Mystery Question Clue 1: It was sometimes used to burn people at the stake. Clue 2: It was sometimes used by William Shakespeare. Clue 3: People who were not careful with it sometimes had their hands cut off. What is it?

The History of the Bible Hebrew Literature Unit The History of the Bible

Introduction to the Bible The Bible is the number one best selling book in the world. Many faiths view it as the inspired work of God, meaning that they believe that God told man what to write and so it is literally the word of God.

Three Types of Bibles The Jewish Bible is made up of the old testament, or 39 different books. The Christian Bible is made up of both the old and new testaments for a total of 66 books. The Catholic Bible is the longest one with both the old and new testaments, and fourteen other books called the apocrypha or deuterocanonical.

Bible Manuscripts There are no original manuscripts of the Bible in existence today. The earliest known manuscript are the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947 in jars in caves bordering the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain portions of the old testament, including the book of Isaiah. http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/ http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/

Translations of the Bible By the end of the first century A.D., all of the manuscripts of the Bible were complete. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. In 315 AD, the Bishop of Alexandria made the canon of scriptures, complete with the new testament, official. In 382 AD, the Pope commissioned a man named Jerome to translate the entire Bible into Latin. It took him twenty years. This version is now adopted by the Catholic church as the “Vulgate” or common version.

Translations of the Bible In 1384 AD, the first hand written English language Bible was produced by John Wycliffe. This made the Pope so mad that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug up, crushed, and scattered in the river. The Catholic church threatened anyone who possessed a non-Latin Bible with execution. In 1415, a follower of Wycliffe, John Hus, started handing out Bibles in English. He was burned at the stake with Wycliffe Bibles used as kindling for the fire. His last words were “in 100 years, God will raise up a man who calls for reform that cannot be suppressed.” http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories

Translations of the Bible In 1517, almost exactly 100 yrs. Later, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg. Martin Luther was the first man to print the Bible in German. In the same year, seven people were burned at the stake for teaching their children to say the Lord’s Prayer in English rather than Latin. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories

Translations of the Bible In 1525, William Tyndale was the first to use the new printing press invention to print the Bible in English. Because of this, he was hunted by bounty hunters for 11 yrs. and the church burned every copy of his Bible they could find. Only two known copies of the first edition of the Bible are known to exist today. In 1536, William was betrayed by an Englishman, imprisoned for 500 days, strangled and burned at the stake. His last words were “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Three years later, Henry VIII allowed and even funded the printing of an English Bible called the Great Bible. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories

Translations of the Bible In 1560, the Geneva translation of the Bible was published. It was the first Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters and have marginal notes. William Shakespeare used the Geneva version of the Bible to quote from in his plays. In 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published after seven years of work. King James I appointed 54 scholars to translate the Bible into English. It was and still is the most popular version of the Bible because of its character and language. It is the only book with one billion copies in print, the most printed book in the history of the world. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories

Curious Bibles These are Bibles that had typographical errors in them and had disastrous consequences for those who printed them. The Adulterous Bible: It read “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The penalty for this error was death. The Unrighteous Bible: It read, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?” The penalty for this error was death. http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Stories