More than "Mere Learned Labour"

Did you know that the Bible used to contain an Epistle to the Laodiceans? Take a look at Colossians 4:16. "After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea." So.. why doesn't it appear in our canon of scripture? Well, it used to.

Up until the 15th century the epistle appeared in a number of manuscripts (hand written documents) including the oldest known copy, which is in Latin, as part of the Fulda MS created for Victor of Capua in 546. And therein lies the problem. Most scholars are of the opinion that unless we can find an older copy written in the original Greek, there is reason to doubt it's authenticity. You can read an annotated version of the epistle here.

This has been one of many standards used to authenticate manuscripts over the centuries. It is one of the reasons many epistles were not included in scripture. The main reason the epistle appeared in so many early Bibles, including all 18 German Bibles that preceded Martin Luther's, was because of the reference to it in Colossians, even though it failed one of the standards.

But in the early 15th century another longer epistle was discovered that also claimed to be from the Apostle Paul. It is a highly questionable version, only popular with New Age style cult groups and a few Kabbalah types but it was enough to add to the controversy over the other epistle. (If you care to you can read it here.) So in 1443, after the Council in Florence, the See of Rome issued, for the first time, a categorical opinion of the canon of scripture, listing 27 New Testament books, including 14 Pauline epistles ending with the book of Hebrews. The Epistle to the Laodiceans had been left out, and has been ever since.

This is the reason why the search for early Christian manuscripts continues even today. Every piece of evidence adds to our knowledge of the scriptures and aids in the process of clarifying the meaning of some of the more cryptic passages of scripture. I'd like to tell you the story of the discovery of one such document. It would turn out to be one of the most important finds in the history of how we got our Bible.

Constantin Tischendorf, a Bible scholar of the mid 19th century, was offended by scholars who denied the inspiration of the Bible. He was adamant in his belief that "the history of the early Church, as well as that of the sacred text, contains abundant arguments in reply to those who deny the credibility of the Gospel witness."

And so he began what would become his life's work, the search for old manuscripts so he could produce an edition of the Bible as close to the original text as possible. Operating on a shoestring budget, he set out in early 1844 and searched throughout Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, and the Middle East. Many in his circle failed to understand what drove the young man to undertake such a quest. He once wrote, "To some, all this may seem mere learned labor: but permit me to add that the science touches on life in two important respects; to mention only two--to clear up in this way the history of the sacred text, and to recover if possible the genuine apostolic text which is the foundation of our faith--these cannot be matters of small importance. The whole of Christendom is, in fact, deeply interested in these results."

That May found Constantin at the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. While there he saw a large basket filled with tattered parchments, which, it appeared were being used as fire starters, or at least being burned as rubbish. Constantin poked through the basket and was astounded by what he found there - 129 pages of the Old Testament in Greek! This would prove to be the oldest Biblical manuscript he had ever discovered -- dating from the 4th century!

Now it should be mentioned that many scholars find it hard to believe that a monastery preserving over 3,000 manuscripts, many for over a thousand years, would be so careless as to burn such important documents, and so called into question Tischendorf's account. However, it should also be noted that this same monastery allowed over 1100 other manuscripts to lie buried for 200 years under a collapsed building. Not a great testimony to the monks' concern or care of the treasures entrusted to them!

However the actual discovery was made, Constantin was allowed to keep 43 of the leaves which he took with him for others to examine. When he returned in 1853 it would seem that his previous visit had caused the monks to re-examine their manuscript protocols - they were no longer as forthcoming. He returned again in 1859 to much the same reception, but on the last day of his visit, a sympathetic steward showed him a rather bulky volume which contained not only the rest of the 129 leaves from his original visit, but a complete New Testament, including the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of what is called "the Pastor of Hermas."

This time Constantin managed to conceal the excitement that filled his heart and asked, in on off-handed manner, for permission to examine the manuscript in his sleeping quarters. There he spent much of the night copying out the Epistle of Barnabas. It was the only complete copy ever discovered. A few days later he managed to convince the monks to let him take the volume to Cairo where he and his associates managed to copy an astounding 110,000 lines of text in just a few days.

