[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_2″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_images picture_size=”auto” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/John-Wycliffe-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JOHN-HUS-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Johann-Gutenberg-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/John-Colet-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ERASMUS-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/WILLIAM-TYNDALE-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MARTIN-LUTHER-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Tyndale-and-Luther-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Tyndale-Bible-Dignified-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Myles-Coverdale-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/John-Rogers-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Thomas-Cranmer-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Queen-mary-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Church-at-Switzerland-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Geneva-Bible-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Bishop-Bible-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Rheims-New-Testament-by-the-Roman-Catholic-church-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Douay-Old-Testament-by-the-Roman-Catholic-Church-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/William-Fulke-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/King-James-I-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/King-James-Version-BIBLE-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Robert-Aitken-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/English-Revised-Version-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/New-American-Standard-Version-Bible-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/New-International-Translation-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/New-King-James-Version-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/English-Standard-Version-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][fusion_image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http://rhapsodybible.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Rhapsody-Bible-300×300.jpg” alt=””/][/fusion_images][fusion_text]1. Chronicles of the English Bible translation.
This is the captivating account of how the Bible got to its present form, starting with the translation of the scripture to English Language with the Morning Star of the Reformation, John Wycliffe. It chronicles other major highlights of events, individuals and groups that culminated in the translation of Bibles from its original language to The English language
2 John Wycliffe
The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in the 1380’s AD by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was the only source text available to Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English.
3 JOHN HUS
One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415. The last words of John Hus were that in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.
4 Johann Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450’s, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible. He created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, as the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time.
5. Thomas Linacre
In the 1490s another Oxford professor, Thomas Linacre, decided to learn Greek. After reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he discovered that it had become so corrupt and that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel. He wrote in his diary, Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel or we are not Christians.
6. John Colet
In 1496, John Colet, an Oxford professor and the son of the Mayor of London, started reading the New Testament in Greek and translating it into English for his students at Oxford, and later for the public at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The people were so hungry to hear the Word of God in a language they could understand, that within six months there were 20,000 people packed in the church.
7. ERASMUS
In 1516, the great scholar Erasmus was so moved to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate, that with the help of printer John Froben, he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. This milestone was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium, and the first ever to come off a printing press.
8. WILLIAM TYNDALE
William Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius, so fluent in eight languages that it was said one would think any one of them to be his native tongue.
9. MARTIN LUTHER
Martin Luther came as a manifestation of John Hus prophecy. He translated the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus and published it in September of 1522. Luther also published another edition of the German New Testament in 1529. In the 1530s he published the entire Bible in German.
10. Tyndale and Luther
William Tyndale wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther’s doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year’s end had translated the New Testament into English. In 1525-1526, the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in the English language.
11. Suppression of the Tyndale’s Bible
Tyndale Bible was highly resisted by King Henry VIII and the Bishop. Several times, thousands of this Holy Book were confiscated and burnt. The church declared it contained thousands of errors while in fact; they burned them because they could find no errors at all. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale’s forbidden books.
12. Tyndale Bible Dignified
Ironically, Tyndale’s biggest customer was the King’s men, who would buy up every copy available to burn them and Tyndale used their money to print even more! In the end, Tyndale was caught, incarcerated for 500 days before he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”. This prayer was answered just three years later in 1539, when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible known as the Great Bible.
13. Myles Coverdale
Myles Coverdale and John Thomas Matthew Rogers had remained loyal disciples the last six years of Tyndale’s life, and they carried the English Bible project forward and even accelerated it. Coverdale finished translating the Old Testament, and on October 4, 1535, he printed the first complete Bible in the English language, making use of Luther’s German text and the Latin as sources.
14. John Rogers
John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. It was, however, the first English Bible translated from the original Biblical languages of Hebrew & Greek. It is a composite made up of Tyndale’s Pentateuch and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and Coverdale’s Bible and some of Roger’s own translation of the text. It remains known most commonly as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. It went through a nearly identical second-edition printing in 1549.
15. Thomas Cranmer
In 1539, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, hired Myles Coverdale at the bequest of King Henry VIII to publish the “Great Bible”. It became the first English Bible authorized for public use, as it was distributed to every church, chained to the pulpit, and a reader was even provided so that the illiterate could hear the Word of God in plain English. It was known as the Great Bible due to its great size: a large pulpit folio measuring over 14 inches tall.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_2″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]16. Queen Mary
After King Henry VIII, King Edward VI took the throne, and after his death, the reign of Queen Bloody Mary was the next obstacle to the printing of the Bible in English. In 1555, John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers and Thomas Cranmer were both burned at the stake. Mary went on to burn reformers at the stake by the hundreds. This era was known as the Marian Exile, and the refugees fled from England with little hope of ever seeing their home or friends again.
