"W" is for Whitefield and the Many Mistakes that even Christians make

     Now largely forgotten, George Whitefield (1714-1770) was probably the most famous religious figure of the eighteenth century.  Newspapers called him the "marvel of the age".  Whitefield was a preacher capable of commanding thousands on two continents through the sheer power of his oratory.  In his lifetime, he preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million hearers.
     Whitefield had a grand idea, an orphan home and college to be located in
Georgia.  Expenses proved to be an impediment.  To make the project affordable, Whitefield used his considerable influence to help legalize slavery in Georgia and then used slaves to work at the orphanage.  To help raise money for the orphanage, he also employed slaves at his Providence Plantation. 
     Sometimes God does not provide.  What then?  Does the end justify the means?  Most certainly not.  Whitefield's efforts to legalize slavery in Georgia most surely resulted in untold suffering.  Even Christians can make mistakes, often the result of good intentions without the guidance of the restraining hand of God's Holy Spirit.
     Today we ought learn from the mistakes of past generations of Christians as well as from their successes.  Are you seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit and following that guidance even if the Spirit leads in a direction contrary to your prejudices?  This is a difficult challenge for Christian America today, as it has been in the past.
     Below, photos of drawings of the Bethesday Orphanage plans from the OCHF Library (click photo for larger image). 

"V" is for Visitors (from another world)

     Over the years, some non-biblical ideas have been attached to the Christian tradition.  Among the more interesting is an interpretation of Genesis 2:8 advanced by LDS Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), namely, that seeds and plants were brought to this world by visitors from another world.  The Genesis account (Genesis 2:8) states that God planted the Garden of Eden.  The Mormon account found in Pearl of Great Price/Abraham 5:8 indicates that "the gods"; i.e., a heavenly council, planted the garden.  This implies the intriguing concept that seeds and plants were brought to this world by visitors from another world, an idea that has been advanced by LDS Mormon theologians.
     The Mormons were organized on April 6, 1830, by Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York, following Smith's earlier discovery of an ancient account of the lost tribes of Israel in America written on leaves of gold by the hand of Mormon and sealed until revealed to Smith by the Angel Moroni, son of Mormon.  This account was written in "Reformed Egyption" for the American Indians "who were a remnant of the house of Israel", and for the Jews and Gentiles.
     It is said that Smith translated the plates by use of a "seer stone" which he placed in the bottom of a hat and then placed the hat over his face to view the translation.  The notion advanced by Smith's translation of the plates regarding the origin of the American Indians; i.e., that they are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, was already in vogue and had been published prior to Joseph Smith's translation of the gold plates.  A general fascination with archeology and especially Egyptian antiquities was also in vogue at the time.  Below are photos of the OCHF Library's copy of Elias Boudinot's A Star in the West, or, A Humble Attempt to Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, published 1816, a book which may have influenced Smith (click photo for larger image).

 

 

     Mormons (LDS) believe that those who have not accepted the atoning work of Christ in this life and been baptized according to the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will have a second opportunity for salvation after death.  Since baptism into the LDS Church is a required ordinance for salvation to be accomplished, and since a physical body must be baptized for fulfill the requirements of this ordinance, Mormons baptize the dead through proxy, thus affording those who have died without salvation the opportunity for salvation to be achieved after death.  This is God's Plan of Salvation as explained in The Deseret News Company's Tract #2, The Plan of Salvation, by Elder John Morgan, n.d., a copy of which is held by the OCHF Library (click photo for larger image).

 

 

 

     Many people today have, for a variety of reasons, concluded that all religions are of equal value.  This may make for a more "tolerant" society.  The viewpoint does, however, devalue Christianity by putting it on the same level as other religions.  The Apostle Paul clearly teaches that Christianity is unique.  Not that all varieties of Christianity are of equal validity.  Eccentricities such as advanced by Mormonism need to be evaluated both in terms of common sense and a thorough understanding of the underlying truths of the Bible.  While a successful American religion, Mormonism remains very much eccentric to the broader scope of our American experience and Christian Heritage. 





"U" is for Uncle Tom's Cabin

     Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century following the Bible.  Many
modern-day Americans have heard of Uncle Tom's Cabin, but few know it as the powerful statement of the Christian faith it is.  Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was extroardinarily influential not only as an agent of social-change in America but also as a testimony of the Christian faith.  The term "Uncle Tom" has, in some circles, become synonymous with spineless subservience.  But anyone who truly reads the book will recognize something quite different in the character of the slave Uncle Tom.  His life is a model of bravery and faithfulness to the highest Christian priciples.  Would that we were all "Uncle Toms" in our faithfulness, our humility, our integrity, and our devotion to the Lord!
     Below, title page of one of the OCHF Library's copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and, an engraving from that book (click photos for larger image).