The manuscript never did make it back to the monastery at Sinai. The monks, in good faith, agreed to let the codex (denotes a book of parchment pages as opposed to a scroll) be taken to Russia to be replicated. They even forwarded a few additional pages that were discovered at a later date, never suspecting that Tischendorf would renege on his promise to return it and instead present it to the Tsar as a gift. When the monastery asked for it back, the Russians delayed and were evasive until the monks finally agreed to sell them the ancient text.

When Russia fell to the Communists in 1917 they had little interest in Biblical manuscripts. They realized though that others would pay good money for what had become known as the Codex Sinaiticus, so they sold it to the British Museum for £100,000.

Constantin Tischendorf, whose discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus, and other old manuscripts invaluable for checking the accuracy of current translations was born in Langenfeld, in what is now Germany, on January 18th, 1815 - 193 years ago this week.


Resources:
1. Codex Sinaiticus, British Library Website, Gallery of Asian and African Manuscripts
2. Christian History Institute. Glimpses # 55 "Treasure in a Trash Pile."
3. "Codex Sinaiticus." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus
4. Various Internet articles.

Other Events This Week in Church History:

January 14, 1892: Lutheran pastor and political activist Martin Niemoller, who was imprisoned by Hitler for his leadership role in the Confessing Church, is born.

January 15, 1697: Massachusetts citizens observe a day of fasting and repentance for the Salem witch trials of 1692, in which 19 suspected witches were hanged and more than 150 imprisoned. The day was declared "That so all of God's people may offer up fervent supplications unto him, that all iniquity may be put away, which hath stirred God's holy jealousy against this land; that he would show us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more."

January 16, 1604: Puritan John Rainolds suggests " . . . that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek." England's King James I granted his approval the following day, leading to the 1611 publication of the Authorized (King James) version of the Bible.


January 17, 356 (traditional date): Antony of Egypt, regarded as the founder of Christian monasticism, dies at age 105. Committed to a life of solitude and absolute poverty, he took two companions with him into the desert when he knew his death was near. They were ordered to bury him without a marker so that his body would never become an object of reverence.

January 19, 1563: The Heidelberg Catechism, soon accepted by nearly all European Reformed churches, is first published in Germany. This catechism, consisting of 129 questions and their answers, also formed the basis for many other catechisms including the Westminister Larger catechism.

January 20, 1918: Following the Bolshevik Revolution, all church property in Russia is confiscated and all religious instruction in schools abolished.

---

On Picking a Pope...

With the announcement of the death of Pope John Paul II in April of 2005, the process began to select the 264th successor to St. Peter (in accordance with Catholic tradition).

On Monday, April 18th 2005, after the official 9 days of prayer and mourning, 115 cardinals, from 52 countries and five continents, began the process of deliberation. Later that evening the Cardinals cast their first vote. This single ballot did not result in an election, and therefore the ballots were burned in a small stove at 8:04 p.m. Monday evening (2:04 EST) along with chemicals to colour the smoke black.

On Tuesday morning two additional votes were taken; neither resulted in an election, so once again black smoke rose from the chimney of the Conclave in the Sistine Chapel. Finally, about 4 pm, the fourth ballot of the Conclave, elected Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Prefect during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the highest office in the Roman Catholic Church. Since the smoke from the chapel at first burned grey, but never truly black, there was some confusion in the Square below. However, the ever more profuse, and ever more clearly white, smoke was confirmed about 6:04 by the ringing of the great bells of St. Peter's Basilica. At 6:43 p.m. (12:43 p.m. EST) on Tuesday, April 19th 2005, the Proto-Deacon of the College of Cardinals, Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina Estévez, came onto the Loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and announced:

"Dear brothers and sisters. I announce to you a great joy. We have a Pope. The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Joseph, Cardinal of Holy Roman Church, Ratzinger, who has taken the name Benedict XVI."

This process of election of the pope by a select group of cardinals has been around in its current form (more or less) for about 1000 years. Before that things were a lot less organized, and the disputes about who was and wasn't pope were numerous and often violent. Let me tell you about one such case.

