How has the Bible come to me from God? This is the second post in a series that looks at the background and history of translating the biblical text into English. This builds on my first post in the series, Where Did My Bible Come From?, which examined the flow of the text from manuscripts into today’s printed form.
Since the Bible texts were first written, scholars have been translating them into other languages. In 2025, the Wycliffe Global Alliance identified complete Bibles in 776 languages. Their experts estimate that over 7,000 living languages exist, with 99% of people having access to some biblical Scripture in their native language. Bible Gateway provides over 200 versions in more than 70 languages, with 64 English translations, 19 Spanish translations, and 13 Chinese translations. Below the following summary table, I describe the most significant steps in the translation of the Bible into English.
| Date | Title | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd Century BC | Septuagint | Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible |
| 4th Century AD | Vulgate | Latin translation of the Bible |
| 1388 | Wycliffe Bible | First complete English translation (from the Vulgate) |
| 1456 | Gutenberg Bible | The printing press superseded manual copying |
| 1516 | Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum Omne | First print edition of the Greek New Testament |
| 1530 | Tyndale Bible | First English translation from the original languages |
| 1537 | Matthew Bible | First complete English translation from the original languages |
| 1560 | Geneva Bible | First English Bible with verse numbering |
| 1582 | Douay-Rheims Bible | English translation commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church |
| 1611 | Authorized Version (AV), or King James Version (KJV) | This has been the standard English Bible for centuries. |
| 1831 | Karl Lachmann’s Greek New Testament | First critical edition, assessing multiple manuscripts |
| 1881 | Westcott and Hort’s Greek New Testament | An important updated critical edition |
| 1885 | English Revised Version (RV or ERV) | An authorized update to the KJV |
| 1901 | American Standard Version (ASV) | An Americanized version of the RV |
| 1927 | 13th Edition of the Nestle Edition of the New Testament in Greek. | Leads to today’s standard Greek texts, NA28 and UBS5 |
| 1937 | Biblia Hebraica | The predecessor to today’s standard Hebrew text (BHS) |
| 1952 to Present | Many Translations | Many translations with different translation philosophies. |
| Further Reading |
3rd Century BC: The Septuagint
Manuscript fragments of this translation of the Old Testament into Koine Greek date back to the 2nd Century BC. Koine Greek was a simplified form of Greek that was the common language of the Mediterranean and Middle East from 300 BC to 500 AD, after Alexander the Great’s conquests. Relatively complete manuscripts of the Septuagint include the 4th-century AD Codex Vaticanus, the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, and the 5th-century Codex Alexandrinus. I discuss these manuscripts in “Where Did My Bible Come From?” because of their significance as New Testament manuscripts.
According to tradition, King Ptolemy, the Greek Pharaoh of Egypt, gathered seventy two Hebrew translators (six from each tribe of Israel) to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Koine Greek. The Letter of Aristeas, from the 3rd century BC, supports this tradition, but is usually considered fictitious, so speculation remains about the translation’s background. The name Septuagint comes from the word for “seventy” in the Latin title of the book (“The Old Testament from the version of the Seventy Translators” in English), with the Roman numeral LXX commonly used as an abbreviation.
Evidence suggests that the New Testament authors sometimes quoted Scriptures from the Septuagint translation. One example is Luke’s account of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll. The passages from the ESV Bible are compared below:
Luke 4:18—19, ESV, emphasis added
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Isaiah 61:1—2a, ESV
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
[no additional phrase in the Old Testament]
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
Note that Luke’s account includes the phrase, “and recovering of sight to the blind.” This is not part of the Isaiah passage in the Hebrew manuscripts, as indicated by the ESV translation of Isaiah on the right above. However, the Septuagint includes a phrase about the recovery of sight to the blind, though there are other differences between Luke and the Septuagint’s Isaiah.
Luke 4:18—19, ESV, emphasis added
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Isaiah 61:1—2a from a Septuagint Translation
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me;
he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the broken in heart,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind;
to declare the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of recompence
Such differences fascinate me. Which one is “correct?” G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson edited an excellent book on the topic, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Their book discusses questions like this, though there are no straightforward, simple answers. They explain that the NT authors could have had access to the Bible in Hebrew, or translations in Greek or Aramaic. I’ve concluded that such differences are not doctrinally significant.
