CASIODORO DE REINA: Pastor, erudito y TRADUCTOR de la Biblia al español | BITE

Casiodoro de Reina was born in Montemolín, Spain, in 1520. At a very young age, he entered the monastery of San Isidro del Campo in Seville, which belonged to the Jerónimos Order. Reading the Bible and Lutheran books led him and other monks, including Cipriano de Valera, to embrace the ideas of the Protestant Reformation that were spreading throughout Europe. But the Inquisition was alerted to these rebellious monks, so in 1557, Casiodoro and twelve other friars had to hurry and leave Spain. Their means of transportation and route are unknown, but they managed to reach Calvin's Geneva, where many of the Protestants fleeing persecution took refuge. However, Casiodoro soon realized that he did not want to stay there for long, due to his differences with Calvin. In 1559, he decided to leave Geneva and go to Frankfurt, joining a French-speaking church there. However, when Elizabeth I ascended to the throne of England, Cassiodorus decided to move to London. There, he met others fleeing persecution in Spain. The Crown allowed him the use of a church. Cassiodorus thus led a Spanish Reformed congregation in London. During those years, enjoying relative peace, he was able to devote himself to his pastoral work and begin his most important project: the translation of the Bible into Spanish. However, despite the years that had passed since his departure from Spain, the Inquisition was monitoring him through agents who reported on his every activity. On the other hand, his Protestant brothers were not entirely satisfied with his open and tolerant thinking. In 1563, he was accused of sodomy. The accusers spread the rumor that Reina had had sexual relations with a man before her marriage. Suspecting a plot against him, Cassiodorus fled England in 1564. Thus, Reina, stalked everywhere by followers of the Inquisition and suspected of heresy or worse, wandered for more than three years between Frankfurt, Heidelberg, southern France, Basel, and Strasbourg, looking for a place to establish himself as a pastor in a church or as a simple craftsman, so he could finish the translation of the Bible. But before assuming any position as a pastor, Reina had to resolve the scandal that had caused his flight from London. Confident in his innocence, he went to London to undergo a new trial. His innocence was ultimately proven, and a plot by the Inquisition authorities to discredit him was revealed. The unjust persecution he suffered did not stop him from devoting himself body and soul to translating the Bible into Spanish. After securing funding for the project, he continued the translation. Casiodoro de Reina did not use the Latin Vulgate as a source, which was the most common for these translations. For the Old Testament, he used the Hebrew Masoretic Text as a basis, and for the translation of the New Testament, Reina relied on the Textus Receptus, the Greek text edited and published by Erasmus of Rotterdam, the same text used by Luther in his translation of the Bible into German. It was not an easy task. Over the course of twelve years, he had to face great challenges. Reina became seriously ill, remaining bedridden for almost five weeks; the original printer died leaving the work unfinished; and the Roman Catholic Church constantly threatened him, doing everything possible to prevent this dreaded book from entering Spain. But despite these setbacks, on June 24, 1569, the work was completed with 2,600 copies printed. It was called "The Bear Bible," so named because of the illustration on its cover of a bear trying to reach a honeycomb hanging from a tree. In 1585, Spanish troops captured Antwerp and forced the Protestants to abandon the city. Faced with this situation, Reina traveled to Frankfurt, but there he was not granted permission to work as a pastor and was forced to work trading in cloth and silk. In 1593, he was officially appointed pastor of the Frankfurt church. However, his pastoral work would not last long, as he died eight months later, in March 1594. CYBERGRAPHY The History of the Bible in Spanish: The Patriarch of Hispanic Protestantism: http://bit.ly/2quFs5U Unrepentant Heterodox, Freedom Lover: http://bit.ly/2EFi372 Good News TV:    • Casiodoro de Reina, traductor de la Biblia   _________ FOLLOW US Website: http://biteproject.com Twitter:   / biteproject   Podcast: https://audioboom.com/channels/4977856 Instagram:   / biteproject   Facebook:   / biteproject   Voiceover: Josué Castellón (  / josuekstellon  )