Book of Isaiah

The Deity of Jesus Christ

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Supremacy of the Son of God

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Isaiah 16

New International Version (NIV)

16 Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of Daughter Zion.
2 Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.
“Render a decision.
Make your shadow like night—
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.
4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,
and destruction will cease;
the aggressor will vanish from the land.
5 In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
one from the house[a] of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab’s pride—
how great is her arrogance!—
of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;
but her boasts are empty.
7 Therefore the Moabites wail,
they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
8 The fields of Heshbon wither,
the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and went as far as the sea.[b]
9 So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
for the vines of Sibmah.
Heshbon and Elealeh,
I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
and over your harvests have been stilled.
10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
for I have put an end to the shouting.
11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
12 When Moab appears at her high place,
she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
it is to no avail.

13 This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

Footnotes:

Isaiah 16:5 Hebrew tent

English Bible History

English Bible History




The fascinating story of how we got the Bible in its present form actually starts thousands of years ago, as briefly outlined in our Timeline of Bible Translation History. As a background study, we recommend that you first review our discussion of the Pre-Reformation History of the Bible from 1,400 B.C. to 1,400 A.D., which covers the transmission of the scripture through the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, and the 1,000 years of the Dark & Middle Ages when the Word was trapped in only Latin. Our starting point in this discussion of Bible history, however, is the advent of the scripture in the English language with the “Morning Star of the Reformation”, John Wycliffe.



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. Wycliffe, (also spelled “Wycliff” & “Wyclif”), was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, Wycliffe produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures. 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, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!



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, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of Hus had come true! Martin Luther went on to be the first person to translate and publish the Bible in the commonly-spoken dialect of the German people; a translation more appealing than previous German Biblical translations. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records that in that same year, 1517, seven people were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of teaching their children to say the Lord’s Prayer in English rather than Latin.



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, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.


Thomas Linacre

In the 1490’s another Oxford professor, and the personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th, Thomas Linacre, decided to learn Greek. After reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” The Latin had become so corrupt that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel… yet the Church still threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin… though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures.



John Colet

In 1496, John Colet, another 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 and at least that many outside trying to get in! (Sadly, while the enormous and beautiful Saint Paul’s Cathedral remains the main church in London today, as of 2003, typical Sunday morning worship attendance is only around 200 people… and most of them are tourists). Fortunately for Colet, he was a powerful man with friends in high places, so he amazingly managed to avoid execution.


Erasmus


In considering the experiences of Linacre and Colet, the great scholar Erasmus was so moved to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate, that in 1516, with the help of printer John Froben, he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but his own fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek, which he had managed to collate from a half-dozen partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts he had acquired. 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. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus further focused attention on just how corrupt and inaccurate the Latin Vulgate had become, and how important it was to go back and use the original Greek (New Testament) and original Hebrew (Old Testament) languages to maintain accuracy… and to translate them faithfully into the languages of the common people, whether that be English, German, or any other tongue. No sympathy for this “illegal activity” was to be found from Rome… even as the words of Pope Leo X's declaration that "the fable of Christ was quite profitable to him" continued through the years to infuriate the people of God.

King James Bible Anniversary!

Celebrate the Book that has Changed the World.

For 400 years, the King James Bible has impacted millions of people, influenced culture, and transcended numerous generations.

With more than 6 billion copies published, the Bible is the most popular book in the world, and the King James Bible is the most published Bible translation. Its inspired words has brought peace, joy, and hope to millions of people and is regarded today as one of the most accurate translations.

Bible Facts

◾The Bible is the best selling and most distributed book of all time. Estimated more than 6 billion copies published 1 

◾Originally written in 3 languages: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic 2 

◾Written over a span of 1,000 or more years3 

◾Written by more than 40 authors, including kings, prophets, poets, musicians, and fisherman 4 

◾Books include letters, poetry, songs, legal documentation, eyewitness accounts, biographies, historical literature and documents 5 

◾Translated into 2,454 languages of the world's estimated 6,500 total languages 6 

◾It is commonly believed that the writing of the Old and New Testament was inspired by God 

King James Bible Facts    

                                                                        

◾The most popular Bible translation; an estimated 1 billion or more copies have been published 1 

◾The translation was brought upon by King James I of England 2 

◾First published in 1611 A.D. (some believe between May 2nd - May 5th)3 

◾More than 169 original 1611 King James Bibles are in existence today4 

◾Gothic text and Jacobean spelling was used in the original 1611 version, which is noticeably different than 21st Century English 5 

◾80 books were included (39 in Old Testament, 14 in Apocrypha, and 27 in New Testament)6 

◾Contains 788,258 total words, of which 14,565 are unique 7 

◾The title was not originally called the "King James Version", but "THE HOLY BIBLE, Containing the Old Testament, AND THE NEW: Newly Translated out of the Original tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesties special Commandment"8 

