Bible-Burners (build it yourself bibles)

Tales continue to circulate about how the Catholic Church opposed translating the Bible into the vernacular. But the Church has never opposed that. After all, the Vulgate was originally translated by St. Jerome to make the Bible available in the vernacular of the day, Latin, which continued to be the lingua franca of educated Europe up to the late 18th century and beyond. Nor were the Reformers the first to translate the Bible into more modern European languages. The Catholic Church approved of Gutenberg's German Bible in 1455. The first printed Flemish edition came out in 1477. Two Italian versions of the Bible were printed in 1471, and a Catalan version came out in 1478. A Polish Bible was translated in 1516, and the earliest English version was published in 1525. Most of these were editions of the entire Bible. Individual books had appeared in the vernacular centuries earlier. The first English-language Gospel of John, for example, was translated by the Venerable Bede into Anglo-Saxon in the year 735.

The Church didn't object to William Tyndale's translating the Bible into English. Rather, she objected to the Protestant notes and Protestant bias that accompanied the translation. Tyndale's translation came complete with prologue and footnotes condemning Church doctrines and teachings. Even King Henry VIII in 1531 condemned the Tyndale Bible as a corruption of Scripture. In the words of King Henry's advisors: "the translation of the Scripture corrupted by William Tyndale should be utterly expelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of the people…."

Protestant Bishop Tunstall of London declared that there were upwards of 2,000 errors in Tyndale's Bible. Tyndale translated the term Baptism into "washing," Scripture into "writing," Holy Ghost into "Holy Wind," bishop into "overseer," priest into "elder," deacon into "minister," heresy into "choice," martyr into "witness," etc. In his footnotes, Tyndale referred to the occupant of the Chair of Peter as "that great idol, the whore of Babylon, the anti-Christ of Rome."

The Catholic response was not to burn the Bible, but to burn Tyndale's Bible. This was an age when making your own version of the Bible seemed to be all the rage. The Reformers cut out the Deuterocanonical Books, Luther wanted to get rid of the Epistle of James as well as Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation because they didn't agree with his theory of justification. The Reformers themselves fought about which version of the Bible was best. Zwingli said of Luther's German version of the Bible, "Thou corruptest the word of God, O Luther; thou art seen to be a manifest corrupter of the holy scripture; how much are we ashamed of thee…!" To which Luther politely answered, "Zwinglians are fools, asses and deceivers." At the same time Molinaeus, the French Reformed theologian, complained that Calvin "uses violence to the letter of the gospel, and besides this, adds to the text."

The Protestant Reformers may have been revolutionaries, but their revolution was extremist, not unlike that of the Taliban. This is exemplified by their zeal for destruction. Catholics burnt some Bibles, but the Protestants burned books on a scale that makes the Catholic fires look like the odd candle flame. In England, when the monasteries were suppressed, their libraries were most often destroyed as well. So the vast monastic libraries of religious texts encompassing many ancient, rare, and hand-copied Catholic Bibles were put to the flames. In 1544 in the Anglican controlled sections of Ireland, the Reformers put an immense number of ancient books, including Vulgate Bibles, onto the bonfires as they ransacked the monasteries and their libraries. In an effort to reduce the Catholic Irish to ignorance, King Henry VIII decreed that in Ireland the possession of a manuscript on any subject whatsoever (including sacred Scripture) should incur the death penalty.

King Henry VIII even burnt the Protestant Bibles of Tyndale, Coverdale, and Matthew, with the Catholic Latin Vulgate helping to feed the fires.

In 1582 The Rheims Catholic New Testament in English was issued. This Catholic version, with its accompanying notes, aroused the fiercest opposition in Protestant England. Queen Elizabeth ordered searches to seek out, confiscate, and destroy every copy. If a priest was found in possession of it, he was imprisoned. The Bible-burning wasn't limited to England. In 1522 Calvin had as many copies as could be found of the Servetus Bible burned, and later Calvin had Michael Servetus himself burned at the stake for being a Unitarian.

Sadly, the destruction was not limited to the burning of Bibles. Sixteenth-century England and Ireland witnessed the most monumental pillage of sacred property and destruction of Christian architecture, art, and craftwork the world has ever seen. In England between the winter of 1537 and spring 1540 over 318 monasteries and convents were destroyed. Parish churches were ransacked. Beautiful paintings and carvings were smashed. Sacred vestments and altar hangings with rich embroidery were confiscated and recycled into curtains and clothes. Vessels of the altar were stolen, melted down, and sold. The Protestants destroyed a religious heritage with the zeal and fury of terrorists, and what was left by the iconoclasts during the reign of Henry VIII was smashed further during the Puritan regime of Oliver Cromwell.

