Enter any North American hotel room, pull open the drawer next to the bed, and you will encounter a remnant of late-medieval culture: a single-volume Bible. Mass-produced as a small book with tissue-thin pages, this form of Bible was actually a medieval invention, intended to make Scripture relatively uniform and more widely available. Before the 13th century, however, the Bible as a physical object was very different from its modern counterpart. Bibles could be assembled in any order, incorporate only some of the books thought necessary to a Bible today, and even include added "non-biblical" texts completely unfamiliar to the modern reader. In fact, the texts that were thought to comprise the Bible were flexible for centuries, as the composition of the biblical "canon" (from the Greek word for "rule") was debated in both Judaism and Christianity and some writings were eventually rejected as apocryphal.
Early in the history of Christianity, the most important units of Scripture were the individual books of the Bible, such as the books of Moses, the Prophets or the Gospels, which could be grouped together in various combinations and sometimes in differing orders depending on how they were read aloud in the liturgy. Most people did not own a Bible. It would have been difficult for ordinary Christians (who were probably illiterate and thus knew biblical texts only from hearing them read aloud) to discern which of the stories and explanations they heard were canonical parts of the Bible, and which were interpretations or additions.
There were many reasons for a layperson's restricted access to written Scripture, but one of the most straightforward was expense. Medieval Bibles were manuscripts (written by hand) and almost always in Latin. Thus they had to be copied by educated and skilled scribes. Bibles were produced in various formats and sizes, from large- or small-scale, multi-volume sets to individual segments, such as a collection of Prophets that might have commentary written in the margins in miniscule script. Almost all Bibles, however, came as groups of books. The origin of the word "Bible" is in the Greek and Latin term for library ("bibliotheca"); in effect, a collection of biblical books comprised a small library. The exceptions were large, luxury manuscripts that contained all the books of the Bible in one volume and were often lavishly illustrated. A modern equivalent might be the Saint John's Bible. Commissioned by Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1998, the Bible was recently completed through the collective efforts of a team of scribes and artists directed by renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson, Master of the Guild of Scriveners, London (http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/). Producing medieval luxury Bibles sometimes took as long as 50 years and the investment of considerable resources (including gold, paint and parchment made from the skins of hundreds of cattle or sheep).
Each medieval Bible was therefore one of a kind, not only because it was created by an artisanal process, but also because it could include prefatory texts, chapter headings, commentaries, or even entire biblical books not found in other copies. The Bible as a unit was a rare and wonderful thing, treated sometimes with almost as much respect as a Torah scroll, and at other times as a malleable object that could be dismembered, rearranged and translated. Its form thus lacked the material and linguistic consistency of a Torah, and the linguistic consistency at least of a Koran. In fact, the ear of the careful, literate listener may have occasionally been struck by discrepancies between the Latin Bible he or she read, and the passages from Scripture used in the liturgy. Liturgical texts emerged gradually during the early centuries of Christianity, before the widespread adoption of the Latin translation known as the Vulgate (http://vulgate.org/)
Until the 13th century this diversity remained the rule. The rise of European universities after 1200 created a need for more Bibles that could be owned by students or itinerant preachers. This change fostered the emergence of one-volume compilations that were smaller in size than ever before, and most like the Bibles familiar to today's Christians. Copied on remarkably thin, translucent parchment, often in almost microscopically tiny script, these handy reference volumes incorporated the chapter titles, division into verses and roughly consistent ordering of the Bibles we know today. Such Bibles were still written by hand, however, and priced well beyond the reach of most medieval households. Even distributing them free of charge would not have had much impact as most people could not read Latin, which remained the language of the Bible for European Christians.
The Bible was only rarely translated into vernacular languages in the Middle Ages. Some translations became associated with heresy and authorities feared that vernacular translations were not as reliable as the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew texts, which were thought to contain the sacred truth of Scripture (even though the Latin Bible was itself a translation from the Greek and Hebrew). Less vulnerable to criticism were translations made for study purposes, or commissioned by affluent patrons. Vernacular Bibles created for the elite reflect the interests of their intended recipients as much as the work of the scholars who compiled the texts and the scribes who copied them. Many Latin Bibles also originated in commissions by or for important individuals.
We can thank Renaissance scholars and printers, then, for the invention of more affordable vernacular Bibles such as the King James Version, as well as for adding such helpful and mundane aids as page numbers and tables of contents. But the thirteenth-century scribes who first standardized and economically manufactured Latin Bibles were the ones who transformed a diverse collection of scriptural "books" into the kind of book we can hold in one hand.
