WOMEN
RECEIVED BACK THEIR DEAD BY RESURRECTION
AND OTHERS WERE TORTURED, NOT ACCEPTINGTHEIR RELEASE: Elabon gunaikes
ex anastaseos tous nekrous auton: alloi de etumpanisthesan ou
prosdechamenoi ten apolutrosin:
The idea seems
to be that these men & women refused to be released or set free. What
would result in them being set free? If they had denied God's Truth &
Christ their Redeemer. This offer has been made to many of His martyrs
over the millenia but the true believers have held fast (Heb 3:6,14)
and not expediently denied Him in order to obtain futile passing
freedom in this life, a poor exchange for eternal life with God in the
next life. Hold fast to the confession of your hope w/o wavering for
He Who promised is faithful (Heb 10:23).
IN ORDER THAT THEY MIGHT OBTAIN A BETTER RESURRECTION:
hina kreittonos anastaseos tuchosin:
Modern day "Hall of Fame"
JOHN WYCLIFFE (1329–1384) English reformer; Bible translator
-
A native of Yorkshire, Wycliffe attended Oxford University, where he
received a doctorate of theology in 1372. Wycliffe, the most eminent
Oxford theologian of his day, and his associates, were the first to
translate the entire Bible from Latin into English. His teachings
influenced John HUS and laid the foundations for the PROTESTANT
REFORMATION on the Continent.
Wycliffe has been called the “MORNING STAR OF THE REFORMATION” because
he boldly questioned papal authority, criticized the sale of
indulgences (which were supposed to release a person from punishment
in purgatory), denied the reality of transubstantiation (the doctrine
that the bread and wine are changed into Jesus Christ’s actual body
and blood during Communion), and spoke out against church hierarchies.
The pope reproved Wycliffe for his heretical teachings and asked that
Oxford University dismiss him. But Oxford and many government leaders
stood with Wycliffe, so he was able to survive the pope’s assaults.
Wycliffe believed that the way to prevail in his struggle with the
church’s abusive authority was to make the Bible available to the
people in their own language. Then they could read for themselves how
each one of them could have a personal relationship with God through
Jesus Christ—apart from any ecclesiastical authority. Wycliffe, with
his associates, completed the New Testament around 1380 and the Old
Testament in 1382. Wycliffe concentrated his labors on the New
Testament, while an associate, Nicholas of Hereford, did a major part
of the Old Testament. Wycliffe and his coworkers, unfamiliar with the
original Hebrew and Greek, translated the Latin text into English.
Therefore, their Bible was a translation of a translation, not a
translation of the original languages. With the coming of the
Renaissance came the resurgence of the study of the classics—and with
it the resurgence of the study of Greek, as well as Hebrew.
Thus, for the first time in nearly a thousand years (500–1500—the
approximate time when Latin was the dominant language for scholarship,
except in the Greek church) scholars began to read the New Testament
in its original language, Greek. By 1500, Greek was being taught at
Oxford.
After Wycliffe finished the translation work, he organized a group of
poor parishioners, known as LOLLARDS, to go throughout England
preaching Christian truths and reading the Scriptures in their mother
tongue to all who would hear God’s word. As a result the Word of God,
through Wycliffe’s translation, became available to many Englishmen.
Wycliffe was loved and hated. His ecclesiastical enemies did not
forget his opposition to their power or his successful efforts in
making the Scriptures available to all. Several decades after he died
they condemned him for heresy, dug up his body, burned it, and threw
his ashes into the Swift River.
One of Wycliffe’s close associates, John Purvey (1353–1428), continued
Wycliffe’s work by producing a revision of his translation in 1388.
Purvey was an excellent scholar; his work was very well received by
his generation and following generations. Within less than a century,
Purvey’s revision had replaced the original Wycliffe Bible.