The story of how the Bible came to us has been told many times, as one can readily see from the bibliography at the back of this book. And just as English-speaking Bible readers must have asked repeatedly in the past few decades, “Why another version?” so one might legitimately ask, “Why another book on the history of the Bible?”
One answer is that this story can be told in such an infinite number of ways that the temptation to tell it in yet another form is hard to resist. The Evangelist Luke recognized that many others had undertaken to write gospels, but this did not deter him from writing another, ordering the material in his own unique way. While we cannot claim to stand in the tradition of the biblical writers, it was our conviction that there was room for another volume on this fascinating subject. Some of the books on the history of the Bible are too technical for the ordinary reader to appreciate; the more popular volumes tend to avoid the difficult and problematic areas of the Bible’s history. This volume seeks to strike a happy medium.
Several years ago the writer published a series of articles in a denominational paper on the text and canon of Scripture. The response to this series was so favorable that the editor had the articles published in pamphlet form. Since then the need for a somewhat more substantial volume on this topic has been expressed repeatedly. It appears that Bible institutes and colleges often look for a suitable textbook on this subject. Moreover, the many versions of the Scriptures now available ask for a guide in choosing a Bible. Also, the attacks and counterattacks that every new version seems to be subjected to call for more light on the subject of translation.
The first fourteen chapters of this book survey the history of the Bible from the time when the biblical books were written to the end of the first millennium of the Christian era. With chapter fifteen we leave the transmission of the sacred Scriptures behind and trace the thousand-year story of the English Bible—beginning with the attempts to render portions of the Bible into Anglo-Saxon, prior to the days of Wycliffe, and ending with the more recent English versions. The final chapter seeks to answer such questions as, Why are there so many versions? How might one go about choosing a version? How can one develop meaningful ways of reading the Scriptures?
The writer wishes to thank the administration of the seminary where he taught for freeing him from classroom responsibilities for one quarter of the academic year to prepare this volume for publication. The manuscript was completed in the Advent season, and one could not help but recall the witness of the Fourth Evangelist, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Just as the Living Word took on human nature, so the written Word has come to us in a very earthly form. It is hoped that the glory of God’s revelation to man will not be hidden from our eyes as we read this account of the history of the written Word of God.
DAVID EWERT
Advent, 1981