What the world owes to the Protestant Bible

You are now looking at a computer monitor screen. You could not be doing this if exceptionally clever people had not invented devices for manipulating electrons and if an exceptionally courageous monk had not nailed his ‘Theses of Contention’ on his church door in 1517.

The translation of the Latin Bible into local languages, together with the invention of the printing press, which allowed the local version to be in the hands of ordinary people, was the most far-reaching combination of two events in world history.

I emphasise ‘world’ because all races and creeds have since benefited from the flow-on of the science and technology that emerged in Europe after the intellectual shackles imposed by Rome had been thrown off.

Others of great courage (such as John Wycliffe) had previously and unsuccessfully attempted to initiate popular anti-Rome movements, but Martin Luther was the spark that actually caused a blaze.

This year is an opportune time for we in the English-speaking world to recognise this breakthrough - as 2011 is the 400th anniversary the King James version of the Bible.

Breaking Rome’s investment in ignorance

From 313, when the Roman emperor Constantine opened the gate to an explosive expansion of Christianity, the church had evolved into a type of state. It was a huge bureaucratic organisation ruled by a king-like figure in the pope.

The church used the Bible written in Latin as a reference for its clergy. It relied on church law written in the local language to subjugate the faithful with guilt and fear. By such controlling means it generated great material wealth for itself. It was only a matter of time before millions of Europeans would break away from the oppressive authority of Rome.

But what structure could be put in its place by the rebels that could provide some sense of order? No replacement church could ever be in the same league as the old one administered in Rome. The Bible became the focal point by default.

It now becomes a king’s business

Only eight years after Luther nailed his theses to the door, John Tyndale was printing the Bible in English (illegally, as Henry VIII was still supporting the papacy). But by 1539, after his fall-out with the pope, Henry VIII was funding the printing of the Bible in English. What was significant about the 1611 version?

Born in the Kingdom of Scotland and baptised a Catholic, James would seem to be an unlikely person to become the Protestant King James the First of England (though not so unlikely when one looks into the political turmoil at the time.)

James had a deep concern that "Popish persons still sought to keep the people in ignorance and darkness". He knew that it was essential to have the one standard and accurate version of the Bible if the word of God was to be of maximum benefit to both the king’s governance and the spiritual wellbeing of the king’s subjects.

Working to detailed terms of reference, 47 Protestant scholars were chosen to collaborate on the translation of the existing scriptures, many written in ancient languages. Over the centuries these hand-written productions had, inevitably, become significantly corrupted. The job began in 1604 and ended in 1611. It was a monumental intellectual achievement.

Spiritual support in a dangerous world

The movie Gods and Generals was set in the American Civil War. I was affected by this fine movie. It reminded me of the extent that the influence the Bible had on the people of that era. In the movie the marriage of General Thomas Jackson had in it three individuals - the man, the woman and God. The movie caused me to recall how the lives of my great-grandmothers revolved around God.

If you read the letters of the era, there are frequent references to ‘Providence’. Without the health services we have today, they were dangerous times. If all that had happened in the Reformation was an overthrow of a corrupt autocracy, with the Bible having little influence thereafter, where would that have left the people in a dangerous world without a spiritual focal point?

It was in early 17th century, that the English began to move across the Atlantic. Most of those who laid the foundations of the United States of America, the most phenomenally successful nation in history, did so with the Bible in hand. The image of the boy Abraham Lincoln studying the Bible in a rude log cabin delivers a message: that message is that a great organised state-like church is not necessary in the relationship of God and man in the making a better world.

Atheists might ask: ‘Wouldn’t it have been better if those who left the old church in the 16th century gave religion away altogether?’ That would not have been possible. The bulk of Europe’s population were nowhere near ready for that. A Reformation person may now be free to speculate on the meaning of life, but without knowledge of the way nature works, he still had to have writings believed to be inspired by a divine power to grasp onto.

However, when the student is ready, the teacher emerges. Europe was ready to learn and nature was ready to teach. The knowledge came slowly at first and then quickly gathered pace. Even though Europe was still God-fearing, in the new climate of enlightenment, the advocates for Darwinism were allowed to argue their case and not be burned at the stake.

Atheists should respect the historical role that everyman’s Bible has played as the essential first step towards the awesome technology that we have today. The Bible in the local language became the bridge between fearing to study the natural world and the pursuit of knowledge of the natural world. Without that bridge, there would have been no crossing.