More than 100 complete translations into English languages have been produced. Translations of Biblical books, especially passages read in the

Liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

Old English

The Old English language started first from the Angle-Jute-Saxon invaders/settlers in the South and Eastern regions, and evolved influenced by Anglo-Danish invaders/settlers in the North and Eastern

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

, to the extent that an

Icelandic saga The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early elev ...

around the year 1000 said the language of England was the same as Norway and Denmark. It largely replaced the

Neo-Brittonic Neo-Brittonic, also known as Neo-Brythonic, is a stage of the Insular Celtic Brittonic languages that emerged by the middle of the sixth century CE. Neo-Brittonic languages include Old, Middle and Modern Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, as well ...

languages and residual Anglo-Latin-using pockets. While there were no complete translations of the Bible in the Old English period, there were many translations of large portions during this time. Parts of the Bible were first translated from the

Latin Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, of his own initia ...

by a few monks and scholars. Such translations were generally in the form of prose or as

interlinear gloss In linguistics and pedagogy, an interlinear gloss is a gloss (series of brief explanations, such as definitions or pronunciations) placed between lines, such as between a line of original text and its translation into another language. When gloss ...

es (literal translations above the Latin words). Very few complete translations existed during that time. Most of the books of the Bible existed separately and were read as individual texts. Translations of the Bible often included the writer's own commentary on passages in addition to the literal translation.

Aldhelm Aldhelm (, ; 25 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex ...

Bishop of Sherborne The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese ...

and

Abbot of Malmesbury Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a former Benedictine abbey dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul. It was one of the few English religious houses with a continuous history from the 7th century throug ...

(639–709), is thought to have written an Old English translation of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

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 ...

(''c.'' 672–735) produced a 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, which he is said to have prepared shortly before his death. This translation is lost; we know of its existence from Cuthbert of Jarrow's account of Bede's death. In the 10th century an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

translation of the Gospels was made in the

Lindisfarne Gospels The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the Bri ...

: a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred, Provost of

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...

. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. 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 ...

'' (also known as the ''West-Saxon Gospels'') are a full translation of the four

gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

into a West Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced in approximately 990, they are the first translation of all four gospels into English without the

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 ...

text. In the 11th century, Abbot

Ælfric Ælfric (Old English ', Middle English ''Elfric'') is an Anglo-Saxon given name, consisting of the elements ''ælf'', "elf" and ''ric'', "a powerful person, ruler". Churchmen * Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955–c. 1010), late 10th century Anglo-Sax ...

translated much 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 ...

into Old English. 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 ...

'' is an

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

of the first six books of the Old Testament (the

Hexateuch The Hexateuch ("six scrolls") is the first six books of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah ('' Pentateuch'') and the book of Joshua. Overview The term ''Hexateuch'' came into scholarly use from the 1870s onwards mainly as the result of work carried out ...

Middle English

There are no known complete translations (

pandects The ''Digest'' (), also known as the Pandects (; , , "All-Containing"), was a compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 530–533 AD. It is divided into 50 books. The ''Dige ...

) from early in this period, when

emerged after Anglo-Norman replaced

(Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Danish) as the aristocratic and secular court languages (1066), with Latin still the religious, diplomatic, scientific and ecclesiastical court language, and with parts of the country still speaking Cornish, and perhaps Cumbric. The

Ormulum The ''Ormulum'' or ''Orrmulum'' is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by an Augustinian canon named Orrm (or Orrmin) and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse. Because of the unique phonemic o ...

is in Middle English of the 12th century. Like its Old English precursor from

, an abbot of Eynsham, it includes very little Biblical text, and focuses more on personal commentary. This style was adopted by many of the original English translators. For example, the story of the

Wedding at Cana The wedding at Cana (also called the marriage at Cana, wedding feast at Cana or marriage feast at Cana) is a story in the Gospel of John at which the first miracle attributed to Jesus takes place. In the Gospel account, Jesus, his mother and ...

is almost 800 lines long, but fewer than 40 lines are in the actual translation of the text. An unusual characteristic is that the translation mimics Latin verse, and so is similar to the better known and appreciated 14th-century English poem ''

Cursor Mundi The ''Cursor Mundi'' (or ‘Over-runner of the World’) is an early 14th-century religious poem written in Northumbrian Middle English that presents an extensive retelling of the history of Christianity from the creation to the doomsday.Morris, ...

''.

Richard Rolle Richard Rolle ( – 30 September 1349) was an English hermit, mystic, and religious writer. He is also known as Richard Rolle of Hampole or de Hampole, since at the end of his life he lived near a Cistercian nunnery in Hampole, now in S ...

