The Bible, Elizabeth I, and a virtual revolution

Pondering the fact that all the translators were men, I wondered about women’s influence on those men. Thought turned to Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Did she read the Bible? After all, her father Henry VIII (1491-1547) and her first cousin, twice-removed, James I (1566-1625) had a big influence on bringing the Bible to the masses.

In my search, up came a Christian Science Monitor article by co-author or our book, The Reforming Power of the Scriptures, Mary Trammell. The article's title is The Struggle overthe English Bible: A scholar’s view. Elizabeth I gets only a passing mention – she objected to the Geneva Bible:

"There [Geneva] they completed an ambitious retranslation of the whole Bible - called the Geneva Bible - from the original Greek and Hebrew in 1560. Surprisingly, the new sovereign, Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, refused to allow it to be sold in England, fearing its strongly antimonarchical notes."

An article from the Washington Post provides further insights: 

"Queen Elizabeth 1, who was queen from 1558 to her death in 1603, had a most extraordinary education. An especially precocious child, she studied for years with tutors and learned to speak six languages fluently as well as grammar, theology, history, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, math, logic, literature and geometry."

And her tutor taught her public speaking. She was very much involved in religion. It seems she mixed some of the Roman Catholic teaching in with her Protestantism.  

I sense that Mary Trammell’s Monitor article is a sort of precis of our present study.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. I like Mary Trammell's description of the English translation as "a virtual revolution":

"TODAY, English-speaking Christians may take the King James Bible and modern English translations for granted. But they shouldn't. The translation of the Bible into English out of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin was a virtual revolution."

And readers will find this of interest, again from Trammell's Monitor article:

"When James VI of Scotland became king of England in 1603, he faced a deeply divided nation committed to two extremist Bibles, the Geneva and the Rheims - and dead set against the one legal Bible, the Bishops' text. His way out of this Bible deadlock was to commission an entirely new translation of the Bible, to be carried out by 50 of England's best scholars. The genius of the project, which was completed in 1611, was its ecumenicism. James stacked each of the six translation committees with scholars of every theological stripe and told them to come up with a text they could all agree on. This was consistent with the king's lifelong dream to reconcile the Protestant and Catholic divisions of Western Christendom in one grand church - united under the banner of the Bible. As a king, James was a failure. He was vain, extravagant, and foolish. But his achievement in forging a gloriously beautiful English Bible, reflecting all the exuberance of the Golden Age of English literature, was enormous." 

Which version of the Bible?

Co-author of The Reforming Power of the Scriptures, Mary Trammell, has contributed hundreds of words to the Christian Science periodicals over many years. In her article The Eternal Version of the Bible (The Christian Science Journal November 2013 - find it on jsh-online.com to read and to listen to, or at your local Christian Science Reading Room), she quotes a letter from Mary Baker Eddy.

Her article sets thought on fire with the possibilities for each reader today to search the Scriptures and to let its voice speak to the heart -- to uplift and to heal. The following is a substantial excerpt (six paragraphs) from Mary Trammell's very informative article:

A letter in 1900 from Mary Baker Eddy to William P. McKenzie, a trustee of The Christian Science Publishing Society, first thanks him for the Twentieth Century New Testament he’d sent her, noting both advantages and disadvantages of the new translation, as well as her general preference for the “grandeur of climax” in the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. Then her words suddenly take flight in this arresting conclusion: “When we translate matter into Spirit we shall then have not only the Authorized Version, but the eternal version of the Scriptures. I never read the Bible now without such an illumination that every word of it contains a spiritual meaning” (L13053, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).

What would this “eternal version” of Scripture look like? Who would translate it? What would it mean for humanity? These questions take us to the heart of Mary Baker Eddy’s own spiritual journey. 

It was “misinterpretation of the Word” that had cost her decades of invalidism. But with her discovery of Christian Science came the “right interpretation” of the Bible, restoring her health and awakening her to a whole new life as a religious leader. ...

How does Mary Baker Eddy illumine the spiritual meaning of the Bible in her book? First, she establishes the Bible as the foundation of Christian healing—as her “sole teacher” and “the chart of life” (Science and Health, pp. viii, 24). She makes this bold declaration as the first tenet of Christian Science: “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life” (Science and Health, p. 497). She weaves into virtually every page of her book quotations, references, and paraphrases, mostly from the translation she’d been raised with, the King James Version. And she provides a 100-page “Key to the Scriptures” that includes a detailed spiritual exegesis of portions of both Genesis and Revelation, as well as a Glossary of Bible terms, all illustrating the deep insight an inspired spiritual perspective brings.  

Science and Health repeatedly emphasizes that Bible words alone have no inherent healing power. It’s the spiritual sense behind the words that brings comfort and healing: “Take away the spiritual signification of Scripture, and that compilation can do no more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice” (p. 241). 