 

 

 

     Below, title page to one of the many popular 19th century songs inspired by the novel, this copy held by the OCHF Library (click photo for larger image)

 

 

 

 

"T" is for Torrey

     Typical of the progressive leaders of Early America, Dr. Jesse Torrey, Jr., 1787-1834, a physician by vocation, was an advocate of "classical education".  He was a leader in the free library movement, and advocate of free public education, and, published several instructional readers for children.  Typical of the times, these readers advanced commonly held notions of natural law and morality.  His readers contained various guides to virtue and happiness and warnings against vice.  According to Torrey, "What is good according to the law of nature?--Whatever tends to preserve and ameliorate mankind.  What is evil?--Whatever tends to the destruction and deterioration of the human race.  What is a sin according to the law of nature?--Whatever tends to disturb the order established by nature, for the preservation and perfectability of man and of society."  Torrey, as did many other Early Americans, believed that children should study the lives and moral precepts of the most eminent ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome, a system of morality founded on natural law, the Bible, and the works of eminent German and English philosophers.  In a letter to James Madison dated Oct. 19, 1829, Torrey encourages Madison to exert his influence "in favor of securing to the present and all the future generations of Virginia, the greatest blessings that man ever yet received from man, free education, free knowledge, freedom of mind and person, virtue and happiness."  Note the association of "virtue and happiness". 
    Below, images from one of the OCHF Library's copies of various works by Torrey, Grigg & Elliot's Third Reader, 1845.  Click image for larger view.

 

 

"S" is for Ship of Fools

     A virtuous (disciplined) life is a happy life.  To allow one's life to be governed by vice is foolishness.  Both classical philosophy and biblical wisdom teach this, and the notion was for centuries the bedrock of Western civilization. 
     The pre-Reformation book, The Ship of Fools, satirized people who do not equate virtue with happiness, people whose life is governed by vice.  The book was a runaway best seller. 
     I can't imagine such a book being being widely accepted today.  In contrast to both classical moral philosophy and biblical wisdom (the marriage of these concepts once having been understood to be "common sense"), most people today believe that right and wrong are "relative" to ones personal circumstances (and whim) rather than a matter of discernable natural law.  In short, rather than ridiculing foolishness, the culture of today embraces it.  The concept of natural law and the relationship between natural law, virtue and happiness is lost to the vast majority of people.  Sail on Ship of Fools!
     Below, a leaf from a 1520 printing of Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools (click image for larger view).
    



"Of foolish mockers, let wise men them eschew.

For no correction can bring them to virtue."

 

Leaf from OCHF Library archives.

 



"R" is for Rights conferred by God, not by the State

    

OCHF Library's copy of Blackstone's Commentaries on the

Laws of England

 

     Those of us who are Americans tend to take it for granted that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Few of us, however, know the origin of those rights.  The origin is what the vast majority of early Americans of all religious persuasions referred to as "natural law".  The Declaration of Independence begins with an appeal to "the laws of nature and of God."  These laws are the "natural law".

     Some have said that the reference to God in the Declaration of Independence was merely an attempt to add legitimacy to the rebellion.  Not so!  This was no propagandists' machination designed to advance the Revolution!  The concept of natural law upon which the concept of our God-given rights is based was so common as to be held by the vast majority of educated persons in early America.

     Where did the Founders learn about natural law?--as children in their readers, and as adults in their historical and political studies.  Classical education fused with biblical studies stood as the norm, not the exception, in the early days of the Republic.  The concept of natural law was a familiar thread that ran through the Greek and Roman philosophers (such as Aristotle, Demosthenes, Seneca, and Cicero); the Anglo-Saxon tradition of common law; and many of the European and English political philosophers (such as Sir Edward Coke, John Locke, Baron Charles de Montesquieu, and especially Sir William Blackstone).

     William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England were instrumental in transmitting to the American Colonies the concept of rights based upon natural law.  The Commentaries are often quoted as the definitive pre-Revolutionary source of common law by United States courts.  Opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States quote from Blackstone's work whenever they wish to engage in historical discussion that goes back that far, or further (for example, when discussing the intent of the Framers of the Constitution).

