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The Christian
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
has been translated into many languages from the
biblical languages Biblical languages are any of the languages employed in the original writings of the Bible. Some debate exists as to which language is the original language of a particular passage, and about whether a term has been properly translated from an ...
of
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
,
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
, and
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
. the whole Bible has been translated into 756 languages, the
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
has been translated into an additional 1,726 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,274 other languages. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,756 languages.
Textual variants in the New Testament Textual variants in the New Testament manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to the text that is being reproduced. Textual criticism of the New Testament has included study of its textual variants. Some comm ...
include errors, omissions, additions, changes, and alternate translations. In some cases, different translations have been used as evidence for or have been motivated by doctrinal differences.


Original text


Hebrew Bible

The
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...
, with some portions (notably in Daniel and
Ezra Ezra ( fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen'') in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, t ...
) in
Biblical Aramaic Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Targums — Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures. History During ...
. Some of the
Deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second Biblical canon, canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be Biblical canon, canonical books of the Old ...
books not accepted in every denomination's canons, such as
2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt against him. It ...
, originated in Koine Greek. In the third and second centuries B.C.E., the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Koine Greek, known as the
Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
version. This was the version commonly used by the writers of the Gospels. From the 6th century to the 10th century AD, Jewish scholars, today known as
Masoretes The Masoretes (, lit. 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of Jewish scribe- scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries CE, based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., Tiberias and Jerusalem) an ...
, compared the text of various
biblical manuscript A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures (see '' Tefillin'') to huge polyglot codices (multi- ...
s in an effort to create a unified, standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called
niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Ea ...
) to the text, since the original text contained only consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation; since some words differ only in their vowels their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in the
Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritan Pentateuch, also called the Samaritan Torah (Samaritan Hebrew: , ), is the Religious text, sacred scripture of the Samaritans. Written in the Samaritan script, it dates back to one of the ancient versions of the Torah that existe ...
and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.Menachem Cohen
The Idea of the Sanctity of the Biblical Text and the Science of Textual Criticism
in ''HaMikrah V'anachnu'', ed. Uriel Simon, HaMachon L'Yahadut U'Machshava Bat-Z'mananu and Dvir, Tel-Aviv, 1979.


New Testament

The New Testament was written in Koine Greek reporting speech originally in
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
, Greek and
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
(see Language of the New Testament). The ''autographs'', the Greek
manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...
written by the original authors or collators, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the manuscripts that do survive. Most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as alternative spelling, alternative word order, the presence or absence of an optional definite article ("the"), and so on. Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a text was missing or for other reasons. Examples of major variants are the endings of Mark, the Pericope Adulteræ, the
Comma Johanneum The Johannine Comma () is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses of the First Epistle of John. The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by brackets) in the King James Version of the Bible reads: In the Greek Textus Receptus (TR), th ...
, and the Western version of Acts. Early manuscripts of the
Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...
and other New Testament writings show no punctuation whatsoever. The
punctuation Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...
was added later by other editors, according to their own understanding of the text. Four main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament have been theorized to allow grouping and analysis of manuscripts and changes: the
Alexandrian text-type In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text-type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations. Over 5,8 ...
, the
Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main Textual criticism#New Testament, text types. ...
, the
Western text-type In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Western text-type is one of the main text types. It is the predominant form of the New Testament text witnessed in the Old Latin and Syriac translations from the Greek, and also in quotations from ...
and perhaps a largely lost Caesarean text-type, however many manuscripts are mixes of these. The discovery of older manuscripts which belong to the Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th-century
Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...
and
Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...
, led scholars to revise their view about the original Greek text. Karl Lachmann based his
critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...
of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to argue that the ''
Textus Receptus The (Latin for 'received text') is the succession of printed Greek New Testament texts starting with Erasmus' ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) and including the editions of Robert Estienne, Stephanus, Theodore Beza, Beza, the House of Elzevir ...
'' must be corrected according to these earlier texts. There is also a long-standing tradition owing to
Papias of Hierapolis Papias () was a Greeks, Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey), and author who lived c. 60 – c. 130 AD He wrote the ''Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord'' () in five books. This work, which is lost apart fr ...
(c.125) that the Gospel of Matthew was originally in Hebrew. Eusebius (c.300) reports that
Pantaenus Saint Pantaenus the Philosopher (; died c. 200) was a Sicilian theologian and a significant figure in the Catechetical School of Alexandria from around AD 180. This school was the earliest catechetical school, and became influential in the dev ...
went to India (c. 200) and found them using a Gospel of St Matthew in Hebrew letters.
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
also reports in his preface to St Matthew that it was originally composed "in Hebrew letters in Judea" not in Greek and that he saw and copied one from the Nazarene sect. The exact provenance, authorship, source languages and collation of the four Gospels is unknown but subject to much academic speculation and disputed methods.


