Documentary - "The Bible Revolution"

I watched a very informative documentary called "The Bible Revolution" on Google Video this morning (see below for hyperlink), which should be of great interest to my Christian friends. If you are not a Christian, the history of the English bible, which is what this documentary is about, will still be very educational.

I find it fascinating that there is more than 38000 different Christian denominations in the world (grouped under 5 major branches). Why are there Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Presbysterians etc when at the heart of it, they all worship the same Jesus Christ? Apparently, many of the breakaway factions came about simply because of differences over the bible!

The first OFFICIAL bible was authorised in the year 382 by the Roman Catholic church. At that time, all the existing texts were only written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The Roman Catholic church translated these texts into Latin (the language of the Roman Empire), and made the Latin compilation the official Christian bible.

However, with the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 476, the Latin language slowly declined and fell from disuse. By the late 16th century, most people in Europe could not speak Latin. Latin was a "dead" language mastered mainly by intellectuals and the church, and not by the common folks. The common folks could not read the Latin bible on their own, and had to hear the bible stories from the priests of the Catholic church (in the early 1500s, all churches in Europe were Catholic churches).

In England, William Tyndale translated the bible into English in 1523. The Catholic church was against the translation (they insisted that only their Latin version is the one-and-true bible). William Tyndale was arrested in 1535 for heresy and treason simply because of publishing the bible in English. He was executed by the Catholic church by being burnt on the stake in 1536.

In Germany, Martin Luther had also translated the bible into German (also in 1523). Now that the bible can be read by the common folks in Europe, the people realised that many of the Catholic church practices were NEVER taught by Jesus nor even documented in the bible. The practices were pure inventions of the Catholic church. Martin Luther initiated a movement to eliminate the invented Catholic practices from his church movement, which became the birth of Protestantism Christianity.

With the English bible in the hands of the common folks in England, Protestantism was also taking root there against the Catholic practices. Finally, the notorious King Henry VIII (who married SIX TIMES and who is rumoured to have fathered many illegitimate children), decided to sever all connections between the Church of England and the Catholic church. The reason: so that he could divorce his first wife Catherine to marry Anne without seeking the Pope's permission!

Queen Catherine gave birth to Mary, while Queen Anne gave birth to Elizabeth. Mary was Catholic, while Elizabeth was Protestant.

The severance of England from the Catholic church angered the Pope, who initiated a war against England. Within England itself, there was a lot of power play between Catholics and Protestants supporters. When King Edward, who succeeded Henry VIII, died in 1553, the Catholics manage to install Mary as the Queen of England. Queen Mary immediately started repairing ties with the Pope and the Catholic church. During her reign, almost 300 Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy, resulting in the term "Bloody Mary" being used to refer to her.

Unfortunately, Queen Mary died childless, and Queen Elizabeth I inherited the throne in 1558. By deft political manipulation, Elizabeth I managed to strike a compromise between the Catholic and Protestant forces in the church, resulting in the amalgam known today as Anglican Christianity. This is why Anglicanism contains aspects of both Catholic and Protestant practices.

In 1611, England published the "King James Version" of the English bible. By all intents and purposes, the KJV version of the bible is William Tyndale's bible.

Through his English translation of the bible, William Tyndale left a huge impact on the English language. Many famous English idioms and phrases we use today such as:

• Am I my brother's keeper?
• Stranger in a strange land
• Burning bush
• An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
• Spare the rod and spoil the child
• Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die
• See eye to eye
• Can the leopard change his spots?
• In the lion's den
• Man shall not live by bread alone
• Turn the other cheek
• Cast your pearls before swine
• Wolf in sheep's clothing
• New wine in old bottles
• He that is not with me is against me
• Sign of the times
• I wash my hands of it
• Physician, heal thyself
• Grapes of wrath
• Lost sheep
• Prodigal son
• Cast the first stone
• Doubting Thomas
• Through a glass, darkly
• The root of all evil
• Armageddon
• A thorn in the flesh
• Weeping and gnashing of teeth
• Go the extra mile

all originated from the English bible, and specifically from Tyndale's translation. Just as the English language owes much to William Shakespeare, its debt to William Tyndale is unmeasurable.

If the Catholic church had not violently countered the translation of the bible (people were burnt on the stake by the Catholic church simply for translating the bible!), there probably wouldn't be so many church denominations today. The history of the English bible is truly a dark and macabre one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6101527704063312894