Introduction to the New Testament

1
Introduction to the New Testament

• Testament means covenant.
• C.S. Lewis warned us about saying the really
  foolish thing that people often say about (the
  Lord)
• Im ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
  teacher, but I dont accept His claim to be God.
  That is the one thing we must not say. A man who
  was merely a man and said the sort of things
  Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
  He would either be a lunatic - on a level with
  the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he
  would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your
  choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of
  God or else a madman or something worse. You
  can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him
  and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His
  feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not
  come with any patronizing nonsense about His
  being a great human teacher. He has not left
  that open to us. He did not intend to.

2

• http//vimeo.com/15034110

3

• It does not surprise me that Satan would thus try
  to influence the painting of pictures of a Jesus
  Satan never saw. Satan encountered no effeminate
  Lord on the Mount of Temptation. Satan did not
  go up against a frail Lord in the preexistence,
  nor was he dispatched out of the presence of a
  fragile Lord. Indeed, the Lord whom Satan often
  has had represented in religious art is just the
  opposite of that Being of whom he is so fearfully
  jealous. There is not truth in Lucifers art
  (Neal A. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple,
  59-60).

4

• President David O. McKay, a latter-day prophet
  said
• What you sincerely in your heart think of
  Christ will determine what you are, will largely
  determine what your acts will be. No person can
  study this divine personality, can accept his
  teachings without becoming conscious of an
  uplifting and refining influence within
  himself...Members of the Church of Christ are
  under obligation to make the sinless Son of Man
  their ideal - the one perfect being who ever
  walked the earth (C.R., Apr., 1951, 93, 98).

5
What is the Gospel?

• What is the gospel then?...So often I hear my
  brethren saying something that I wish we would
  not say quite that way - that the gospel is a way
  of life. It is not a way of life - it is the way
  to eternal life. It is the science of salvation
  (Harold B. Lee, C.R., April, 1959, 68).

6
Gospel - means God news, or Good news!

• Brigham Young said, The Gospel of the Son of
  God that has been revealed is a plan or system of
  laws and ordinances, by strict obedience to which
  the people who inhabit this earth are assured
  that they may return again into the presence of
  the Father and the Son (JD, 13, 233).

7

• The perceptions necessary for the ultimate
  diagnosis of human ills are, in my judgment,
  contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some
  secular prescriptions, ironically, would amount
  to giving mankind an aspirin when surgery is
  required (Neal A. Maxwell, A Time To Choose, 15).

8

• Granted there is not full correlation among the
  four Gospels about the events and participants at
  the empty garden tomb. Yet the important thing
  is that the tomb was empty, because Jesus had
  been resurrected! Essence, not tactical detail!
  (Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1984, 11).

9
Why we are not considered Christians by the World!

• 1. We do not come from the traditional Catholic
  or Protestant line.
• 2. We do not believe in The Trinity.
• 3. Our unusual doctrines.
• Concerning mainstream Christianity, they say
  Youre not like us, and we say, youre right,
  and we dont want to be!
• John Taylor

10

• Quiet Christianity is a necessary counterpoint to
  the rumble of the kettle drums and the crash of
  cymbals of those Christian acts which are, by
  their very nature, visible and hard to ignore.
  We also need the behavioral equivalent of the
  flute and the violin in order to have the kind of
  symphony that can make a difference in mortality
  (Neal A. Maxwell, A Time to Choose, 28).

11

• By organizing our concern we become more
  involved, more effectively involved, enlarging
  our circles of concern. Otherwise, we might
  become mere checkbook-Christians, contributing
  money but not involving ourselves with others,
  and checkbook-Christianity is simply monetary
  monasticism (Neal A. MaxwellA More Excellent
  Way, 12).

12
Doctrine of the Holy Trinity

• Fundamental to the Catholic and Protestant
  faiths is the acceptance of the God of their
  creeds. Known to us today as the doctrine of the
  Holy Trinity, this teaching first found formal
  expression in the Nicene Creed and then in its
  successor, the Athanasian Creed. It reads as
  follows
• We worship one God in trinity and trinity in
  unity neither confounding the persons nor
  dividing the substance. For there is one person
  of the Father another of the Son and another of
  the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father,
  of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one
  the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
• Such as the Father is such is the Son and
  such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate the
  Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The
  Father incomprehensible the Son
  incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost
  incomprehensible.