In France the Calvinists, in one year alone (1561), according to one of their own estimates, "murdered 4,000 priests, monks and nuns, expelled or maltreated 12,000 nuns, sacked 20,000 churches, and destroyed 2,000 monasteries" with their priceless libraries, Bibles, and works of art. The rare manuscript collection of the ancient monastery of Cluny was irreparably lost, along with many others.

Living in England, as I do, the legacy of this mindless destruction by anti-Catholic forces is present everywhere. A map of the countryside marks countless bare ruins of medieval monasteries, abbeys, and convents. Visit the medieval parish church in any village and you will notice the empty niches, the whitewashed walls, the side chapels turned into store-rooms, the stained-glass windows once riotous with pictures of the saints and stories from Scripture, now merely plain glass windows. The iconoclasm was followed by a campaign which, for three hundred years, continued to persecute Catholics relentlessly, while it concealed the destructive fury of the Protestant forces and continued to paint the Catholic Church as the incarnation of evil.

The final irony is that the very forces that pulled down and smashed the images of the saints in the medieval churches soon filled those same churches with carved memorial stones and statues of the rich and famous of their day. The figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints and angels are now replaced by figures of English military heroes, prime ministers, and forgotten landed aristocrats. The church which exemplifies this most is Westminster Abbey. Any Catholic visitor to London will be amazed at how this once proud Benedictine Abbey has been turned into a museum of English civil heroes. At every turn one finds statues of statesmen, kings, and politicians, while the heroes of the Christian faith are relegated to the margins.

Time does not heal all wounds. Terrible and violent events cannot simply be forgotten. Telling ourselves that certain things never happened is a lie. Saying that they don't matter now after so many years is another form of the same lie. Terrible events need to be faced, acknowledged, repented of, and forgiven. The violent events and terrible persecution of both Catholics and Protestants can only be put right through repentance and mutual forgiveness.

Catholics must own up to their own faults and sins of the past. In the Jubilee Year, Pope John Paul II took an amazing step forward with his historic mea culpa for the sins of Catholics. On Ash Wednesday in the year 2000 he led the Catholic Church in a public act of repentance. However, this admission of guilt and act of repentance has been met here in England and throughout the Protestant world with stony silence. Not one Protestant leader has offered a similar corporate examination of the past. Isn't it time that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Queen of England took the lead as international Protestant leaders, and offered their own reassessment of the past? If they did so, maybe others would follow and the process of healing could begin.

>> Which part of the Apocrypha are you looking at? None of this appears in my Bible. <<

Like I said, the "reformers" were very much threatened by it. It is the 13th chapter of Daniel, and it is contained in pre-Christian AND post-Christian canons. Your use of the term, "apocrypha" is very ironic in this sense, because the word means "hidden" in Greek. Your bible has been censored by Protestant "reformers" who were afraid of the truth. Try an Orthodox, Catholic, or Coptic bible.

>> That said, corraborative evidence can be found elsewhere in the Bible. "One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." Deuteronomy 19:15<<

That's corroborative TESTIMONY. The three men corroborated in their lies about Susanna. But, yes, of course, Daniel did not supplant Mosaic law, and I would never have meant to suggest he did. My point was that absent Daniel's detective-work, Susanna would be in a lot of hot water. In the reformation era, many civil judges were quite happy to accept testimony without finding corroborative evidence, asserting that had fulfilled their biblical mandate. The Inquisition argued that such was not enough.

Here is the story of Susanna, although not from one of my preferred translations:

1 In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim,
2
who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah;
3
her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses.
4
Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he was the most respected of them all.
5
That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said, "Wickedness has come out of Babylon: from the elders who were to govern the people as judges."
6
These men, to whom all brought their cases, frequented the house of Joakim.
7
When the people left at noon, Susanna used to enter her husband's garden for a walk.
8
When the old men saw her enter every day for her walk, they began to lust for her.
9
They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments.
10
Though both were enamored of her, they did not tell each other their trouble,
11
for they were ashamed to reveal their lustful desire to have her.
12
Day by day they watched eagerly for her.
13
One day they said to each other, "Let us be off for home, it is time for lunch." So they went out and parted;
14
but both turned back, and when they met again, they asked each other the reason. They admitted their lust, and then they agreed to look for an occasion when they could meet her alone.
15
One day, while they were waiting for the right moment, she entered the garden as usual, with two maids only. She decided to bathe, for the weather was warm.
16
Nobody else was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her.
17
"Bring me oil and soap," she said to the maids, "and shut the garden doors while I bathe."
18
They did as she said; they shut the garden doors and left by the side gate to fetch what she had ordered, unaware that the elders were hidden inside.
19
As soon as the maids had left, the two old men got up and hurried to her.
20
"Look," they said, "the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us.
21
If you refuse, we will testify against you that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you."
22
"I am completely trapped," Susanna groaned. "If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power.
23
Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord."
24
Then Susanna shrieked, and the old men also shouted at her,
25
as one of them ran to open the garden doors.
26
When the people in the house heard the cries from the garden, they rushed in by the side gate to see what had happened to her.
27
At the accusations by the old men, the servants felt very much ashamed, for never had any such thing been said about Susanna.
28
When the people came to her husband Joakim the next day, the two wicked elders also came, fully determined to put Susanna to death. Before all the people they ordered:
29
"Send for Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim." When she was sent for,
30
she came with her parents, children and all her relatives.
31
Susanna, very delicate and beautiful,
32
was veiled; but those wicked men ordered her to uncover her face so as to sate themselves with her beauty.
33
All her relatives and the onlookers were weeping.
34
In the midst of the people the two elders rose up and laid their hands on her head.
35
Through her tears she looked up to heaven, for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.
36
The elders made this accusation: "As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman entered with two girls and shut the doors of the garden, dismissing the girls.
37
A young man, who was hidden there, came and lay with her.
38
When we, in a corner of the garden, saw this crime, we ran toward them.
39
We saw them lying together, but the man we could not hold, because he was stronger than we; he opened the doors and ran off.
40
Then we seized this one and asked who the young man was,
41
but she refused to tell us. We testify to this." The assembly believed them, since they were elders and judges of the people, and they condemned her to death.
42
But Susanna cried aloud: "O eternal God, you know what is hidden and are aware of all things before they come to be:
43
you know that they have testified falsely against me. Here I am about to die, though I have done none of the things with which these wicked men have charged me."
44
The Lord heard her prayer.
45
As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel,
46
and he cried aloud: "I will have no part in the death of this woman."
47
All the people turned and asked him, "What is this you are saying?"
48
He stood in their midst and continued, "Are you such fools, O Israelites! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence?
49
Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her."
50
Then all the people returned in haste. To Daniel the elders said, "Come, sit with us and inform us, since God has given you the prestige of old age."
51
But he replied, "Separate these two far from one another that I may examine them."
52
After they were separated one from the other, he called one of them and said: "How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term:
53
passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says, "The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.'
54
Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together."
55
2 "Under a mastic tree," he answered. "Your fine lie has cost you your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God shall receive the sentence from him and split you in two."
56
Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. "Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah," Daniel said to him, "beauty has seduced you, lust has subverted your conscience.
57
3 This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your wickedness.
58
Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together."
59
"Under an oak," he said. "Your fine lie has cost you also your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to make an end of you both."
60
The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those that hope in him.
61
They rose up against the two elders, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury. According to the law of Moses, they inflicted on them the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor:
62
they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day.
63
Hilkiah and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna, as did Joakim her husband and all her relatives, because she was found innocent of any shameful deed.
64
And from that day onward Daniel was greatly esteemed by the people.

In a 66 book tome like the Bible 2000 errors really is not that many... Knowing a little about the original languages too each of the words you mentioned ARE valid literal translations of those words: Baptism does mean literally "washing," the word for ghost or Spirit does literally mean "wind," bishop does actually mean "overseer," priest (or minister) is another word for "elder," deacon can indeed mean "minister," heresy is from the word "choice," and martyr does actually mean "witness."

If those are examples of Tyndale's errors, and this is into modern English, not that of 400 years ago..., then there were far less than 2000!

Tyndale & his translators (he himself did not do all the translating) were under constant real threat of being burned alive, because of the lovely harmless little Roman Catholic church. Is it any wonder they identified that institution's head with the worst of evils? (keep in mind too, they did not hold the literalist view of today of one person being THE anti-Christ, rather the pope of that day they and the corrupt institution he headed they called anti-Christ or anti-Christian.) After that kind of tyranny, we call the Reformers terrorists?

George Washington and the Continental army burned down loyalist houses and buildings--were they terrorists too? Lincoln, through his generals, obliterated much of Georgia...torching everything, was he also kin to the Taliban?