History


Ancient translations


Aramaic Targums

Some of the first translations of the
Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...
began during the
Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurre ...
, when
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
became the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
of the Jews. With most people speaking only Aramaic and not understanding Hebrew, the
Targum A targum (, ''interpretation'', ''translation'', ''version''; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( ''mǝṯurgǝmān'') would give in the common language o ...
s were created to allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was read in ancient
synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
s.


Greek Septuagint

By the 3rd century BC,
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
had become the center of
Hellenistic Judaism Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellen ...
, and during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC translators compiled in Egypt a Koine Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures in several stages (completing the task by 132 BC). The
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
ascribes the translation effort to
Ptolemy II Philadelphus Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the G ...
(r. 285–246 BC), who allegedly hired 72 Jewish scholars for the purpose, for which reason the translation is commonly known as the Septuagint (from the Latin ''septuaginta'', "seventy"), a name which it gained in "the time of
Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
" (354–430 AD). The Septuagint (LXX), the very first translation of the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, later became the accepted text of the
Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
in the Christian church and the basis of its
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
. Jerome based his Latin Vulgate translation on the Hebrew for those books of the Bible preserved in the Jewish canon (as reflected in the
Masoretic text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...
), and on the Greek text for the
deuterocanonical books The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Chur ...
. The translation now known as the Septuagint was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. Karen Jobes and Moises Silva, ''Invitation to the Septuagint'', (Paternoster Press, 2001). The standard introductory work on the Septuagint. It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (
Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...
). This translation was promoted by way of a legend (primarily recorded as the
Letter of Aristeas The Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the 3rd or early 2nd century BC, considered by some Biblical scholars to be Pseudepigrapha, pseudepigraphical.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. (Palo ...
) that seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators all produced identical texts; supposedly proving its accuracy.Jennifer M. Dines, ''The Septuagint,'' Michael A. Knibb, Ed., London: T&T Clark, 2004. Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books not included in the Masoretic texts of the
Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''
Vorlage") from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic texts.


Late Antiquity

The books collected as the Christian New Testament were written in Koine Greek. In the view of many scholars, the Gospels may have collected oral apostolic tradition rather than being simply dictated. The proto-canonical books of the Old Testament were available in two sources: Hebrew and the Greek
Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
translation. Since
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
, Christian translations of the Old Testament (except the Psalms) tend to be derived from the Hebrew texts, though some denominations prefer the Greek texts (or may cite variant readings from both). Modern Bible translations incorporating modern textual criticism usually begin with the
Masoretic text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...
, but also take into account possible variants from all available ancient versions.


2nd century

Origen Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...
's ''
Hexapla ''Hexapla'' (), also called ''Origenis Hexaplorum'', is a Textual criticism, critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in six versions, four of them translated into Ancient Greek, Greek, preserved only in fragments. It was an immense and complex wor ...
'' () placed side by side six versions of the Old Testament: the Hebrew consonantal text, the Hebrew text transliterated into Greek letters (the ''Secunda''), the Greek translations of
Aquila of Sinope Aquila (Hebrew language, Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ''ʿăqīlas'', Floruit, fl. 130 Common Era, CE) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; ) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek language, Greek, a proselyte, and disciple of Rabbi Akiva. R ...
and
Symmachus the Ebionite Symmachus (; "ally"; fl. late 2nd century AD) was a writer who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. His translation was included by Origen in his ''Hexapla'' and ''Tetrapla'', which compared various versions of the Hebrew Bible side by side wit ...
, one recension of the Septuagint, and the Greek translation of
Theodotion Theodotion (; , ''gen''.: Θεοδοτίωνος; died c. 200) was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar, perhaps working in Ephesus, who in c. A.D. 150 translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. History Whether he was revising the Septuagint, or was wor ...
. In addition, he included three anonymous translations of the Psalms (the ''Quinta'', ''Sexta'' and ''Septima''). His eclectic recension of the Septuagint had a significant influence on the Old Testament text in several important manuscripts. In the 2nd century, the Old Testament was translated into Syriac translation, and the Gospels in the
Diatessaron The ''Diatessaron'' (; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony. It was created in the Syriac language by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic. Tatian sought to combine all the textual material he fou ...
gospel harmony. The New Testament was translated in the 5th century, now known as the
Peshitta The Peshitta ( ''or'' ') is the standard Syriac edition of the Bible for Syriac Christian churches and traditions that follow the liturgies of the Syriac Rites. The Peshitta is originally and traditionally written in the Classical Syriac d ...
. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the New Testament was translated into various Coptic (Egyptian) dialects. The Old Testament was already translated by that stage.


3rd century

The Frankfurt silver inscription, dated to between 230 and 270, quotes Philippians 2:10-11 in a Latin translation. It is the earliest reliable evidence of Christianity north of the
Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...
.