     The Ten Commandments are at the heart of Blackstone's philosophy.  Blackstone taught that man is created by God and granted fundamental rights by God.  Man's law must be based on God's law.  Our Founding Fathers referred to Blackstone more than to any other English or American authority.  Blackstone's great work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, was basic to the U. S. Constitution.  This work has sold more copies in America than in England and was a basic texbook of America's early lawyers.  It was only in the mid-Twentieth Century that America repudiated this aspect of our Christian heritage.

     The attack on our understanding of natural law has been justified by all kinds of high-minded doctrines, including, for example, "pluralism of religious cultures".  The attack on our understanding of natural law as it relates to our civil liberties is, nonetheless, an attack on the U. S. Constitution and the principles for which it stands.  If government officials take an oath pledging to defend the Constitution, are they not pledging to defend the concepts upon which this document originated!  The loss of understanding of, acceptance of, and respect for natural law among the majority of the Republic's citizens today places the rights recognized by the Constitution at risk.  This is not an academic discussion... it is a life and death issue affecting the future of the Republic.  The vast majority of Americans have forgotten their Christian heritage.  Oh how the mighty have fallen!  What tears ought to be shed over the state of our culture today, if only we had eyes to see and ears to hear!

"Q" is for the Questioning of Christian Philosophers in Whom the Holy Spirit Has Planted Its Most Excellent Epistemology

     For most of the history of Western Civilization (until relatively recent times) the concept of "natural law" was inextricably intertwined with practical worldview, ethics, and common law.  The penalty for violation of the natural law was not just the condemnation of society, but even more significant, the natural penalty of unhappiness.  Unhappiness was understood to be the inevitable result of living a life that was not disciplined, not habituated to the principles of natural law.  People strove, therefore, to understand and practice what was favorable to achieving true happiness.  This they referred to as "virtue".  The primary question asked by both secular and Christian philosophers dealt with identifying and  understanding the natural law.  This fact was taken for granted by practical theologians, preachers and teachers in the American Colonies and later in Early America.
     The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (384-322 BC) had a particularly important impact upon the Christian Church during the Middle Ages.  it therefore indirectly became important in the development of all modern philosophy, as well as European and Early American law and theology.  The Nicomachean Ethics examine in detail the relationship between virtue and true happiiness.  A systhesis between Aristotelian ethics and Christian theology became widespread during the Middle Ages in Europe.  The most important version of this synthesis was that of Thomas Aquinas.  The practical nature of this synthesis has influenced western civilization ever since (until, perhaps, relatively recent times when common sense has been thrown to the wind).  In many respects, Aristotelian Ethics and Christianity became, and deserve to be regarded as, complementary and inextricably intertwined--just as the "general" and the "special" revelations themselves are complementary and inextricably intertwined.  Below, facing pages from H. Rackham's traslation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (click for larger view).

     Below, the OCHF Library's copy of Thomas Aquinas' Works of Aristotle Translated into Latin, published by Apud Scotum in 1551 (click for larger image).

 

 

     Below one further example of a most significant work by a Christian Philosopher, a page from Sententiarum Quatuor Libri (the Four Books of Sentences) by Peter Lombard.  Click image for larger view.

 



     "The Four Books of Opinions" or "The Four Books of Judgments" were compiled by Peter Lombard, a scholastic theologian (c. 1100--July 20, 1160).  This work, also known as "The Book of Sentences", sets forth biblical texts, together with relevant passages from the Church Fathers and many medieval thinkers, on virtually the entire field of Christian theology.  Lombard left many questions open, giving later scholars an opportunity to provide their own answers.  From the 1200s until the 16th century, no work of Christian literature, except for the Bible itself, was commented upon more frequently.  All the major medieval thinkers, from Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas to William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel, were influenced by it.  Even the young Martin Luther till wrote "glosses" on Lombard's Sentences, and, John Calvin quoted from it over 100 times in his Institutes. 
     Peter Lombard's most famous and controversial opinion was his indentification of charity with the Holy Spirit.  When the Christian loves God and neighbor, Lombard felt that this love literally is God, and, the one who so loves becomes one with the divine and is taken up into the life of the Trinity.  This idea was never declared unorthodox, but few theologians have been prepared to follow Peter Lomgard in this particular teaching.  Compare Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, 2006.

