690 John Eliot (1604-1690), an American who was called the "Apostle to the Indians," was the first translator of the Bible into an Indian tongue — the first Bible to be printed in America.

1759 For the first time, the Pope gives his permission for the Bible to be translated into all languages of the Catholic states.

1782 A Philadelphian Printer, Robert Aitken, publishes the Robert Aitken Bible. This first ever published English language Bible in America has been printed due the lack of new Bibles available in the United States. The supply of English language Bibles has been cut off as a result of the Revolutionary War.

1901 The American Standard Version, a revision of the Revised Version is published. This is the first ever major Bible to be written in American English.

1952 The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published. It is a revision of the 1901 American Standard Version made by a committee of thirty-two Bible scholars and its aim is to provide an accessible, accurate modern translation of the Bible.

1971 The New American Standard Bible is published, updating and modernising the
American Standard Version. It is incorporating the Hebrew and Greek textual
discoveries that have been found, since the ASV was published.

1976 The Good News Translation is published. Its objective is to provide a clear, simple and accurate contemporary English translation. A New Testament version was published ten years previously, which has proved very popular having sold over 40 million copies. The line drawings and the easy-to-understand English have made it particularly popular with children.

Bible Trivia

The word Bible comes from the Greek word for "papyrus plant" (biblos), since the leaves of that plant were used for paper.

The oldest surviving copy of the four Gospels date back to 350. Cynics would need to move forward 500 years to approximately 850 to find the date of the oldest surviving copy of the supposedly more historically sound Caesar’s account of the Gallic War.

During the Middle Ages the medieval church walls were covered in paintings of Biblical scenes, which, in a period of almost universal illiteracy were thought to be the poor man’s Bible. Though reformers such as John Wycliffe and John Hus advocated the importance of the Bible, throughout the Middle Ages the clergy were afraid to let the common people have any knowledge of the Scriptures and in most of Europe it was dangerous to possess or even to be found reading the Bible. In England, for instance, in 1399 the death penalty became the punishment for heresy and many Lollards were burnt alive with their Bibles around their necks.

William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament introduced some of the most familiar phrases to the English language, such as ‘filthy lucre’, and ‘God forbid.’

Many common expressions were taken from the King James Bible. These include:

Casting pearls before swine (Matthew 7.v6)

Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16 v 18)

Go from strength to strngth (Psalm 84 v 7)

In the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15 v51-52)

The eleventh hour (Matthew 20 v 6)

Paul McCartney’s song “Uncle Albert” was about a real uncle of his, who when drunk would quote and read from the Bible, but when sober would not be seen near one.

In the Authorised version of the Bible there are 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31173 verses, 774746 words and 3566480 letters.

The middle verse in the Old Testament is 2 Chronicles 10 v17 & 18 and in the New Testament is Acts 17 v17.

The shortest verse in the Old Testament is 1 Chronicles 1 Chronicles 1 v25 (Eber, Peleg, Reu) and in the New Testament is John 11 v35 (Jesus Wept).

Ezra 7 v 21 “And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily.” (King James), contains all the letters of the Bible except J.

The word ‘And’ occurs 35,543 times in the Old Testament and 10,684 times in the New Testament.

There are 8,674 different Hebrew words in the Bible and 5,624 different Greek words translated into 12,143 different English words in the King James version.

Esther is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention the name of God.

An American linguist spent six months translating the New Testament into Klingon, the language created for Star Trek movies.

The Bible was translated at the beginning of the 21st century into Hawaiian pidgin English. Da Jesus book features characters such as “da bad guy” (Satan) and renders verses such as “Our Father who art in Heaven” as “God you our Fadda You stay inside da sky.”

Among the plethora of market-serving "versions" of the Bible made to please sub-groups and consumerist niche markets are the following: . A magazine-style Bible for teenage girls, Revolve, which has tips on cosmetics and boys and it counterpoint, the Refuel edition for boys, the African-American Woman's Study Bible, the Promise Keeper's Bible for Men, the Twelve-Step Bible. and the Green Bible with its green-inked verses having to do with the environment