Most of us are familiar with the fact that the first major work produced by the newly invented Gutenberg printing press, which featured moveable type, was a copy of the Bible known as the Latin Vulgate. It was printed around 1450, and the next fifty years would see many copies of the Vulgate in over 100 different editions born from the press. So popular was it that many, even up to our age, have asserted the Bible was first rendered in Latin.
However, it was not until 1514 that a Greek version of the New Testament, included in a work called the Complutensian Polyglot, was printed in any complete form. There are a number of reasons why this may have been the case. First, Koine Greek letters were very different in form from the letters we have in, say, the English language. Very often one letter can have many different forms. In addition, a system of accenting and breathing marks would change depending on the usage of the word, which made it necessary to create each variation of the letter to be placed on the printing press. Thus, the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet required the creation of over 200 different printing press pieces.
Another reason, however, that it took so long had to do with a fear that if scholars were able to examine the Greek, then they would be able to point out the flaws in the much-venerated Latin Vulgate. They would be able to examine the text in the language in which it was first written and compare it to the rendering in Latin, finding and confirming sections that are lacking or misleading. In other words, the publication of the Greek text could expose weakness within a much-loved publication.
In the years since that time, though it took many centuries and much sweat and toil, we now understand those flaws in the Vulgate and readily accept the fact that the New Testament was originally penned in Greek. Few today use the Vulgate or refer to it.
Isn’t it odd how we are so often fearful of our flaws being addressed, even when it comes to things as simple as a book or typos or mispronunciations or misunderstandings of little significance. Of course, it is not “odd” in the sense of being uncommon or unique. Rather, it is “odd” among the children of God in the sense that the God that we acknowledge as our Lord and Master is the same who tells us we must constantly be about the business of testing ourselves, challenging ourselves and maturing toward perfection by it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I think we are very good at criticism and critique, but such is usually reserved for others. Again, this too is odd when one considers the fact that the same God that tells us to “self-examine” is the God that tells us not to judge others beyond the standard of His judgment or what you may call “righteous judgment.”
Do we do as well in judging ourselves as we do with the critiques given about others? Are you self-examining? Are you growing? I tell you, about the only way not to be fearful of the critiques of men is to blaze that trail yourself in consistent and forthright self-analysis. I do not fear what I already know and that through which I am already working.
Overcome your fear through self-examination. Who knows, it may also give you better insight about how you can and should view your brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Do not fear the weaknesses, but embrace them for there is the place that your God can work. Furthermore, in the end, you will go through examination anyhow, though perhaps then you will be unprepared and left wanting. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV).