4th century

In 331, the
Emperor Constantine Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD  306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christ ...
commissioned
Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople.
Athanasius Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...
(''Apol. Const. 4'') recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for
Constans Flavius Julius Constans ( 323 – 350), also called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of '' caesar'' from 333, and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great. After his father's death, he was made ''a ...
. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 The Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Library, The Vatican, Vatican Library, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by Scribal ab ...
,
Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...
and
Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...
are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles. The Bible was translated into Gothic (an early East Germanic language) in the 4th century by a group of scholars, possibly under the supervision of
Ulfilas Ulfilas (; – 383), known also as Wulfila(s) or Urphilas, was a 4th-century Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent. He was the apostle to the Gothic people. Ulfila served as a bishop and missionary, participated in the Arian controv ...
(Wulfila). Canon (i.e. Item) 59 of the Synod of Laodicea in 363 specified that uncanonical books should not be read in church. Canon 60, whose authenticity is disputed, then supplied a canon similar to that given by Bishop
Cyril of Jerusalem Cyril of Jerusalem (, ''Kýrillos A Ierosolýmon''; ; 386) was a theologian of the Early Church. About the end of AD 350, he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of ...
's catechesis in 350: both lacked the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
. The canon of
Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...
in 367 added Revelation in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter. All three included the so-called
deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second Biblical canon, canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be Biblical canon, canonical books of the Old ...
books of Baruch and Lamentations. Jerome's ''Vulgate'' Latin translation dates to between AD 382 and 405. Latin translations predating Jerome are collectively known as ''Vetus Latina'' texts. Jerome began by revising these earlier Latin translations, but ended by going back to the original Greek, bypassing all translations, and going back to the original Hebrew wherever he could instead of the Septuagint. There are also several ancient translations, most important of which are in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic (including the Peshitta).


4th to 6th century

The
Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...
dates to –350, and is missing only 21 sentences or paragraphs in various New Testament books: it is one of the four
great uncial codices The great uncial codices or four great uncials are the only remaining Uncial script, uncial codex, codices that contain (or originally contained) the entire text of the Bible (Old Testament, Old and New Testament) in Koine Greek, Greek. They are ...
. The earliest surviving complete single-volume manuscript of the entire Bible in Latin is the
Codex Amiatinus The Codex Amiatinus (also known as the Jarrow Codex) is considered the best-preserved manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version of the Christian Bible. It was produced around 700 in the northeast of England, at the Benedictine Monkwearmouth–Jarr ...
, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in 8th-century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. Latin and its early Romance dialects were widely spoken as the primary or secondary language throughout Western Europe, including Britain even in the 700s and 800s. Between the 4th to 6th centuries, the Bible was translated into Ge'ez (Ethiopic). In the 5th century, Mesrob Mashtots translated the Bible using the
Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet (, or , ) or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasu ...
invented by him. Also dating from the same period is the first Georgian translation. The creation of the
Georgian scripts The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: #Asomtavruli, Asomtavruli, #Nuskhuri, Nuskhuri and #Mkhedruli, Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their Letter (alphabet), letters share ...
, like the Armenian alphabet, was also attributed to Mashtots by the scholar Koryun in the 5th century. This claim has been disputed by modern Georgian scholars, although the creation of a Georgian alphabet was likely still motivated by Christians who wished to translate holy scriptures. In the 6th century, the Bible was translated into
Old Nubian Old Nubian (also called Middle Nubian or Old Nobiin) is an extinct Nubian language, attested in writing from the 8th to the 15th century AD. It is ancestral to modern-day Nobiin and closely related to Dongolawi and Kenzi. It was used through ...
. By the end of the eighth century,
Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...
monasteries (so-called
Nestorians Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinary, doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian t ...
) had translated the New Testament and Psalms (at least, the portions needed for liturgical use) from Syriac to Sogdian, the ''lingua franca'' in Central Asia of the Silk Road, which was an
Eastern Iranian language Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...
with Chinese loanwords, written in letters and
logograms In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chinese ...
derived from Aramaic script. They may have also translated parts of books into a Chinese.


Middle Ages

Before the advent of the printing press and mass literacy, medieval vernacular translation of scriptural texts was mainly and necessarily mediated, and oral, memorized, extemporized or versified. The Western Catholic church utilized
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
as a pan-European ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
'' for liturgical, and scholarly use. Local efforts sporadically provided vernacular translations in major national languages, however personal study of the Bible does not necessarily occupy the same urgent role in lay Catholic life and devotion as it does in e.g. ''
sola scriptura (Latin for 'by scripture alone') is a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for ...
''-style Protestantism: "the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book.'"


