An Author Interview from Books At a Glance
I’m Fred Zaspel, and welcome to another Author Interview here on Books At a Glance.
I predict with great confidence that this will be one of the most enjoyable books you’ll read this year. I’m talking about the new book by Dr. Diana Severance, The Living Word: Daily Readings on the History, Influence and Impact of the Bible. Dr. Severance is with us today to tell us about it.
Diana, welcome, and congratulations on an absolutely delightful book.
Severance:
Thank you so much, its wonderful to be with you!
Zaspel:
We will talk about the book in a moment, but since this is your first time with us, if you would, first just introduce yourself for our listeners. Tell us about the work you do there in Houston.
Severance:
I have my PhD in history from Rice University and I became interested in Christian history as a teenager when I had a pastor who was teaching Isaiah. He incorporated all of the wonderful historical background and showing how God was really working in history. I thought it was fascinating and just continued to see God’s work in history and studying it more later. I am the director of the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University. We have a large collection of rare Bibles and manuscripts on display, to show what my book talked about, the Bible’s history, influence, and impact. That is my paying job.
See more about the museum here.
Zaspel:
I wasn’t aware of the museum there. It sounds like an outstanding resource. Id love to see it sometime.
Severance:
I hope you can. It is a jewel and everyone who comes is amazed. You are not just looking at books, you are learning about the Bible’s history and influence, which is tremendous.
Zaspel:
Okay, tell us about your new book. I do not know another book like it, and I am not sure how to classify it. It is a book about the Bible, but is it primarily a biblical or historical study, devotional, what? What is the contribution you hope to make?
Severance:
All the above. It is the history, but it is the history of the Bible and its influence. We go into dates, writing of the Scripture, transmission, and translation. But also, how the Bible has influenced individuals and whole streams of, science literature, music, and art. It’s divided into small pieces so you can get a little bit each day, accompanied with a specific Bible verse that reflects the Scriptures.
Zaspel:
You mentioned that it is daily readings, about one page each. It’s 366 readings total. I predict there will be no person who picks up the book who will just read one a day. It’s so enjoyable, everyone is going to turn the page for more. But it makes it for easy reading.
Now I want to give our listeners a taste of what you have to offer in the book, so most of my questions will just ask for some samples. You provide many outstanding examples of the Bible’s influence that I found fascinating – its influence in individual lives, society, government, law, education, science, music, literature, the English language itself, and on it goes – even Ivory Soap! Give us some samples – at least a couple but take whatever time you like.
Severance:
One interesting example that I was fascinated to find is mutiny on The Bounty. The ship, The Bounty, where the mutineers overtook the ship and sent the captain on his way in 1789. They went to an island in Tahiti and while they were there the mutineers learned how to make liquor and alcohol. One of them committed suicide. It was an awful situation. One of the sailors was rummaging through a ship and found a Bible. He did not know how to read but another sailor did and taught him how to read. He started reading the Scriptures and became converted to Jesus. He started teaching the islanders and sailors there and they converted. A lot of the Tahitians learned to read English. They had one Bible, but they started reading and became Christians. Their whole culture was transformed. When some British merchants happened upon the island and met these people, they could not believe their whole culture had a transformation just through the Scriptures. Over and over, people are transformed when the Bible comes into other cultures or individuals.
Another interesting little missionary story was in the 1700s. The Moravian brethren went to South Africa and a missionary there began witnessing trying to convert the natives. He was ministering in a place called the Valley of Baboons. The Dutch rulers in South Africa thought he was upsetting culture to much and shipped him out. He was only there for a short time but there were some converts and some people who learned to read the Scriptures. Fifty years later they were able to allow missionaries back in that region. The missionaries were wondering if there was going to be anyone who remembered that first missionary years ago. They came across this old lady. She called herself Magdalena. When the first missionary came, she was converted from his witness. When he left, she took his Bible outside his hut and read the Scriptures to the people and they converted. They had a church and were constantly reading the one Bible they had. She taught her daughter and granddaughter how to read and they continued sharing the Gospel. They changed the name of the place. It’s no longer the Valley of Baboon; it’s the Valley of Grace.
Zaspel:
How about the Bible’s influence in early America?
