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CT•Ranger
Colonial Militia
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 14 2002
Status: offline
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 Posted - June 10 2003 : 3:06:28 PM
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"I the beginning was the Word, and that word was Hebrew and Greek."
One of the books I've been reading lately is Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it Inspired by Benson Bobrick. It is the history of the struggle to translate the Bible back into the vernacular. The title is taken from the fact that in 1428 on orders from the pope, John Wycliffe's remains were disinterred and burned on a bridge that spanned the river Swift (a tributary of the Avon), and his ashes cast into the stream. "From thence the prophecy arose: The Avon to the Severn runs, The Severn to the sea, And Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad, Wide as the waters be." John Wycliffe whose followers were known as Lollards, is credited as the "John the Baptist of the Reformation." He was a brilliant theologian, scholar and intellectual, whose critique of the church and involvement in translating the Bible into English sparked the Reformation. The book is well written, very interesting history, and focuses on John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, James I and the parts they played in the development of the English Bible, culminating in the 1611 King James Version.
"Next to the Bible itself, the English Bible was (and is) the most influential book ever published. It gave every literate person complete access to the sacred text, which helped foster the spirit of inquiry through reading and reflection. These in turn accelerated the growth of commercial printing and the ever-widening circulation and production of books. Books 'formerly imprisoned in the libraries and monasteries' were, as one contemporary put it, 'released from bondage, obtained their enlargement, and freely walked about in the light.' Once the people were free to interpret the Word of God according to the light of their own understanding, they began to question the authority of their inherited institutions, both religious and secular, which led to reformation within the Church, and to the rise of constitutional government in England and the end of the divine right of kings... Englishmen carried their Bible with them-as the rock and foundation of their lives-overseas... Beyond the shores of Albion, it fortified the spirit of the pioneers of New England, helped shape the American psyche, and through its impact on thought and culture eventually spread the world over..."
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YMHS,
Connecticut•Ranger
Thomas Thacher
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Wide as the Waters