(1290–1349) wrote an English Psalter. Many religious works are attributed to Rolle, but it has been questioned how many are genuinely from his hand. Many of his works were concerned with personal devotion, and some were used by the

Lollards 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 ...

. Theologian

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, Christianity, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxfor ...

(c. 1320s–1384) is popularly credited with translating what is now known as Wycliffe's Bible, though it is not clear how much of the translation he himself did. Released in 1382, this was the first known complete translation of the Bible into English. This translation came out in two different versions. The earlier version ("EV") is characterised by a strong adherence to the word order of Latin, and is more difficult for native English speakers to comprehend. The later version ("LV") made more concessions to the native grammar of English. Around the same period there were several other translations, which partially survive, such as the Paues ''Fortheenth Century Middle English New Testament''.

Early Modern and Modern English

Early Modern English

Early Modern English Bible translations are of between about 1500 and 1800, the period of

Early Modern English Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transit ...

. This was the first major period of Bible translation into the English language. This period began with the introduction of the

Tyndale Bible The Tyndale Bible (TYN) generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale into Early Modern English, made . Tyndale's biblical text is credited with being the first English-language Biblical translation to work directly ...

. The first complete edition of his New Testament was in 1526.

William Tyndale William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – October 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestantism, Protestant Reformation in the year ...

used the Greek and Hebrew texts of the New Testament (NT) and Old Testament (OT) in addition to

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 ...

's Latin translation. He was the first translator to use the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

– this enabled the distribution of several thousand copies of his New Testament translation throughout England. Tyndale did not complete his Old Testament translation. The first printed English translation of the whole Bible was produced by

Miles 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 ...

in 1535, using Tyndale's work together with his own translations from the Latin Vulgate or German text. After much scholarly debate it is concluded that this was printed in Antwerp and the colophon gives the date as 4 October 1535. This first edition was adapted by Coverdale for his first "authorised version", known as 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 1539. Other early printed versions were the

Geneva Bible The Geneva Bible, sometimes known by the sobriquet Breeches Bible, is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the Douay Rheims Bible by 22 years, and the King James Version by 51 years. It was ...

published by Sir Rowland Hill in 1560. This version is notable for being the first Bible divided into verses and which negated the Divine Right of Kings; the Bishop's Bible (1568), which was an attempt by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

to create a new authorised version; and the

Authorized King James Version 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 ...

of 1611. The first complete

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 ...

Bible in English was the

Douay–Rheims Bible The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...

, of which the New Testament portion was published in

Rheims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

in 1582 and the Old Testament somewhat later in Douay in Gallicant Flanders. The Old Testament was completed by the time the New Testament was published but, due to extenuating circumstances and financial issues, it was not published until nearly three decades later, in two editions: the first released in 1609, and the rest of the OT in 1610. In this version, the seven

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 ...

are amongst the other books, as in the Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

, rather than kept separate in an appendix.

Modern English

While early English Bibles were generally based on a small number of Greek texts, or on Latin translations, modern English translations of the Bible are based on a wider variety of manuscripts in the original languages, mostly Greek and Hebrew. The translators put much scholarly effort into cross-checking the various sources such 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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. Relatively recent discoveries such as the

Dead Sea scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

provide additional reference information. Some controversy has existed over which texts should be used as a basis for translation, as some of the alternate sources do not include phrases (or sometimes entire verses) which are found only in the Textus Receptus.See the ''New International Version'', the ''Revised Standard Version'', The ''New King James Version'' and the ''New American Standard Version'' of the Bible. Some say the alternate sources were poorly representative of the texts used in their time, whereas others claim the Textus Receptus includes passages that were added to the alternate texts improperly. These controversial passages are not the basis for disputed issues of doctrine: they tend to be additional stories or snippets of phrases. Many modern English translations, such as 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 ...

, contain limited text notes indicating where differences occur in original sources. A somewhat greater number of textual differences are noted in the

New King James Bible The New King James Version (NKJV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English, working as a revision of the King James Version. Published by Thomas Nelson, the complete NKJV was released in 1982. With regard to its textual basis, the ...

, indicating hundreds of New Testament differences between the

Nestle-Aland (''The New Testament in Greek'') is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek published by ''Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft'' (German Bible Society), forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical crit ...

, the

, and the Hodges edition of 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 ...

. The differences in the Old Testament are less well documented, but they do contain some references to differences between consonantal interpretations in the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint. Even with these hundreds of differences, however, a more complete listing is beyond the scope of most single-volume Bibles.

Individual translations

While most Bible translations are made by committees of scholars in order to avoid bias or idiosyncrasy, translations are sometimes made by individuals. The following, selected translations are largely the work of individual translators: *

Webster's Bible Translation Noah Webster's 1833 limited revision of the King James Version, (more commonly called Webster Bible) focused mainly on replacing archaic words and making simple grammatical changes. For example: "why" instead of "wherefore", "its" instead of "h ...

