“Billy,” called Big Sister one Saturday evening, “want to go to
the movies?”
“Can’t, thank you, Sis,” called back the boy named Billy. “Got to
study my Sunday School lesson.”
After a half hour of deep study the boy named Billy put the book
on the table and said, “That’s great stuff, that story of David
and Goliath. Who wrote the Bible, please? It _was_ written by
someone, was it not?”
“There were many sacred books written by many different men at
many different periods of the world’s history,” said Somebody,
“which were accepted as the inspired Word of God.
“At first these were put out as separate volumes, but after a
long time they were gathered together and bound into one volume.
“The books of the Old Testament were originally written in Hebrew
and those of the New Testament in Greek. Think of the labor of
love it must have been to make copies of the Bible. In those days
it all had to be done by hand as printing was not invented until
a thousand years after the new Testament was written.”
“Some undertaking,” said the boy named Billy. “Were all other
books made the same way?”
“Yes, indeed,” said Somebody, “a book was a priceless possession
in those days, and there’s not much wonder that there were very
few scholars--only priests and physicians had the leisure to
become learned, even if they could have obtained the books from
which to study.”
“The Bible we have is then a translation,” said the boy named
Billy.
“The Bible was translated into various languages,” said
Somebody, “but the first English version was translated from the
Latin by a priest named John Wycliffe, of Lutterworth, England.
He believed that the Bible belonged to everybody and should be
put into such form that everyone could read it. But instead of
being thanked and made much of for the very great service he
was doing he was put out of the church and called a heretic for
daring to meddle with the word of God--which did not stop his
work at all, because he finished it. After his death no one
did any more about it for a hundred years or so until Johan
Guttenberg discovered the art of printing, and when in 1454 the
use of movable type was found possible many copies of the Bible
were printed and everyone could have his own.
“In 1516 Erasmus, a learned Greek scholar, published the New
Testament, which was translated by William Tyndale, who was so
persecuted by those who did not want it published that he was
obliged to go to Germany to finish his work; even there he was so
hampered that it was not until 1525 that the New Testament was
finally printed.
“Merely as literature, it has made a deeper impression upon the
human mind than has any other book, and the extent to which
it has helped shape the world’s ideas cannot be estimated. No
matter how much you know of poetry or prose, you cannot consider
yourself well read unless you are thoroughly acquainted with the
Bible.”
“It is wonderful that the language has been kept so beautiful
after all those translations and copyings,” said the boy named
Billy.
“Very likely it was changed a good bit,” said Somebody, “but its
wonderful message of Truth has not been changed.”
“I don’t know where there’s another story like that of David,”
said Billy, “and the one about Joseph’s coat has any one of the
six best sellers beaten a mile.”
“Perhaps you’ll like to know,” said Somebody, “that the Bible,
year in and year out is _THE_ best seller.”
“I don’t wonder,” said the boy named Billy.