If you start to make a list of all the things for which you want to thank God, then you will need a very large sheet of paper – a roll of backing paper used in decorating would do – for starters, anyway !
It’s almost certain that one of the items on your list will be the Bible – God’s word to you and the whole human race.
The way that the Bible has been translated into the world’s languages is fascinating. For example, it was Martin Luther in Germany who translated the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew into German.
He spent one year in translating the New Testament but the Old Testament took ten years.
His translation is still used today.
St Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century AD, significantly working from the Hebrew and Greek.
As for our English Bible, we owe an enormous debt to William Tyndale (c1494-1536) who tackled the daunting task against a background of vehement persecution, eventually paying with his life for daring to put God’s word in the language of the people. While translations in other European languages were available, the English church at the time fought ferociously to keep the Bible in the hands of the church, but not in translation.
It is worthy of note that over 75% of Tyndale’s translation was used by those who made the King James version published in 1611.Wycliffe Bible Translators, which is responsible for 75% of all Bible translation work today, recently announced that a new milestone had been reached as the Bible has been translated into its 700th language and published. The Word of God can now be read by 5.7 billion people in their heart language – which means that God speaks to them in their own tongue. 1.5 billion await that gift.