Early Middle Ages

When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page (''marginal glosses'') to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. See
textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...
. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions, additions, and variants (mostly in
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
). There are some fragmentary
Old English Bible translations The Old English Bible translations are the partial translations of the Bible prepared in medieval England into the Old English language. The translations are from Latin texts, not the original languages. Many of these translations were in fact ...
, notably a lost translation of the
Gospel of John The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the ...
into Old English by the Venerable
Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
, which is said to have been prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. An
Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
version of the Gospel of Matthew dates to 748.
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
in c. 800 charged
Alcuin Alcuin of York (; ; 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert of York, Archbishop Ecgbert at Yor ...
with a revision of the Latin Vulgate. The translation into
Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
was started in 863 by
Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Population of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries, missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs ...
.
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...
, a ruler in England, had a number of passages of the Bible circulated in the vernacular in around 900. These included passages from the
Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...
and the
Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...
, which he prefixed to a code of laws he promulgated around this time. In approximately 990, a full and freestanding version of the four Gospels in idiomatic Old English appeared, in the
West Saxon dialect West Saxon is the term applied to the two different dialects Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon with West Saxon being one of the four distinct regional dialects of Old English. The three others were Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian (the l ...
; these are called the ''
Wessex Gospels The ''Wessex Gospels'' (also known as the ''West-Saxon Gospels'' or Old English Gospels) are a translation of the four gospels of the Christian Bible into a West Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced from approximately AD 990 in England, this vers ...
''. Around the same time, a compilation now called the ''
Old English Hexateuch The Old English Hexateuch, or ''Aelfric Paraphrase'', is the collaborative project of the late Anglo-Saxon period that translated the six books of the Hexateuch into Old English, presumably under the editorship of Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham (d. c. 1 ...
'' appeared with the first six (or, in one version, seven) books of the Old Testament.


High Middle Ages

The arrival of the mendicant preaching orders in the 12th century saw individual books being translated with commentary, in Italian dialects. Typically the Psalms were among the first books to be translated, being prayers: for example, the earliest Polish translation from 1280. There are numerous manuscripts of the Psalms in Catalan from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, translated from the Vulgate,
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
, French and Hebrew, with a New Testament and full Bible translation made in the 1300s. Parts of an Old Testament in
Old Spanish Old Spanish (, , ; ), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest, longest, and most famous literary composition in O ...
from the late 1300s still exist. Monks completed a translation into
Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a Gallo-Romance languages, Gallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in eastern France, western Switzerland, and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several di ...
(Arpitan) c.1170-85, commissioned by
Peter Waldo Peter Waldo (; also ''Valdo'', ''Valdes'', ''Waldes''; , ''de Vaux''; ; c. 1140 – c. 1205) was the leader of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages. The tradition that his first name was "Peter" can only be traced ...
. The complete Bible was translated into Old French in the late 13th century. Parts of this translation were included in editions of the popular ''Bible historiale'', and there is no evidence of this translation's being suppressed by the Church. In England, "about the middle of the fourteenth century—before 1361—the Anglo-Normans possessed an independent and probably complete translation of the whole of the Old Testament and the greater part of the New." Friar Giovanni da Montecorvino of the large Franciscan mission to Mongol China in the early 1300s translated the Psalms and New Testament into the language of the
Tartars Tartary (Latin: ''Tartaria''; ; ; ) or Tatary () was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bounded by the Caspian Sea, the Ural Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and the northern borders of China ...
: the
Uyghur language Uyghur or Uighur (; , , or , , ), formerly known as Turki or Eastern Turki, is a Turkic languages, Turkic language with 8 to 13 million speakers (), spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western ...
or perhaps the
Mongolian language Mongolian is the Prestige (sociolinguistics), principal language of the Mongolic languages, Mongolic language family that originated in the Mongolian Plateau. It is spoken by ethnic Mongols and other closely related Mongolic peoples who are nati ...
. A royal Swedish version of 1316 has been lost. The entire Bible was translated into Czech around 1360. The provincial synods of Toulouse (1229) and Tarragona (1234) temporarily outlawed possession of some vernacular renderings, in reaction to the
Cathar Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi- dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a he ...
and Waldensian heresies, in South France and Catalonia. This demonstrates that such translations existed: there is evidence of some vernacular translations being permitted while others were being scrutinized.


