The Portland daily press., 1900-11-26
HOW WE GOT OUR BIBLE.
Ehs subJect of:Rsv. Mr.. Atwood's Talk
Last Evening

The subject OF the sermon Of the Rev.
John NJ. Atwood at the Church OF the
Messiah last evening was "How We Got
Our Bible y. lie said that very few peo-
pie took the trouble to lind out the his
tory OF the Bible. and his object in speak
ing on this SUBJECT was to educate and
interest his hearers rather than give
them Inspiration. He called attention to
the fact that the Bible was not al ways In
the hands OF the people. The Bible we
now have is a translation, and as every
one knows the Old Testament was origi-
naIIy written in Hebrew ami the new
Testament In Greek. He also called at
tention to the familiar fact, often lost
sight OF, that the art Of printing is
oom parativeIy recent invention, and the
ancient Bible was written by fani and
1t was no small task to copy one book,
to say nothing OF the sixty.six books
The only way that the early Christians
could have a copy of the Bible was to
make 1t for themselves or get some one
else to make 1t for them. Men were al
ways at work copying the Bible, and
great many errors in 1t were made. These
copies continued to be made into the
meuiaeval ages, but there was no author
lied version, such as we have today, save
the Latin translation made by st Jerome.
During the middle ages, when the Catho'
lie church held undisputed sway, the
Bible was practically sealed book to the
people, and though 1t was written In
Latin, the vernaoular OF the people had
changed, even in Italy, and degenerated
so that in consequence the people could
not understand the priests when they
read the Bible any more than theCatholios
can understand the Latin chants of the
priests today. 1t came to be regarded
that 1t would not be proper to teach the
people the Bible, as 1t would make that
which is holy, common. This state Of
things went on, so far as the English peo-
PIE are concerned, until the time OF John
Wycliffe, sometimes called the morning
star of the Reformation. In addition to
much other work, he translated the Bible
into English, this being the first complets
English translation ever made. The
translation was copied and circulated
secretly among the people.
MIR. Atwood went on to speak of how
some of the errors in the Bible were
made, and explained many of them in an
interesting manner. He then spoke OF
the time of William Tyndale, who, after
meeting Erasmus, the scholar, made
translation of the Bible into English from
the ancient copies, and when he was told
that the people and the monks would OBJ
ject to his giving this book to the people.
Tyndals sai1 he woul1 defy the Pope and
ali the laws. But he didn't tind King
Henry the Eighth quite as willing to aid
him in his attempt to give the people tie
Bible as he hoped, and he had to flee TO
Germany. There he printed the Bible in
English, and smuggled it across to Eng
land. Afterwards he was lured there and
strangl9d and burned at the stake, his
last words being, Lord, open thou the
king OF England eyes - 1t took only
three years for the king eyes TO be
opened, as history tells. After that came
the King James translation OF the Bible,
a masterpiece among transiations, and In
1881 the revised translation was made to
correct soma of the many errors which
advancing scholarship and the discovery
of OLD manuscripts had discovered.
MIR Atwood twenty minute talks on
Sunday evening are very popular, and 1t
takes more than an ordinary rain storm
TO keep people at home from thsm, Sun
day evenings
Buyler's Thanksgiving Candies. Sohiot-