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Bible Timeline: The Answers

Note: CE = Common Era, sometimes known as A.D. (Anno Domini, “The Year of the Lord”) BCE = Before Common Era, also known as BC (“Before Christ”)

I. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written, collected and copied between c. 200BCE and 70 CE. The scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956.

The death of Jesus can be dated to c. 30 CE.

H. Codex Sinaiticus c. 350 CE is a manuscript of the Christian in Greek. It contains the earliest complete copy of the . The majority of the Codex is now kept in the British Library in London. Parts of it can also be found in St Petersburg (Russia), the University of Leipzig (Germany), and the Egyptian monastery where it was re-discovered in 1844 CE.

Jerome began his Latin translation with the New Testament in c. 382CE. He then used the Greek text (the ) for the , before revising his work using the Hebrew. His translation is known as The Vulgate. The work was complete by c. 405 CE.

B. Anglo-Saxons translated the Psalms and other parts of the Bible from c. 700 CE or earlier. The manuscripts are lost but Aldhelm (639-709 CE) is believed to have translated the Psalms and Bede (c.673-735 CE) made a translation of John’s Gospel. Glosses – word-by-word definitions written between the lines – survive in manuscripts from around 850CE onward.

The Normans invaded Britain in 1066 CE, and controlled most of England by c. 1071 CE. This influenced the English we speak today, and French was the language used by the Royal court until the 1400s.

The Black Death first reached England in 1348 CE. Historians estimate that it killed up to fifty per cent of the population. With less people available for labour, the average wage increased. Landowners tried to suppress this, a move which led to the Peasants Revolt in 1381 CE.

W. Wycliffe and others translated the Bible in the 1380s. Their translation was based on Jerome’s Latin Bible. Wycliffe’s followers were declared heretics and excluded from the Church.

In 1408 the English Church ruled that new translations of the Bible would require official approval in advance. This was a reaction to Wycliffite which had encouraged demands for the Church to change.

L. The first Printed Bible was produced by Gutenberg in the 1450s. Finished copies were available by 1455 CE.

Columbus sailed to America in 1492.

Part of Telling Tales of King James’ Bible. Copyright (c) The University of Sheffield, 2011. R. Henry VII became King of England in 1509. He was the second Tudor monarch, and the first King of Ireland (a title he claimed in 1542). Henry died in 1547 and was succeeded by his son, Edward.

Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament was published in 1525. He then began work translating the (Old Testament). He was killed as a traitor in 1536 (because of his open opposition to Henry VIII’s remarriage). Most of the Old Testament in the (published in 1536) is based on Tyndale’s translation work. The (1535) and the (1539) also used Tyndale’s translations, and King James’ translators were permitted to use Tyndale’s work (and the Great Bible) when making the 1611 Bible.

M. The First Printed Bible in English was the Coverdale Bible (1535). Miles Coverdale used Tyndale’s translation of the first five books of the Bible and Tyndale’s New Testament. He completed his work using German and Latin translations of the Bible.

“Bloody Mary” became Queen in 1553, after the death of her half-brother, Edward. Mary Tudor or Mary the First earned her nickname because she persecuted Protestant Christians.

O. The Geneva New Testament was published in 1557. The full Bible including a revised New Testament was printed in Geneva in 1560.

Elizabeth the First became Queen in 1558. She was Anne Boleyn’s daughter and the last Tudor monarch.

E. The Bishops Bible was published in 1568. It was the second English bible to be approved for use in English churches. It was compiled by English bishops, and overseen by Archbishop Matthew Parker.

James became King of England (and Ireland) in 1603. He was already King of Scotland, a title he inherited in 1570.

S. King James’ Bible was published in 1611. It was commissioned seven years earlier at the Hampton Court Conference.

William Shakespeare died in 1616. He and his contemporaries were strongly influenced by the .

U. Puritan Christians sailed to America in 1618 but the largest migration took place in the 1630s and 1640s. The most famous voyagers were the Plymouth Fathers who left in 1620. However, they were not Puritans because they believed that it was not possible to be part of the Church of England and be a proper Christian.

The riots in Scotland began in St Giles’ Cathedral in 1637. The cause was King Charles’ attempt to force the Church of Scotland to use a Book of Common Prayer which meant following the same pattern of worship in every church. This prayer book contained bible readings from the King James’ Bible.

Bible Timeline: The Answers Part of Telling Tales of King James’ Bible. Copyright (c) The University of Sheffield, 2011. K. The English Civil War began in 1642. It was the result of an increasing divide between what the King wanted (money from Parliament to support war against Scotland and to keep Bishops in power) and what Parliament wanted. The battles continued until 1651. By this time Charles the First had been executed (1649) and his son was exiled.

