Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [5]
As a historian, I know that “tampering” with the Bible is a risky business. In one attempt to make the Bible accessible to common folk who didn’t understand Hebrew, Latin, or Greek, John Wycliffe, a renegade English priest, produced one of the first English Bible translations before his death in 1384. The authorities were not amused. Denounced as a heretic after his death, Wycliffe couldn’t be executed. Church officials did the next best thing: they exhumed his corpse and burned it.
Another English priest, William Tyndale, didn’t fare much better. Upset by the corruption he witnessed among his fellow clergymen, Tyndale (c. 1494-1536) believed the Bible should be read by everyone, not just the few who understood Latin, the language of the church. He set out to translate the Bible into English. Accused of perverting the Scriptures, Tyndale was forced to leave England, and his New Testament was ordered burned as “untrue translations.” Arrested and imprisoned as a heretic, Tyndale was executed in Antwerp by strangling. His body was then burned at the stake in October 1536 for good measure.
In other words, you go into a job like this with your eyes open. There are plenty of people who feel that the Bible is just fine the way it is, thank you. Whenever a Tyndale comes along with different ideas, the Powers-That-Be usually lash out. Sometimes the Powers-That-Be realize they were wrong. It just takes a while. In the case of Galileo (1564-1642), the Italian physicist and astronomer who said the earth revolves around the sun, it took the Vatican three and a half centuries to admit that he was right. In 1992—350 years after Galileo died—the Roman Catholic church reversed its condemnation of Galileo. William Tyndale is now honored as the “Father of the English Bible.” Small compensation, perhaps, for having one’s neck wrung and being barbecued.
While I don’t expect that anyone will call for my execution or excommunication, I’m sure that some people will not be happy with this book because it challenges “conventional wisdom” by asking questions. Many people have been taught not to question the Bible. They fear that if you pull one loose thread, the whole thing will unravel like a cheap suit. Ultimately, the Bible is a book of faith, not history, biology, biography, science, or even philosophy. The questions I pose may be an affront to people who still believe that the Bible is the unquestionable “Word of God.” But for centuries, scholars and thinkers, many of them devout believers, have been raising legitimate doubts about the Bible. People of faith shouldn’t fear these inquiries. How strong is a faith that can’t stand up to a few honest questions?
After all, some of the boldest inquiries ever made by men are explored in Job, a book that has the audacity to challenge a God who has made a bet with Satan. “Why?” a beleaguered Job asks God again and again. “Why have you made me your target?” One of history’s most cynical fellows was called “the Preacher” in the book of Ecclesiastes. In the midst of all the Bible books praising God’s wonders, “the Preacher” stops us short by asking, “What’s the point if you live and work hard and then just die?”
If my questions upset you, blame Adam and Eve! After all, that Forbidden Fruit was plucked from the Tree of Knowledge. And knowledge is what this is all about. Underlying the Don’t Know Much About series is the notion that “school” doesn’t end when we leave the classroom. I believe it is crucial for people to question the easy assumptions they grow up with—about religion, history, or a Ford versus a Chevy. The world is a school; life about learning. In the