"P" is for Preacher Peter Cartwright

     The United Methodist Church and the many other offshoots of the Methodist movement comprise one of the largest groupinigs of Protestant Denominations in the world today.  The Methodist movement was started in the 18th Century by John and Charles Wesley, in large part to minister to the needs of the poorer classes of England and in reaction to the apathy shown them by the upper socio-economic classes who controlled the Church of England.  The movement quickly spread to the American colonies.  Though John Wesley intended the Methodists to remain a reform movement within the Chruch of England, the American Revolution decisively separated the Methodists in America from the life and sacraments of the Church of England.
     In 1784, after unsuccessful attempts to have the Church of England send a bishop to start a new church in the colonies, Wesley appointed fellow priest Thomas Coke to organize an independent Methodist group in America.  This new American church was destined to make a distinctive contribution to our American Christian heritage, largely because of its willingness and desire to serve those whom others ignored. This philosophy led to the ministry of the circuit rider, many of whom were laymen who traveled the backwoods of what was then a mostly rural nation by horseback to preach the Gospel and to establish churches in settlements in which the larger established churches had little interest.  Hundreds of such preachers worked tirelessly until there was scarcely any village in the new nation without a Methodist presence.
     Methodist preachers made a point of taking the message to anyone left outside organized religion at that time.  This included laborers and even criminals as well as those people living in the backwoods frontier.  In the United States, Methodism became the religion of many slaves who later formed "black churches" in the Methodist tradition.
     Because of the Circuit Riders religion changed in America.  But it was not only religion that was affected, the culture as a whole was shaped by the efforts of these circuit riding preachers.  Because these traveling preachers visited people whom others discounted, a new understanding of religion developed in the hearts and minds of the common classes in America.  As a result, this new religion in which laity had an equal voice helped shape the ideals of democracy in America.
     Peter Cartwright was among the greatest of these early Circuit Riders.  In his autobiography, Cartwright writes, "Many nights, in early times, the itinerant had to camp out, without fire or food for man or beast.  Our pocket Bible, Hymn Book, and Discipline constituted our library.  It is true we could not, many of us, conjugate a verb or parse a sentence, and murdered the King's English almost every lick.  But there was a Divine unction that attended the word preached, and thousands fell under the mighty power of God, and thus the Methodist Episcopal Church was planted firmly in the Western Wilderness, and many glorious signs have followed, and will follow, to the end of time....  From the time I had joined the traveling ranks in 1804 to 1820-21, a period of sixteen years, from thirty-two traveling preachers, we had increased to two hundered and eighty... and there was not a single literary man among the preachers."

Click for larger view.

 

     While it may not have been an intentiaonal result, people living on the American frontier soon learned from observation that they didn't particularly need the educated elite, either in politics or religion.  They learned to hold their heads high and to think of themselves as entitled to the same protection of law the wealthy enjoyed.  Methodists offered the common people, especially the poor, a compelling vision of individual self-worth and collective self-confidence.  Methodism in America gave voice to passions that the common person had previously been unable to express.  This amounted to a social revolution which is as important to our nation's history as the political revolution that won our independence.

     The Methodist camp meeting and tent revivals were a natural bi-product of this American social revolution.  During the early years of the Republic, camp meetings and traveling tent revivals reached out to an involved the lower socio-economic classes of America contributing immeasurably to the democratization of our nation.  Here, in these tent meetings, everyone was equal.  Those who got there first were able to sit up front, unlike the many churches controlled by the upper classes whose front pew was reserved for those individuals who had financed the construction of the church.

     It is safe to say that the revivalism movement mightily contributed to by the Methodists during these early years of our American Republic not only helped shape the democratic ideals we cherish, but rescued the infant nation from the brink of moral disaster.  At a time of moral chaos on the frontier due to the lack of church influence amont the people living on the frontier, Methodism helped to set the standard for the return of morals to the frontier, and more importantly, took the religious power from the few and gave it to the many.

     The Methodist movement in America rediscovered revival and forged it into a heroic weapon.... revivalism swept in at the right time to bring the nation back from that brink.  It is the hope of Our Christian Heritage Foundation that concerned Christians will do the same today.  Join us in mounting a new offensive in the Methodist tradition.  And perhaps someday history will record that this offensive to restore Christian America began here, at this time, with your help.

(Historic comments above from Wikepedia Free Content Online Encyclopedia.  All photos are of books held by the OCHF Library.)