◾1814 A.D. is the earliest recorded date of it being called "King James Version" or "Authorized Version"9 

◾The original book was very large: approximately 17" tall, 30" wide when opened, and it weighed up to 30 pounds 10 

◾The first 1611 Bibles were expensive and were chained to the front pulpit of churches, to prevent from being stolen 11 

◾Prior to the 1611 King James Bible, most churches did not have Bibles 12 

◾The King James Bible is the first English Bible ever printed in the United States- first printed by the King's Printer in England, then printing and distribution spread throughout the world13 

◾ Public officials on all levels of United States government, including presidents, have taken their oath of office with the King James Bible 14 

◾A committee of 54 translators worked for 7 years to complete the King James translation 15 

Quotes about the King James Bible

"That book [King James Bible], sir, is the rock upon which our republic rests."

- Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States

"The King James Version is a Magna Carta for the Poor and Oppressed: the most democratic book in the world."

- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

"Indeed, it is an incontrovertible fact that all the complex and horrendous questions confronting us at home and worldwide have their answer in that single book [King James Bible]."

- Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

"The scholars who produced this masterpiece [King James Bible] are mostly unknown and unremembered. But they forged an enduring link, literary and religious, between the English-speaking people of the world."

- Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of UK

"There is no doubt in my mind that the King James Bible not Shakespeare set this language on its path to become a universal language on a scale unprecedented before or since."

- Melvyn Bragg, British Broadcaster and Author

"The King James Bible is a cornerstone of our culture and our language. Whatever our faith, whatever we believe, we have to recognise that the rhetorical power of this book, and in particular its power to fuse history with poetry, connects at the most fundamental level with our own history and poetry."

- Andrew Motion, British Author and Poet Laureate

"The translation was extraordinarily well done because to the translators what they were translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by different authors in different stages of culture, but the word of God divinely revealed through His chosen and expressly inspired scribes. In this conviction they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a beautifully artistic result...they made a translation so magnificent that to this day the common human Britisher or citizen of the United States of North America accepts and worships it as a single book by a single author, the book being the Book of Books and the author being God."

- George Bernard Shaw, Irish Author, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

 "Over the past several centuries it's been the single book in most households, an enormous force in shaping the development of the English language. Carried around the world by missionaries, it provided the base by which English is about to become the lingua franca of the world in the next century. Exploring it during this shoot [Ten Commandments] was one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my life."

- Charlton Heston, American Actor

King James Bible Online

King James Bible Online

King James Bible Anniversary 

King James Bible Anniversary!

King James Bible Anniversary 400 Years logo

Celebrate the Book that has Changed the World.

For 400 years, the King James Bible has impacted millions of people, influenced culture, and transcended numerous generations.

With more than 6 billion copies published, the Bible is the most popular book in the world, and the King James Bible is the most published Bible translation. Its inspired words has brought peace, joy, and hope to millions of people and is regarded today as one of the most accurate translations.

King James Bible People

Flags of the World 

The Holy Bible 

Bible Facts

◾The Bible is the best selling and most distributed book of all time. Estimated more than 6 billion copies published1 

◾Originally written in 3 languages: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic2 

◾Written over a span of 1,000 or more years3 

◾Written by more than 40 authors, including kings, prophets, poets, musicians, and fisherman4 

◾Books include letters, poetry, songs, legal documentation, eyewitness accounts, biographies, historical literature and documents5 

◾Translated into 2,454 languages of the world's estimated 6,500 total languages6 

◾It is commonly believed that the writing of the Old and New Testament was inspired by God 

References:

 1. Bible Society 1992 survey (http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-the-bible/what-is-the-bible/what-is-the-bible-2/ also http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/bestsellerFARQ.html) 

2. http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/200-languages-of-the-bible 

3. Bible Society (http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-the-bible/what-is-the-bible/what-is-the-bible-2/) 

4. Ibid. 

5. Ibid. 

6. United Bible Societies (http://www.unitedbiblesocieties.org/?page_id=2) 

King James Bible 

King James Bible Facts

◾The most popular Bible translation; an estimated 1 billion or more copies have been published1 

◾The translation was brought upon by King James I of England2 

◾First published in 1611 A.D. (some believe between May 2nd - May 5th)3 

◾More than 169 original 1611 King James Bibles are in existance today4 

◾Gothic text and Jacobean spelling was used in the original 1611 version, which is noticeably different than 21st Century English5 

◾80 books were included (39 in Old Testament, 14 in Apocrypha, and 27 in New Testament)6 

◾Contains 788,258 total words, of which 14,565 are unique7 

◾The title was not originally called the "King James Version", but "THE HOLY BIBLE, Containing the Old Testament, AND THE NEW: Newly Translated out of the Original tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesties special Commandment"8 