Severance:
Both Jamestown and the Puritans had strong Christians that were in their early colonies. Their government is based upon the Scriptures. They are constantly propagating the Scriptures among the people. John Elliot was one of the pastors in the Puritan settlement and he went to the natives and translated the Bible into Algonquian for the native Americans. This is the first translation of Scripture for missionary purposes, in early America.
Zaspel:
What was the first Bible in America?
Severance:
When Sir Frances Drake was circling the globe, he landed in California and they had a Bible on board the ship, The Golden Hide. He tried to share with natives in California. They couldn’t understand their words, but the natives could tell it was a book of respect by the way it was dealt with by the English. They would show them pictures and try to explain the Bible.
The Geneva Bible was also important. It was an early translation of the English Bible done in 1560. It was the first English Bible translation from both Greek and Hebrew. It was also the first English study Bible with notes and cross-references. This was very influential throughout the colonies, especially in New England.
Zaspel:
Let’s talk about the Bible in the early centuries. Tell us about early collections of the NT and how the various books were brought together.
Severance:
The church recognized these different books as they were written by the apostles. The church also recognized it early on as inspired by God. One of the amazing things about Scripture in the early church is how many manuscripts we have of the portions. There are 6,000 Biblical manuscripts from the 1st century. This is incredible compared to any other ancient work. Homer or other classical writers, you do not find any manuscripts of their writing until centuries after they were written. We have them from the 2nd century. In the 4th century, it was collected into what we call a Bible, one book. The earliest complete New Testament we have, for example, would be in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus. Some speculate, that when Constantine was emperor in the 4th century, he asked Eusebius, church historian, to have fifty copies of the entire Bible written. These were all manuscripts for use in the churches in Constantinople.
Zaspel:
Talk to us about the Bible in translation to other languages. I’ll ask you about English translations next, but first more broadly – when did Bible translation begin, how soon did it catch on, and how far has it gone?
Severance:
The first book we know of in any language, in any subject that was translated into another language is the Hebrew Scriptures. We know these were translated into Greek starting about the 3rd century B.C. We call this the Septuagint. The tradition was that this was done in Alexandria, Egypt and there were seventy scribes doing this translation. They all ended up with the same translation at the same time. One interesting thing is that the word Bible means book, but in ancient times all the books were scrolls that were rolls. They were not what we think of as a book form. But historians documented this: Christians were first to use the book form for sacred writings. They had books in ancient times like we had but they were used for ledgers or accounting purpose. Not for what you would read in literature. I think one of the reasons is that it was easier to conceal. In early centuries, like under Diocletian, they were trying to confiscate all the Scriptures and they were burned. So, they wanted to make them smaller to be hidden away. You can put all the Gospels into small book form, or Paul’s epistles. Interesting that Christians developed book form for Scripture rather than the scroll.
Zaspel:
What are some key moments in English Bible translation?
Severance:
King Alfred in the 9th century, translated portions of the Bible. The first complete Bible was under John Wycliffe in the 14th century. He and his cohorts translated the Bible into English from Latin. It was very well received by the English people. The church authorities were not pleased. They thought there were ideas in Wycliffe’s writing that were contrary to the churches teaching so they had constitutions of Oxford that forbade anyone to have any portion of the Bible in English. There were many people executed for having a portion of the English Bible or teaching their children the Lord’s prayer in English. What is so amazing is that there are more Bible manuscripts of Wycliffe’s Bible than any other medieval manuscript, even though it was forbidden and outlawed.
Zaspel:
Give us a sample of how God has preserved the Scriptures over the centuries.
Severance:
Just the number of early manuscripts we have, 6,000 early manuscripts show God preserving Scriptures. Incomparable to what is in other ancient literature. Another example is when people are trying to eradicate the Bible and it is burned in the centuries yet it has survived. One example about John Wycliffe. He died a natural death, but they condemned him, the church authority dug up his bones, burned them, and threw them into the river to show he was totally condemned. One historian wrote it was thrown into the Avon which flowed into the river Swift which flowed into the ocean, so his ideas spread throughout the whole world.
Zaspel:
When were chapter and verse divisions and red-letter editions introduced?