 

Below, a typical Circuit Rider's Bible with Wesley's Commentary Notes

 

Click for larger view

 

Click for larger view

 

Below, a typical Hymnbook used by many frontier Methodists

 

Click for larger view

 

Circuit Riders might also carry with them a copy of Wesley's Primitive Physic, a book of herbal medicine for the poor who could not afford or did not have access to a physician--see below.

 

Click for larger view

 

Click for larger view

 

     Post Script:  John Wesley Hill, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, writes in his book Abraham Lincoln - Man of God,, p. 77:  "In August 1837, Mr. Lincoln, with six other lawyers and two doctors, went in a wagon from Springfield to Salem to attend a camp-meeting.  On the way Lincoln cracked jokes about the horses, the wagon, the lawyers, the doctors--indeed about nearly everything.  At the camp-meeting, Dr. Peter Akers, like Peter Cartwright, a great Bible preacher of his day, then in the fullness of his powers, preached a sermon on 'The Dominion of Jesus Christ.'  The object of the sermon was to show that the dominion of Christ could not come in America until American slavery was wiped out, and that the institution of slavery would at last be destroyed by civil war.  For three hours the preacher enrolled his argument and even gave graphic pictures of the war that was to come.  'I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet,' said he, 'but a student of the prophets.  As I read propehcy, American slavery will come to an end in some near decade, I think in the sixties."  Like Lincoln, Cartwright had moved westward to illinois after a childhood in Kentucky.  In addition to his preaching activities, Cartwright served two terms in the Illinois State Legislature, having defeated Lincoln who had also stood for the office.  Cartwright stood in opposition to Lincoln for the office of U. S. Congress in 1846.  This time Lincoln prevailed, and the rest is history.  

 







"O" is for Orthodox Christianity

     The Eastern Orthodox Church, mainly concentrated in Russia, Eastern Europe and Greece, is the second largest Christian communion in the world (after Roman Catholicism).  Among the holdings of the OCHF Library is a unique hand-painted scholar's rendition of an important Orthodox manuscript, (click for larger image).

     The Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or "The Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander", is a 14th century illuminated manuscript in Middle Bulgarian, prepared and illustrated during the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331-71) in the Second Bulgarian Empire.  the manuscript is regarded as one of the most important literary treasures of the medieval Bulgarian culture and agreeably the one with the greatest artistic value.
     The original manuscript, currently housed in the British Library (Add. MS 396270), contains the text of the Four Gospels illustrated with 366 (or 252, depending on the grouping) miniatures (hand-painted illustrations) and consists of 286 parchment folios, 33 by 24.3 cm in size, later paginated with pencil.  Folio 74, most likely the one where the miniature illustrating the Judgment Day scene was, has been cut out and stolen in modern times (no, we don't have it!).
     The page displayed above has been identified by Milan Graba, Lead Curator of Southeast European Studies at the British Libray, and by his colleagues at the Bulgarian Academy, as a scholar's manuscript copy of unknown age of one of the hand-painted illustrations (f.84) from the Gospels of Tsar Alexander, with text in a different Gospel redaction from Matthew 27:33-38.  No one has yet identified that redaction (if you know, please let us know).

     Also of interest, among the OCHF Library holdings is this leaf from an old liturical chant book.  Notice that the musical notes are written without lines, as were the notes in music in the Roman Catholic Church at ab early time.  The technical name is Znamenny Notation with Shaidurov Symbols, late 17th Century Russian.  Znamenny chant was the principal music of the Russian Orthodox Church from the time Christianity was imported from Byzantium to the late 17th century.  In the mid-17th century the Novgorod master Ivan Shaidurov invented a system of auxiliary red letters to be placed alongside the znamenny notation above the text of the chant.  Each of these letters corresponded to a particular note in the church scale, increasing accuracy of the musical score.  By the late 18th century znamenny chant had retreated into obscurity, the only keepers of it being the "Old Believers" sect.  (For larger image, click the photo.)

 

 

     The OCHF Library also has a fine copy of a Russian Orthodox New Testament, printed in Moscow, dated 1767, image below (click for larger image).

 

 

     The dedicatory page of this Bible, as translated by Inna Pikulenko, reads as follows:  "In honor of the single and inseparable Trinity--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--with the permission of the Imperial Empress Catherine of all Russia in the presence of her heir, the faithful prince and great count Paul Petrovitch with the blessing of the ancient ruling synod.  This holy book of the New Testament is being printed in the great city of Moscow in the year of cration of the world by the Word of God (1767)...."

