Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-03-15

an ally in the Greek. if he can influ-
ence him to accept Judaism. Canticles,
Chronicles and the closing six chapters
OF Zecilariah are written and the in
felt.
At the beginning OF the Second
century. Il. c., the office of high priest
Is bought and sold. Antiochus plum
derS the temple, persecutes the Jews.
erects an altar to Zeus, and the Syrians
climb into prominence. Ecclesticus,
Esther. Tobit. Enoch and additional
psalms are written. The Maccabes
revolt and then comes the heroic
struggle fol Independence. and the
Jews make their first treaty with
Rome, in 161 b. c
In $50 b. g.. Ptolclny Philadelphus
selects six men from each of the sup
posed original IL tribes OF Jews
learned men. and sends them way off
Z" Alexandria to translate all the He
brow writings into Greek. They worked
II miracle. They were each placed in
a separate cell. given a copy of the
Hebrew scriptures (Which. YOU relncm-
Der. was only the Ezra edition OF the
Mosaic law, and such sayings concern
ing the prophets as could be Matched
up from memory and in exactly ~
days these ~ men finished their task
and we are told every mans work
agreed with every other mans and it
was unanimously agreed that the
Lord did it, This version was called
The '~Septuagint. and is used in The
Greek churches at the present time,
along with such writing of the New
Testament as We're added after the
Christian Era.
The Prophet.
I'm the closing part of the century
before Christ, Cicero, Lucretius. Virgil,
Cato and Caesar exert a mighty influ-
ence over the worlds thought, and
western Asia fell to Rome. and then.
in the very first years of the first
century. A. D., Claudius kicks up a
row and banishes the Jews from Rome.
and Herod becomes the sub-ruler of
Judea. Rome dictates the policies of
the world. but Il new danger to it's con-
tinued power arises. a young Jew
from the hill country. ssum the role
OF a prophet. and comes forth from
the common people with a soul stir
ring and conscience searching mes
sage, which makes high priests angry
and s%ub-rulers afraid. After Il few
years of wandering. teaching and
preaching. the sub-rulers n coward
~ high-priests take advantage OF a
weak traitor. and tempt him to betray
the fearless young prophet. He is ar
rested and murdered, mt 40 living
a knows to this day, whether it
was Roman treachery or Jewish de-
ceptlon which was at the bottom of
this brutal tragedy. ! am inclined to
believe 1T was both. This brings us
to the New Testament age, or what is
called the Christian Era. and the great
days for producing bibles, creeds and
dogmas.
AT Jamnia, 81 small town near
Jerusalem, 80 years after Christ, there
was held a great Rabbinical council,
and the rabbits gathered all the vari-
Gus Hebrew writings and decided what
should be saved as a bible. This was
when the Jewish church was organized
as a church, instead of as a nation, and
when the Sanhedrin was established
At this time all OF the literature writ
ten by Hebrews, between the time of
Ezra and this date. whether in He
prev or Greek. was IKE from the
lalty n given into the hands OF the
rabbis for safe keeping.
|. Was No Bible.
When Constantine made Christianity
the religion of the Roman empire, there
was no such thing as a. bible as we
know 1T. 1t was in 1855 A. D., go years
after the Roman church was started
hat Bishop Damascus and st. Augustine
engaged Eusebius Heronymus, (St.
Jerome) and sent him to Bethlehem to
translate the scriptures into the latin
tongue for use in the Roman church.
This was called the Vulgate, and is
now used in the Catholic church. No
original Hebrew manuscripts were ever
found. for part of this work, simply be-
cause part of the old testament books,
were written in Greek, after the Greek
language became As prevalent as the
Hebrew. h Protestants threw out
such books and portions of books, of
which the Hebrew text could not be
found. after the reformation. under the
impression. that these books were
spurious. They are called "apocry-
phal."
IN the 9Th century, the Anglo Saxon
people were growing in numbers and
influence. and demanded a Saxon YER
sion, and a poet rose up from a "herds-
man by the name of Caedman and
supplied the demand, and of this YOU
may read in King Alfred's works, ana
also Bede'S ecclesiastical history.
The Danish invasion and the battle
OF Hastings, and the s%upplanting of the
Saxon clergy by the Norman priests.
in the Thirteenth century, A. D.. pre-
vented further progress in supplying
speaking people. till John wycliffe de-
fled the powers Of ecclestiaism and
translated the Latin Vulgate into the
English tongue. a crime for which he
was tried as a hereto, in the Black
Friar's hall. in London, May, 1873, A. ID.
HIS works We're denounced and he was
subsequently communicated.
About 200 years later William Tyn-
dale tackled h same proposition. At
this time there was a revival Of Greek
study IN England. Erasmus, the re-
nowned Greek scholar, was at Oxford
and had in his possession some mani
script of the new testament, from
which he a translated a COPY into
English. Tyndale was a student at
oxford. and formed an attachment for
erasmus. and upon reading the simple
story OF Christ's life. he became deeply
impressed with the urgency of an Eng
lish versinn for tho