We've forgotten how much blood was spilled so that we cold read God's Word.

Most believers today take the Bible for granted. If they aren't raised in a home that has one, they can easily purchase one—in any number of translations—from a local bookstore. New believers often receive one as a gift soon after they give their lives to Christ. Only in countries in which Christians are persecuted is the Bible a rarity.
Yet the most read book of all time has not always been so accessible—or so easy to understand. Many men and women have given their lives through the centuries to make it available to the common man.

One of the most significant was William Tyndale. Born in England in the late 1400s, he mastered eight languages. His vision was to "cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost."

In Tyndale's time, only the clergy or other highly educated people had access to a Bible—and then only in the original languages or Middle English. Tyndale set out to provide an Early Modern English translation.

Opposed in his home country, he moved to Germany to work and soon translated the entire New Testament. It was a best-seller. The first edition was only 6,000 copies, but seven more editions followed in 10 years.

Tyndale's New Testaments were shipped home secretly, like Bibles smuggled into a communist country in recent times. Their distribution initiated a massive move of God's Spirit. A translation of the Old Testament followed, and the result, John Foxe wrote in his Foxe's Book of Martyrs, was that "a door of light ?opened to the eyes of the whole English nation, which before were shut up in darkness."

For taking the Latin, Greek and Hebrew sources and putting them in common English—so that the "boy that driveth the plough" and many other English-speaking men and women could read and study the Bible in the vernacular—Tyndale paid with his life.

Envious authorities denounced his Bible translation and demanded his arrest. A false friend, Henry Phillips, found him hiding near Brussels, Belgium, and delivered him to his persecutors for money.

The translator refused a lawyer and spent his time in jail witnessing and leading others to Christ. In 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake. His work, however, was not in vain; today more than 75 percent of the words in all English Bible versions can be directly attributed to his effort.

"Courageous. Brilliant. Relentless," says William Noah, founder and chief curator of a touring exhibit on Bible translation titled Ink and Blood, of Tyndale. "[Tyndale's] words and actions created the most spoken language in the world today—modern English—and the most read book in history: the English Bible. He is the most influential English-speaking person that ever lived," he says.

Tyndale once told a friend regarding his translation that he did not alter "one syllable of God's Word" nor would have even if "all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me." His last prayer before being martyred was that God would open the king of England's eyes.

Only 75 years later, King James commissioned a new Bible—based on Tyndale's translation—that eventually found its way around the world. It is what we now call the King James Version.

Tyndale wasn't the only martyr who shed his blood for the dissemination of the Scriptures. The flesh of many saints who have gone before was burned or mutilated to ensure that millions of Bibles can now be read over morning coffee.

Who were these saints, and what were their roles? How did the Bible come to us from Jesus' day?

THE BIBLE TAKES SHAPE

Recorded on clay tablets for centuries, the Old Testament writings were kept safe by Jewish scribes. About 200 years before Christ, the Septuagint—a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament—was written with berry juice on papyrus.

In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls—original Old Testament fragments and writings from Jesus' time—were uncovered in local caves. Many scholars believe they verify the historical reality of God's Word.

Jesus studied such Old Testament scrolls. After He ascended, His disciples preached what He had learned and then taught to them. The disciples' letters and gospel accounts of Jesus' words became authoritative, holy writ.

How did the men themselves fare in a time of Roman occupation? Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned for speaking Jesus' words. James, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded about 10 years later, in A.D. 44; Philip was crucified in A.D. 54; Matthew was killed with a battle-ax and the other James with a club.

Eleven of Christ's 12 disciples, plus Paul, were martyred. Five disciples wrote 21 of the 27 New Testament books. Under great persecution, they delivered the New Testament to the world.

On their heels, first and second century church fathers labored to gather and organize the Scriptures.

In A.D. 108, Ignatius, Peter's successor as the bishop of Antioch, organized some of these New Testament writings, quoting them in letters and sermons.

Ignatius was ripped apart by wild beasts at the hands of the Roman authorities. "Now I begin to be a disciple!" he exclaimed while dying.

Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, quoted 19 New Testament books in a single letter. Roman guards seized him; officials told him to recant faith in Christ.

"Eighty and six years have I served him," Polycarp replied, "and He never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?"

A fire was lit for him, but a miraculous arch of flames spread over and around his body, not touching him. Finally, his frustrated killers stabbed him to death.

By A.D. 185, 23 of the 27 New Testament books had been identified—all but 1 Peter, 2 Peter, James and Hebrews.

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, used these holy books to counter rising heresies. It is believed he was martyred by the Roman emperor in A.D. 202.

Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christ in A.D. 312 allowed the Scriptures to be publicly affirmed for the first time. The entire 27 books of the New Testament were soon acknowledged as the clear New Covenant revelation.

"There had already been a great deal of discussion on the New Covenant revelation" in the first and second centuries, says Ligon Duncan, pastor, theologian and national evangelical leader. "The church wasn't creating the Bible in the third century; it was recognizing the Bible that already had been given to it."

As the church grew to include believers who spoke different languages in the then-known world, a need arose to write the Scriptures in one volume. Around A.D. 400, Jerome translated the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into Latin, that era's more universal language. His translation, the Vulgate, means "common."

"Latin had truly achieved the status of a world language ... when Jerome's Vulgate" arrived, church historian Jaroslav Pelikan writes in Jesus Through the Centuries. God was using men both to deliver the Bible to everyone and to increase people's literacy.

Monks copied the Vulgate onto tightened sheepskin—50 to 60 sheepskins for just one Bible. It was a one-year task. They devoted their lives to preserving God's Word for today.

One Vulgate version, called the Parisian Bible, appeared in 1240. It was the first to divide the Scriptures into chapters. With this improvement, the Bible's readability increased and its power spread.

The price, however, also increased—more martyrs' blood.