—

Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...

(1833) *

Young's Literal Translation Young's Literal Translation (YLT) is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of '' Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible'' and ''Concise Critical Comments on the New Te ...

— Robert Young (1862) *

Emphatic Diaglott The ''Emphatic Diaglott'' is a diaglot, or two-language polyglot translation, of the New Testament by Benjamin Wilson, first published in 1864. It is an interlinear translation with the original Greek text and a word-for-word English translati ...

— Benjamin Wilson (1864) * The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally from the Original Tongues —

Julia Evelina Smith Julia Evelina Smith (27 May 1792 – 6 March 1886) was an American women's suffrage activist who was the first woman to translate the Bible from its original languages into English. She was also the author of the book ''Abby Smith and Her Cows'', ...

(1876) *

Darby Bible The Darby Bible (DBY, formal title ''The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby'') refers to the Bible as translated from Hebrew and Greek by John Nelson Darby. History and principles Darby published a ...

— J.N. Darby (1890) *

Emphasized Bible Joseph Bryant Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (abbreviated EBR to avoid confusion with the REB) is a translation of the Bible which uses various methods, such as "emphatic idiom" and special diacritical marks, to bring out nuances of the under ...

— Joseph Bryant Rotherham (1902) * The Modern Reader's Bible —

Richard Green Moulton Richard Green Moulton (5 May 1849 – 15 August 1924) was an English professor, author, and lawyer. Biography Richard Green Moulton was born in England in 1849. He was the brother of William Fiddian Moulton, John Fletcher Moulton, and James ...

(1907) * The Centenary Translation — Helen Barrett Montgomery (1924) * The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts —

George Lamsa George Mamishisho Lamsa () (August 5, 1892 – September 22, 1975) was an Assyrian people, Assyrian author. He was born in Kara Kilise, Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic language, Aramaic speaker, he translated ...

(1933) *

Bible in Basic English The ''Bible In Basic English'' (also known as the ''BBE'') is a translation of the Bible into Basic English. The BBE was translated by Professor S. H. Hooke using the standard 850 Basic English words. 100 words that were helpful to understand ...

— S.H. Hooke (1949) * The Holy Bible: A Translation From the Latin Vulgate in the Light of the Hebrew and Greek Originals (aka "Knox Bible") —

Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an ...

(1950) * The Berkeley Version in Modern English —

Gerrit Verkuyl Gerrit Verkuijl or Gerrit Verkuyl (18 September 1872, Haarlemmermeer – 19 March 1967, Alameda, California) was a New Testament Greek scholar and Bible Translator. He emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States at 21, becoming a farmha ...

(1959) * Holy Name Bible containing the Holy Name Version of the Old and New Testaments —

Angelo Traina Angelo Benedetto Traina (January 22, 1889 - November 4, 1971) was a biblical scholar, best known for his emphasis on what he called restoring "Semitic proper names to their Aramaic and Hebrew forms". Life Traina was born in Sicily into a Cat ...

(1963) *

The Living Bible The Living Bible (TLB or LB) is a personal paraphrase, not a translation, of the Bible in English by Kenneth N. Taylor and first published in 1971. Taylor used the American Standard Version of 1901 as his base text. "The Way", an illustrated ...

—

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 ...

(1971) *

The Bible in Living English The Bible in Living English is a translation of the Bible by Steven T. Byington. History Byington translated the Bible on his own for 45 years from 1898 to 1943, but was unable to have it published during his lifetime. After he died in 1957, ...

— Stephen T. Byington (1972) * Literal Translation of the Holy Bible —

Jay P. Green Jay Patrick Green Sr. (December 1, 1918 – May 20, 2008) was an ordained minister, Bible translator, publisher, and businessman. Green was born in Ennis, Kentucky. He earned degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, Toronto Baptist Semi ...

(1985) * God's New Covenant: A New Testament Translation — Heinz Cassirer (1989) * The

Complete Jewish Bible Messianic Bible translations are translations, or editions of translations, in English of the Christian Bible, some of which are widely used in the Messianic Judaism and Hebrew Roots communities. They are not the same as Jewish English Bible tra ...

— David H. Stern (1998) * American King James Version — Michael Engelbrite (1999) * The Message —

Eugene H. Peterson Eugene Hoiland Peterson (November 6, 1932 – October 22, 2018) was an American Presbyterian minister, scholar, theologian, author, and poet. He wrote over 30 books, including the Gold Medallion Book Award–winner ''The Message (Bible), The ...