When Bishop Liberius of Rome died in September of 366, there was no prescribed system for selecting a new pope, in fact they weren't even called popes at that time. Liberius had grown in popularity largely because of his stand resisting the heresy known as Arianism, a theology that denied the divinity of Christ. He was even exiled for a time when Rome came under the control of Felix II (regarded as an anti-pope ) who was sympathetic to the Arian cause.

However, Liberius had many supporters, commoner and senator alike, who agitated for his return, and eventually Emperor Constantinius restored Liberius to his position after he agreed to be lenient with the Arians. This caused Bishop Hilary of Poiters to declare "A curse on you, Liberius." Shortly after that, Liberius died!

Though there was no formal process for selecting a new Bishop of Rome, there was a election of sorts. All the citizens of Rome, laity and clergy, were able to make their voice heard, and by a large majority, Rome chose Damasus, a sixty-year-old deacon, to be their next bishop. He was consecrated by three other bishops, including the Bishop of Ostia, as was declared the official ordainer of the Bishop of Rome by Bishop St. Mark thirty years earlier. So by all accounts Damasus was the properly chosen successor to Liberius.

There was a problem however; remember Felix II, sympathetic supporter of the Arian Heresy? Well, Damasus was one of his bishops, and some followers of Liberius were unhappy to see a man who once worked for Felix sitting in Liberius' chair, so to speak. They chose their own bishop, a fellow by the name of Ursinus and had an old Bishop from Tibur consecrate him as the new Bishop of Rome.

Well, Damasus, and those who endorsed him, appealed to Juventius, then Prefect of Rome (chief city official), to deal with what they viewed as an usurper. The Prefect ordered Ursinus to leave Rome, which he did; but his followers did not give up that easily. They took up arms and proceeded to try and force Damasus to give up the bishop's pallium (emblem of authority). Damasus gathered a number of his own men, armed them and launched a counter-attack on his rival's forces, who had taken refuge in the Liberian Basilica (a Roman church later renamed St. Mary Major). A three-day battle followed. The supporters of Damasus eventually assaulted the building by climbing onto the roof, where they tore aside the heavy roof tiles, and having made an opening, then dropped the heavy tiles onto the men trapped below.

When the smoke cleared, (pun intended) Damasus had won the day, but with a heavy price - one hundred and thirty seven followers of Ursinus lay dead on the floor of the church. And yet, the battle was not over; in the days that followed Damasus would hire a number of gladiators to be his bodyguards due to repeated attacks in the streets.

When violence proved unsuccessful, his opponents attempted to overthrow him by making accusations of serious sin. What they were is not entirely clear, but eventually the emperor felt compelled to intervene and cleared Damasus of the charges. But the arguments and opposition continued. A full 11 years later, in 378, and again 3 years after that in 381, councils held in Rome and Aquileia both declared that Damasus was the true bishop.

The irony is, Damasus was never a true supporter of Felix II. He worked for him, but did not share his views regarding the Arian Heresy, as was borne out when the trouble eventually did simmer down and he was able to finally get around to the duties of being Bishop of Rome. He proved himself an enemy of the Arian heresy, putting a number of Arian bishops out of the church. He also issued twenty-four anathemas (curses) against false teachings about the Trinity and Jesus Christ.

Despite the violence associated with his election, Damasus was to become highly regarded by other Christian leaders of his day. A large part of the reason for this is Damasus proved to be a great promoter of martyrs. He restored many of their tombs, rebuilt their churches, and wrote poems about saints who had died because of their testimony for Christ.

You may be wondering why have I chosen to write about Damasus? There were plenty of popes who ascended to the papal see by unusual and violent means. Why choose him?

Well, one of the most fascinating things for me about Christian history is the story of how we got our Bible. And Damasus plays an important role in that process. Damasus was the first pope to issue an official list of the books which should be included in the Bible. He also persuaded his friend and secretary, Jerome, to make a new Latin translation of the Bible, using this list. Jerome did so, and his translation would become known as the Vulgate, the Bible of the Middle Ages. It was the Bible that priests, teachers, bishops, monks, and other scholars would use for much of the next one thousand years.