4th Century AD: The Vulgate
In 382 AD, Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome to revise the existing Latin translation of the Gospels. At that time, there were various Vetus Latina (Old Latin) translations of the Septuagint and New Testament passages. These New Testament passages were based on a group of manuscripts known as the “Western text-type,” and analysis has indicated that it tended to expand on or paraphrase the original text. Jerome broke with tradition and translated the Old Testament from Hebrew sources rather than the Septuagint. The translation’s name comes from the Latin name, Versio Vulgata, literally meaning “the commonly used version.” The root of the word vulgata is the same as “vulgar,” but in the 4th century, it meant “common” or “popular” and did not imply “crude” or “offensive,” as it does today.
The Vulgate was the primary Bible of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. The Council of Trent (1545—1563) re-endorsed the Vulgate for public readings. In 1943, Pope Pius XII both (1) declared the Vulgate as “free from error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals” and (2) called for new translations into vernacular languages to use the original languages rather than the Latin Vulgate.
1388: The Wycliffe Bible
English theologian John Wycliffe, of the University of Oxford, was the first person to translate the whole Bible into English. He translated from the Latin Vulgate. He wrote his translation before the invention of the printing press, so copies were made by hand. Wycliffe Bible texts are the most common manuscripts in Middle English that exist. There is a variety in the manuscripts, suggesting that there were multiple versions of the Wycliffe Bible, with differences being the level of idiom used and different dialects.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wycliffe_John_Gospel.jpg
Wycliffe criticized the Pope, which contributed to the Roman Catholic Church’s rejection of the Wycliffe Bible (in favor of the Vulgate) and banning its circulation, though it remained popular. Wycliffe died from a stroke in 1384. However, he was posthumously declared a heretic in 1415, and his body was exhumed and burned in 1428. The Catholic Church really didn’t like him!
1456: Gutenberg Bible
A copy of the Vulgate was the first book to be printed by the revolutionary press invented by Johannes Gutenberg, and became known as the Gutenberg Bible. It was not a separate translation. The printing press enabled mass-production without the manual creation of manuscripts.
1516: Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum Omne
This was the first print version of the New Testament in Greek. Erasmus used a collection of manuscripts that were different from those used by Jerome, and are now known as the Byzantine text-type and the Majority Text. It formed the basis of the Textus Receptus when it was printed in 1633 with the note, “text received by all.” It became the standard input for translations such as the King James Version. While these manuscripts have the greatest number of copies (hence they are called the Majority Text), most of these Byzantine text-type manuscripts are from the 11th century or later, considerably later than the Alexandrian text-type from the 4th century.
https://biblequestions.info/2020/08/08/what-are-new-testament-text-types/
1530: The Tyndale Bible
William Tyndale translated the Bible into English from the original languages, and his work was printed in mainland Europe. In 1536, he was arrested and executed for being a heretic, before he had finished translating the whole Bible. Tyndale’s translation includes notes critical of the Roman Catholic Church. Also, he translated the Greek word ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía) as assembly or congregation (suggesting any gathering) rather than church (which implied the Catholic Church). In 1543, the English Parliament supported Henry VIII and banned Christian writings in English, including Tyndale’s Bible.
Subsequent publications that significantly used Tyndale’s Bible include the 1539 Great Bible, the 1568 Bishop’s Bible, and the 1611 King James Version. All of these were authorized by the Crown.
1537: The Matthew Bible
With the support of Henry VIII, John Rogers published The Matthew Bible in 1537, under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. It was the first complete English Bible translated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. The use of the pseudonym was possibly to hide from Henry VIII the significant input of Tyndale’s translation. Rogers was the first English Protestant to be executed as a heretic under Mary I in 1555.
1560: The Geneva Bible
This Bible is notable as it was the first English-language Bible to include verse numbers, and it was the translation used by Shakespeare. However, King James disliked the annotations in the margins, as he felt that they encouraged seditious or traitorous acts, leading him to commission a new translation.
1582: Douay-Rheims Bible
In response to the English translations and the Reformation gaining momentum after Martin Luther shared his ninety-five theses in 1517, the Roman Catholic Church published a translation created by scholars from the English College at Douay, France, and printed in Rheims, France.
