By Betsy Mayer
As the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book of all times,1 it would be impossible for the Bible not to make a global impact in human society.
Just 70 years before Shakespeare put pen to paper, there was no viable written English language. The educated communicated in Latin. English royalty used Norman French. Peasants spoke in a throw-away language—English.
Then, the reformer and scholar John Tyndale translated the Bible into English and unwittingly became the father of Modern English.2 For his efforts he was strangled and burned at the stake. His dying wish was, “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.” Three years later, in 1539, Henry VIII allowed publication of “the Great Bible,” which included Tyndale’s translation. The most beloved and widely distributed version of the Bible, the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), retained 70 percent of Tyndale’s translation. Because of the global impact of the British Empire and its KJV Bible, Tyndale’s little rivulet became a mighty stream that changed the course of the world.
Tyndale is one of hundreds of Bible translators through the ages whose efforts raised cultures into the society of nations. Mesrop’s 5th century Armenian translation gave Armenia its national soul. Luther’s 16th century German translation united a region fraught with political rivalries around a language once considered too coarse to be tamed.
Like Tyndale, however, Bible translators haven’t always felt welcomed to their task. What if you first have to brave fatal, poison-tipped arrows to learn the language of hostile natives, form an alphabet, write a dictionary, teach the people to read and write their own language, and translate the Bible, before introducing them to a personal and loving God?
A 19-year old Christian linguist, Bruce Olson, did just that and more in the 1960s when he determined to reach the Motilones of Colombia/Venezuela with the gospel. He also taught them hygiene and simple first-aid skills, and how to share this knowledge with neighboring tribes. Their ferocity, he discovered, was due to unscrupulous land developers, so he taught them their legal rights and how to represent themselves in their national congress.
There are 7,117 known languages in the world, yet nearly 3,000 languages still lack a written system. And if it weren’t for Bible translators, many more languages would lack one! The work of developing people and their cultures through Bible translations must continue. “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Psalm 119:130.
What is the best-known and most frequently performed choral work across all continents?
If you guessed Handel’s Messiah, you guessed rightly!
Messiah is an exposition of Bible prophecies fulfilled in Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and coming kingdom. Charles Jennens, a devout English Christian who compiled the extensive Bible texts for the lyrics, believed the subject demanded the skill of his country’s most able musician— G. F. Handel. “I hope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius and Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah,” Jennens wrote to a friend in 1741.
Handel originally wrote Messiah as an Easter oratorio and used high Baroque polyphonic music (music with many melodies) to communicate the subject. Because of polyphony’s lyric-driven, melodic dominance, the words of Messiah soar in both our hearts and our minds. I recently treated myself to my favorite Messiah solo: “If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us?” Taken straight from the King James Version of Romans 8:31, 33, 34, Paul’s words are more profound when coupled with Handel’s musical genius.
Polyphony is the world’s highest form of music. Western culture was the only culture to develop polyphony, and it originated with the desire to sing sacred texts of the Bible, not the repetitive mantras of Eastern mysticism. The inspired words beg musical development. In the 16th century, after Protestant Reformers translated the Bible into their national languages, sacred lyrics set to melodies became understandable to the common church member for the first time in a thousand years! The thirst to enjoy polyphonic music grew beyond church and castle walls and Europe flowered into its greatest musical age.
J. S. Bach, a contemporary of Handel and devout Christian, is considered the greatest musical genius to live. His St. Matthew Passion is widely regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of classical sacred music. Even in secular Japan, Bach’s sacred works are admired and performed with fervent devotion. But without the Bible, there would have been no Bach, no Handel, no Messiah, and most likely no polyphonic music.
The themes of the Bible touch the highest human emotions—forgiveness, love, sacrifice, fidelity, joy, and hope. Is it any wonder that history’s greatest musicians and artists have borrowed freely from the Bible’s narrative? Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper and Michelangelo’s Pietà and David statues are notable examples.
Our world is a better place because of people who have followed the Bible’s true spirit of religious devotion:
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him….?” Isa. 58:7.
Jesus added that we will meet our acts unto the “least of these” in the judgment, as though we had done them unto Him. Matt. 25:37–40.
These words motivated early Christians to stay with the sick and dying when the populous fled plague-ridden cities, prompting the pagan Emperor Julian to wonder how he could harness compassion to spur a revival of paganism! They guided Christians in the development of hospitals, something pagan society had never considered. They motivated Elizabeth Fry to seek for prison reform in England, sometimes inviting upper-class women to spend the night with her in women’s prisons so that they could join her in appealing for better conditions. They nerved American abolitionists to defy their government and assist runaway slaves in their flight to freedom. They have prompted countless others to dedicate their lives, their children, and their fortunes in selfless service to others at home and in lonely corners of the earth.
The most exquisite beauty this book can bring to any society is the beauty of self-sacrificing love.
“Best-Selling Book,”www.guinnessworldrecords.com, 2020.
Bob Creson, “The Bible and Written Literacy,” Washington Times, www.washingtontimes.com, Dec. 11, 2014.
Betsy Mayer is the managing editor of Last Generation magazine