Late Middle Ages

A group of Middle English Bible translations were created: including the Wycliffean Bibles (1383, 1393) and the Paues' New Testament, based on the Vulgate. New translation efforts were regulated in England by the provincial Oxford Synod in 1408 under church law to require the approval of a bishop; possession of material that contained
Lollard Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...
material (such as the so-called General Prologue found in a few Wycliffite Bibles) was also illegal by English state law, in response to Lollard uprisings. Later, many parts of the Bible in Late Middle English were printed by
William Caxton William Caxton () was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into Kingdom of England, England in 1476, and as a Printer (publishing), printer to be the first English retailer ...
in his translation of the
Golden Legend The ''Golden Legend'' ( or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary Maddo ...
(1483), and in the loose paraphrase ''Speculum Vitae Christi'' ('' The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ''), which had been authorized into English around 1410. A Cornish version may have been made. The Hungarian
Hussite Bible The Hussite Bible (; sometimes also "The Bible of the Franciscans") is the oldest known Hungarian, as well as a general Uralic Bible translation, dated to the 1420s–1430s. History The Hussite Bible is the only written vestige of Hussitism in ...
appeared in 1416. Individual books continued to be translated: for example the Gospel of John in Slovak (1469). The first 12 books of the Old Testament in Danish (also used for Norwegian) was made in c. 1480. The invention of printing saw complete Catholic Bibles produced in German (1466 and after; multiple), Valencian Catalan (1478), Tuscan (1471), Venetian (1471) and Dutch (1477). From the late 1300s, the
Brethren of the Common Life The Brethren of the Common Life (, FVC) was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a ...
encouraged their laypeople to read the Gospels they would hear at church at home beforehand, in the vernacular. The early public demand for printed Dutch vernacular scriptures seems to have been for translations of the daily or weekly liturgical readings, and most printed books were of this ''Gospels and Epistles'' type; from the 1520s this reverted to a demand for pandect (full) Bibles.


