Thus says the Lord, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it”’ Jeremiah 6:16.

By Stephen Bennett

It is a miracle and an honour that we have the word of God in such abundance as we do today. There are many Bible versions, language translations, study helps, computer programs, and other learning formats – more than ever in man’s existence. It is possible for over 6 billion people on planet Earth to access sound doctrine!

History has given us this great heritage. It is important to understand the expedition of God’s word down the corridors of time, and to fully appreciate where we are in history; the last days – where God knew that humanity would need great access to His word.

Hundreds of years ago, God allowed things to be set up that would ultimately release His word to the whole world. The early 16th century Reformists would never have imagined the unprecedented way this has happened today. As we reflect on history you will understand why it is so important to really know the word of the Lord in these end times.

What a privilege it is now, to eat of the fruit of history laid down for us by the struggles and blood of many a great men of God. The finest of work is yet to be done in these days and it will be quick.

‘He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest wheat.

He sends out His command to the earth. His word runs very swiftly’ Psalm 147:14-15.

The literal history of the word of God goes back before time began. In relation to our modern world, significant events took place during the word’s historical pilgrimage. The knowledge of these events should stir us, to comprehend the incredible importance of the days we live in.

We now have such a great opportunity in this New Millennium to experience the fullness of Gods promises, with such wonderful unencumbered access to the word of God, availability and understanding which we have seen dramatically increase in the last 100 years. This is a time unlike ever before – if we embrace it! We would be unwise not to!

‘Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid’ Proverbs 12:1.

Ancient Texts Hand Copied

‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words: for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and Israel’” Exodus 34:27. 

During the hundreds of years of Old Testament times, when there were no printing press or copy machines, Hebrew scribes meticulously copied and re-copied by hand the scrolls of the original Old Testament writers.

By the time Jesus was born this had been accomplished for over 1400 years. Perhaps the scribes twiddled their toes in the desert sand as they worked; that same sand was to become the silicon chip of the future carrying their years of labor around the globe – accessible to everybody on the World Wide Web!

The historical miracle is that the original Bible texts maintained amazing accuracy through the various changes in Hebrew language, the Aramaic influences brought on after Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and then continually penned from 500BC and into the future.

Versions

Around 300BC even Greek versions of the Old Testament had appeared; a version called The Septuagint (which is Latin for 70, being the number of Israeli elders who translated it in Alexandria), is often referenced today in the Greek Orthodox Church.

This commitment to preserving the old texts continued down through history in Israel well after Christ’s time, the Hebrew Masoretic scribes (approx. 500 AD) being the more well known.

‘Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you, and bless you and multiply you’ Deuteronomy 7:12.

Other versions were penned as copies and influences spread, such as the Syriac version of the Old Testament in Greek Mesopotamia called the Peshitta (200-500 A.D), and the Coptic version in Egypt that is still used today.

The Gothic version (360 A.D), is the first translation into the language of the Germanic family – being English, German, Dutch and Scandinavian; it was completed around the Rhine and Danube areas by people known as Goths. Goth Bishop Ulfilas was responsible, and settled his people in what is now Bulgaria.

Latin Vulgate

The New Testament writers completed their work within 60 years of Jesus’s crucifixion. This was in an age when literature flourished. It was hand copied and gathered constantly from the earliest days; around 15,000 complete New Testament manuscripts that were copied then, exist today – many on old papyrus.

A Latin version of the New Testament was apparently written about 200AD; Latin began to replace Greek as the dominant language of the Roman Empire.

A standard Latin text known as the Vulgate, or common language of the Medieval times, was completed around 405AD; it was completed by the scholar Jerome at the request of the Pope of his day. Jerome was the secretary to Bishop Damascus of Rome.

The Vulgate contained the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, the first person in the Bible to write anything down, they contained poetry and prophecy). This was an important book as it was the vehicle through which the gospel arrived in Western Europe. It was a standard for centuries.

Until the 20th century no Bible translations other than those based on the Vulgate, were recognized as authoritative by the Roman Catholic Church. Until the 16th century all Bible versions in the language of all of Western Europe, were based on the Latin Vulgate. Most versions were only in part, and had limited circulation.

Few people in ancient England could read, and many Bible stories were sung and memorized, especially the Psalms and the gospels. The earliest old English version was the Lindisfarne Gospels, written in Latin in 700 AD.

”The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times”  Psalm 12:6.

End of the Dark Ages

In the 15th century, we see the beginning of the printing of Biblical text on the printing press, everything up to then was hand copied! A man called Desiderius Erasmus (1466- 1536), a Catholic priest from Rotterdam, agreed with the famous chief Reformist Martin Luther and others, demanding the scriptures be published for anybody to read. He was also a relentless critic of the Roman Church.

However, when the Reformation took hold he stayed outwardly Catholic and criticized the Reformers as much as his own church! In 1516 he published a Greek New Testament text with a printer in Switzerland. It served as a basic guide for the translators of the King James Bible in England, and became a template (textus receptus – the received text), for the continual refinement of the original Greek by other reformists and scholars for the next 200 years.

Today you are privileged and honored to be able to approach the Greek New Testament with great confidence in its accuracy, something that many of us can take for granted.

‘For you will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop and by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; he is a shield to all that trust him.’ Psalm 18:28-30.