1611: The Authorized Version (AV), or King James Version (KJV)
In 1604, the newly crowned King James commissioned an English translation of the Bible for the Church of England, which Henry VIII had formed in 1534 when he separated from Rome so that he could annul his marriage to his wife. Forty-seven scholars from the Church of England worked on this translation that became the standard English Bible for centuries. Scholarly assessments have determined that about 80% of the text comes from Tyndale’s translation.
The textual basis for the KJV’s New Testament was the Textus Receptus or Byzantine text-type. As discussed above, scholars identify the Alexandrian text-type as superior (i.e., closer to the original autographs), and manuscripts of this type form the basis for most modern New Testament translations. Scholars have determined that copyists added some text to the Byzantine text-type manuscripts that is not found in the Alexandrian text-type. This results in modern translations, such as ESV, omitting verses, such as Matthew 17:21 or Acts 8:37, and adding a footnote. Also, Mark 16:9—20 (alternative ending to Mark) and John 7:53—8:11 (the adulterous woman) are enclosed in brackets, or similar, to distinguish the text. These two passages are supported by many sources of great antiquity, yet there is strong reason to doubt that they were part of the original Gospel texts.
1831: Karl Lachmann’s Greek New Testament
Lachmann’s work was the first to prioritize the Alexandrian manuscripts over the Textus Receptus. His main authority was the Codex Vaticanus from the 4th century. This is considered the start of the modern critical era, where a representation of the original text was created by assessing all of the known extant manuscripts.
1881: Westcott and Hort’s Greek New Testament
Westcott and Hort built upon Lachmann’s work using the Codex Sinaiticus that Tischendorf discovered in 1844. This Greek text formed the basis for modern translations such as NIV, NASB, and ESV.
1885: English Revised Version (RV or ERV)
Over fifty scholars were commissioned in 1870 to update the King James Version. Their aim was “to adapt King James’ version to the present state of the English language without changing the idiom and vocabulary,” and “to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship.” Both Westcott and Hort were members of the translation committee, and this Bible used their new critical Greek New Testament as input. American scholars participated by correspondence. However, the KJV remained popular.
1901: American Standard Version
American scholars adapted the Revised Version and published the American Standard Version in 1901. It is very similar to the Revised Version. However, the KJV continued to be popular in the US.
1927: 13th Edition of the Nestle’s New Testament in Greek.
In 1927, Erwin Nestle took over the work of his father, Eberhard Nestle, who had first published his handbook of textual criticism in 1898. Erwin introduced a more critical approach. Kurt Aland became the associate editor of the 21st edition in 1952. This work has evolved to be the standard critical Greek New Testament, published by the German Bible Society. The two current versions of this work are the Nestle-Aland 28th edition, known as NA28, targeting scholars and researchers, and the United Bible Societies 5th edition, known as UBS5, for translators and students.
1937: Biblia Hebraica
Rudolf Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica was published in various volumes between 1906 and 1937, intending to reproduce the Leningrad Codex from AD 1008. In 1977, the German Bible Society published a follow-up, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, with footnotes about possible corrections from other sources, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Its fifth edition was published in 1997.
1952 to Present: Many Translations
Many English translations have been published over the last 75 years, building upon previous translations and leveraging updated critical texts. Click on the chart to see details.
In addition to having different textual bases, translations have different translation philosophies. Translators aim to find a balance between the most accurate representation of the original text in the receptor language (word for word) and understandability by translating with a thought for thought approach. Some translations take the thought for thought concept further, creating a paraphrase, though these might be considered closer to a commentary than an accurate representation of the original biblical text. The diagram below shows the spectrum of many translations. An “interlinear” presents translated English alongside the original language.
In 1901, an Americanized version of an English translation was created. Nowadays, Anglicized versions of several translations exist, including NIV (i.e., NIVUK), ESV (ESVUK), and CSB (CSBA), using English terms and spellings and metric measurements.
Note that a Bible translation can be repackaged in multiple ways to assist the reader. Examples are study Bibles, note-taking Bibles, or red-letter Bibles. The basis of any of these Bibles is a specific translation.
Further reading
– The introduction to your own Bible!
– My blog, “Where Did My Bible Come From?“
– God Words, “Timeline: Bible Translations.”
– BibleQuestions.info, “How Do New Testament Text-Types Compare?”
– Kurt and Barbara Aland, “The Text of the New Testament. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism.” (on archive.org)
The third blog in this series compares different English translations of the Bible.
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