Johannes Gutenberg (c.1400-February 3, 1468) was the German inventor of the moveable-type printing press, which helped revolutionize the Western world. This invention prepared Europe for the rapid spread of ideas, making the Reformation possible.
The first book of significance ever printed was the 42-line Gutenberg Bible, known as the Mazarin Bible, 1455. Johannes Gutenberg wrote:
<God suffers in the multitude of souls whom His word can not reach.
Religious truth is imprisoned in a small number of manuscript books which confine instead of spread the public treasure.
Let us break the seal which seals up holy things and give wings to Truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world by her word no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied, but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine.
Yes, it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men.
Through it, God will spread His word; a spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light hithertofore unknown to shine among men.> 1400JG001
Translated another way from the German language, Johannes Gutenberg statement reads:
<Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied everlasting by a machine which never wearies-to every soul which enters life."> 1400JG002
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Endnotes:
1400JG001. Johannes Gutenberg. Alphonse De Lamartine, Memories of Celebrated Characters, p. 277, 287. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 202. Gary DeMar, God and Government (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Press, 1984), Vol. 2, p. vi.
1400JG002. Johannes Gutenberg. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 44.