The New Testament was all originally written in Greek, except Matthew, which was first written in Hebrew, and later translated into Greek. [Illustration.] Gutenberg Printing The Bible At an early date, Latin translations, both of the Septuagint and of the Greek New Testament, were made by different individuals, and the more carefully prepared Latin Vulgate of Jerome, the Bible complete, was made A.D. 383-405. Printing and the Bible Printing, however, being yet unknown, copies of the Bible could be produced only by the slow, laborious, and expensive process of handwriting. This necessarily greatly limited its circulation. Worse still, its illuminating and saving truths were largely hidden for centuries by the errors, superstitions, and apostasy of the dark ages. During this time the common people knew little of its contents. But with the invention of the art of printing about the middle of the fifteenth century, and with the dawn of the great Reformation in the century following, the Bible entered upon a new era, preparatory to the final proclamation of the gospel throughout the world. [Illustration.] Luther Translating The Bible Not a little significant is the fact that the first book printed from movable type was the Bible in Latin, which came from the press of John Gutenberg, at Mentz, Germany, in 1456, a copy of which, in 1911, was sold in New York City for fifty thousand dollars, the highest price ever paid for a single book. The Bible in Native Tongues Thus far, however, the Bible had been published only in ancient tongues, now little understood by the common people. Without the Word of God in their hands, the good seed sown among them was easily destroyed. “O,” said the advocates of its pure teachings, “if the people only had the Word of God in their own language, this would not happen! Without this it will be impossible to establish the laity in the truth.” And why should they not have it in their own tongue? they reasoned. Moses wrote in the language of the people of his time; the prophets spoke in the tongue familiar to the men whom they addressed; and the New Testament was written in the language then current throughout the Roman world. The translation of the Bible into English by John Wyclif, in 1380, was the chief event in the beginning of the Reformation. It also prepared the way for the revival of Christianity in England, and the multiplying there of the Word by the millions, for all the world, that has followed.