The three day battle, that would end with a victorious Damasus, without which the Vulgate might never have come into being, was won on October 26, 366 - one thousand, six hundred forty one years ago this week.

Photo: Page 2 of the Lindisfarne Gospels, Letter from Jerome to Pope Damasus I dedicating the translation of the Vulgate.

Resources:

1. Thomas J. Shahan. "Pope St. Damasus I", The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV. Published 1908. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
2. "Damasus I Saint." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Oct. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028639>.
3. "Ursinus." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Oct. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9074497>.
4. Various Internet articles.

Other events that happened this week in church history:

October 22, 1844: Somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 followers of Baptist lay preacher William Miller gathered in makeshift temples and on hillsides to "meet the bridegroom' on the "The Day of Atonement"—the day Jesus would return. Jesus didn't, and though Miller retained his faith in Christ's imminent return until his death, he blamed human mistakes in Bible chronologies for "The Great Disappointment." Several groups arose from Miller's following, including the Seventh-Day Adventists.

October 24, 1648: The Peace of Westphalia, after being delayed by Richelieu for 13 years, is finally signed and ends central Europe's Thirty Years War. The documents extended equal political rights to Catholics and Protestants (including religious minorities), and marked the first use of the term "secularization" in regard to church property that was to be distributed among the warring parties.

October 25, 1890: Emma Whittemore, New York socialite and her husband Sydney, millionaire businessman, open the first 'Door of Hope' home for young women in New York City. The Whittemores encountered the emptiness of their lives on a visit to a street mission run by an ex-convict. they came away "with a holy determination, born of God himself, to henceforth live for his glory and praise. Within four years the home help 325 girls, by Emma's death in 1931 there were 97 homes in seven countries.

October 27, 1978: After 13 years work by over one hundred scholars from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the complete New International Version (NIV) of the Bible is published for the first time.

October 28, 312: According to tradition, on this date the 32-year-old Roman emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius at Milvian Bridge. Before the battle, Constantine had seen the symbol of Jesus, chi-rho, in a vision, accompanied with the words "By this sign conquer." He considered this a sign and emblazoned the symbol on his shield and banners before the battle. Regarded as Rome's first Christian emperor he honured Christian bishops and meddled in church affairs the rest of his life. He received his baptism on his deathbed in 337.

---

Thanks For the Assist

Week 12 - March 18-24

Okay, so you’re sitting with some friends at a Bible study, you’ve just made a great point quoting a passage you vaguely remember from Sunday School and everyone is impressed. Then it happens. Someone says, “Really? Where is it that in the Bible?”

You turn to the back of your big study Bible, praying with the turn of each page that you’ll find it in the concordance. Your prayer is answered - it’s there. You look up the passage and sure enough - you remembered it correctly. Your reputation as a great theologian remains intact. You offer a silent word of thanks to God as the discussion continues. But who else should you thank?

Hugo de Sancto Charo, Hugh of St. Cher, was born in the village of St. Cher, near Vienne, France sometime about the year 1200 (we’re not exactly sure). After studying philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence in Paris, he entered the Order of St. Dominic in 1225. He soon developed a reputation for being adept at any task given to him and, as a result, became the confidant and adviser of several bishops, and the trusty envoy of Gregory IX to Constantinople in 1233. When the pope needed someone to reform one of the Catholic orders, the Carmelite rule and liturgy (order of service), it was scholar Hugh chosen to do the job. In 1244 Hugh became the first Dominican raised to the rank of Cardinal.

But the lasting legacy of Hugh of St. Cher is his body of scholarly work, including the "Correctorium Hugonis" known today as the "Correctorium Praedicatorum", a correction of numerous inaccuracies in the Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the day. He also initiated a project involving 500 Dominican scholars to create the first ‘verbal index of Holy Writ’ of the scriptures; what we call a ‘Bible concordance.’

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “It contained no quotations, and was purely an index to passages where a word was found. These were indicated by book and chapter (the division into chapters had recently been invented by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury) but not by verses, which were only introduced by Robert Estienne in 1545. In lieu of verses, Hugo divided the chapters into seven almost equal parts, indicated by the letters of the alphabet, a, b, c, etc.” A few years later English Dominicans would add quotations of the passages themselves to the work, greatly increasing its usefulness as an aid to preaching.