I think we need to be very careful comparing bad things done to the evils of Islamic fanatics--their's is an entirely different reasoning and scale.

Just for your information, before the Reformation, the canonicity of what you call the deuterocanonical books had not been officially decided by Rome. Loyal Roman Catholic scholars were on both sides of the issue. Since Judaism had excluded these pre-Christian Jewish texts from their canon in about 100 AD, there was a good argument for Christians to follow suit--but other Christian scholars said that BECAUSE the unbelieving-in-Jesus Jews had thrown them out, that made their reasoning irrelevant, and the books should be kept.

At the Council of Trent, seemingly because Luther had agreed with the Jewish scholarly consensus to exclude the apocryphal books from authoritative canon, Rome officially included them...but even then calling them secondary-canonical (the literal meaning of deuterocanonical).

I for one am happy to stand with the Jews on what is the valid canon of the Jewish portion of the Bible.

They are good for history and understanding ancient Jewish culture, but do not have the authority of God's word.

Just read the book of Tobit, and tell me that doesn't read like a fairy tale. Bears no resemblence to authentic scripture, but it does help us understand the Jewish mindset at the time of Jesus.

As to the issue of the flexibility of Mosaic law--it is true that it was more case law based and flexible, than many early Protestants were able to understand. I agree with you that many early (particularly 2nd generation) reformation Protestants were too literalist. (this in my opinion, is where the baptist controversy sprang from...since the bible no where explicitly show's infant baptism, they said (and say) you CAN'T do it...I think tradition needs to be given its due, and a more positive attitude toward God's permissivness needs to be taken--contra fundamentalism.) On the other hand, the explicit commands of the bible should be obeyed without question--understanding of course we are under the New Covenant.

>> Just for your information, before the Reformation, the canonicity of what you call the deuterocanonical books had not been officially decided by Rome <<

Absolutely false. Ecumenical councils do not invent doctrine, they discern what has always been recognized. Hence, Trent, common to Protestant apologetics, did not invent the canon, rather it recognized what had alwats been seen; it found no credible evidence that any church anywhere had ever rejected the deuterocanonicals as unfit for use in worship.

The only confusion revolves around the books of Esdras. Certain early Christian communities recognized the books of Esdras which became known as Ezra and Nehemiah. Others chose to use a book which has come to be referred to as "Greek Esdras" which was, in essence, a summation of both books into a shorter book. Since Sola Scriptura is a Protestant invention, the issue of a canon is sort of a response to the Protestant crisis. Scripture, for the Catholic church, has two key elements: that it contains essential doctrines, and that it is used in mass. Since there are no doctrines in Greek Esdras, and it is unused in mass, it was allowed to slip into a sort of canonical-status limbo, so to speak.

Likewise, there are a few other "apocrypha" which historical records suggests have been used in certain liturgical contexts, although they possess no unique doctrine, such as 3 Maccabees, and "Psalm 151." They may be found in certain Orthodox and Coptic bibles, but are not typically reprinted in the Catholic bibles.

You will find that the Council of Trent did not so much say, "These books are in the bible, and these are out." Rather, it said, "Catholics are obliged to uphold the doctrines in these books." (I'm paraphrasing because I'm too busy to look the quotes up.)

Your argument about what non-believing Jews should be upheld comes largely from paranthetical notes written by St. Jerome. You will also find that St. Jerome vigorously denied that these notes must not be taken to suggest that they are not inspired scripture; as far back as the 4th-century, St. Jerome felt morally compelled to refute what he plainly considered a heretical notion that the deuterocanonicals were not scriptural. 1,000 years later, with no historical basis to suppose so, Luther would teach that St. Jerome must have been tortured, but that is a self-defeating argument: If St. Jerome said what he did because of torture, that would only further the argument that to deny the canonicity of the deuterocanonical books was officially regarded as heresy by the 4th-century popes.

Finally, the issue as to whether certain early Christians felt that Jews should not be required to ascent to the deuterocanonicals as a requirement for conversion is quite beside the point. Regardless of evangelization tactics, those communities made extensive use of deuterocanonicals in their worship. The book of Wisdom, for instance, has been referred to since the first century during church lenten and Easter services, since it so vividly details the nature of the execution of Jesus Christ. So well, in fact, that anti-Catholic apologists asserted it couldn't possibly be authentic Old-Testament scripture, since its authors had to have witnessed the death of Jesus. And yet, manuscripts of it were found in the Qumran collections which predated Christ.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.