◾1814 A.D. is the earliest recorded date of it being called "King James Version" or "Authorized Version"9 

◾The original book was very large: approximately 17" tall, 30" wide when opened, and it weighed up to 30 pounds10 

◾The first 1611 Bibles were expensive and were chained to the front pulpit of churches, to prevent from being stolen11 

◾Prior to the 1611 King James Bible, most churches did not have Bibles12 

◾The King James Bible is the first English Bible ever printed in the United States- first printed by the King's Printer in England, then printing and distribution spread throughout the world13 

◾ Public officials on all levels of United States government, including presidents, have taken their oath of office with the King James Bible14 

◾A committee of 54 translators worked for 7 years to complete the King James translation15 

References:

 1. http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/files/kjbt-booklet.pdf 

2. Ibid. 

3. http://kjv400.co.uk/ and http://www.squidoo.com/king-james-bible-400th-birthday 

4. Donald Brake, PhD, A Royal Monument of English Literature: The King James Bible 1611, Credo House Publishers, 2011, http://www.credocommunications.net/KJV 

5. http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/kjworkes.htm and http://www.angelfire.com/la2/prophet1/holybiblepictures.html 

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_of_the_Authorized_King_James_Version 

7. http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Popular-Bible-Words.php 

8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorized_King_James_Version 

9. Ibid. 

10. http://www.greatsite.com/facsimile-reproductions/kingjames-1611.html 

11. http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/ 

12. Ibid. 

13. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.CON.RES.38: 

14. Ibid. 

 15. http://www.npr.org/2011/04/18/135437890/king-james-bible-now-400-still-echoes-voice-of-god  

Quotes about the King James Bible

"That book [King James Bible], sir, is the rock upon which our republic rests."

- Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States

"The King James Version is a Magna Carta for the Poor and Oppressed: the most democratic book in the world."

- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

"Indeed, it is an incontrovertible fact that all the complex and horrendous questions confronting us at home and worldwide have their answer in that single book [King James Bible]."

- Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

"The scholars who produced this masterpiece [King James Bible] are mostly unknown and unremembered. But they forged an enduring link, literary and religious, between the English-speaking people of the world."

- Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of UK

"There is no doubt in my mind that the King James Bible not Shakespeare set this language on its path to become a universal language on a scale unprecedented before or since."

- Melvyn Bragg, British Broadcaster and Author

"The King James Bible is a cornerstone of our culture and our language. Whatever our faith, whatever we believe, we have to recognise that the rhetorical power of this book, and in particular its power to fuse history with poetry, connects at the most fundamental level with our own history and poetry."

- Andrew Motion, British Author and Poet Laureate

"The translation was extraordinarily well done because to the translators what they were translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by different authors in different stages of culture, but the word of God divinely revealed through His chosen and expressly inspired scribes. In this conviction they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a beautifully artistic result...they made a translation so magnificent that to this day the common human Britisher or citizen of the United States of North America accepts and worships it as a single book by a single author, the book being the Book of Books and the author being God."

- George Bernard Shaw, Irish Author, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

 "Over the past several centuries it's been the single book in most households, an enormous force in shaping the development of the English language. Carried around the world by missionaries, it provided the base by which English is about to become the lingua franca of the world in the next century. Exploring it during this shoot [Ten Commandments] was one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my life."

- Charlton Heston, American Actor

  

Video: History of the King James Bible

In 1603, James Stewart learned that Queen Elizabeth passed away, and he then became King James I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was born in the 17th century during a controversy in England over the relationship between church and state. Fascinated with the Bible, King James sought a new English translation that could be authorized for all churches to use- a version more true to the original manuscripts. The King James Version then came to prominence in the 1660s with the restoration of the monarchy after the English Civil War. (Credit: Thomas Nelson)

 See more King James Bible Videos...

Bible Translation Timeline

◾1400 B.C.: Ten Commandment tablets given to Moses by God. 

◾500 B.C.: Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts completed. 

◾200 B.C.: Old Testament and Apocrypha Greek manuscripts completed. 

◾100 A.D.: New Testament completed. 

◾382 A.D.: Latin Vulgate manuscripts produced. 

◾1384 A.D.: First complete Bible ever reproduced. By John Wycliffe. 

 A handwritten copy of all 80 books: the 66 old and new testaments, plus apocrypha.

◾1456 A.D.: First printed Bible, the Gutenberg Bible. It used independently placed characters called movable type, which revolutionized book publishing.

◾1560 A.D.: The first Bible in English, the Geneva Bible.

◾1611 A.D.: The first King James Bible, commissioned by King James I of England.

   1769 A.D.: The English is edited and updated to reflect the evolving language. 

◾1885 A.D.: Apocrypha was removed, leaving 66 books. 

◾1947 A.D.: Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered which helped validate the accuracy of the Bible. 

◾1982 A.D.: New King James Version published to modernize the English. 

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