New Word Alive - the Welsh Connection 3

Here's today's issue (See previous two)

The Welsh Connection
Welsh is one of the oldest living languages in Europe. The fact that it is still spoken is very much linked to the story of Christianity here. The protestant reformation took a while to take root in the land. There was sacrifice and even martyrdom by some to ensure that the Welsh could hear the gospel. In 1588 Bishop William Morgan published his authorised translation of the Bible. A copy was placed in every church throughout the land. It was a masterpiece of translation, with both the accuracy of the meaning and beauty of the language of outstanding quality. It became the standard for the language, and with very little change was the only translation generally used until 1988, four hundred years later.
Then in the early eighteenth century Griffith Jones, a clergyman in Carmarthenshire, burdened that the Bible was out of the reach of the majority of people, organised men to go to visit villages, staying for a few months teaching people to read, and then moving on to another area. His motive was to enable people to be able to read the Bible. This was so successful that a great proportion of the population became literate. (Even the Queen of Russia heard about it, sending envoys to learn how it was done so that she could use the pattern in her own country.) A century later Thomas Charles, another man of God, replicated these schools, also ensuring that the Bible was made available to everyone. The Welsh had become literate and the Bible was moulding the mind of the nation.
In 1988 a new translation of the Bible was produced, which was substantially revised in 2004. There is also a living translation of the New Testament on the internet – http://www.beibl.net/ - with the Old Testament in translation at the moment. But the tragedy is that a generation of is growing who are totally ignorant of the riches of God’s Word. Pray for the beibl.net project, Christian school workers, the Gideons and those involved in sharing the Bible these days in our land.