But who kept and preserved it from such great and raging
power; or, Who defendeth it still? Truly, said Luther, no human
creature, but only and alone God himself, who is the right Master
thereof; and it is a great wonder that it hath been so long kept and
preserved, for the devil and the world are great enemies unto it.
The devil doubtless hath destroyed many good books in the Church, as
he hath rooted out and slain many saints, concerning whom we have
now no knowledge. But, no thanks unto him, the Bible he was fain to
leave unmeddled with. In like manner Baptism, the Sacrament, and
the Office of Preaching have remained among us against the power of
many tyrants and heretics that have opposed the same. These our
Lord God hath kept and maintained by his special strength. Homer,
Virgil, and suchlike are profitable and ancient books; but, in
comparison of the Bible, they are nothing to be regarded.
By whom and at what Times the Bible was translated.
Two hundred and forty-one years before the humanity of Christ, the
Five Books of Moses, and the Prophets, were translated out of the
Hebrew into the Greek tongue by the Septuagint Interpreters, the
seventy doctors or learned men then at Jerusalem, in the time of
Eleazar the High-priest, at the request of Ptolemeus Philadelphus,
King of Egypt, which King allowed great charges and expenses for the
translating of the same.
Then, one hundred and twenty-four years after the birth of Christ,
his death and passion, the Old Testament was translated out of
Hebrew into Greek by a Jew, named Aquila (being converted to the
Christian faith), in the time of Hadrian the Emperor.
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