On October 31, most Christians celebrate the Reformation Day. Much more than creating a “new denomination”. Reformation facilitated access to the reading of the Word of God. And, aligned with new technologies, it has allowed more people over the years to access to the holy scriptures.
Today’s text is not an exhortation to the brothers. But rather a collection of curiosities that marked the story. Things that have made it possible for you, the reader, to have such easy access to the words of eternal life.
The first translations
The first “revolution” that facilitated access to God’s Word was called ‘Septuagint’. In the first century after Christ, seventy sages were gathered to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. This was the language most used by the Gentiles at the time. History says this was crucial for the apostles of Jesus to succeed in their preaching and spreading the gospel among people who were unaware of the Hebrew line. Remember that the Apostle Paul founded churches in Greece.
Another big step taken was the Latin vulgate. In the year 386 after Christ, a great biblist named Jeronimo was appointed to translate the Bible into Latin. This facilitated diffusion throughout the West. The Catholic church began to use this version as it was a common language at the time.
The importance of reform
In the year 1517, a priest named Martin Luther, dissatisfied with some things he was seeing within the church, devoted himself to studying the Word and understanding what the church was doing and how it was understood in the light of the Bible.
The execution of the services was very complicated. The churches were very large and the mass was said in Latin, a language that was already disappearing at the time. Many people could not understand what was said in the services. This opened the door for those in power to modify the gospel. It is important to enfatize that at that time the church had a strong political influence. The Church used to give the final say on government decisions.
This shows how easily people can be mistaken for a false gospel without Bible reading. Unfortunately, this happens from the early church through false prophets. The Apostle Paul himself spoke of this in some of his letters.
The importance of technology
Because of the traditions we have and the way we act daily within the churches, some technologies are sometimes extremely badly accepted by the Christian public when they begin to show signs of revolution. But technological advances are great tools for reaching as many people as possible with the gospel.
Luther’s reform was not just a clash with doctrines that were not in the Bible. But also in making God’s word available to all the people. Along with this revolution that was taking place, the Gutenberg Press was invented. It was technology that changed the way we spread texts, also known as the Newspaper Press.
Until then, the bibles were entirely handwritten, making the holy book extremely expensive and inaccessible to the people.
Luther set out to translate the Bible that was in Latin into German and, using the printing press, could start printing cheaper copies and in languages easier for the people. This allowed more people to understand God’s Word and true Christian purpose, preventing them from being deceived by false teachers. It is good to note that all Christian denominations have benefited from such a revolution in the way we connect with the Word.
Today’s technologies and the Bible Offline
More than 500 years later, we come to the 21st century, where we are. With God’s grace we have the opportunity to develop technologically so that the word of the Lord is in the hands of all.
A few years ago, Marcel Rocco, a programmer recently converted to Christianity, decided to turn his paper Bible into a mobile app to better keep up with the preaching at the time of the service. He realized this as an opportunity to facilitate access to the Bible. So began to work on further innovations that led to the development of the Bible Offline. Today, the app is now available on a lot of languages and allows people from various countries, villages and tribes to know God through the true word.
Today we have 4.5 million people accessing our app monthly in over 160 countries around the world. Glory to God for that!