     Notice that the order of the books in this New Testament is not the same as in the Bibles of the western tradition:

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

James

I Peter

II Peter

I John

II John

III John

Jude

Romans

I Corinthians

II Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

I Thessalonians

II Thessalonians

I Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

Hebrews

Calendar of Saints (Sept.-Aug.)

Lectionary Readings

Saturday and Sunday liturgies

Special prayers to saints

Prayer for the dead (and readings for funeral services)

Prayers for the needy

Prayer for the Empress

The Apocalypse

 

     There is a hand-written notation inside the back cover that states "from Smolensk".  There are many churches and monasteries in Smolensk.





"N" is for New England Primer and New England Psalter

     The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American Colonies.  It became the most successful educational textbook published in 18th century America and it became the foundation of most schooling before the 1790's.  While the selections in the New England Primer varied somewhat across time, there was standard content for beginning reading instruction, including the alphabet, catechisms and moral lessons.

 

Below, the ABC's as taught in the New England Primer. 

(OCHF Library copy, click photo for larger image)

 

 

 

     The New England Psalter was an early reading textbook for children first published in the late 17th century.  It was thought not only appropriate but advantageous to teach reading with this Psalm book which also included stories of the Old and New Testament, rules for reading, lessons in spelling, instructions for printing letters, reading verse and the use of capitals.  Below, photos of OCHF Library's copy of The New England Psalter printed in 1770 in Boston by William M'Alpine.



 

 

Your support for the OCHF Library project strengthening the restoration of Christian America would be greatly appreciated.  Donations may be left at "Go Fund Me" accessed through our home page at www.OurChristianHeritageFoundation.org  Open the link titled "Help Us Build.." located at the upper right hand corner of the home page.  Thanking you in advance, we remain very sincerely yours, OCHF.

"M" is for Missions, Moody, and Money

    
     America has had many great evangelists, Christian educators, and missionaries.  The most successful of these, from John Eliot on, have been great organizers and fund-raisers as well as spirit-filled Christians.  Typical among them is D. L. Moody (1837-1899), one of America's great evangelistic preachers and Christian educators.  His great enterprises were funded through tireless and skilled solicitation of donations (or, "subscriptions", as referred to in his letter shown below). Click image for larger view.

Document from the archieves of OCHF Library

 

     We would like to see Our Christian Heritage Foundation grow so that this wonderful organization might more effectively achieve success in its mission to restore Christian America.  The response of each reader and friend of Christ is the key to success.  You are the key to success.  Please consider making a donation to OCHF today.   We are, as D. L. Moody writes, awaiting your reply.  To donate, plase return to the OCHF home page www.OurChristianHeritageFoundation.org and click "Help Us Build the Permanent Display" at the upper right corner of the home page.  Thanking you in advance, Dr. Byron Perrine, Executive Director, OCHF.



   

"L" is for Luther

     For Luther, getting the Reformation on solid footing was a necessity, and probably influenced his handling of scripture.  He departs from the "received text" in his translation of Romans 3:28 where he doesn't hesitate to add "alone" to the phrase "justified by faith", perhaps in the belief that if the Apostle Paul had been writing during Luther's day that is the way Paul would have written it.  Certainly Luther understood the Apostle Paul as few if any others did at this time.  Below, Romans 3:27-28 excerpted from one of the OCHF Library's Luther Bibles:  (Click image for larger view.)

     In addition, Luther does not hesitate to allow his Reformation agenda to influence his estimation of the merit of the Epistle of James which he "demotes" from 20th position in the order of the New Testament books to 25th position.  Of the Epistle of James, Luther writes, "I cannot put it among the chief books, though I would not thereby prevent anyone from putting it where he pleases and estimating it as he pleases...."  Compare the order below, excerpted from a Luther Bible, with that of any other version of the New Testament:  (Click image for larger view.)

     Also, whle in his first Preface (1522) to The Revelation of St. John Luther writes, "... let everyone think of it (The Revelation of St. John) as his own spirit gives him to think...", it wasn't long before he offers an interpretation of this book that is pro-Reformation in nature (see his preface of 1534).

The 1534 Luther Bible

     From the OCHF Library collection, below are several beautiful woodcut prints extracted from the first complete Luther Bible published in 1534.  Sadly, in centuries past collectors were inclined to cut illustrations and illuminated letters from priceless Bibles.  Happily, some of these cuttings have survived including these from Luther's first complete Bible.  These woodcut illustrations were done by Melchoir Schwarzenberg in 1532, and, appeared as part of the 1534 Luther Bible printed in Wittenberg.  They were hand-colored after printing.  (Click images for larger view.)

