PHOTO OF THE WEEK: A View of Ancient Antioch

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Very Old Bible

Note the stylized Ses!

BIBLE NEWS: First Bible Printed in England to be Auctioned

The Bible was first written down thousands of years ago.  But the last few centuries have seen it translated into many different languages.  A landmark was the Tyndale Bible printed in English in England in 1526.  A copy of this historic run is being auctioned off and is expected to bring £35,000 (about $39,000).

Tyndale’s Bible was taken to be a direct challenge to the hegemony of the Roman Catholic church and English laws to maintain the church’s position. After being arrested in Antwerp, Tyndale was executed as a heretic in 1536 and copies of the book discovered in Britain were burnt.Henry VIII eventually ordered four English translations of the Bible to be published in England, less than four years after Tyndale’s death by strangulation.

World's Oldest Bible goes online Monday

In a move that is sure to excite Bible scholars, the world's oldest Bible is being put online as soon as Monday. The Codex Sinaticus (link will fail until Monday) will present scans of the entire original Greek manuscripts for scholars to examine and research.

The manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. (A copy held at the Vatican dates from about the same period.) Older copies of individual portions of the Christian Bible exist, but not as part of a complete text.

The Codex also includes much of the Old Testament that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians.

That portion includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach.

The New Testament portion includes the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of parchment -- prepared animal skin -- each of which measures 15 inches by 13.6 inches (380 mm by 345 mm).

Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend, to allow the Bible to be studied by anyone worldwide who is seeking truth and God.