13

• So the Father is God the Son is God and the
  Holy Ghost is God And yet they are not three
  Gods but one God. So likewise the Father is
  Lord The Son is Lord and the Holy Ghost is
  Lord. For like as we are compelled by the
  Christian verity to acknowledge every person by
  himself to be God and Lord so are we forbidden
  by the Catholic religion to say, there be three
  Gods, or three Lords (Smith, Restoration of All
  Things, 49).
• The Nicene Creed is not found in any Gospel. It
  derives from no utterance of Christ nor from the
  words of any of His Apostles. It directly
  contradicts the plain language of the New
  Testament.

14

• Its ideas cant even be expressed in scriptural
  language they are cloaked in that of the Greek
  philosophy from whence they came. Its best
  defense is the admission that it is a mystery and
  as such is indefensible.
• Of the Athanasian Creed, which was formulated
  about a century after the Nicene Creed, James E.
  Talmage said, It would be difficult to conceive
  of a greater number of inconsistencies and
  contradictions expressed in words as few
  (Articles of Faith, 44).

15

• Parley P. Pratt would observe when once the
  light of the restored gospel had risen
• It is painful to the human mind to be compelled
  to admit that such wonderful inconsistencies of
  language or ideas have ever found place in any
  human creed. Yet, so it is. It is but another
  way of saying that there is a God who does not
  exist, a God who is composed of non-entity, who
  is the negative of all existence, who occupies no
  space, who exists in no time, who is composed of
  no substance, known or unknown, and who has no
  powers or properties in common with any thing or
  being known to exist or which can possibly be
  conceived of as existing either in the heavens or
  on the earth (Key, 18).

16

• The following is a literal translation, as
  published by the Nicene Creed then adopted
• We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
  Maker of all things visible and invisible and in
  one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the
  Father, that is, of the substance of the Father,
  God of God, begotten not made, of the same
  substance with the Father, through whom all
  things were made both in heaven and on earth who
  for us men and for our salvation descended, was
  incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose
  again the third day, ascended into heaven and
  cometh to judge living and dead. And in the Holy
  Ghost. Those who say There was a time when He
  was not, and He was not before He was begotten
  and that He was made out of nothing or who
  maintain that He is of another hypostasis or
  another substance (than the Father), or that the
  Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to
  change, (them) the Catholic Church
  anathematizes.

17
The Nicene Creed

• Constantine called a council of Catholic bishops
  to meet at Nicaea in 325 A.D. Their work was to
  adopt a creed which would settle the then
  politically explosive problem of the Arianism a
  concept that the Son had been created by the
  Father, was subordinate to him, and was therefore
  unequal as to eternity, power, and glory.
• The Council was opened by Constantine. He made
  sure that all the Bishops had taken their seats
  before making his entry. He was clad in gold and
  covered with precious stones. A chair of gold
  had been made ready for him.

18

• The current version of this creed is called the
  Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed and was probably
  adopted by the Council of Constantinople in 381
  A.D. (Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11, 49-50).

19

• The Gospels cover about 31 days of the Saviors
  life.
• The Synoptic Gospels, which mean, taken from the
  same point of view include Matthew, Mark, and
  Luke.
• Johns account seems to have been an independent
  source.

20

• Gospel                             Exclusive      
              Common
• Mark 7
  93
• Matthew 42
  58
• Luke 59
  41
• John 92
  8
• Language           
• Old Testament           Hebrew
• New Testament        Greek and Aramaic

21
Time-line

• Moses 1300 B.C
• David 1000 B.C.                                  
  Assyria
• Babylonian, 587 B.C. (Lehi leaves)
               Babylon
• Ezra, 520 B.C.                                    
          Persia
• (Turns the people from idles to Law of
  Moses)   
• (fall to Alexander the Great)
• Alexander the Great, 333 B.C.                   
  Helenistic
• Roman Empire, 60 B.C.                             
  Romans
• Christ, A.D.                                      
         Romans

22

• What do Jews believe?
•  
• Its like asking what Christians believe.
•  
• What does following the Law of Moses mean?
•  
• It is fractured, because of the different groups
  within Judaism.

