On the History of the Bible

No matter the language in which you read the Bible, unless you read Latin all the time, there was a time that it would have been illegal for you to have the Bible in your language. For over a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church dictated who could and could not read and translate the Bible. For centuries it was a capital crime, punishable by death, to have a Bible in your own native language.

Today, we take for granted that we can go to either a bookshelf, our car, or even our smartphone or computer and open a Bible that we can read and understand with ease. Many people are blissfully unaware that the words they read on the pages of that Bible are some of the most expensive words in the history of human civilization. People have given their blood, sweat, tears, and even their lives to give us a Bible that we can read.