In this series we will present the real history of the
Bible's role and influence in our great nation. Parents, share these
posts with your children. Let them know the often untold story.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the
United States (1933 ‐ 1945), had this to say in his “Statement on
the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Printing of the English Bible.”
Excerpt: "Where we have been truest and
most consistent in obeying [the Bible’s] precepts we have attained the greatest
measure of contentment and prosperity; where it has been to us as the words of
a book that is sealed, we have faltered in our way, lost our range finders and
found our progress checked."
Full text from October
06, 1935:
The
four hundredth anniversary of the printing of the first English Bible is an
event of great significance. It challenges the reverent attention of
English-speaking peoples the world over. To that day, October 4, 1535, when
Myles Coverdale, an Augustinian Friar, later the Bishop of Exeter, produced
this Book in the common vernacular, we trace not only a measurable increase in
the cultural value and influence of this greatest of books, but a quickening in
the widespread dissemination of those moral and spiritual precepts that have so
greatly affected the progress of Christian civilization.
The
part that William Tyndale played in this English translation is generally
acknowledged by the historian. It is also evident that there were others who
made valuable contributions to the monumental undertaking. Independent of and
apart from the devotion of these zealous translators, the work they did marks
the beginning of one of the great epochs in the history of English-speaking
peoples.
It
would be difficult to appraise the far-reaching influence of this work and
subsequent translations upon the speech, literature, moral and religious
character of our people and their institutions. It has done much to refine and
enrich our language. To it may be traced the richest and best we have in our
literature. Poetry, prose, painting, music and oratory have had in it their
guide and inspiration. In it Lincoln found the rounded euphonious phrases for
his Gettysburg address. Speaking of its place in his life, he says: "In
regard to the great Book, I have only to say, it is the best gift which God has
ever given to man."
One
cannot study the story of the rise and development of the men and women who
have been and continue to be the pathfinders and benefactors of our people and
not recognize the outstanding place the Bible has occupied as the guide and
inspiration of their thought and practice. Apart from their professed
allegiance to any particular form of Christian doctrine or creedal expression
of faith, they have found in it that which has shaped their course and
determined their action.
Look
where we will, even in periods that have been marked by apostasy and doubt,
still men have found here in these sacred pages that which has refreshed and
encouraged them as they prosecuted their pilgrimage and sought for higher
levels of thinking and living.
In
the formative days of the Republic the directing influence the Bible exercised
upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident. To Washington it
contained the sure and certain moral precepts that constituted the basis of his
action. That which proceeded from it transcended all other books, however
elevating their thought. To his astute mind moral and religious principles were
the "indispensable supports" of political prosperity, the
"essential pillars of civil society."
Learned
as Jefferson was in the best of the ancient philosophers, he turned to the
Bible as the source of his higher thinking and reasoning. Speaking of the lofty
teachings of the Master, he said: "He pushed His scrutinies into the heart
of man, erected His tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the
waters at the fountain head." Beyond this he held that the Bible contained
the noblest ethical system the world has known. His own compilation of the
selected portions of this Book, in what is known as "Jefferson's
Bible," bears evidence of the profound reverence in which he held it.
Entirely
apart from these citations of the place the Bible has occupied in the thought
and philosophy of the good and the great, it is the veneration in which it has
been and is held by vast numbers of our people that gives it its supreme place
in our literature. No matter what the accidents and chances of life may bring
in their train, no matter what the changing habits and fashions of the world
may effect, this Book continues to hold its unchallenged place as the most
loved, the most quoted and the most universally read and pondered of all the
volumes which our libraries contain. It has withstood assaults, it has resisted
and survived the most searching microscopic examination, it has stood every
test that could be applied to it and yet it continues to' hold its supreme
place as the Book of books. There have been periods when it has suffered stern
and searching criticism, but the hottest flame has not destroyed its prevailing
and persistent power.
We
cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation, without
reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the
Republic. Its teaching, as has been wisely suggested, is ploughed into the very
heart of the race. Where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its
precepts we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity;
where it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed, we have faltered
in our way, lost our range finders and found our progress checked. It is well
that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible.
The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in
the economy of our life as a people. As literature, as a book that contains a
system of ethics, of moral and religious principles, it stands unique and
alone. I commend its thoughtful and reverent reading to all our people. Its
refining and elevating influence is indispensable to our most cherished hopes
and ideals.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt, Statement on the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Printing of
the English Bible. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American
Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209257