Hugh created many other works including the prologues to many books of the Bible (one for the book of Amos is pictured). His third hugely ambitious work was a commentary on the entire Bible that was still in use 500 years after his death. That death took place at a Dominican monastery in Orvieto (Italy), March 19, 1263 – 744 years ago this week.

Other events that took place this week - March 18-24.

March 18, 1314 - Thirty-nine Knights Templar are burned at the stake in Paris, accused of sodomy, blasphemy, and heresy. Created to protect pilgrims going to the Holy Land, they had become wealthy after the crusades. At the time few others besides Dante championed the innocence of the oft-maligned military order. Today most scholars now agree that the worst of the accusations against the order were likely inspired by jealously.

March 20, 1852 - Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of famous Congregational minister Lyman Beecher, publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin (which had been serialized in an anti-slavery newspaper). The book sold one million copies and was highly influential in arousing anti-slavery sentiment. So connected to the events of the day was this book that Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said upon meeting Stowe in 1863: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"

March 21, 1747 - After surviving a week long storm that nearly destroyed his ship, slave trading sea captain John Newton dramatically converts to Christianity. He would later write what is arguably the world’s most well-known hymn "Amazing Grace".

March 22, 1818 - The last time Easter fell on its earliest possible date. The Council of Nicea (325) declared that Easter was to be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring equinox. This meant the date of Easter would always fall between March 22nd and April 25th. March 22 therefore, is the earliest date on which Easter can fall. Since there is seldom a full moon on March 21st, Easter does not often fall on the 22nd. The last time it did was in 1818. During the twentieth century, it never fell on this day. Next year the full moon will fall on Mar. 21, but it will be a Friday so Easter will fall on the 23rd.

March 23, 1540 - Waltham Abbey in Essex becomes the last monastery in England to transfer its allegiance from the Catholic Church to the newly established Church of England.

March 24, 1980 - Roman Catholic archbishop, and Nobel Prize nominee, Oscar Romero, a vocal opponent of the San Salvador military, is assassinated while saying mass. Several men, believed to be part of a death squad, were arrested for the murder but were later released.

Spreading the Word

There is a real temptation during the week of February 14th to write about St. Valentine and how he performed secret marriages among the troops. It is a temptation I have no problem resisting. Instead I’d like to tell you about the creation of an alphabet.

Usually, things like alphabets and written languages evolve over time. Early peoples in a region start by using glyphs to record important events and the like, then over time these are simplified even further to create symbols that represent sounds and a phonetic alphabet is born. (This is an over-simplified explanation, but you get the idea.)

On occasion however, things happen very differently. Around the year 860, Rastislav, one of the Moravian princes, asked the Byzantine emperor to send someone to teach his people about Jesus Christ. Patriarch Photius assigned two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, to the task.

It was a good choice. Cyril (his adopted monk name, original was Constantine) was born in Thessalonica around 826 to an officer in the Legion of Thessalonica and his Slavic wife. When his father died he moved to Constantinople, where he entered the Imperial University at the age of fourteen. Cyril was ordained priest and eventually became a professor at the university. After a mission to the Arabs, he joined his brother, Methodius, who had retired to a monastery on Mount Olympus, in Bythnia. By the time the Moravian quest was made Cyril was fluent in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Slavic.

In Moravia, Cyril faced a challenge when it came to teaching the Slavs to read the scriptures; there was no written version of the Slavic language at the time. As a solution Cyril invented the Glagolithic alphabet, enabling him and his brother to translate both Biblical and liturgical texts into the vernacular. Their writings taught salvation through faith in Christ to the people in a voice they could understand. Christianity spread quickly among the Slavic peoples as a consequence.

It should be noted that the edicts requiring the Bible to be read in Latin only came from Rome. As Patriarch in Constantinople Photius did not agree with a great deal that Rome had to say. He granted Cyril permission to create the local translation.