17. The Church at Switzerland
In the 1550’s, the Church at Geneva, Switzerland, was one of only a few safe havens for reformer refugees. Many of them met in Geneva, led by Myles Coverdale and John Foxe, as well as Thomas Sampson and William Whittingham.
18. Geneva Bible
There, with the protection of John Calvin and John Knox, the Church of Geneva determined to produce a Bible that would educate their families while they continued in exile. The New Testament was completed in 1557, and the complete Bible was first published in 1560. It became known as the Geneva Bible.
19. The Bishop Bible
With the end of Queen Mary’s bloody reign, the reformers could safely return to England. The Anglican Church, now under Queen Elizabeth I, reluctantly tolerated the printing and distribution of Geneva version Bibles in England. In 1568, a revision of the Great Bible known as the Bishop’s Bible was introduced.
20. Rheims New Testament by the Roman Catholic church
By the 1580’s, the Roman Catholic Church saw that it had lost the battle to suppress the will of God: they surrendered their fight for “Latin only” and decided that if the Bible was to be available in English, they would at least have an official Roman Catholic English translation. Because it was translated at the Roman Catholic College in the city of Rheims, it was known as the Rheims New Testament
21. The Douay Old Testament by the Roman Catholic Church
The Douay Old Testament was translated by the Church of Rome in 1609 at the College in the city of Douay. The combined product is commonly referred to as the “Douay/Rheims” Version.
22. Dr William Fulke
In 1589, Dr William Fulke of Cambridge published the “Fulke’s Refutation”, in which he printed in parallel columns the Bishops Version along side the Rheims Version, attempting to show the error and distortion of the Roman Church’s corrupt compromise of an English version of the Bible.
23. King James I
With the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. In 1604, the new king was approached with a request for a new translation to replace the Bishop’s Bible first printed in 1568
24. King James Version BIBLE
From 1605 to 1606 the scholars engaged in private research. From 1607 to 1609 the work was assembled. In 1610, the work went to press, and in 1611 the first of the huge (16 inches tall) pulpit folios known today as “The 1611 King James Bible” came off the printing press. One year after, printing then began on the earliest normal-size printings of the King James Bible. These were produced so individuals could have their own personal copy of the Bible.
25. Robert Aitken
Although the first Bible printed in America was done in the native Algonquin Indian Language by John Eliot in 1663; the first English-language Bible to be printed in America by Robert Aitken in 1782 was a King James Version. Robert Aitken’s 1782 Bible.
26. English Revised Version
In 1880s England’s own planned replacement for their King James Bible, the English Revised Version(E.R.V.) was printed, It became the first English language Bible to gain popular acceptance as a post-King James Version modern-English Bible.
27. America Standard Version
The Americans responded to England’s E.R.V. Bible by publishing the nearly-identical American Standard Version (A.S.V.) in 1901. It was also widely accepted and embraced by churches throughout America for many decades.
28. New American Standard Version Bible
In 1971, the America Standard Version was again revised and called New American Standard Version Bible This New American Standard Bible is considered by nearly all evangelical Christian scholars and translators today, to be the most accurate, word-for-word translation of the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures into the modern English language that has ever been produced.
29. New International Translation
In 1973, the New International Version (N.I.V.) was produced, which was offered as a dynamic equivalent translation into modern English. The N.I.V. was designed not for word-for-word accuracy, but rather, for phrase-for-phrase accuracy.
30. New King James Version
In 1982, Thomas Nelson Publishers produced what they called the New King James Version. Their original intent was to keep the basic wording of King James to appeal to King James Version loyalists while only changing the most obscure words and the Elizabethan thee, thy, thou pronouns.
31. English Standard Version
In 2002, a major attempt was made to bridge the gap between the simple readability of the N.I.V., and the extremely precise accuracy of the N.A.S.B. This translation is called the English Standard Version (E.S.V.) and is rapidly gaining popularity for its readability and accuracy.
32. The Rhapsody Bible
In 2008 Rev. Chris Oyakhilome launched the Rhapsody Bible as he recognized the need to take Bible translation to the next level by presenting a clearer understanding of God’s Word based on the teachings we propagate as a ministry; the Revelation for the now, necessary for clarity; without ambiguity and void of human perceptions & innuendos. Consequently, having the sincere milk of God’s Word available for free distribution in every language.
33. Rhapsody Bible in 2022.
Today, over 2 million copies of the Rhapsody Bible have been distributed around the world. The Rhapsody Bible also has 16 published translations, namely: English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, German, Tagalog, Shona, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Ibibio & Oron.
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