- Mom's Bible
I am so thankful that I can read the Bible for myself. The International Bible Society has an interesting article titled, "How was the Bible distributed before the printing press was invented in 1455?" It gives history of how the Bible was copied by hand for centuries. I found these points very interesting:
While many translations were made, a church council in Toulouse, France,
in 1229 forbade anyone who was not a priest from owning a Bible.
Nevertheless, “underground” translation and circulation of the Bible
continued.
Because of the huge size of complete Bibles, they were divided into
several volumes, and each was very costly. Only the rich and the
universities could afford them. Into this situation came a great
revolutionary named John Wycliffe, whose central doctrine was, “Every
Christian ought to study this book because it is the whole truth!”
Today we are pretty casual about this great treasure, so readily
available to us. We do well to stop for a moment to realize that we can
actually hold in our hands the precious revelation of God Himself. It
costs us less than an hour’s wage, rather than a year’s salary, as it
once did. The temptation now is to treat the ancient word casually as
well. But from this ink and paper springs the ageless gospel of hope for
this life and the life to come. It is our priceless heritage.
I have owned my own Bible since I was a child. I've had many Bibles through the years. I cherish them. I can't imagine not having God's Word available to me. I do my best to make it the first thing I read every morning. May we always be thankful for this great treasure!
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