Was it not Luther who discovered the Bible, and was he not the first to translate it into the language of the people?
Of course, this is a falsehood. Luther, himself, in his Table Talks said, "When I was young I acquainted myself with the Bible -- read the same often, so that I knew where any reference was contained and could be found when anyone spoke about it." Luther's translation of the New Testament was not published until 1522, and his version of the Old Testament was not published until 1534.
Catholics, between the years 1466 and 1522, had already published fourteen complete editions of the Bible in high German and five in low German. During this same period of time, that is, from 1450 to 1520, Catholics had also published 156 Latin, 6 Hebrew editions of the Bible, besides 11 complete editions in Italian, 10 in French, 2 in Bohemian 1 in Flemish, and 1 in Russian.
Friday, November 9, 2007
40 Questions
The 40 Questions Most Frequently Asked About The Catholic Church By Non-Catholics
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
What really amazes me sometimes Kelly is how so much history has had to be re-written to "justify" the reformation and abandoning the Catholic faith. That is why I think so many folks convert when they actually study history.
Speaking of history, I have always been a big Kennedy history buff particularly the whole Camelot/assassination thing. I recently left a comment on Amy's blog, which interestingly but probably not surprisingly she didn't post. However, I found her opening comment to be a good example of how history gets re-written and how people tend to look at history with their 21st century eyes instead of with the eyes of an historian or anthropologist, trying to get into the perspective of people during that time period. Fascinating that.
What a wonderful post!! Great idea!
Something that had a major impact on the reformation that many people either don't know or understand was Henry VIII wanting to divorce Catherine of Arragon. Of course reformation was already in progress, but it was low scale and in a lot of places "secret". When Henry VIII turned towards reform (thus kicking off 200 years of religious turmoil in England, and the world) he did so for his own benefit....and he used passages from the EXISTING bible to support his belief that his marriage was not a true marriage in the eyes of God. This process began in the 1520's, 90 years before King James I and his authorized version of the Bible.
The point being that his split with Rome was one of the major factors in the growth of reformed religion, and it happened because he convinced himself that the BIBLE told him the "truth" that he wanted to know (aside from the fact that another passage stated exactly the opposite).
Martin Luther obtained the majority of his ideas from the bible. The ones he read, and used and learned from as he grew up in a predominantly Catholic society, and world.
The saying "to the victor go the spoils" - it is very true, especially in the writing of history. History is rewritten by the "victor", whoever that may be, or perceived to be. By breaking with Rome, many considered themselves victorious. So, they wrote history to read in a way that supported what they wanted people to believe.
That's rambling, I know, but I think the fact is that people make choices to believe what; anyone can find anything to support just about any belief they hold. And when they do, they grasp it and never let go.
Post a Comment