 

    

"K" is for Knox

     Elizabeth I and her successor James I settled on a "middle way" in religion that preserved certain aspects of Catholicism yet at the same time rejected Papal authority in England.  This "middle way" was probably motivated by political interests; i.e., a desire to put an end to religious conflict in England.  John Knox, c. 1514-1572, however, was not inclined to settle for a "middle way", and as a result was instrumental in bringing a religious reformation to Scotland which was of a very different nature.  Knox was greatly influenced by time spent among the "radical" Protestants of Geneva where he resided in exile during the reign of Mary Tudor, Catholic Queen of England. 
     Wikipedia writes:  In the summer of 1558, Knox published his best known pamphlet, The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women.   In calling the "regiment" or rule of women "monstrous", he meant that it was "unnatural".  Knox states that his purpose was to demonstrate "how abominable before God is the Empire or Rule of a wicked woman.  The women rulers that Knox had in mind were Queen Mary I of England and Mary of Guise, the Dowager Queen of Scotland and regent on behalf of her daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.  Although Know had not targeted Elizabeth Tudor, he deeply offended her because of this pamphlet, and she never forgave him.
     Knox also distanced himself from the Church of England by challenging the English Book of Common Prayer on the grounds that it preserved a number of worship practices that were, in his estimation, Roman Catholic in nature.  Wikipedia writes:  On August 1, 1560, the Scottish Parliament met to settle religious issues in Scotland.  Knox and five other ministers were called upon to draw up a new confession of faith.  Within four days the Scots Confessions was presented to Parliament, voted upon, and approved.  A week later, the Parliament passed three acts in one day:  the first abolished the jurisdiction of the Pope in Scotland, the second condemned all doctrine and practice contrary to the reformed faith, and the third forbade the clebration of the Mass in Scotland.  Knox and the oither ministers were given the task of organizing the newly reformed church in Scotland. 
     Wikipedia continues:  Knox was a ruthless and successful revolutionary and it was this revolutionary philosophy that had a great impact on the English Puritans.  Despite his strictness and dogmatism, Knox has also been described as contributing to the struggle for genuine human freedom, by teaching a duty to oppose unjust government in order to bring about moral and spiritual change.  Knox was notable not so much for the overthrow of Roman Catholicism in Scotland, but for assuring the replacement of Roman Catholicism with Presyterianism rather than Anglicanism.  It was thanks to Knox that the Presbyterian polity was established.  In that regard, Know is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination whose members number millions worldwide.
     Below, images from the OCHF Library's copy of writings by Knox in The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, David Buchanan, editor printed in London by John Raworth, 1644.  (Click for larger image).

Click image for larger view.

Click image for larger view.

"J" is for James, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and the Bible of the "Middle Way"

     By the time King James I ascended to the throne of England, earlier attempts by the Bishops of England during the reign of Elizabeth I to ensconce a "Middle Way" Bible neither Roman Catholic nor radically protestant in nature had lost ground and been undermined by the English-language protestant Geneva Bible.  The KJV was an attempt to find a competitive alternative to the Geneva Bible.  Forty-seven learned men gathered at the king's request, meeting at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge to produce what would be published in 1611 and commonly known to later ages as the "Authorized, or King James, Version."
     In the way of thinking of the Bishops of England, the chief problem with both the English Douay-Rheims bible, and the English-language Geneva Bible were the notoriously biased interpretive notes included in the margins of those Bibles, especially the Geneva Bible.  While the poetry and clarity of the language utilized in the KJV is regarded by many to be inspired, the true miracle of the KJV was the removal if interpretive margin notes, in so doing leaving the interpretation of the text up to the reader (guided by the illumination of the Holy Spririt rather than the theology of man).  
    The following illustrative comment is excerpted from "The Translators to the Reader" section of the KJV bible first published in 1611:
Some per adventure would have no varieties of senses to be set in the margin, lest the authoritie of the Scriptures for deciding of controversies by that shew of uncertaintie, should somewhat be shaken.  But we hold their judgement not to be so found in this point.  For though, whatsoever things are necessarie, are manifest, as S. Chrysostome saith; and, as S. Augustine, in those things that are plainly set down in the Scriptures, all such matters are found that concern faith, hope, and charitie:  yet for all that it cannot be dissembled, that partly to exercise and whet our wits, partly to wean the curious from lothing of them for their everwhere plainnesse, partly also to stirre up our devotion to crave the assistance of Gods Spirit by prayer, and lastly, that we might be forward to seek aid of our brethren by conference, and never scorn those that be not in all respects so complete as they should be, being to seek in many things ourselves, it hath pleased God in his divine providence, here and there to scatter words and sentences of that difficultie and boubtfulnesse, not in doctrinal points that concern salvation (for in such it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are plain) but in matters of lesse moment, that fearfulness would better beseem us then confidence, and if we will resolve, to resolve upon modestie with S. Augustine, (though not in this same case altogether, yet upon the same ground....It is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, then to strive about those things that are uncertain.

