Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

Well, in this episode of five minutes in church history, I am joined by a very good friend of ours,

Pastor Suhel Michelin, all the way from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

Pastor Michelin, welcome to five minutes in church history.

It is a privilege for me to be with you on the program once again.

And just as you said this is a fascinating topic that we will be speaking today.

Yes I am so anxious to get into this with you I want to say too not only are you joining us from the Dominican Republic, so we appreciate that, but also you currently have a sinus infection. We all know about these

seheran winds that are blowing and you are currently suffering from that.

So we appreciate that you're going above and beyond here to be with us

to talk about what really is a fascinating story and it's the story of the Bible in the Spanish language.

So could you please just tell us a little bit about the earliest attempts to translate

portions of the Bible into the Spanish language.

Who are some of the people that were involved in that story?

Well, beginning in the 13th century, several translation began to appear both in Spanish

and Catalan, but the most well-known versions come out of the 16th century,

despite the considerable opposition of the

disciples of the Spanish Inquisition. The first was that of Juan de Valdez,

disciples of Erasmo de Rotterdam, who had to flee

Spain around 1529 after publication of his work on Christian doctrine.

While in refuge at the Court of Naples, he translated Matthew and Luke, the Bolingis Epistles and the Salas. A few years later in 1543, at just 20 years old, Francisco

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