This spiritual sense of the Scriptures is an indispensable part of her discovery. It means reading the Bible with the conviction that Spirit must triumph over matter. It means looking beyond centuries of mistranslation and misinterpretation fostered by “hierarchies, and instigated sometimes by the worst passions of men” (p. 24). It means digging into the Greek and Hebrew texts to find their original meaning, and researching alternative or modern renderings as she herself does in Science and Health, where she quotes from contemporary Bibles such as the one translated by George R. Noyes, as well as from the Saxon and Icelandic translations. Eddy’s Bible collection, housed in The Mary Baker Eddy Library, shows how deeply she researched not only the King James text, but also then current translations such as Weymouth’s, Rotherham’s, and Fenton’s. ...

And so, as we continue with our reading of The Reforming Power of the Scriptures, we pause to consider the continuing impact of the Bible on the lives of readers and seekers everywhere.

 Julie Swannell

The German Bible; 2001 travels; logos as "voice"

Martin Luther’s reasoning about translating of the New Testament into German is so dear. He saw that the people needed to have the “song” (my word) of the German language. Our authors (Mary Trammell and William Dawley - of The Reforming Power of the Scriptures) put it this way - p. 143/4:

“Primarily he believed that the Old Testament words should sound right in German. So the group had to strike a balance between what sounded right to the ear and what was correct in a literal sense ... 

"Luther didn’t want his Bible or the characters in it to sound Hebraic or foreign; he wanted them to sound thoroughly German ... he wanted good, clear, “marketplace” language. ... The effect was easy to read and beautiful to listen to."  

It seems the transcribers were so immersed in the Latin of the church that they found it difficult to think in German for the purpose of getting the message straight for the people.

I recall being in Italy in the year 1972 and having short stroll around Milan. (The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was prominent and impressive. I think we had cakes!) The local Christian Science practitioner was my guide; she mentioned that she felt the Catholic laypeople would be spiritually freed to a certain extent now that the Mass was no longer read in Latin. (The Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 made provision for the reading of the Mass in the vernacular. Up until then the people only heard the preaching in Latin.)

When our editor and I were in Frankfurt in 2001 we attended a Christian Science Sunday service there. At that time, there was a new translation of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures available to the German speaking congregations. It seemed there was some resistance to the new and a going-back to the original.  

Bless the translators! 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Of course that church service was entirely in German, but how wonderful it was, especially the singing! 

Somewhat in the strain of hearing God's word - not only in church but anywhere, anytime - readers may be interested to check out the translation of and discussion about John 1: 1-5 in The Voice translation, especially in their translation of logos. You can find in at Bible Gateway. (A sometime reader of this blog in the US, Colleen, has passed on this tip in a somewhat circuitous way. Thanks Colleen!) I love what they have to say about "voice".

A thrilling tale: John Wycliffe

 Blog topic for March, 2021 – The Reforming Power of the Scriptures

This is not an easy book to start reading, I found. I don’t think I have ever read it before – and I read most books that come from the Christian Science Publishing Society to help us in our spiritual journey.

(It is interesting that a book from someone’s personal library with a similar theme was left at our Reading Room recently – The Bible: Beacon Light of History by Albert Field Gilmore, one time editor of the Christian Science periodicals.)

The first matter of note that caught my attention was this: “...about 1750 BC a warlike northern European people swept through the Kyber Pass. These conquerors mingled with the indigenous people of the Indus Valley (in India), imposed their tribal religious beliefs on them, and gradually developed a new “Hindu” culture. And out of the poetic hymns that these North Europeans brought with them into their new homeland grew the first scriptures of the “Hindu people.””

Page 9 gives us a definition of “Scriptures.” There have always been questions asked by humankind such as, Who am I? Why am I here? Who created me? What maintains my life? How can I be a better man or woman? Our book tells us that, “Various answers to these questions have been recorded and passed on from generation to generation as “scriptures” – the scriptures of the world.”

Moses enters the story on page 14. I am taken with the idea that one man can listen to God and lead a whole people out of slavery. Mary Baker Eddy’s writings are leading humankind in our age. People have not accepted that fact at this time. I find that there was a period of 500 years between the Old and New Testament. Will there be a similar period before Christian Science is universally acknowledged? Mrs. Eddy does say that centuries will intervene before this happens. (See her Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 p. 92:4-6 and Retrospection and Introspection p/ 84:1.)

 After reading for a while, I decided to just open the book at random. I happened upon the chapter on John Wycliffe (John Wycliffe: Champion of Truth). This, I found, was exciting stuff! Having now read this, I am convinced that there are other chapters which will be of big interest to me. As a student of Christian Science, I am thrilled that Wycliffe had a metaphysical healing -- see page 119 mid page.

Around 1360, Wycliffe stood against the Catholic pope for the right of the people to have the Bible in their own language, English. He and his followers were translating the holy book. We are told he became seriously ill and was visited by the friars who called on him to acknowledge his errors and accept the teaching of the pope. “Their chastisement, though, served only to rouse Wycliffe...he sat up in bed and retorted with these words from Scripture: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and declare the works of the Lord.’’” With that, he was healed. That quote from Psalm 118:17 is precious to me for it raised me from glum thoughts not too long ago.

Our authors say that Wycliffe was the first of the reformers of the Protestant Revolution. A student of Christian Science cannot read of Wycliffe’s protesting campaign without recognising that Christian Science is in a direct line of inspiration from Wycliffe’s teaching. Why did it take till the mid 1860s for this final step of progress to come to man? In 1866 Mrs. Eddy discovered, or perhaps, uncovered, the Science of Christianity.   

