Rampant corruption and immorality among the clergy of the Roman Catholic church had left a bitter taste in the mouths of most of their congregation. The inquisition of brutality made matters much worse.
In the West, the Ottoman Empire was making life very difficult for the Greek Orthodox church. The Greek Orthodox church had its headquarters in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). Constantinople was a center of learning and had been using the Koine-Greek Bible for over a thousand years. Many people in the city were proficient in Koine-Greek. Refugees fleeing Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 brought with them copies of the Bible in the Koine Greek language. This was the copy of the Scripture that these men preached, read, and translated from.
Acts 11:25-26- Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
This is the Bible the King James version was translated from. You want a Bible that is associated with where missionaries were first sent out.
Acts 13:1-3- Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
You want a Bible associated with the churches mentioned in Revelations. The Byzantine text is the only set of Scriptures that has this phenomenon. It's translation into English, the KJV, was instrumental in the Great Awakening and the missionary movement.
Desiderius Erasmus was raised in a monastic school and became quite competent in both Latin and Greek. He had embarked on his quest to write a parallel Greek and new Latin text to reform the corrupted text of the Catholic church, but it was the Erasmus Greek text which went on to become the foundation of the Textus Receptus, from which we get our King James Bible. The 1527 edition of Erasmus's New Testament allowed readers to compare the two translations side by side, showing the people how inaccurate Jerome's Latin Vulgate was.
Erasmus wasn't the first person to translate the Scriptures. Almost 200 years before, John Wycliffe made the effort to translate the Latin Vulgate into the language of the people of England- Middle English at the time. The idea was to provide a bible in the English language for his preachers and their hearers.
John Wycliffe never left the Catholic Church; His aim was to bring about the reformation of the church. He is known as the "morning star of the reformation". He preached in the people’s language. He questioned many Catholic doctrines, including the veneration of saints, transubstantiation and the sacraments, as well as the legitimacy of the pope as the supreme ruler of the church.
His followers became known as Lollards. Active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century, they traveled often dressed in russet tunics and barefoot. Lollard beliefs spread through public preaching, distribution of Bibles and tracts, and invitations to friends to join ‘reading circles’, where the Bible was studied.
Romans 10:15- And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards was a summary of what they believed was needed reform for the church of England. It was presented to the Parliament of England and nailed to the doors of Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. They began by stating that the church in England had become subservient to her “stepmother the great church of Rome.”
Their numbers are unknown, but it has been stated that "Every second man that you meet is a Lollard."
In the beginning of the 15th Century, the persecution of the Lollards began. England passed a statute for the burning of heretics. Despite the intense persecution, the Lollards continued to preach Christians throughout Britain, and even spread throughout all of Europe.
Their ideas influenced the thought of John Huss, who in turn influenced Martin Luther.
John Huss was a pastor at the center of the Bohemian reform movement. He was accused of Waldesenism and Wycliffism. He advocated the authority of Scripture over the Catholic church. He preached that the Church is the entire body of those who from eternity have been predestined for salvation, and that Christ, not the pope, is its head. Huss, like Wycliffe, never left the Catholic church; his efforts were designed to rid the Church of its ethical abuses. by reforming it from the inside.
In 1403 a German university master, Johann Hübner, drew up a list of 45 articles, presumably selected from Wycliffe’s writings, and had them condemned as heretical. Their main argument was that Wycliffe viewed the wine and bread of the sacraments as "material substance".
John Huss was very vocal over his dispute regarding the sale of indulgences, which led to his conviction of heresy. He was burned at the stake in 1417.
Both Wycliffe and Huss were accused of being corrupted by the “old evangelical party”.
Martin Luther was a sixteenth century monk credited with starting the Protestant Reformation. While visiting Rome, he became appalled by the corruption he saw among the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. And, he became increasingly angry about the clergy selling 'indulgences' - promised remission from punishments for sin. Luther had come to believe that Christians are saved through faith and not through their own efforts.
Martin Luther’s perception of Hus was marked by growing appreciation and deep respect. His original rejection of Hus was transformed when in his monastery library he discovered—and was astonished by—some sermons by Hus.
In 1517, he published his '95 Theses', attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences, which he nailed to the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg.
Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. To which Luther stated, "His Holiness abuses Scripture. I deny that he is above Scripture". At the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Roman Catholic Church, he refused to recant his position which he portrayed in his 95 Theses:
"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."
Because of this he was branded an outlaw and a heretic, his writings were banned, and a command for his arrest was issued. Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle to escape being killed. During his time there, He worked on translating the New Testament from an old Waldensen Bible along with Erasmus' Greek translation into German.
It was his excommunication that removed Martin Luther from the Catholic Church. In this way, he is looked upon as the father of the Protestant Reformation- leaving the Catholic Church just like Protestants say the Bible calls all Christians to do.
Revelation 18:4- And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
In 1522, he returned to Wittenberg. He stated, "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word."
A few years later, he married Katharina von Bora, one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent, with whom he had six children. He had long condemned vows of celibacy on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry was viewed as a seal of approval on clerical marriage.
Luther published a complete translation of the bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language. The Lutheran Church was established from his descendants.
In 1534, King Henry VIII separated from the Roman Catholic Church, and created a new church where the monarchy was the head instead of the pope. This is when the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, was formed. Those who moved to America from this religious designation have began the Episcopal Church.
William Tyndale was ordained into the priesthood of the Church of England. While at Cambridge University, he was among upcoming reformers who were discussing the ideas of the Reformation and the work of Martin Luther.
In 1521, he crossed swords with a local friar who, following a heated debate, exclaimed, "we’d be better off without God’s law than the law of the Pope’" To which Tyndale replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you!”
This began his journey of translating the Bible into English. At this time, it was forbidden for a person to read the Bible in English without a priest’s permission and people were burned at the stake for teaching others the Lord’s Prayer in English.
Tyndale translated much of the Bible into English. His translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the and the first English translation to use Jehovah as God's name. It was also the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press.
King Henry declared that Tyndale’s books should be burned and punishment doled out to owners. Tyndale was betrayed by his friend Henry Phillips who invited him to lunch and then ambushed him. He was imprisoned outside Brussels for a year, accused of heresy. He was chained to a stake, partially strangled, and then burned.
These men began the movement to create a translation of the Scriptures that could be read in the tongue of the everyday human. Latin and Greek had become dead languages, known only to those few who had the means to pay for higher education.
Because of their work, we now have a complete translation of the Scriptures, available in almost every language around the world, giving all the opportunity to see what God has to say for Himself.
Isaiah 34:6a- Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read:
