St. Patrick: I was like a stone lying in the deepest mire.

'I was like a stone lying in the deepest mire; and then, "he who is mighty" came and, in his mercy, raised me up. He most truly raised me up on high and set me on top of the rampart.'-- St Patrick (c. 389-c. 461) in his Confessio.

Patrick was the apostle-missionary to heathen Ireland, a Celtic Christian, and, arguably, the most famous saint of the 5th century. He was at least a 3rd generation Christian, as he speaks of his father as a deacon and his paternal grandfather as a presbyter.

St. Patrick left two short works, his Confessio and his Epistola. Confessio outlines the story of his life. It was not what we would call an autobiography, by modern standards, as it left wide gaps in the story of his life. His life, therefore, remains obscured and enveloped in controversy, conjecture, legend and myth.

Patrick used simple illustrations from the world around him to explain God and the Christian faith to the Irish. His life exemplifies the enthusiasm of the Celtic Church. He frequently quoted that other great missionary, St. Paul. After 30 years of arduous and perilous missionary ministry to the Irish, he founded up to 300 churches and baptized as many as 120,000 believers. Ireland, which had been pagan when Patrick started his ministry, became a center from which Christianity radiated to the British Isles and to continental Europe.

Ireland become a center of Celtic monastacism (although Patrick was never himself a monk), and Christian culture, as well as of missionary zeal. The monastaries became the repositories of ancient Christian writings, as the barbarian hordes descended on continental Europe, destroying many ancient texts there. Ireland, it should be noted, did not officially become a Roman Catholic country until the 12th century, long after Patrick's lifetime.

"He [Patrick] conquered by steadfastness of faith, by glowing zeal, and by the attractive power of love."-August Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, 1855.

For further reading:

Bury, John, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History, New York: Macmillan, 1905. Reprinted by Books for Libraries, 1971.

Cahill, Thomas, The Hinges of History, Volume I : How the Irish Saved Civilization, New York: Doubleday, 1995.

Hanson, R. P. C., The Life and Writings of the Historical Saint Patrick, San Francisco: Harper, 1984, 144 pages.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott, A History of Christianity, Vol I: to A.D. 1500, Revised Edition, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1975, pages 101-102.

Neil, Stephen, A History of Christian Missions, New York: Penguin Books, 1980, pages 56-57.

Olsen, Ted, Christianity and the Celts, Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003, 192 pages.

Tucker, Ruth, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983, pages 38-40.

Love, with Courage and Wisdom, moves the World

I have found this quote insightful and helpful:

"Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member.
Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier.
Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual.
But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world."
--Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970)

Many soldiers are, of course, not "ordinary," but heroic, so I am not trying to disparage soldiers. And many of the intellectuals are merely pseudo-intellectuals. And the real "ordinary Christian" should, by God's grace and empowering, and through the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, exhibit love with courage and wisdom. It should be said of us, ordinary Christians, as it was said of the early church:

"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."- Acts 17:6, (King James Version)

Answers to Quiz on English Language and Early American Bibles

I am posting answers to yesterday's Quiz on English Language and Early American Bibles, with yesterday's quiz questions immediately following, for your easy reference.

ANSWERS
1. d) hundreds
2. King Alfred
3. John Wyclif
4. William Tyndale
5. Myles Coverdale
6. King James Version
7. Geneva Bible
8. King James Bible
9. New International Version
10. Algonquin (Native American) language / John Elliot- missionary to the Algonquins
11. German language
12. English language

QUESTIONS
1. How many English translations of the Bible and the New Testament have been completed over the centuries? a) about a dozen b) about a score or 20 c) about a hundred d) hundreds

2. Who was the great 10th century King of England who translated some of the Psalms into English and is considered by many scholars to have been early England's greatest King?

3. Who, with the help of some others, completed by hand, in 1382, the first English translation of the Bible?

4. Who in 1526 completed, and had published, the first printed English version of any part of the Bible?

5. Who in 1535 finished the first complete printed English Bible?

6. What English Bible, published in 1611, became the best selling book of all time and remained the best selling English Bible in annual sales until the 1980's?

7. What version of the Engish Bible inspired John Bunyan as he wrote Pilgrim's Progress?

8. What English Bible went through 236 editions between 1660 and 1710?

9. What English translation or version of the Bible became the best-selling English Bible beginning in the 1980's?

10. In what language was the first full Bible translation done in America in 1663? What famous missionary did it?

11. In what language was the second full Bible translation in America done? It was printed in 1743 by Christopher Saur.

12. In America in 1782, the full Bible was done in yet a third language? What language was it?
(That particular Bible publication, completed in 1782 by Robert Aitken, was the only Bible publication ever authorized by the U.S. Congress.)

LOOK FOR ANOTHER BIBLE AND BIBLE TRANSLATIONS QUIZ IN ABOUT A WEEK.

TIME TO REAP, by Fred D. Jarvis

I found this poem in an old missions newsletter about Indonesia. It was tucked away in an old Bible. I have decided that the poem has a message that needs to be shared. It challenged me- it challenges all Christians-to share the gospel, the good news of Christ.
Does anyone know anything about the author Fred D. Jarvis, where he lived and when he wrote this?

TIME TO REAP

Now is the time to rise and reap,
The fields are harvest white;
This is the hour, I now repeat,
To spread the Gospel light.

This is the hour to give and work
Until the war is won;
O let us not our duty shirk
Before it is done.

The entire world is Christ's domain,
Yet heathen millions wait;
Let's quickly reap the golden grain
Before it is too late.

We must not let that harvest field
Grow ripe, then rot and die;
Our hearts must heed their strong appeals,
O let us then the sickle wield,
It's murder by neglect.

We dare not pass them by.
Of all the wrongs that we commit,
Perhaps our worst defect,
Is damning souls while we just sit,

It's time to call a halt, dear friend,
It's time to pray and weep;
The sheaves must quickly be brought in;
It's time for us to reap!

...Fred D. Jarvis

ANSWERS TO THE 2ND QUIZ ON THE BIBLE, THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOK

1. a. Latin (or the Old Latin)

b. Syriac (other satisfactory answers: SyroChaldaic, Aramaic, the Peshito)

These were the oldest (first) translations of the New Testament from the original Greek.


2. Sir David Dalrymple -- early British scholar who found all but about 11 verses of the New Testament in the then known writings of the Ancient Church Fathers.


3. The Apostle Paul -- wrote his letters between 50-65 A.D. (C. E.)


4. b. 400 B.C. --when the Prophets and Writings were accepted as Hebrew Scriptures along with the Law (Torah, Pentateuch).


5. c. 250 B.C. --when the Hebrew Old Testament was first translated into Greek.


6. Incunabula (the singular is Incunabulum) -- fairly rare books and Bibles printed before 1501 (1445-1500), the first printed books in the western world. (There was some printing done even earlier in China.)


7. The Council of Jamia --in 90 A.D. (C.E.) this Jewish council fixed the Hebrew canon at the same 39 books that are now also in the Protestant Old Testament of the Bible.

8. Erasmus -- in the 1500's produced editions of the New Testament in Greek used by others to make later vernacular translations of the New Testament.

9. Syriac and Coptic -- were sometimes used as translation sources other than the Greek and Latin Vulgate, the latter of which were much more commonly used.

10. Count Constantin Tischendorf (1815-1874) -- German scholar who published the New Testament in Greek in 8 editions between 1841 and 1869, and discovered Codex Sinaiticus at the monastary of St Catherines in the Sinai Peninsula.

The 3rd Quiz, in a day or two, will be on the English Bible and the Bible in the U.S.A.- look for it.

Bible Quiz Answers, and Another Quiz about the Bible

Answers to the quiz about the Bible, the world's greatest and best-selling book:

1. Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. These are the 3 languages of the original Bible manuscripts.

2. The Septuagint , LXX (Roman numeral for 70), Greek language. The first and oldest translation from the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament.

3 The Essenes. They hid the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Romans, preserving them for posterity.

4. Esther. Parts of all but this book of the Old Testament were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

5. Polyglot. Book that contains the Bible in multiple languages.

6. Uncial. Ancient writing style of large plain block letters as opposed to more modern cursive writing.

7. Palimpest. Literally means "written twice". Ancient writing is found hidden under more modern writing on a manuscript, vellum, parchment, etc.

8. Deuteronomy. Book of the Law that King Josiah found in Temple hiding place, and had read to the people.

9. Jerome. Wrote the "authorized" Latin Vulgate in the 4th century A.D. (C.E.).

10. John. The oldest known extant manuscript is part of this Gospel book of Bible- dating to about 125 A.D. (C.E.).

11. Johannes Gutenberg. Used moveable type to print the Latin Vulgate Bible in the 1400's in Germany.

12. 4,000. Languages that have no Bible translation, not a single verse-but most of these are not major languages (not so many speakers of the language compared to the languages that have Bible translation.)

New Quiz on the Bible, the World's Greatest Book:

1. What two languages have the two oldest (first) translations of the New Testament?
Clue: One is now a "dead" language not spoken in any nation of the world, but the basis of many European Languages.

2. A British scholar who found, many years ago, that all the New Testament, but eleven verses, were found in the then known writings of the ancient "Church Fathers."

3. He wrote many letters between 50 and 65 A.D., now part of New Testament Scripture.

4. The Prophets and the Writings were accepted as Hebrew Scripture alongside the Law (Torah) a little after: a) 500 B.C. b) 400 B.C. c) 300 B.C. d) 200 B.C.

5. The Old Testament was first translated into Greek (the Septuagint) about:
a) 100 A.D. (C.E.) b) 100 B.C. 3) 250 B.C. 4) 500 B.C.

6. Bibles and books printed before 1501 (between 1445 and 1500 A.D. (C.E.) that are fairly rare and collectable are called____. (Clue starts with an "I" and is from the Latin)

7. The Jewish council that in 90 A.D. fixed the Hebrew canon at 39 books, the same 39 books found now also in the Old Testament of the Protestant Bible.

8. Famous Renaissance man who used manuscripts back to the 10th century A.D. to produce an edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 which became the basis for many later vernacular translations of the New Testament.

9. New Testament translators use the Greek and the Latin Vulgate, but they occasionally also use the ____ and ___ translations of the New Testament. Name these 2 translations or languages.

10. A 19th century Greek scholar-translator who discovered the Codex Sinaiticus manuscripts in a waste basket at the St. Catherine's monastary near Mt. Sinai.

ANSWERS, AND ANOTHER QUIZ, IN 3 DAYS.

The Bible, the World's Greatest and Best-Selling Book: A Fun Quiz to Challenge You

The Bible is the Word of God, inerrant in the original autographs (manuscripts). It is the best-selling and greatest book of all time. The Bible as we now have it, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, has flourished for nearly two millenia. I am doing a series of quizzes, containing about 10-12 questions each time, in order to stimulate further interest study of God's Word, the Book of all books. I will list the answers in my next blog in about 2-3 days. Here is the first quiz. A few questions are relatively easy, but some fairly difficult:

1. What are the 3 languages of the original manuscripts of the Bible?

2. The first (oldest) translation of the Old Testament was made for the Jews of many lands, and was also the primary Bible, rather than the Hebrew Bible, of the early church. What was the translation called, what was its numeric symbol, and what was its language?

3. Which of the three divisions of Judaism hid and preserved for posterity, the "Dead Sea Scrolls" from the Romans, who in 68 B.C. destroyed their community?

4. All except which book of the Old Testament was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

5. What is a large book that contains the Bible in multiple languages called? Clue: multiple=poly (it's prefix is poly, the word begins with poly_)

6. What is the writing style, used in ancient Bible manuscripts or parchments, that consists of large, plain, capital letters, called?

7. What is the word for the ancient writing style found hidden under the more modern, cursive writing on a parchment? The word means "written twice."

8. King Josiah found and had read to his people this book of the Law (Torah or Pentateuch) in a temple hiding place. What's the book's name?

9. Which early "Church Father" began translation work, in about 380 A.D., on the authorized Latin Vulgate?

10. The oldest extant New Testament manuscript discovered, dates from about 125 A.D. (C.E.) and is part of which Gospel book?

11. Who used moveable type to print the Latin Vulgate in the 1400's at Mainz, Germany?

12. About how many languages have never had a single verse of the Bible:

a) 1,000 b) 2,000 c) 3,000 d) 4,000

Answers will be published Sunday or Monday (2-3 days), with a new Quiz on the Bible, the world's greatest book.