tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969518590175587499.post3866120699242880924..comments2023-10-24T09:42:46.503-06:00Comments on idaho18: Why do I blog?Branden Dursthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099379771338903968noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7969518590175587499.post-51707162342978049642008-10-28T17:50:00.000-06:002008-10-28T17:50:00.000-06:00You said: "Most theologians mark the Protestant R...You said: "Most theologians mark the Protestant Reformation as the time in which the masses were able to have access to the Bible in a way that they could understand it."<BR/><BR/>What does this even mean? The Monsee Fragments (Bavarian German), for instance, date as early as the 8th century. Such manuscript versions were numerous, and continued to be so even after the invention of printing. There were about 18 printed editions of the Bible in German before Martin Luther's version. What do you suppose kept the "masses" from understanding it?<BR/><BR/>Well before Luther, the publisher of the Cologne [German] Bible [1480] wrote:<BR/><BR/>"All Christians should read the Bible with piety and reverence, praying the Holy Ghost, who is the inspirer of the Scriptures, to enable them to understand . . . The learned should make use of the Latin translation of St. Jerome; but the unlearned and simple folk, whether laymen or clergy . . . should read the German translations now supplied, and thus arm themselves against the enemy of our salvation."<BR/><BR/>Likewise, the publishers of the King James Version (English) frankly admitted in their preface, "...to have the Scriptures in the mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up . . . but hath been . . . put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of any nation."<BR/><BR/>So, I don't know why you think most theologians claim the Bible was somehow not available in a manner understandable by "the masses."<BR/><BR/>Perhaps your claim of "most theologians" should better take into consideration that most theologians don't hold to the Protestant worldview.<BR/><BR/>I understand you're a politician and not a theologian, however, you might be more careful when making such absurdly erroneous claims since you represent more than just a Protestant worldview as a government official.<BR/><BR/>God blessAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com