William Tyndale It is hard for us today to imagine not having a Bible in our own language, but it hasn't always

been that way. When William Tyndale was a little boy growing up in England in the 1500s, ordinary people did not own Bibles. They had to go to church to hear what the Bible had to say. But there was one problem--the priest read the Bible in Latin, a language only the most educated people could understand. As William Tyndale grew older and finished college, he felt that God was calling him to translate the Bible into English so that all people could read it for themselves. But-believe it or not--translating the Bible was against the law. Like many others during his time, William Tyndale was called a false teacher and was put to death for his beliefs. Based on historical sources, this is his story as he might have told it. My Gift for Languages Lets Me Read the Bible for Myself I grew up on a farm in Gloucestershire, England. Life was very difficult for English families. Children worked very hard to help their parents. Disease and famine often killed thousands at a time. My parents could tell early in my life that I had a gift for learning languages. I was able to go to Oxford University, one of England's finest schools. By the time I graduated, I had mastered SEVEN languages! Of them, Hebrew and Greek were most useful to me, because I could now read the Bible in its original languages. I learned so much about God as I read the Bible for myself! I knew I had to use the gift God had given me so that others could read the Bible for themselves, too! I was well aware that translating the Scriptures was against the law and could cost me my life, but how could I not do what God was calling me to do? Church and King Try to Keep Me Quiet At first I asked the Church authorities for permission to translate the Bible into English. The answer was no. The Church believed that only the Pope and priests were educated enough to truly understand and interpret the Bible. One day a discussion with a priest became a heated argument when he told me that it was better to be without God's laws than the Pope's. I could not believe what I was hearing! I answered him by saying, "I defy the Pope and all his laws; if God spares my life, I will cause a young farm boy to know more of the Scriptures than you do." I also did not agree with the Church's teaching that doing good things was the way to get to heaven. The Bible clearly says that salvation is a free gift from God for those who believe. Many in the Catholic Church and also the King of England, Henry VIII, looked for ways to keep me quiet. Hiding from Spies I knew I must leave England immediately. I secretly traveled to Germany, where others had also taken a stand against some of the Church's teachings. When I arrived, I quickly changed my name--so no one would be able to find me--and began my work.

Translating the Bible into English was a difficult job. Each word had to be recorded correctly. The language also had to be simple enough for even an uneducated person to understand. It took more than a year for me to complete the New Testament translation. I had to find a good printer whom I could also trust to keep my whereabouts secret. I could not risk being caught. English spies would be paid well to turn me in. One spy eventually did find out where the first printing was taking place. I narrowly escaped capture, getting away just in time with some of my materials! The English Bible on English Soil Once the printing was completed, copies had to get into England without being seized. Smugglers hid the Bibles in shipments where no one expected them: in flour barrels, in trunks with false bottoms, and in airtight boxes inside wine barrels. The Bibles sold as quickly as they reached England, even though one cost about half a week's earnings (over $100 in today's dollars). Families saved and put their money together, and a farmer would trade an entire load of hay to get just one Bible. Groups would meet together to hear the Word of God for the first time in their own language. The religious leaders and the King were furious! They tried to destroy as many copies as they could. They also intensified their search to find and arrest me. A "Friend" Turns Me Over to Killers I had begun to feel quite safe in Germany. I had also become somewhat of a celebrity. But I let nothing get in the way of completing my task. I worked late every night translating several books of the Old Testament. One day I met a young Englishman in Germany who seemed to share my ideas about the need to translate the Bible. Over time we became good friends. What I didn't know was that this young man was a spy who would soon betray me. He led me right into the hands of my captors, after inviting me out for a meal. I was jailed, charged with heresy (false teaching), and sentenced to death by burning. PostScript The last thing we know about William Tyndale is that he was led through a crowd into the public square. A noose was placed around his neck. His last words were, "God, please open the King of England's eyes." He was then hanged and his body was set afire. God answered his prayer in a wonderful way. Within one year of William Tyndale's death, the King of England gave approval for an English Bible to be published. Tyndale's Bible was used as a guide for the new translation. This new translation is the father of the King James Bible that is still read today.

Chinese Creation Myth - Pan Gu and Nu Wa Long, long ago, when heaven and earth were still one, the entire universe was contained in an egg-shaped cloud. All the matter of the universe swirled chaotically in that egg. Deep within the swirling matter was Pan Gu, a huge giant who grew in the chaos. For 18,000 years he developed and slept in the egg. Finally one day he awoke and stretched, and the egg broke to release the matter of the universe. The lighter purer elements drifted upwards to make the sky and heavens, and the heavier impure elements settled downwards to make the earth. In the midst of this new world, Pan Gu worried that heaven and earth might mix again; so he resolved to hold them apart, with the heavens on his head and the earth under his feet. As the two continued to separate, Pan Gu grew to hold them apart. For 18,000 years he continued to grow, until the heavens were 30,000 miles above the earth. For much longer he continued to hold the two apart, fearing the return of the chaos of his youth. Finally he realized they were stable, and soon after that he died. With the immense giants death, the earth took on new character. His arms and legs became the four directions and the mountains. His blood became the rivers, and his sweat became the rain and dew. His voice became the thunder, and his breath became the winds. His hair became the grass, and his veins became the roads and paths. His teeth and bones became the minerals and rocks, and his flesh became the soil of the fields. Up above, his left eye became the sun, and his right eye became the moon. Thus in death, as in life, Pan Gu made the world as it is today. Many centuries later, there was a goddess named Nu Wa who roamed this wild world that Pan Gu had left behind, and she became lonely in her solitude. Stopping by the Yellow River to rest, she saw her reflection and realized that there was nothing like herself in the world. She resolved to make something like herself for company. From the edge of the Yellow River she took some mud and shaped it in the form of a human being. At first her creation was lifeless, and she set it down. It took life as soon as it touched the soil, however, and soon the human was dancing and celebrating its new life. Pleased with her creation, Nu Wa made more of them, and soon her loneliness disappeared in the crowd of little humans around her. For two days she made them, and still she wanted to make more. Finally she pulled down a long vine and dragged it through the mud, and then she swung the vine through the air. Droplets of mud flew everywhere and, when they fell, they became more humans that were nearly as perfect as the ones she had made by hand. Soon she had spread humans over the whole world. The ones she made by hand became the aristocrats, and the ones she made with the vine became the poor common people.

Genesis 2:7-3:24 The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman,' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and

you will strike his heel." To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 22 Abraham Tested Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied. 2 Then God said, Take your son , your only son, whom you loveIsaacand go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, Father? Yes, my son? Abraham replied. The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? 8 Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied. 12 Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.