Eventually, the Magyar invasions of the early 10th century and German opposition will reverse the evangelical progress the brothers made, but not their writings or the alphabet. Disciples transplanted Christianity to Bulgaria and carried the translations (and the alphabet) south. When Vladimir of Russia converted to Christianity a century later, he adopted the Orthodox faith. The brothers' translations and writings made their way to his court where they influenced the Russian church for many centuries. Cyril’s Glagolithic alphabet was improved upon by his disciples and became the Cyrillic script (named after their mentor), which is the alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages—Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. The original Glagolithic alphabet is known as Church Slavonic and is still used in many Orthodox Church documents. An example, a page from the the Kiev psalter, is pictured at right.

German bishops of the Roman Catholic church had criticized the brothers and argued that the slavs should use Roman style worship. Cyril and Methodius travelled West to defend their practices. Pope Hadrian II accepted their work with enthusiasm but this did not please the Germans. In the end the Germans got their way.

Cyril’s approach to spreading the gospel message continues to this day. Many of the world’s many languages did not have a written script until the likes of the Wycliffe Bible Translators came along and created one so the people could read the scriptures in their own vernacular. To date Wycliffe alone has translated the Bible into 611 languages and estimates that there are still 2644 languages to go, representing more than 380 million that still cannot read the Bible in their own tongue.

Cyril created a textual language for millions of people when he set out to share the gospel with the people of Moravia. His example inspired many others who in turn have made the scriptures available to the entire world. Quite a legacy for one man and his brother.

Cyril died in Rome and was buried in the Basilica of St. Clement. It was February 14, 869 — 1138 years ago this week.

-----------------

Other events that took place this week - Feb. 11 - 17

February 11, 1858: - Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old shepherd girl from Lourdes, France, experiences her first vision of the Virgin Mary. By July she had 18 similar visions. Despite initial skepticism from the Roman Catholic Church, these claims were eventually declared worthy of belief after a canonical investigation. As a result the town became a major site for pilgrimages which attracts millions of Catholics each year. Saint Bernadette was canonized in 1933.

February 12, 1915: - Blind poetess and hymn writer Fanny Crosby dies at age 95. Throughout her long career she wrote more than 8,000 gospel songs and hymns, including "To God be the Glory", Tell Me the Story of Jesus", and "I am Thine Lord". Many of her hymns remain popular throughout the Christian world.

February 13, 1633: - Called to trial by the Inquisition, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome ready to explain his belief that the earth revolves around the sun. He was compelled to recant the view, and was placed under house arrest until his death in 1642.

February 15, 1905: - Christian author Lew Wallace dies at the age of 77. Wallace is most famous for Ben Hur (1880) which was conceived on a train ride while arguing about Christ's divinity with famous agnostic Robert Ingersoll. It sold more than 300,000 copies in a decade, making him one of the best-selling religious authors of the 1800s.

February 16, 1497: - German scholar and reformer Philipp Melanchthon is born in Bretten, Baden. He and Luther were at various times both allies and enemies. Melanchthon defended Luther against Johann van Eck and Emperor Charles V; however, Luther thrashed him for his views on the Sacrament. Interestingly, on his death bed, Luther said his one regret was his battle with Melanchthon. His argument for justification by faith alone, known as the Augsburg Confession, is now the basic statement of Lutheran doctrine.

February 17, 1858: - Waldensians, ancient "Protestants" from the Italian Alps who survived through persecution for 800 years, are finally guaranteed civil and religious rights. They began with the teaching of a wealthy merchant named Pater Waldo in the late 1100s; thus they are considered "the oldest evangelical Church".

Motion passed... unanimously!

I use a Bible study program on my laptop called E-Sword. It’s a free program that lets me access dozen’s of translations of the Bible as well as commentaries, dictionaries on other aids. I love this program and use it often; there’s even a condensed version for my PocketPC.

In 1604 however, there was not as much choice. The vast majority of Bibles were printed in Latin and unreadable by many. There were a few English translations, but most were written by people with a heavy agenda and contained many errors, some put there deliberately to promote a particular theological bent. To the newly crowned King James I of England, the Geneva Bible was one such translation. It had been created by a group of reformers in Geneva, Switzerland led by William Whittingham, the brother-in-law of French theologian John Calvin, and many of the margin notes were taken from Calvin’s own commentaries on the scriptures.