Below, examples of the notes from the Geneva Bible (click for larger image):



 





Below, a page from the 1613 folio KJV showing lack of interpretive margin notes (click for larger image):

Below, images from a 1660 octavo KJV Bible printed in London by Henry Hills and John Field.  Note especially the image of Mary bound with this Bible, something inconceivable with the Geneva Bible (click for larger image):

 





"I" is for Illuminated Manuscript Style

     Illuminated manuscript style influenced the style of later printed Bibles in Europe.  During the medieval and late medieval period, Bibles were copied by hand and often richly decorated.  The two-column style also became standard.  After the development of printing, wealthy patrons who purchased printed bibles wanted the printed Bible to resemble the style of earlier hand-illuminated bibles, that style having become inseparably associated with the Bible because of centuries of producing Bibles in that style, namely, two-column pages with hand-painted initials beginning chapters and hand-painted decorations to finish the printed page.  Below, detail from a page from Exodus showing typical hand-painted decoration.  This leaf, held by the OCHF Library, dates from the 14th Century.  As in the case of most bibles of this period, the writing is done on fine animal skin (vellum) rather than paper.  (Click image for larger view.)

 

     Below is a typical hand-written Bible leaf from the 13th Century.  This leaf is from a small portable Bible.  (Click image for larger view.)

 

     The first printed Bible was produced by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, probably completed between March and November 1455.  It is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible.  Intended for wealthy clients, these large and expensive Bibles sold at a cost equivalent of three years' pay for the average clerk.  The Gutenberg Bibles were not ready for use when they came off the press.  Large capital letters and decoration were still to be added by hand.  The style and extent depended on how much money the buyer wanted to spend, and differed from one copy to the next, some pages being as highly decorated as the beautiful illuminated 14th Century leaf above.  Below, reproductions of two versions of Genesis I, the printed pages finished by hand to the individual taste of the patron who purchased the Bible.  (Click image for larger view.)

 

 

     The OCHF Library has many illuminated manuscripts including this Century leaf from a 16th Century "Antiphonary".  (Click image for larger view.)

 

 

     The OCHF Library has a number of original pages from an early printed Bible, the Jenson Bible of 1479, with fine hand-painted initials.  Note the exceptionally fine hand decoration added to the printed pages, below.  (Click image for larger view.)

 

 



"H" is for Hus

     The Czech literature of the Middle Ages is very rich in translations of Biblical books made from the Vulgate.  During the 14th Century all parts of the Bible seem to have been translated into the Bohemian language at different times and by different hands.  The oldest translations are those of the Psalter.  The New Testament must also have existed in the Bohemian language at that time, for according to a statement of Wycliffe, Anne, daughter of Charles IV, received in 1381 upon her marrying Richard II of England a Bohemian New Testament.
     It is certain that John Hus (1372-1415) had the Bible in Bohemian before him as a whole when he and his successors undertook a revision of the text according to the Vulgate.  The work of Hus on the Bible antedated 1412.  During the 15th Century the revision was continued.  The first complete printed Bible in the Bohemian language was published in Prague in 1488.  Other editions were issed at Kutna Hora, 1489, and Venice, 1506.
     Below are photos of OCHF Library's framed copy of a leaf from a hand-rubricated Bohemian Bible printed in Venice, Italy, by Peter Lichtenstein in 1506.  This Bible was prepared by John Hus and his followers, and edited by Jan Jindrissky of Zatec (Saaz) and Tomas Molek of Hradec Kralove.  The cost of printing this edition was financed entirely by three wealthy merchants of Prague for the use of the Ultraquist sect, then the strongest religious denomination among the Czechs.  This Bible is extensively rubricated with hand-painted initial letters and text emphases in red and blue inks.  Reference D&M 2180.

 

Click for larger image

 



Click for larger image