23
Political and Religious Groups

• Pharisees
• Their aim was to preserve their national
  integrity and to strictly conform to the Mosaic
  Law.
• They were the most numerous and influential of
  the religious sects of Jesus day.
• They acquired for themselves an influential
  position in the state.

24

• They were the most prominent of the Jewish
  sects. Josephus said there were approximately
  6,000 in the first century.
• They prided themselves on being set apart or
  separated from the rest of the Jews by their
  strict observance of the minutest requirements of
  the law of Moses.
• They claimed that Moses had received the law on
  Mount Sinai in two parts, one written and one
  oral. Their strength was in the local
  synagogues, which they controlled. Their
  religious leaders were called rabbis (meaning
  teachers or masters).

25

• Pharisees were generally scholars and preachers
  rather than priests.
• The oral law was a body of decisions or
  judgments in oral form, explanatory of the
  written law, the tradition of the elders or
  the oral tradition. It was memorized.
• Prince Judah, 200 B.C. wrote down the oral
  law.
• 1. Misnah    6 volumes
• 2. Talmud    18 volumes

26
Sadducees

• We know very little regarding them. What we do
  know is recorded by their enemies. So needless
  to say it is not a good source!
• They were members of the ruling class, and they
  did not believe in the resurrection
  (Sad-you-see).
• A small party of very wealthy and influential
  aristocrats. Most Sadducees were priests. They
  controlled the Jerusalem Temple and derived
  wealth, power, and influence from it.

27

• They were the head of the Sanhedrin (the
  governing council of the Jews). Politically they
  cooperated with the Romans in return for the
  continued exercise of their privileges.
• They exerted almost no moral influence on the
  common people who resented them because of their
  cooperation with Rome.
• They were suspicious of the popular faith in the
  coming of the Messiah.

28

• Their authority as interpreters of the Law met a
  serious challenge from the Pharisees, who
  developed their own oral tradition.

29
Essenes

• The third major Jewish sect according to
  Josephus.
• There may have been more than one type of
  Essenes.
• The best known were those who lived in a desert
  community on the shores of the Dead Sea (Qumran).
  
• They were not very numerous.
• They believed that the Sadducean Jerusalem
  priesthood was illegitimate and that all who
  associated with Sadducean priest were apostate.
  They were waiting for the end of the world and
  their own vindication.

30

• They were more strict and rigorous than even the
  Pharisees, whom they called seekers after smooth
  things.
• Their beliefs were very similar to the
  Pharisees.
• They were anti-Romans! They held all things in
  common without distinction of property or house,
  with special provisions made for the relief of
  the poor.

31
Zealots

• They should be considered as a branch of
  Pharisaim, because their theology was basically
  that of the Pharisees. They resisted Roman rule
  of the Jews even to the point of armed
  insurrection....
• They believed that if Jews would only rise up
  and fight, God would send them victory. The
  militant wing of the Zealot movement was called
  Sicari (Latin for daggers). The best way to show
  support for their God was to fight for Him.

32

• Zealots, Essenes, and Sadducees were basically
  all gone by 70 A.D.
• Only the Pharisees remained to rebuild Judaism.

33
Am Ha-aretz

• The vast majority of the population in Jewish
  Palestine did not go to church, that is, they did
  not have an active affiliation with any of the
  Jewish sects.
• Most people accepted the views of the Pharisees
  on the interpretation of the law, but few
  actually became Pharisees.
• They were considered nonaffiliated Jews and made
  up probably 90 of the crowds and multitudes to
  which John the Baptist and Jesus preached.

34
Scribes

• Interpreted and applied the Law. Their
  functions were three-fold
• 1. Preserve the Law (Oral law was more
  important than written).
• 2. Gather many pupils to instruct in the law.
• 3. They were referred to as lawyers and
  teachers.
• It was knowledge alone which gave them power.
• Scribes could come from any segment of Jewish
  society.

35
A Brief History of the Bible

• Why were books bound?
• It was easier than hiding scrolls.
• It wasnt until 1200 A.D. that the Bible came to
  be.
• Only 50 fragments existed from the first 300
  years of Christianity.
• There were no printing presses until the 1400s.
• Latin was the standard language before the
  printing press was invented.