Oliver Cromwell died in 1558. He had ruled over England, Scotland and Ireland for five years. His son took temporary control but the monarchy was restored and King Charles the Second was crowned as King in 1660.

F. A new Book of Common Prayer was approved by the Church of England in 1662. This replaced the 1559 edition. (The first prayer book was produced in 1549, and revised in 1552.) It contained the bible passages from King James’ Bible.

The Great Fire of London began on 2nd September 1666 and was not extinguished until 5th September. It destroyed most of the medieval City of London including 13 200 houses and 87 churches.

Q. Handel’s Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1741. Handel composed the music using a libretto prepared by Charles Jenner, who selected passages from the King James Bible to retell the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The US Declaration of Independence was issued in July 1776. It followed years of conflict and out- right war with Britain and was partly a reaction to increased taxes. Its opening statement is:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

D. The Bible Society was founded in 1804. Its full title is the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Society aims to make the Bible accessible to everyone. That means translating it into different languages, producing bibles people can afford to buy and helping people to make sense of the Bible. There are now more than 149 Bible Societies around the world, and parts of the Bible have been translated into nearly 2500 languages.

Queen Victoria ruled from 1837 until her death in 1901. The British Empire expanded during her rule, and in 1876 she took on the title Empress of India.

J. The engraving “England’s Glory! The Secret of England’s Greatness” was made by W.H. Simmons in 1864. It was based on a painting by Thomas Jones Barker which can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The title identifies Victoria’s influence over the British Empire (identified with an African prince) with the spread of the English Bible.

The American Civil War began in 1861. It was caused by the refusal of 11 of the Southern states to make slavery illegal. They declared independence, leading to war between North and South. After four years fighting, the Southern states surrendered. Slavery was then outlawed throughout the USA.

Bible Timeline: The Answers Part of Telling Tales of King James’ Bible. Copyright (c) The University of Sheffield, 2011. A. Abraham Lincoln was President of the USA throughout the American Civil War. He became President in 1861 before the War started. He won a second term, and a sketch from 1865 shows him taking the Presidential oath with his King James Bible. (It is not known what bible he used in 1861.) Six weeks later, as the Southern states surrendered, Lincoln was assassinated.

The complete of the Bible was published in 1895. It is the only revision of King James’ Bible to receive specific authorization for use in the Church of England.

N. The First World War began in 1914 and ended with an armistice agreement on 11 November 1918. Around 37 million people were killed during the war. Between 1917 and 1920, at least 50 million people died as a result of Spanish Flu.

T.S. Eliot wrote The Waste Land in 1922. He had moved to England in 1914, where he married a year later. The marriage was unhappy, and Eliot regarded this unhappiness as one of the influences on the despairing poem. In 1927 he converted to the Church of England (he was raised as a Unitarian), and subsequently separated from (then divorced) his wife. Later poems such as Ash Wednesday also make use of the King James Bible.

T. The was published in 1970. Its New Testament was published first in 1961, on the 350th anniversary of King James’ Bible. This was the first large-scale English translation to begin directly with the Hebrew and Greek since Tyndale and Geneva in the 1500s. It had a mixed reception – T.S. Eliot was especially critical.

Pink Floyd released the song “Sheep” as part of their 1977 album, Animals. The song re-works Psalm 23 to criticize people who follow a leader without thinking.

V. The Handmaid’s Tale was first published in 1985 and made into a film in 1990. It was Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, and won the Arthur C. Clarke award for Science Fiction. Atwood uses texts from the book of Genesis to set the scene for the futuristic society where people are forced to take on particular biblical roles. A Handmaid’s role is to give birth to children (who are then given to Wives who bring them up). It is a critique of certain ways of reading and following the Bible.

The Message’s New Testament was first published in 1993. It is a paraphrase of the Bible prepared by Eugene Peterson. Other parts of the Bible followed and a complete version of The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language was published in 2002. Peterson’s aim was to bring the Bible to life by using everyday metaphors.

C. Barack Obama became President of the USA in January 2009 for a four-year term. He borrowed Abraham Lincoln’s bible to make his presidential oath.

P. The Bible was grafittied at a Glasgow art exhibition during the summer of 2009. Visitors were invited to write themselves “back in” to a copy of the King James Bible. The exhibition featured work from Christian and Muslim artists who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual or Intersex, and examined the ways in which they are often excluded by or from traditional religious groups.

Bible Timeline: The Answers Part of Telling Tales of King James’ Bible. Copyright (c) The University of Sheffield, 2011.