Severance:
Chapter divisions were started in the 13th century by Stephen Langton. In the early first centuries the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus were very large. These were for use in the churches. They weren’t the kind of Bible you would carry around. Then in the 13th century in Paris they developed what has been known as the Paris Bible. It was smaller, the paper was thinner, and all the Bible fit into one book instead of, say, four like it was before. During that time, they were making these smaller Bibles that the monks might be able to carry around. Stephen Langton developed the chapter divisions. Also, they put a heading at the top of the pages to help find things. The verse divisions started around the 1,500s. There was a printer named Stephanus who was also a Greek scholar, he printed some early Greek text. He was the first to use verse divisions. It was done to make cross-references easier. They are wonderful to help us find things. Some Bibles have been recently printed without the verses or chapters, called a reader’s Bible. You do get a connectivity we sometimes miss by dividing it up.
Zaspel:
What about the red-letter Bible?
Severance:
There was a journalist in the 1800s who was editor of the Christian Herald. He was reading in his Scriptures one day and he read in Luke 22 about this cup is the New Testament in my blood which I shed for you. He thought maybe it would be a good idea to have Jesus’ words in red. That is where it came from.
Zaspel:
You even have a chapter about a ladies’ Bible study in ancient Rome – tell us about Marcella.
Severance:
I love Marcella. Marcella was very wealthy lady in the 4th century. She had a palatial home on the Aventine Hill. She had ladies’ Bible study in her home with prayer and singing. When Jerome came to Rome, she pestered him with all her questions. She was constantly having questions about “what does selah mean? “or “why don’t they translate this way?” She also had scribes in her home that she would hire to copy out the Scripture. Its hard for us to imagine having the Bible only handwritten Scriptures, that’s how it was until Guttenberg. She had them copy it so that anyone who wanted a copy or a portion of it they would have to come to her. Unfortunately, when the Goths attacked Rome they came to her home and wanted all her gold. They whipped her and she died.
Zaspel:
At various places in the book, you provide several selected quotes about the Bible from various people throughout history. What are some that stand out?
Severance:
I like the analogy that Gregory the Great used in the 6th century. He said, “the word of God exercises the wise and nourishes the simple and can be read to little ones as well as the higher minds.” This is what I particularly like “it is the river both shallow and deep in which the land may have footing, the elephant may swim.” This is a good image of the diversity of people who can relate to the Scripture.
Augustine, in the 4th century, said, “night does not extinguish the stars, so this world’s iniquity does not obscure the minds of believers clinging to the fragments of holy Scripture.”
A longer quote I like of a French bishop in the 18th century, Massillon, “on the histories which have been left to us by men. We see nothing of the agency of man. They are men who obtain the victory, who take tabs, who subdue kingdoms, who dethrone sovereigns, elevate themselves to the supreme power. God appears in no part. Men are the sole actors. But in the history of the holy books. It is God who performs the whole. God causes kings to reign, places them on their thrones. Opposes them again. It is God who opposes the enemy who sacks towns, disposes kingdoms. God alone appears in sacred history and it is He, I may so speak, who is the soul hero. The kings and conquerors of the earth appear but they are ministers of His will. In short, these divine books unfold the way to providence. God who conceals Himself in the other events recorded in our history, seems to reveal Himself in these and it is in this book alone we ought to learn to read the other histories which men have left us.”
Zaspel:
How did your book come about?
Severance:
The content of my book is the kind of thing we cover in the museum a lot. I had written a book on women in Christian history called, Women in Threads. The publishers wanted me to write a shorter devotional history taking portions of that each day that became Her-Story. People seemed to like that so well and to read short little bits of history. I thought this format would be good for the Bible’s story as well.
The book, Feminine Threads, can be found here.
Zaspel:
We are talking to Dr. Diana Severance about her absolutely delightful new book, The Living Word: Daily Readings on the History, Influence and Impact of the Bible. It is set up as simple one-page daily readings, but I can tell you now that you won’t wait for each next day – you’ll find yourself turning to the next page often. Get a copy and enjoy. This book is on my list to give out as gifts this Christmas.
Diana, thanks much for your good work and for talking to us today.
Severance:
Thank you so much. It has been a joy.