36

• The Bible was the dominant book over the people
  and the people had no access to it. It
  controlled the people economically and
  politically.
• The first English Bible was created in 1384 by
  John Wycliffe. Wycliffe was against
  transubstantiation.
• John 654 According to Catholic and Eastern
  Orthodox dogma transubstantiation is the
  miraculous change by which the sacrament at their
  consecration becomes the body and blood of Christ
  while keeping the appearance of bread and wine.
  The moment the wafer touches the tongue or the
  wine their lips it literally turns into the flesh
  and blood of Jesus Christ (Webster Dictionary).
• During the 1400s there were two Popes which
  excommunicated each other. Wycliffe believed
  that the scriptures had more authority than the
  church.

37

• John Wycliffe was called
• The Morning Star of the Reformation
• Though he lived two hundred years before the
  Reformation, his beliefs and teachings closely
  match those of Luther, Calvin and other
  Reformers.
• He called the Pope an anti-Christ.
• He believed that all men should have access to
  the Bible.

38

• It took one small herd of sheep to provide the
  parchment for one Bible.
• Wycliffes followers were burned by the hundreds
  and thousands. What was there crime?
• They had a page or two of the Bible.
• Wycliffes bones were exhumed from his grave and
  burned 44 years after he was martyred. They
  pounded his bones to dust symbolizing that he
  never existed.
• He translated the Bible from Latin to English.
• The Gutenberg Bible (1453-55), It was printed
  in Latin and intended for the church. It was
  considered the greatest contribution to Western
  Culture.

39

• Martin Luther A great scholar who translated
  the Latin Bible into German. He also studied the
  Bible in Greek before it was translated into
  Latin. He was told to renounce his beliefs or be
  burned alive. His 95 Thesis was written during
  the 1500s.

40

• Martin Luther (1483-1546)
• The 95 item thesis was written in 1517 and
  nailed to the doors of the Church in Wittenberg
  Germany. He was later buried there with
  Melanchthon.
• Philipp Melanchthon to Luther was like Oliver
  Cowdery to Joseph Smith.
• Luther wrote the 95 thesis in Latin so that only
  scholars would know what he had written. He was
  not trying to offend anyone and was being
  respectful. During that time period scholars
  would often nail questions to the church door in
  hope of future discussions or debates.
• The 95 thesis was not 95 different points, it
  was different points related to the following
  challenges
• 1. Selling of indulgences
• 2. Celibacy
• 3. The Grace of God
• 4. The Pope not having the authority to forgive

41

• Penance
• Punishments which a repentant sinner had to
  undergo to show their sorrow for their sins.
• Purgatory
• The place after death where repentant sinners
  completed the portion of punishment for sins not
  completed while living.
• Indulgences
• A waiver from the Pope that excused the sinner
  from doing penance and shortened the time one had
  to stay in purgatory.

42
Non-Biblical Doctrines and Practices Developed
within the Catholic Church

• Monasticism
• The church encouraged many to withdraw from
  society believing that in so doing they would be
  alone with God men who practiced monasticism
  were called monks and women were called nuns.
• Celibacy
• Monks, nuns, and priests believed they should
  not be married
• (I Timothy 43, Doctrine Covenants 4915-18).
• Praying to Mary or Saints
• Deceased persons who were officially recognized
  by the church as holy. They believed Mary or the
  saints could stand before God on behalf of
  sinners.

43

• Transubstantiation
• The belief that elements of the Sacrament
  actually become the body and blood of Christ
  (John 653-57).
• Infant baptism
• The belief that infants must be baptized to
  overcome original sin (Moroni 89, Doctrine
  Covenants 13710).
• Pilgrimages
• Those who visited the Holy Land or visited holy
  churches with select religious relics were able
  to shorten their time in purgatory.

44

• Relics
• Melanchthon visited the Schlosskirch, with its
  thousands of special, holy relics displayed in
  fabulous gold and silver casements --- 17,443
  relics which could help a person reduce his
  future stay in purgatory by as much as two
  million years (Melanchthon The Quiet Reformer,
  Clyde Leonard Manschreck, 21).

45

• The thorn that had brought blood to the brow of
  Jesus was always displayed on a special altar on
  All Saints Day, while the other relics were
  shown from emporiums and balconies built along
  the sides of the church. Pilgrims came to
  behold, and they contributed.

