What was the last bestseller you read? Was it a gripping novel by James Patterson, or one of J.K. Rowlings’ compelling Harry Potter stories? Did you revisit a Shakespeare play or a fiendishly convoluted tale by Agatha Christie? All those authors are indeed bestsellers but their sales pale in the light of the greatest bestselling book of all time: the Bible.
Written by many authors over 1,500 years, with the last bookscompleted in the 1st century AD, the Bible was translated from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic first into Latin and then parts of it into English only in the 10th century AD. Some of the books in the Bibles we read now were first collected in the early 2nd century by scholars known as the Church Fathers and their collections were discussed, debated and amended by further scholars and Councils over the years.
The first translation into Early Modern English of the entire Bible was published by Myles Coverdale in 1535, having completed the translations begun in 1522 by William Tyndale. Tyndale was strangled and then burnt in 1536 for having had the audacity to believe that “it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.”
I think we forget that being able to read the Bible in English is a privilege that took hundreds of years and cost lives. We realise, however, that the Bible isn’t like other books. It’s actually a collection of many different kinds of writings, from genealogies,stories, laws, poems, songs, sermons, prophecies, sayings, letters and visions. The Bible is, in effect, a whole library of 66 books, some collected and lost and rediscovered over hundreds of years, divided into two main parts, the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament tells the histories and stories of the Hebrews, the people who believed in the One God, as opposed to other peoples who worshipped many gods. Indeed, the Hebrews had done sothemselves and when the going got tough, they had the disconcerting habit of slipping back into their old ways and worshipping some of their other gods!
The New Testament tells of the coming of Jesus the Christ into the world as one of us, a human being. The four Gospels record what Jesus said and did and tell of his death and resurrection. We learn what Jesus said was the most important commandment of all, a new commandment to sum up all the hundreds of rules and regulations listed in the Old Testament. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 34 -35)
We can never understand everything in the Bible, but every time we read it, we are opening ourselves to being met by God in new ways, which is why it is called the ‘living’ word. We have the possibility of being changed and inspired by the Holy Spirit and shown in new ways how much God loves us.
Rev Christina Rees