The Bible Is for Everyone (Part 1)

READ: DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9; ROMANS 12:1-2; 2 TIMOTHY 2:1-13, 19; 3:16

Originally, the Bible was written in three languages: most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, parts of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic, and the New Testament was written in Greek. While Jesus was on earth, He most likely spoke Aramaic.

The English language only began to form around 450 years after Christ’s ascension. And by the 1400-1500s, it was against the laws of England and the Catholic Church to translate the Bible into English. Most church services, and most Bibles, were in Latin—an old language that only clergy and religious leaders had access to. As bizarre as it seems, people were killed for translating the Bible into English.

Along came William Tyndale, born in the 1490s, who believed God wanted everyone in England to have access to the Bible in their language. And while John Wycliffe had translated the Latin Bible into English a few decades earlier (and was executed for it), nobody had translated the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Scriptures into English. Tyndale—an ardent scholar of biblical languages—went into hiding for twelve years, translating the New Testament and part of the Old Testament into English from their original languages.

But his work was cut short when he was betrayed by a trusted friend and arrested. Tyndale was eventually taken to a public courtyard and tied to a stake. Before he was strangled and set on fire, he called out, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” The year was 1536.

Tyndale’s dying prayer was answered 68 years later when James became king after Henry VIII. Some religious leaders asked King James to have the Bible translated into English. He agreed and appointed 54 scholars to do the work. This was a remarkable answer to prayer!

The scholars worked for seven years using Tyndale’s translation. In fact, 84% of the King James New Testament is actually Tyndale’s work, and most of Tyndale’s completed parts of the Old Testament were used word-for-word in the King James Old Testament. So, 75 years after Tyndale’s execution, his translation was combined with the work of other Bible scholars, and the King James Version of the Bible was published. • Kathy Irey

• The Lord loves us so much that He has worked through countless people to bring the truth of the gospel—the good news of Jesus’s death and resurrection—to us. What questions do you have about how the Bible was translated? Who could you talk to about this?

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 (NLT)