The beginning of the Reformation in the sixteenth century with the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, marked the end of what is commonly called the Dark Ages of the Church.

The reformation was a revolt against the hypocrisy of Rome and its religion. It was a cry from the man Luther, who had the revelation of the real truth of the word of God in his heart – his darkness had been enlightened to trust in God that we are justified by faith in Him alone, not institution. He desired to see men set free in the Biblical truth he had found. We will take a further look at Martin’s incredible impact in accelerating the journey of God’s word in the next chapter.

Holy Roman Empire

In the thousand years prior to the Reformation, the development of Papal power and the seat of Authority of the Western, or Latin Church, were in Rome. The Holy Roman Empire was established in 800A.D (sometimes called The German Empire – the old Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D).

Rome held the persistent claim to be the ruling church, with the Pope claiming to be the Universal Bishop of the church. This eventually led to the final rending and separation of the Western (Latin) Church, and the Greek Church that was based in Constantinople in 1054 AD.

The four hundred years that followed this period in the Middle Ages of the Medieval Church (476 – 1453 A.D), saw the rise of the great crusades of Rome. These wars were mainly to free Jerusalem and the Holy Land of Islamic rule and to kill heretics that were against Roman Catholicism – even in Christian countries!

Many wars were fought at the call of the Church of Rome, and ecclesiastical power greatly increased along with the wealth of rich trading that developed through them, particularly from the Orient.

The Catholic Church had great domination over princes and nations in Europe by the 15th century, where bishops and popes had much political control. The vast wealth and unscrupulous use of power by religious churchmen paved the way for revolt against the Roman Catholic Church in the Reformation.

Seeds of Reformation

The desire for Reformation was not new, in the centuries before the 16th century, reforming voices of opposition began to rise, but the timing was not yet right.

Around 1170 the Cathari Puritans in France circulated the word of God by the New Testament, and were promptly terminated by a crusade in the early 1200’s! About the same time a merchant named Peter Waldo of Lyons, established an order of evangelists in the south of France called The Poor Men of Lyons, teaching, preaching, and circulating the word.

Again they were bitterly persecuted and the followers scattered, their descendants constitute a small group of Protestants in Italy today. Still want to be an evangelist?

The Wycliffe Bible

In the 14th century John Wycliffe (c.1330 – 1384), a distinguished scholar, preacher and Master of Balliol College Oxford England, began a movement in the UK, for freedom from Roman power, and for the reforming of the Church.

He attacked Monasticism, the false Roman doctrine of transubstantiation in communion, and urged a simpler Church according to the New Testament pattern – emphasizing man’s direct responsibility to God, and the word being accessible to the laity and the unlearned.

If he lived in Europe Wycliffe would have been killed for sure. Wycliffe was protected by powerful British nobles, but He died in 1384; by this time he had translated the Old and New Testaments from the Latin Vulgate, which we know today as the Wycliffe’s Bible!

Thank you John – see you in heaven!

The common people gladly received his book. His followers were called Lollards, because they traveled preaching in Lollardy, meaning common speech, but they were finally persecuted and extinguished, such is the cost of following what you believe!

This oppression was conducted by the Constitutions of Oxford, where it was forbidden to read, or translate the Bible into English, without permission of a bishop or local church council. This enforcement lasted 100 years.

The Roman Catholic Church condemned Wycliffe’s work and burned many of the hand written copies. Imagine all that work up in smoke! Oh for a hard disk in those days!

Praise God for pioneers, nonetheless, his preaching and translation paved the way for the Reformation and the famous King James Bible version more than 200 years later. Are you getting the important picture? Hope you are not bored!

Cry reform and burn!

There were other Reformation voices including John Huss of Prague Bohemia, who was influenced by Wycliffe; he was burned at the stake in 1415 because Rome ruled that faith was not to be kept with heretics!

Jerome Savonarola a Dominican monk preached against the ecclesiastical evils of the day. He packed the great cathedral of Florence with everyday people eager to listen, obey his teachings, and the word of God. He was eventually hanged in 1498 only 19 years before Luther nailed his theses on the cathedral door at Wittenberg. This is what it really meant to burn for Jesus and go on the road with my ministry!

The Positives of Rome in the Middle Ages

Even during the Dark Ages, the Roman Church gave the world some of the greatest achievements of the finer things of life, and all were wrought under the direct influence of the Church. Nearly all the schools and universities of the Middle Ages arose in the abbeys and monasteries, which many of us now gawk at in our visits on tour buses!

Universities – including the famous Oxford and Cambridge – were established mainly by churchmen, these institutions grew out of earlier church schools.

Early artists and their art were almost without exception for the service of the Church. The great cathedrals and architectures of Europe, the awakening of literature with Dante in Italy, art with its great series of painters such as Giotto, and also many architects and sculptors.

The arts never belonged to the world, but that’s another book!

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Chapter excerpt from “The Word is your Art” by Stephen Bennett, reprinted by author’s permission.  Originally from England, Stephen Bennett and his Australian wife Rebecca in the early nineties founded Awesome City Music Ministries based in Sydney, Australia. Stephen’s gifting spans various creative fields as a prophet and his creative ministry mentors to a wide community of musicians, singers and artists around the world.