46

• Melanchthon gazed at a piece of the cloak of John
  the Baptist.
• A rock from Mount Calvary.
• A portion of the rock on which Jesus stood when
  he wept over Jerusalem.
• Some of the milk of the Virgin Marys breast.
• A part of Marys gown.
• Four strands of Our Ladys hair.

47

• Four pieces of Our Ladys girdle.
• A tear that Jesus shed at Lazarus tomb.
• Thirty-five splinters from the cross of Christ.
• Three pieces of myrrh and one piece of gold
  brought by the Wise Men to the baby Jesus.
• A strand of Jesus beard.
• One of the nails driven into his hands.

48

• A piece of bread served at the Last Supper.
• A part of the stone on which Jesus stood before
  ascending into heaven.
• A twig from Moses burning bush.
• An angel feather.
• Bones and teeth from an array of saints including
  Chrysostom, Bernard, Augustine, Jerome,
  Anastasia, Apollonia, and Lucia, along with one
  complete skeleton and 204 odd bones of the
  innocent children of Bethlehem slain by the order
  of Herod (Clyde Leonard Manschreck, Melanchthon
  The Quiet Reformer, 22).

49

• It was the work of others who took his writings
  and had them translated so that the common people
  could read it.
• Some say that when Luther hammered his thesis to
  the door, the sound was heard in Rome.
• Wittenberg, Germany is to Protestants what
  Temple Square is to us.
• Luther translated the Bible into German (Joseph
  Smiths favorite translation).

50

• When Luther was ordered to give up his work, he
  boldly declared Unless I be refuted by
  Scriptural testimonies, or by clear arguments
  for I believe neither the Pope nor the councils
  alone, since it is clear that they have often
  erred and contradicted one another I am
  convinced by the passages of Scripture, which I
  have cited, and my conscience is bound in the
  word of God. I cannot and will not recant
  anything since it is insecure and dangerous to
  act against conscience (Henry Eyster Jacobs,
  Martin Luther The Hero of the Reformation,
  1843-1546, 192).
• Luthers resistance led to his excommunication
  from the church and to his being placed under the
  ban of the empire, which made him an outlaw.

51
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
52
Philipp Melanchthon
53
The Chapel door that Martin Luther nailed his 95
thesis
54
The Chapel in Wittenberg Germany
55
Martin Luthers Grave
56

• William Tyndale (1494-1536)
• He was Englands Martin Luther.
• He knew eight languages fluently.
• Knowing those languages were helpful when he was
  fleeing English authorities seeking to take his
  life.
• He read the Bible in Latin and translated it
  from Greek to English.
• Why? Because Wycliffe's Bible was pretty much
  destroyed.

57

• Tyndale standardized the English language. He
  translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to
  English. He finished his work to the Book of
  Chronicles before he was caught and put in jail
  for 18 months.
• He was admitted to Oxford when he was eleven
  years old.
• He helped to open the eyes of England.
• He was also burned at the stake.
• His last words were,
• If God grants me breath to finish this
  translation then the simplest plow boy will be
  able to read it and will know more about it than
  you in the clergy.

58

• In 1524, at the age of thirty, William Tyndale
  left England to pursue his work outside the
  repressive spy-state set up by Henry VIII and
  Cardinal Wolsey. He would never return.
• He met Erasmus and later Luther, the two key men
  in the movement towards what became
  Protestantism. He settled in Cologne and began
  single-handedly to translate the New Testament
  not from Latin but from the original Greek and
  Hebrew. It was this, no doubt, coupled with
  Tyndales genius for language, which made his
  translations so telling and memorable.
•            
•            

59

• Two years later, six thousand copies had been
  printed abroadevidence of the substantial nature
  of the patronage Tyndale must have received from
  the wool merchants of Gloucestershire, and of the
  speed and efficiency of print. The new Bibles
  were packed and sent to the coast ready to be
  smuggled into England. Yet again English comes to
  England from across the sea, this time written
  English, some of the most sublime ever put on
  paper.