Reformation and Early Modern period

In the early 1500s there were several independent scholarly Catholic efforts to produce polyglot editions of the bible or updated Latin translations: these included the Complutensian Polyglot sponsored by Castillian Archbishop Ximénez at his new
University of Alcalá de Henares A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
, Augustinian canon Erasmus' ''
Novum Instrumentum omne ''Novum Instrumentum Omne'', later titled ''Novum Testamentum Omne'', was a series of bilingual Latin-Greek New Testaments with substantial scholarly annotations, and the first printed New Testament of the Greek to be published. They were prep ...
'' (New Testament only) sponsored mainly by English bishops, and Italian Dominican friar Santes Pagnino's ''Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio'' eventually sponsored by the Pope. The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from the Froben press, by
Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...
, who reconstructed a Greek text from several recent manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type, to accompany his Latin revision and philological annotations. This led to a gradual shift by subsequent translators away from Latin sources to Greek or Hebrew sources, though initially his Latin renditions and annotations were more influential. Erasmus produced four revised editions. During 1517 and 1519 Catholic layman Francysk Skaryna printed a translation of the Bible in Old Belarusian language in twenty-two books. In 1521, fiery former friar
Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
was placed under the Ban of the Empire, and he hid in the
Wartburg Castle The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, th ...
. During his time there, he quickly translated the New Testament into German, using the 2nd edition of
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...
'
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
, which provide a new Latin translation, detailed annotations on Greek words, and a Greek text for reference. It was printed in September 1522. It was a freer but more idiomatic translation than the numerous other German translations in print, which were often intended as aids to following the Latin Vulgate and so more literal but less idiomatic. The first complete Dutch Bible, partly based on the existing portions of Luther's translation, was printed in
Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt. Early Protestant translations into Germanic languages, such as the Dutch, Swedish, Danish/ Norwegian, Icelandic,
Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...
,
Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225–34 (). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Mid ...
and to some extent the English, were based in Luther's
Early New High German Early New High German (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650, developing from Middle High German and into New High German. The term is the ...
translation with
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...
' Latin annotations rather than all from the Greek directly. The first printed edition with ''
critical apparatus A critical apparatus () in textual criticism of primary source material, is an organized system of notations to represent, in a single text, the complex history of that text in a concise form useful to diligent readers and scholars. The apparatu ...
'' (noting variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by the printer
Robert Estienne Robert I Estienne (; 15037 September 1559), known as ''Robertus Stephanus'' in Latin and sometimes referred to as ''Robert Stephens'', was a 16th-century printer in Paris. He was the proprietor of the Estienne print shop after the death of his f ...
of Paris in 1550. The Greek text of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as the ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it as the text ''nunc ab omnibus receptum'' ("now received by all"). The use of numbered chapters and verses was not introduced until the Middle Ages and later. The system used in English was developed by Stephanus (
Robert Estienne Robert I Estienne (; 15037 September 1559), known as ''Robertus Stephanus'' in Latin and sometimes referred to as ''Robert Stephens'', was a 16th-century printer in Paris. He was the proprietor of the Estienne print shop after the death of his f ...
of Paris). (See
Chapters and verses of the Bible Chapter and verse divisions did not appear in the original texts of Jewish or Christian bibles; such divisions form part of the paratext of the Bible. Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of the Bible have presented all but th ...
.) The churches of the
Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...
translated the Greek of the Textus Receptus to produce
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
Bibles, such as the German
Luther Bible The Luther Bible () is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522; the completed Bible contained 75 books, including the Old Testament ...
(1522), the Polish
Brest Bible The Brest Bible () was the first complete Protestant Bible translation into Polish, published by Bernard Wojewodka in 1563 in Brest and dedicated to King Sigismund II Augustus. Polish full original title: ''Biblia święta, Tho iest, Księgi ...
(1563), the Spanish "Biblia del Oso" (in English: Bible of the Bear, 1569) which later became the Reina-Valera Bible upon its first revision in 1602, the Czech Melantrich Bible (1549) and Bible of Kralice (1579–1593) and numerous English translations of the Bible. Tyndale's New Testament translation (1526, revised in 1534, 1535 and 1536) and his translation of the
Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...
(1530, 1534) and the
Book of Jonah The Book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and an individual book in the Christian Old Testament where it has four chapters. The book tells of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah, son of Amitt ...
were met with heavy sanctions given the widespread belief that Tyndale ''changed'' the Bible as he attempted to translate it. Tyndale's unfinished work, cut short by his execution, was supplemented by
Myles Coverdale Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles ( – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher, hymnist and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the fi ...
and published under a pseudonym to create the
Matthew Bible ''The Matthew Bible'', also known as ''Matthew's Version'', was first published in 1537 by John Rogers, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew". It combined the New Testament of William Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as he had been abl ...
, the first complete English translation of the Bible. Attempts at an "authoritative" English Bible for the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
would include the
Great Bible The Great Bible of 1539 was the first authorized edition of the Bible in English, authorized by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England; it precedes the more renowned Authorized Version (AV) co ...
of 1538 (also relying on Coverdale's work), the
Bishops' Bible The Bishops' Bible is an English edition of the Bible which was produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. It was substantially revised in 1572, and the 1602 edition was prescribed as the base text for the King Ja ...
of 1568, and the Authorized Version (the
King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...
) of 1611, the last of which would become a standard for English speaking Christians for several centuries. The first complete French Bible printed was a translation by
Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (; Latinized as Jacobus Faber Stapulensis; c. 1455 – c. 1536) was a French theologian and a leading figure in French humanism. He was a precursor of the Protestant movement in France. The "d'Étaples" was not par ...
, published in 1530 in Antwerp. The Froschauer Bible of 1531 and the
Luther Bible The Luther Bible () is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522; the completed Bible contained 75 books, including the Old Testament ...
of 1534 (both appearing in portions throughout the 1520s) were an important part of the
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
. By 1578 both Old and New Testaments were translated to Slovene by the
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
writer and theologian Jurij Dalmatin. The work was not printed until 1583. The
Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...
thus became the 12th nation in the world with a complete Bible in their language. The translation of the New Testament was based on the work by Dalmatin's mentor, the Protestant
Primož Trubar Primož Trubar or Primus Truber () (1508 – 28 June 1586) was a Slovene Protestant Reformer of the Lutheran tradition, mostly known as the author of the first Slovene language printed book, the founder and the first superintendent of the Prot ...
, who published the translation of the
Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...
already in 1555 and the entire Testament by parts until 1577. Following the distribution of a Welsh New Testament and Prayer Book to every parish Church in Wales in 1567, translated by
William Salesbury William Salesbury, also Salusbury, (c. 1520 – c. 1584) was the leading Welsh language, Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament. Early life Salesbury was born some time before 1520 (poss ...
, Welsh became the 13th language into which the whole Bible had been translated in 1588, through a translation by William Morgan then vicar of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (later Bishop of Llandaf and St Asaph. In 1613, Jesuits in Kyoto published a lectionary of the Sunday Gospel readings and other Gospel material in Japanese; this is now lost. Samuel Bogusław Chyliński (1631–1668) translated and published the first Bible translation into Lithuanian. In 1660, John Eliot published the
Eliot Indian Bible The ''Eliot Indian Bible'' ( Massachusett: ; also known as the ''Algonquian Bible'') was the first translation of the Christian Bible into an indigenous American language, as well as the first Bible published in British North America. It was ...
in the language of the
Massachusett people The Massachusett are a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
, an indigenous American group who lived in the area around what is today
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. This was the first translation of the Bible into an indigenous American language. This translation was produced by Eliot in an effort to convert the dwindling population of
Massachusett The Massachusett are a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
to Christianity in praying towns such as
Natick, Massachusetts Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part o ...
. In 1671, a complete Bible translation into Arabic was made in Rome. In 1671, the annual Gospel readings were translated by a Jesuit into
Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...
, an Indian language.


