Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – The Waldenses – Their Bibles – Lux Lucet in Tenebris – A Light Shines in the Darkness – PART TWO of TWO

Thomas E Kresal Admin · 2 hrs April 4, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – The Waldenses – Their Bibles – Lux Lucet in Tenebris – A Light Shines in the Darkness – PART TWO of TWO

3. The Olivetan Bible – Pierre Robert Olivetan was a Waldensian pastor from Noyan, in Picardy, France, and a cousin to John Calvin. He is often referred to as the first man to translate the Bible into the French language starting from Hebrew and Greek texts. It was based upon the Lefevre Bible and was compared to the best available Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.

The French Olivetan Bible was revised and republished by Calvin’s successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza. The year was 1588. The Olivetan, therefore, was the basis of the English Geneva Bible. The Geneva is often considered the ‘forerunner’ of the King James version of 1611.

4. Tepl Bible – The Tepl was a German translation from Waldensian texts. Emilio Comba, in his “History of the Waldenses of Italy: From their Origin to the Reformation”, relates that Tepl was a Waldensian translator from Bohemia and that Luther used Tepl as his major source when he translated the Bible into German in the sixteenth century. Comba also sites Louis Keller and Herman Hat as authorities that prove Tepl came from the old Latin manuscripts and not Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.

Producing and preserving the Bible for themselves and the World.

Through many dark centuries, the Waldenses never ceased in their efforts to preserve, copy, and circulate the pure Word of God throughout Europe. In Latin, French, German, Italian, and other languages there are Bibles that bear the marks of, and in many cases are in the direct lineage of, the Waldensian Bibles and the manuscripts of an earlier period.

The Waldenses truly provided a pure text for much of Europe!

Thomas E. Kresal from: The Waldenses of Whom the World Was Not Worthy by Ted Alexander, p. 53-54