60

• But Henry VIII and Wolseys spies informed them
  of this invasion. It now seems quite
  extraordinary, but the whole country was put on
  alert. In order to prevent the word of God in
  English landing in the land of the English, naval
  ships patrolled the coastal waters, boats were
  stopped and searched, men were arrested and a
  great many Bibles were intercepted. The action
  taken was indistinguishable from being on a war
  footing, and to Henry VIII and Wolsey it was just
  that. Latin was the only word of God allowed by
  the state and now the state came out in full
  armed force to defend its most loyal ally, the
  Church.
• At first tens and then hundreds got through the
  lines. The Bishop of London then tried another
  tack he sought to buy the entire print run
  through an intermediary.
•            

61

• O he will burn them, Tyndale is supposed to
  have said when he heard of this. I am the
  gladder, he went on, for these two benefits
  will come thereof. I shall get money of him for
  these books to bring myself out of debt and the
  whole world shall cry out upon the burning of
  Gods word. And that is what happened. The
  bishop bought and burned the books and Tyndale
  used the money to rework, prepare and print a
  better version, as it were at the Churchs
  expense.
• Tyndales aim was simple I had perceived by
  experience, he wrote, that it was impossible to
  stabilize lay people in any truth unless the
  scripture were to be plainly set before their
  eyes in their mother tongue so that they might
  see the process, order, and meaning of the text
  (The Adventure of English by Melvynn Bragg).

62

• The Geneva Bible (1560), it was the first
  English Bible. Because of Bloody Mary people
  escaped and settled in Geneva. People were able
  to study the Bible in English. It was the first
  entire Bible written in English.
• This was the Bible that the Puritans and the
  Pilgrims brought to the New World.
• King James, (1611) Forty seven scholars worked
  on it. It was not really completed until 1900.
  King James had nothing to do with it, but he was
  the King when they worked on it. We are really
  reading Tyndales words, not so much Gods.
• The Wicked Bible Thou shalt commit adultery!

63

• The Bay Psalm Book, 1782 This was the first
  publication in America because of copy right
  problems with the King James Version.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls
• They found 18,000 segments, they did not find
  scrolls.
• They were 2,000 years old.
• They legitimize that Jesus once lived there.

64
More information on the Bible

• By the Bible we mean the collection of writings
  that contain the records of divine revelation.
• the word itself is of Greek origin, being
  derived from ta biblia, the books.
• By the word Bible therefore we must understand
  not a single book, but a divine library.

65

• The books of the New Testament have varied in
  sequence somewhat through the centuries but are
  generally in this order the four Gospels and
  Acts, being primarily historical the epistles of
  Paul (arranged according to length, except
  Hebrews) the general epistles of James, Peter,
  John, and Jude and the Apocalypse or Revelation
  of John.
• Martin Luther and many scholars today think the
  Hebrews was written by Apollus the Alexandrian
  (NIV).
• We are comfortable with Hebrews being written
  by Paul.

66

• The Bible used by most non-Catholic churches
  today has 66 books --- 39 in the Old Testament
  and 27 in the New Testament. The books called
  Apocrypha have generally not been printed in the
  non-Catholic Bibles in the past century, although
  in recent years these books have been gaining in
  popularity.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls, some of which are believed
  to be as early as the 2nd century B.C., give
  evidence that the Old Testament text was
  corrupted at least by that time.

67

• Forerunners to the Reformation
• John Huss (1369-1414)
• Objected to the selling of indulgences (which
  were to reduce time in purgatory).
• He was greatly influenced by Wycliffe.
• He was excommunicated in 1411, therefore his
  doctrines could not be taught and his books were
  burned.
• In June of 1415, still refusing to recant his
  beliefs and teachings, he was found guilty of
  heresy and sentenced to death to be burned at the
  stake.

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• The first English Version of the whole Bible is
  associated with the name of John Wycliffe. There
  were two editions of this version beginning in
  1382. These versions were made from the Latin.
• The honor of making the first translation of the
  Bible into English from the languages in which it
  was originally written belongs to William
  Tyndale, born about 1490.

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• The Church has held to the King James Version as
  being doctrinally more accurate than these recent
  versions. The newer versions in many instances
  easier to read, but are in some passages
  doctrinally weaker in their presentation of the
  gospel. Therefore, the King James Version
  remains the principal Bible of the Church of
  Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.