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| Tuesday, 21 December 2004 |
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Jesus Christ guided the writers of the greatest epic by Gwen Herat It took a young Christian woman to shatter a myth I carried throughout life, beginning from my classroom. I firmly believed that William Shakespeare was the greatest writer the world had come to accept. His powerful 'Shakespearean' langauge, classicism in dialogue and the literary genius were aspects that no other writer possessed or for that matter, could have come within a striking distance to the Bard. He was a phenominal writer with no secondary education but the magical aura he introduced to English literature was unlimited. Like as with many other writer, he had influenced me to such an extent, I carry that aura in most of my published works. However, a couple of Sundays ago, Radika Watson walked up the aisle of Cathedral of Christ The Living Saviour to deliver a sermon to the congregation and what she uttered was the truth that many people may not have paused to think. Radika held the audience spellbound with her youthful conviction when she rendered from the Holy Bible the evolution of the world and that Jesus Christ was the greatest of all writers. Jesus never wrote a single word, neither did he touch a pen or put words and dialogue in the mouth of his twelve disciples. They wrote the New Testament and the Lord had picked his disciples from among all walks of life. From the top most academic to the simple fisherman who were and we find their amazing grace held within the folds of the Holy Bible. As he spoke through his disciples and prophets, the words of wisdom, of the good and the bad, the Bible came into existence. It is the most read book to date. It is in translation above any other book and has survived the onslaught of religious slaughter, unscathed and ever brimming with human existence for more centuries to come. This is the message I can convey to all Christians during this period of His birth as the writer of this great epic. The Holy Bible is a magnificent storehouse of stories written in parables and Jesus guided those thoughts into words and with the passing of the centuries, they remain intact for those who believe in the truth. Millions have been persecuted because of its writer but so great were their faith they sacrificed their lives for Him. As young people move away from truth and religion, it takes courage and conviction for young persons like Radika to praise the Bible and its origin, (and perhaps, up-date us elders). 'He was born in an obscure village, He worked in a carpenters shop until he was thirty. He then became an itinerant preacher. He never held and office. He never had a family or owned a house He did not go to college. He had no credentials but himself. Twenty centuries have come and gone, And today he is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed And the Parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned have not effected the life of a man on this earth as much as that'....... The Old Testament in the Holy Bible contains thirty-nine books while the New Testament have twenty-seven books. They were written by forty writers, influenced and guided by the Lord. The twenty-seven canonical books of the Christian Scriptures were written in the common Greek of the day. However, the Book of Mathew was apparently written first in Bibilical Hebrew to serve the Jewish people. The fourth century Bible translator, Jerome states this, saying that it was later translated into Greek. Mathew himself probably made this translation, having being a Roman civil servant and tax collector. He without doubt knew Hebrew and Greek... Mark 3, Verse 14-17. The other Christian Bible writers, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James and Judge all wrote their documents in Koine which was the common living langauge that the Christians of the day understood as well as the rest of the people of the country. The last of the original documents were written by John in 98. As far as it is known, none of these twenty-seven original manuscripts in Koine have survived to this day. However from the original fountainhead, there flowed to us copies of the originals, copies of copies and families of copies to from a vast reservoir of manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures. The Reservoir of Over 13,000 Manuscripts contained tremendous fund of manuscript copies of all twenty-seven canonical books and are available today. Some of these cover extensive portions of scriptures while others are more frequent. According to reliable calculations there are over 5,000 manuscripts in the original Greek in addition to over 8000 manuscripts in various other languages which totals to over 13,000 manuscripts. Down the centuries they have helped determine the true scripts of the original texts. The oldest of these is the papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England which is dated to be in the first half of the second century. Thus the hand of Jesus Christ guided the writers of the greatest epic, revered by Christians and feared by many nations who vainly have attempted to destroy the truth only to find the Holy Bible getting stronger and appealing to the humble and the meek. Let us look at the Holy Bible this Christmas as the Lord deemed us in His words and share the spiritual communications towards the Promised Land He promised. |
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