THE BIBLE- A STORY FOR SURVIVAL

THE BIBLE SURVIVED OPPOSITION

THE THREAT:  Many political and religious leaders pursued an agenda contrary to the Bible's message. Often, they used their authority to stop people from owning, producing, or translating the Bible.  Consider two examples: 

* About 167 B.C.E.: Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes, who sought to force Greek religion on the Jews, ordered all copies of the Hebrew Scriptures to be destroyed.  His officials "tore and burnt the rolls of the Law whenever they found them, "wrote historian Heinrich Graetz, "and killed those who were found to seek strength and consolation in their perusal." 

* Middle Ages:  Some Catholic leaders, upset hat the laity were preaching what the Bible teaches rather than the Catholic dogma, branded as heretics any laymen who possessed Bible books other than the Psalms in Latin. One church council enforced the command by directing that their men "diligently, faithfully, and frequently seek out the heretics . .  . by searching all houses and subterranean chambers which lie under any suspicion. . . . The house in which any heretic shall be found shall be destroyed.

If the Bible's enemies had succeeded in stamping it out, its message would have disappeared. 

Next time: THE BIBLE -A STORY OF SURVIVAL HOW THE BIBLE SURVIVED

From The Watchtower magazine