It was the margin notes that bothered King James the most. You see, Calvin did not subscribe to the concept of divine right of kings, the notion that since the Bible says all earthly authority is put there by God then kings rule by God’s doing and are in the right, even when they behave badly. The margin notes in the Geneva Bible, which had been around for about 40 years and was the most popular Bible of the day, made mention of how kings had to obey the scriptures and be held accountable for their actions whenever the opportunity arose, a feature that put James off quite a bit.

At the same time he was getting a fair bit of flack from the Puritans. They were in favour of the Protestant Reformation, but were of the opinion it didn’t go far enough. Approaching things like worship from a very minimalist viewpoint, they felt the Church of England had kept way too many Catholic practises, especially where church hierarchy was concerned. Rather than bishops and archbishops the Puritans wanted church governance put into the hands of the people. This was a little too democratic for the king's liking and he made it clear that it wasn’t going to happen. His persecution of the puritans was so bad many of them left to colonize other parts of the world. (Google: Thanksgiving in America)

However; when a group of 1000 Puritan leaders presented a petition to him in 1603 it was more than he could ignore, so King James called together a group of church leaders from all over the British kingdom “...for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the Church.” They met at Hampton Court starting on January 14th, 1604.

Given their extreme differences, there wasn’t very much the assemblage could agree on, except for one thing; political commentary and theological opinion did not belong in the Bible. So, when Dr. John Rainolds (Reynolds), President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, proposed " . . . that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek", James jumped onto the project with both feet. The motion was passed unanimously.

Forty-seven of England's top Bible scholars, both Anglicans and Puritans, were appointed to do the work. King James himself organized the task. The translators were counted off into six panels (three Old Testament, two New Testament, one Apocrypha). The idea was to stay as close to the Bishop’s Bible as accuracy would allow, but to take into account earlier versions. In the end, about 70% of the wording would come from William Tyndale’s translation.

By 1611, the translation was complete, and because James was so closely involved with the work, it is often called the "Authorized Version" or the "King James Version". In time it became the most beloved English translation. Even today many consider it the most noble translation because of the powerful use of Jacobean English in its phrasing and poetry.

But it all started with John Reynold's motion, passed at Hampton Court on January 16, 1604 - 403 years ago this week.

Other things that happened this week - Jan. 14-20

January 14, 1529: Spanish diplomat and writer Juan de Valdes publishes his "Dialogue on Christian Doctrine," which paved the way for Protestant ideas in Spain. (See article on Valdes @ Java-and-Jesus)

January 15, 345: (traditional date) Paul of Thebes dies. Although his parents left him a large inheritance, he abandoned it and fled into the desert around the year 250 to escape the bloody persecution of Christians raging at that time. After walking for several days, he found an isolated cave with a large palm tree and a spring of fresh water nearby. Settling here in solitude, he gave himself up to constant prayer. For this reason he is traditionally considered the first Christian hermit and an inspiration for Antony of Egypt.

January 17, 356: (traditional date) Eleven years later and in the same week, Antony of Egypt, regarded as the founder of Christian monasticism, dies at age 105. Committed to a life of solitude and absolute poverty, he took two companions with him into the desert when he knew his death was near. They were ordered to bury him without a marker so that his body would never become an object of reverence.

January 18, 1562: The counter-reformation Council of Trent reconvenes after a 10-year break caused by the revolt of Protestant princes against Emperor Charles V. During the break, all hope of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants had vanished.

January 19, 1086: Canute the Great, king of Denmark, is killed in church by his own subjects while celebrating mass. Denmark was nominally Christian when Canute became king, but he decided there was a need to revitalize the faith. To do this he built and restored churches and monasteries and created laws protecting the clergy. However, his "new order" also included innovations like higher taxes and mandatory tithes. This eventually led to a revolt and the interuption of that mass in January. He was declared a martyr and saint in 1101.

January 20, 1569: Miles Coverdale, publisher of the first printed English Bible and the man who completed William Tyndale's translation of the Old Testament, dies at age 81.