Modern translation efforts

The Bible is the most translated book in the world. The United Bible Societies announced that as of 31 December 2007 the complete Bible was available in 438 languages, 123 of which included the deuterocanonical material as well as the
Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''
morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...
-by-morpheme translation (e.g. some Parallel Bible, with interlinear morphemic glossing). In 1999, Wycliffe Bible Translators announced ''Vision 2025'' — a project that intends to commence Bible translation in every remaining language community by 2025. It was realised that, at the rates of Bible translation at that point, it would take until at least 2150 until Bible translation began in every language that was needing a translation. Since the launch of Vision 2025, Bible translation efforts have increased dramatically, in large part due to the technology that is now available. By 2019, there had been a sustained reduction in the time it took to begin a new translation, and it was estimated that a new translation will begin in every language by 2038, thus being 112 years faster. A new translation was beginning every 120 hours (5 days), and by 2025 it was estimated a new translation work was beginning every 14 hours. As of September 2023, they estimated that around 99.8 million people spoke those 1,268 languages where translation work still needs to begin. This represents 17.1% of all languages (based off an estimate of 7,394 total languages) and 1.3% of the human population (based on a global population of 7.42 billion). By April 2025, this had fallen to 801 languages. In total, there are 3,736 languages without any Bible translation at all, but an estimated 1,148 of these (with a population of 9.6 million people) are likely to never need a Bible because they are very similar to other languages, or spoken by very few speakers where the language will die out very soon. Bible translation is currently happening in 4,150 languages in 167 countries. In November 2024, it was estimated that this work impacts 1.15 billion people, or about 15.5 percent of all language users, who have (or will soon have) new access to at least some portions of Scripture in their first language. In April 2025, this had risen to 1.78 billion individuals (21% of the global population).


Differences in Bible translations

Modern critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly research, including discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in some cases within a few decades of the original New Testament writings. Today, most critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such as UBS4 and
NA27 NA, N.A., Na, nA or n/a may refer to: Chemistry and physics * Sodium, symbol Na, a chemical element * Avogadro constant (''N''A) * Nucleophilic addition, a type of reaction in organic chemistry * Numerical aperture, a number that characterizes a ...
, consider the Alexandrian text-type corrected by papyri, to be the Greek text that is closest to the original ''autographs''. Their ''apparatus'' includes the result of votes among scholars, ranging from certain to doubtful , on which variants best preserve the original Greek text of the New Testament. Critical editions that rely primarily on the Alexandrian text-type inform nearly all modern translations (and revisions of older translations). For reasons of tradition, however, some translators prefer to use the Textus Receptus for the Greek text, or use the ''
Majority Text In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. The New Testament text of the Eas ...
'' which is similar to it but is a critical edition that relies on earlier manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type. Among these, some argue that the Byzantine tradition contains scribal additions, but these later interpolations preserve the orthodox interpretations of the biblical text—as part of the ongoing Christian experience—and in this sense are authoritative. Distrust of the textual basis of modern translations has contributed to the King-James-Only Movement.


Dynamic or formal translation policy

A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological approaches to translation have been used. Inside the Bible-translation community, these are commonly categorized as: *
Dynamic equivalence Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, in translation and semantics, are the principle approaches to translation, prioritizing respectively the Meaning (linguistics), meaning or the literal translation, literal structure of the source text ...
translation *
Formal equivalence Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, in translation and semantics, are the principle approaches to translation, prioritizing respectively the meaning or the literal structure of the source text. The distinction was originally drawn by ...
translation (similar to
literal translation Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is the translation of a text done by translating each word separately without analysing how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence. In translation theory, anoth ...
) *
Idiomatic An idiom (the quality of it being known as idiomaticness or idiomaticity) is a syntactical, grammatical, or phonological structure peculiar to a language that is actually realized, as opposed to possible but unrealized structures that could have ...
, or paraphrastic translation, as used by the late
Kenneth N. Taylor Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor (May 8, 1917 – June 10, 2005) was an American publisher and author, better known as the creator of '' The Living Bible'' and the founder of Tyndale House, a Christian publishing company, and Living Bibles Inter ...
though modern linguists, such as Bible scholar Dr. Joel Hoffman, disagree with this classification. Other translation approaches include: *
Literary translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
, where the reader's experience of the piece as literature is prized, as used in the Knox Bible * Metrical translation, where prose is rendered in a rhythmic form, as represented by Old English and Middle English texts * Prose translation, where no attempt is made to render the lyrical aspect of some poem or song, as
King Alfred Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when ...
's prose translation of the first fifty Psalms. As
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
and
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, the original languages of the Bible, like all languages, have some
idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...
s and concepts not easily translated, there is in some cases an ongoing critical tension about whether it is better to give a word-for-word translation, to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language, or to invent a neologism. For instance, in the Douay Rheims Bible,
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1966 in the United States. In 1965, the Catholic Biblical Association adapted, under the editorship of Bernard Orchard OSB and Regi ...
, New American Bible Revised Edition, which are the English language
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
translations, as well as
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
translations like the
King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
, the Darby Bible, the
Recovery Version The Recovery Version is a modern English translation of the Bible from the original languages, published by Living Stream Ministry, ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. It is the commonly used translation of Local Churches (affiliation). T ...
, the Literal Standard Version, the
New Revised Standard Version The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is a translation of the Bible in American English. It was first published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches, the NRSV was created by an ecumenical committee of scholars "comprising about thirt ...
, the Modern Literal Version, and the
New American Standard Bible The New American Standard Bible (NASB, also simply NAS for "New American Standard") is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published by the Lockman Foundation, the complete NASB was released in 1971. New revisions were publis ...
are seen as more literal translations (or "word-for-word"). Translations like the
New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978, with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies ...
and
New Living Translation The New Living Translation (NLT) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 1996 by Tyndale House, Tyndale House Foundation, the NLT was created "by 90 leading Bible scholars." The NLT relies on recently published Text ...
sometimes attempt to give relevant parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary language. Less literal translations reflect the translator's theological, linguistic or cultural interpretations; the result is more easily consumed by
lay readers In Anglicanism, a licensed lay minister (LLM) or lay reader (in some jurisdictions simply reader) is a person authorised by a bishop to lead certain Church service, services of worship (or parts of the service), to preach and to carry out pastoral ...
. This contrasts with more literal translations where interpretation is left to the reader; lay readers may be unfamiliar with ancient idioms and other historical and cultural contexts.


