PBS Secrets of the Dead - Battle for the Bible (2007)

BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE explores the dramatic, violent and world-shaking story of the most famous and widely-read book in history - the Bible in English. It's the tale of how, in the 15th and 16th centuries, a group of men set out on a new crusade to bring the Scriptures to people in their own language for the very first time. In so doing, they would help launch a religious revolution that would ultimately change the course of history in England, America and beyond. In the United States, there are more than 150 million Protestants divided among some 630 denominations. They worship in vastly different ways but they all trace their roots to one book — the English-language Bible. Today, that ubiquitous book is largely taken for granted, but for the original translators, producing and distributing the Bible in English was a dangerous pursuit involving subversion, obsession, intrigue, treachery, imprisonment, and death. SECRETS OF THE DEAD BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE tells the compelling story of faith, flames and martyrdom behind the world's most famous book. The Biblical texts, translated from the original ancient Greek and Hebrew into equally obscure Latin, were staunchly guarded, making common interpretation impossible and ensuring that no one would question the authority of the Church. Through the stories of John Wycliffe, William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer — the brave reformers who paid the ultimate price to bring the Bible to the people in a language they could understand — Battle for the Bible reveals how a seed planted on English ground inspired a new, progressive way of thinking and living that crossed an ocean. Nurtured in terrible adversity by patient and persistent hands more than 600 years ago, it continues to bear the fruits of freedom and individualism.

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