Description of the holy bible – Part 6
The Bible
The most important codices are the: Codex Siniaticus (complete New Testament dating from the fourth century)
Codex Alexandrinus (most of the New Testament dating from the fifth century)
Codex Vaticanus (dating from the fifth century.)
Our twentieth-century Bible is, therefore, the result of centuries of comparison and study of all the available manuscripts and translations (for which there are comparatively few for the Old Testament and almost too many for the New!) with the aim of establishing the original text.
How we got our English Bible
Our English Bible is the result of 1200 years of work by all kinds of learned men.
Portions were translated from the Vulgate, the Latin version, beginning as far back as A.D. 700, when Aldhelm translated the Psalms into Saxon.
Egbert translated the 4 gospels sometime later. In A.D. 735, Bede translated parts of the Scriptures into Saxon.
King Alfred undertook a translation of the Psalms, but died in A.D. 900 before it was finished. Elfric translated the Pentateuch and some of the historical books in the 10th century.
Nothing else was done about translation from then to the time of John Wycliff, who made the first complete English Bible from the Vulgate in A.D. 1380.
The next was N.T by William Tyndale in 1535 and the Pentateuch in 1530. In 1535, Miles Coverdate made the first complete printed English Bible.
Then came the Geneva Bible in 1560, followed by Bishop’s Bible in 1563 and revised in 1568. The Roman church came out with Douay Version of the N.T in 1582 and the whole Bible in 1609, which has been used by that church up until now.
In 1604, King James authorised 47 men to make a complete translation of the Bible from the original languages. It was finished in 1611 after 7-8 years of diligent work.
It has been the most popular and accepted version of the English-speaking world from that day until now.
There have been several revised versions since then, and a number of Bibles in modern English, but none has been as well accepted and as lasting as the King James version and perhaps never will be.
The Bible is one book that is never revised like the medical textbooks or other academic textbooks we use. The Bible has no 2nd, 3rdetc editions.
We have different versions e.g. King James, New King James, New International version, New Living Translation etc. These are just translations in contemporary language, so that the readers can easily understand the message. We have “revised versions” not revised message of the original Bible.
The message in the Bible never changes because the truth in the Bible is eternal. “Eternal,” (Gk plural ainia) means “without beginning or end.” The singular ainiosusually means eternal in the sense of endless time (not timelessness).
Genuineness, Authenticity, and Inerrancy of the Bible
Genuineness defined. By genuineness, we mean that the books of the Bible were actually written by the men whose names they bear, or that there is sufficient proof of their authorship, and that they were written at the time claimed.
Authenticity defined. By this, we mean that the Bible relates truthfully the matters it deals with, and the contents are as originally written.
Inerrancy defined.
The view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original manuscripts and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.
Email:mercyolumide2004@yahoo.co.uk www.thebiblicalwomanhood.com Mobile: +234 803 344 6614; +234 808 123 7987
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