Doctrinal differences and translation policy

In addition to linguistic concerns, theological issues also drive Bible translations. Some translations of the Bible, produced by single churches or groups of churches, may be seen as subject to a point of view by the translation committee. Historian David Lawton notes that the Middle Ages in the West, even up to the late period, "There is little or no sense that the Bible, even if seen as single or whole, should necessarily stand alone and self-sufficient. It is a period without fundamentalists in the modern sense." The Bible was translated (usually from the Vulgate) in accordance with Catholic
Sacred Tradition Sacred tradition, also called holy tradition, Anno Domini tradition or apostolic tradition, is a theological term used in Christian theology. According to this theological position, sacred Tradition and Scripture form one ''deposit'', so sacred T ...
.


Names of God

For example, the New World Translation, produced by
Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...
, provides different renderings where verses in other Bible translations support the deity of Christ. The NWT also translates ''kurios'' as "
Jehovah Jehovah () is a Romanization, Latinization of the Hebrew language, Hebrew , one Tiberian vocalization, vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God in Judaism, God of Israel in the Hebrew BibleOld Testament. The Tetr ...
" rather than "Lord" when quoting Hebrew passages that used YHWH. The authors believe that Jesus would have used God's name and not the customary ''kurios''. On this basis, the anonymous New World Bible Translation Committee inserted ''Jehovah'' into the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) a total of 237 times while the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) uses Jehovah a total of 6,979 times to a grand total of 7,216 in the entire 2013 Revision New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures while previous revisions such as the 1984 revision were a total of 7,210 times while the 1961 revision were a total of 7,199 times.''New World Translation'' appendix, pp. 1564–66. When discussing "Restoring the Divine Name," the New World Bible Translation Committee states: "To know where the divine name was replaced by the Greek words Κύριος and Θεός, we have determined where the inspired Christian writers have quoted verses, passages and expressions from the Hebrew Scriptures and then we have referred back to the Hebrew text to ascertain whether the divine name appears there. In this way we determined the identity to give Kyʹri·os and The·osʹ and the personality with which to clothe them." Explaining further, the Committee said: "To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures as a background. We have looked for agreement from the Hebrew versions to confirm our rendering." Such agreement from Hebrew versions exists in all the 237 places that the New World Bible Translation Committee has rendered the divine name in the body of its translation. A number of Sacred Name Bibles (e.g., the Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition) have been published that are even more rigorous in transliterating the tetragrammaton using Semitic forms to translate it in the Old Testament and also using the same Semitic forms to translate the Greek word ''Theos'' (God) in the New Testament—usually Yahweh, Elohim or some other variation. Other translations are distinguished by smaller but distinctive doctrinal differences. For example, the Purified Translation of the Bible, by translation and explanatory footnotes, promoting the position that Christians should not drink alcohol, that New Testament references to "wine" are translated as "grape juice".


See also


Notes


References


Further reading

* Wills, Garry, "A Wild and Indecent Book" (review of
David Bentley Hart David Bentley Hart (born February 20, 1965) is an American philosopher, theologian, essayist, cultural commentator, fiction author, and religious studies scholar. Reviewers have commented on Hart's baroque prose and provocative rhetoric in over on ...
, ''The New Testament: A Translation'',
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
, 577 pp.), ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', vol. LXV, no. 2 (8 February 2018), pp. 34–35. Discusses some pitfalls in interpreting and translating the
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
. *


External links


Repackaging the Bible
by Eric Marrapodi, ''CNN'', December 24, 2008
Bible Versions and Translations
on BibleStudyTools.com
Huge selection of Bibles in Foreign Languages – bibleinmylanguage.com

BibleGateway.com (has many translations to select)
{{Authority control Translations
Translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
Translation history