Susan Boynton and Diane Reilly are the co-editors of 'The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity' (Columbia University Press, 2011).
Books of the Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Books of the Bible - King James Version
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Men wrote the bible." Not God. Humans!
Of course I don't believe in God.
-Pope Benedict xvi
They pray to Mary...And worship statues...What good will that do? when the book plainly states...Jesus is only mediator between God and mankind. Timothy 2:5)Praying to Mary, singing to Mary, and bowing down or kissing statues of Mary,.And we all know what it says about idol worship.So what that mary asked jesus for a blanket and he did it for her..It does not say..sence that happend..ask Mary to talk to Jesus.lol.
Jesus Himself said that He is the way and nobody comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). And the Bible also says, there is no other name except that of Jesus by which we are saved (Acts 4:12). that is very importaint...NO other name but Jesus.
I will not trust what a Pope says about the bible in full...I will not pray or bow too a Pope..Not Mary..Or any gold filled church..Jesus died so we didnt have to go threw that to be saved!!
The "Book of the Law" was written and subjected by these same authorities. There is no private interpretation of the texts. The Hebrew Bible was subject to legitimate authority for its interpretation under diverse circumstances. The people was asked to listen to Moses and Aaron as God's representatives.
2. Yahweh instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent in the desert as an object of healing. So Idolatry is banned but an image in the light of the Incarnation of God is biblical. e.g the shroud of turin.
3. Jesus is the only mediator but in the gospels we have the apostles as being mediator between Jesus and the people (Jn 13). Moreover His mother is also one of the foremost if meditors between Jesus and the crowds (Jn 2-Cana).
Even in prayer meetings we ask each other to pray for one another. That's natural.
Fear not
I think everyone should read the Bible (or whatever your faith's scripture is) and judge for yourself what's in there. In the case of the Bible, start with Genesis 1:1 and go straight through. It's ok to skip a chapter if you get bogged down in begets or something as long as YOU are the one deciding to skip. Be wary of reverent study guides and groups since they will often attempt to censor what you see in favor of their particular interpretation.
Pesky kids!
Couldn't God have just have SHOWN the kids the 2 bears? (or even just one)?
I mean, I am sure they would have issued a public apology with sincerity.
"Second, King James did none of the work. He appointed someone who then assembled a series of translation committees made up of scholars and poets who did the work.
Third, there is no record of King James ever actually authorizing the KJV for use in the churches of England once it was completed, making it all the more odd that the KJV is also often referred to as the "Authorized Version."
Now it can be seen that King James was a visionary that he authorized a new compilation of Bible he did not author but got it in shape to be Authorized and it became famous in the US that so many events are enumerated with this version. His own monarchy broke away from the Catholicism, & KJV may have helped in the growth of the US as a super power, One nation Under God but complete separation of Church and the State when it comes to State of Affairs of the State. Some Books do great magic in transforming greatness in great people when they live by the book.
3rd- The translation was made so it could be read aloud in the churches of England. The choices of word and phrasing were influenced by how they would sound.
James was raised a Protestant and followed Elizabeth also Protestant to the English throne. So his monarchy didn't break away it was already separated.
'''When the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he set up the Church of England. (The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognize, let alone support, divorce.). This happened in the middle of the 16th century. History of centuries cannot be summed up in huff post 250 words.
The KJV was written in the 17th century and did become a remarkable book as the writer of the story said and then how it became popular in the USA. The point still remains visionaries look far ahead in the next millenniums but our politicians are so present conscious that they have made the current debt to 15 trillions and compounded God knows where it would end. The fact remains Great people live with Great Book it is only a matter of following in spirit and not in thoughts only. So God help all of US.
We cannot yet know if this universe was formed by a creating force acting naturally or by a decided creator applying that creating force. But their is a book that was actually written by that creator and we call it this universe. It is a fascinating book and it is written in every language and I do wish humans would recognize its authority.
You might just as well have said the bible became a book because someone invented a stapler.
You don't say.
To this day Russian (Slavonic) and Greek Bibles have a few books different in the Old Testament: The Elizavetskaya has the Book of Baruch, but not 4 Maccabees, while the Greeks have all 4 books of the Maccabees.
But concerning books read during the liturgical services, there is agreement between both these churches.