By Robert Wurtz II

      When we talk about the world plunging into darkness it can only happen for one reason--- there is an absence of LIGHT. The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. When the Word of God was being lived out in the lives of believers in the ante-Nicene era there was a light in the Word to the unbelievers. However, when the Canon was finally completed and the scripture was set to be placed into the common language; the completion of that book would dictate the fate of the world for the next 1000 years. This version is known as Jeromes Latin "Vulgate" of 405 CE. It was a tremendous work of great magnitude. Actually, it was almost too good. The translation was such that it was deemed by the Universal Church (Catholic) to be unacceptable to try to change it. So when the language changed and the people no longer spoke Latin- the Bible was then relegated to the monasteries (Monastic Orders). In time people would literally be burned at the stake for teaching their children the Ten Commandments in English. The reason for this is simple; it gives the people a Bible in their common language and they will interpret it as the Spirit wills and not them. It was all about control.

      The common people could neither read nor understand the Bible any longer. The people became dependent on the Monks or religious people to interpret and teach them the Word of God. This is why it is imperative to always have an accurate version of Scripture in the COMMON language of the people. This is what drove Tyndale to make the notorious remark to the religious leaders 'If the Lord spare my life ere many years... I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know the scriptures better than thee!' How was that? They did not have Bibles as we do today. The Word of God was utterly precious in those days. Tyndale made good use of Gutenburg's printing press and the rest is history.

      When the Bible is not in the common tongue all sorts of manipulations can happen from within a corrupt leadership. This is why there was ultimately a need for the Reformation. The Church was so off track that God had to Reform the whole thing. The people only knew what they were taught. In an atmosphere of ignorance a lot of things can be done by well meaning people. The people only knew what their leaders taught them. This is still no excuse though because everyone is born with a conscience.

      The only way to handle Jewish mistreatment is to say the killings and persecution of innocent people was wrong and unacceptable; PERIOD. No buts, what if's, or anything else. It was sin and it was a travesty.

      From Jerome to Wycliffe there was a deep darkness upon the earth. The time would fail me here to discuss the formation of the English Bible; but it was certainly a Godsend. As God's word has been proliferated- we have seen an increase in light- but not always an increase in love. With the word of God in hand many have still rebelled against its precepts to love. Some of the worst wars and human atrocities in the history of the world have happened since the printing press. It is not the hearers of the work- but the doers of the work that we are to be.

      **Notes**

      The Vulgate is the version of the Latin Bible, primarily translated from Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome, used by the Roman Catholic Church for more than 1000 years. In 382 Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome, the leading biblical scholar of his day, to produce an acceptable Latin translation of the Bible from the several divergent translations then in use. His revised Latin translation of the Gospels was delivered to the Pope in 384. Using the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, he produced new Latin translations of the Psalms (the Gallican Psalter), the Book of Job, and some other books. Later, he decided the Septuagint was unsatisfactory and began translating the entire Old Testament from the original Hebrew, completing it 405 CE.

      Vulgate (from the Latin editio vulgata meaning "common version"