Joyce Voysey

Abram and Yahweh - an emerging idea

 A special feature of this month's book "The Reforming Power of the Scriptures: A Biography of the English Bible" by Mary Metzner Trammell and William G. Dawley is the Bible Time Line that comes with it. It is a fascinating study.

The time line shows notes the following -  

• The story of Noah around 2100 B.C.
• Abraham and the Patriarchs 1850 - 1600 B.C.  (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)
• Settlement and Captivity in Egypt 1600 - 1280 B.C. 
• Exodus from Egypt 1280 - 1250 B.C. (Moses)
• Conquest of Canaan 1250 - 1200 B.C. (Joshua)
• The Judges Rule in Israel 1200 - 1020 B.C. (Ruth, Samuel) 
• United Kingdom of Israel under Monarchy 1020 - 922 B.C. (Saul, David, Solomon)
• Israel Divided into Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah 922 - 721 B.C. (Amos, Hosea, I Isaiah, Micah)  
• Judah Stands Alone 721 - 587 B.C. (Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Daniel story, Ezekiel, Destruction of Jerusalem)
• Exile in Babylonia 587 - 538 B.C. (Lamentations, II Isaiah)
• Persian Rule 538 - 333 B.C. (Edict of Cyrus, III Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Proverbs compiled, Malachi, Obadiah, Esther story, Ezra, Psalms, Nehemiah, Joel)
• Greek, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid Rule in Palestine 333 - 165 B.C. (Ecclesiastes)
• Independence in Israel 165 - 63 B.C. (Dead Sea sect of Jews - Essenes)
• Roman Rule in Palestine 63 B.C. - 615 A.D. 
• The Master's Life c. 6 B.C. - 33 A.D. (Jesus, John the Baptist)
• Early Apostolic Period c. 33 - 62 A.D. (Apostles)
• Late Apostolic Period c. 62 - 100 A.D. (Jerusalem destroyed, John exiled on Patmos)
• Post-Apostolic Period 100 forward

It's interesting to add in some other dates. 

• Greek author Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey - eighth century B.C. (see p. 4)
• Age of Pericles - fifth century B.C.: democracy launched in Athens (see p. 5)
• Greek philosopher Socrates put to death - 399 B.C. Plato and Aristotle continue his philosophical endeavours. See p. 5.
• Alexander the Great 356 - 323 B.C. 
• Rome spreads its influence as Republic (509 B.C.) then Empire (27 A.D.) 
• Constantine was the first Christian Roman Emperor. He ruled from 303 - 337 A.D. 
• Constantinople was founded in 330 on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. 
• Council of Nicea - first meeting 325 A.D. 

But we are interested here in "a tribe of ...desert wanderers" (p. 5) from that area of the "Fertile Crescent" (ibid) around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and a man called Abram. Instead of praying to a "personal deity" (ibid), Abram gets the idea of one God, who he calls Yahweh. This was revolutionary, and would lead him at age 75 to a whole new land.

Julie Swannell

Map from Colombia University showing the Fertile Crescent

 

A new book, plus thoughts on "the book of the law"

 We are launching into a new book for March, viz. The Reforming Power of the Scriptures: A Biography of the English Bible by Mary Metzner Trammell and William G. Dawley. Although I've had this book since 1999, I don't believe I've ever taken note of its full title before. A "biography" of the Bible? How fascinating. I can't wait to get underway. In the meantime, our intrepid Joyce Voysey has prepared a post for us. 

Naaman: II Kings, Chapter 5. What a story! Is it a parable for kings and presidents and prime ministers to learn a lesson from, i.e. listen to the people--they know intuitively that humility is power. 

II Kings 22:8 brings a great sense of excitement. Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. The NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) tells me that "[t]he book of the law was probably a scroll. The precise circumstances of its discovery are not related. Some scholars have speculated that the scroll had been stored in the temple or hidden away during the anti-Deuteronomic reforms of Manasseh (II Kings 21:2-9). Others have suggested that the book was in fact written by Hilkiah and then conveniently “found.”"

At this stage I went on a hunt. I recalled that somewhere the people agreed to serve the Lord, and I thought it was in relation to the discovery of the book of the law. It seems my memory was askew. But I did find that at the death of Moses, when Joshua was left in charge of the children of Israel, the Lord spoke to Joshua urging him to “be strong and of good courage.” (This phrase appears in the book of Joshua four times.) The authority Joshua was given came from the book of the law. 

He was advised that “[t]his book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1: 8).

In Nehemiah 8 we find that the people he had set to work to rebuild Jerusalem asked to be reminded of the guidance that comes from the reading of the book of the law. They “spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law, which the Lord had commanded to Israel” (Nehemiah 8:1). And Ezra read from the book of the law “before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law” (Nehemiah 8:3). And others stood up to read. 

As a First Reader in a Christian Science church I have loved Nehemiah 8:8 --“So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” Isn’t that the duty of the Readers? Each reads from the book of the law – The Bible, with the First Reader also reading from the Christian Science textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. 

Joyce Voysey