(2002) * The Original Aramaic Bible in Plain English — David Bauscher (2010) * The Bible — Nicholas King (2013)
The New Testament: A Translation
—

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 ...

(2017, 2023) * The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary —

Robert Alter Robert Bernard Alter (born 1935) is an American professor emeritus of Hebrew language, Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has published two dozen books, including an aw ...

(2018) Individual translations of parts of the Bible include: * Five Pauline Epistles, New Translation —

William Gunion Rutherford William Gunion Rutherford (17 July 1853 – 19 July 1907) was a Scottish scholar. Life He was born in Peeblesshire on 17 July 1853 and educated at St Andrews and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in natural science. His intention to ...

(1900) *

The New Testament in Modern English ''The New Testament in Modern English'' (Phi) is an English translation of the New Testament of the Bible translated by Anglican clergyman J. B. Phillips first published in 1958. BibleGateway.com describes the translation as This publication ...

'' — J.B. Phillips (1958) * The New Testament for Everyone —

N. T. Wright Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham and Lord Spiritual in the UK Parliament from 200 ...

(2023)

Jewish translations

Jewish English Bible translations are

modern English Bible translations Modern English Bible translations consists of English Bible translations developed and published throughout the late modern period () to the present (). A multitude of recent attempts have been made to translate the Bible into English. Most mo ...

that include the books of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

, and according to the traditional division and order of

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 () ...

Nevi'im The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ...

, and

Ketuvim The (; ) is the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, after the ("instruction") and the "Prophets". In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually titled "Writings" or "Hagiographa". In the Ketuvim, 1–2 Books ...

. Jewish translations often also reflect traditional Jewish interpretations of the Bible, as opposed to the Christian understanding that is often reflected in non-Jewish translations. For example, Jewish translations translate עלמה ''‘almâh'' in Isaiah 7:14 as ''young woman'', while many Christian translations render the word as ''virgin''. While modern biblical scholarship is similar for both Christians and Jews, there are distinctive features of Jewish translations, even those created by academic scholars. These include the avoidance of Christological interpretations, adherence to the

(at least in the main body of the text, as in the new

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by Reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

(JPS) translation) and greater use of classical Jewish exegesis. Some translations prefer names transliterated from the Hebrew, though the majority of Jewish translations use the Anglicized forms of biblical names. The first English Jewish translation of the Bible into English was by

Isaac Leeser Isaac Leeser (December 12, 1806 – February 1, 1868) was an American Orthodox Jewish religious leader, teacher, scholar and publisher. He helped found the Jewish press of America, produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English, ...

in the 19th century. The JPS produced two of the most popular Jewish translations, namely the JPS ''The Holy Scriptures'' of 1917 and the NJPS ''Tanakh'' (first printed in a single volume in 1985, second edition in 1999). Since the 1980s there have been multiple efforts among Orthodox publishers to produce translations that are not only Jewish, but also adhere to Orthodox norms. Among these are The Living Torah and Nach by

Aryeh Kaplan Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan (; October 23, 1934 – January 28, 1983) was an American Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi, author, and translator best known for his The Living Torah and Nach, Living Torah edition of the Torah and extensive Kabbalah, ...

and others, the

and other portions in an ongoing project by Everett Fox, and the

ArtScroll ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Rahway, New Jersey. Rabbi Nosson Scherman is the general editor. ArtScro ...

Tanakh.

Approaches to translation

Modern translations take different approaches to the rendering of the original languages of approaches. The approaches can usually be considered to be somewhere on a scale between the two extremes: *

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 ...

(sometimes called

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 ...

) in which the greatest effort is made to preserve the meaning of individual words and phrases in the original, with relatively less regard for its understandability by modern readers. Examples include 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 ...

English Standard Version The English Standard Version (ESV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently pu ...

Literal Standard Version The Literal Standard Version (LSV) is a Modern English translation of the Bible with a number of distinctive features. It describes itself as the most literal translation of the Bible into the modern English language. The first edition was publi ...

Revised Standard Version The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation is a revision of the American St ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. *

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 ...

(or functional equivalence, sometimes paraphrastic translation) in which the translator attempts to render the sense and intent of the original. Examples include

and The Message. Some translations have been motivated by a strong theological distinctive. In the Sacred Name Bibles the conviction that God's name be preserved in a Semitic form is followed. The Purified Translation of the Bible promotes the idea that Jesus and early Christians drink grape juice not wine. The

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 ...

' ''

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT, also simply NW) is a Bible translations, translation of the Bible published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; it is used and di ...

'' renders the

tetragrammaton The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliteration, transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from ...

as ''Jehovah'' throughout the Old Testament, and it uses the form ''Jehovah'' in the New Testament including — but not limited to — passages quoting the Old Testament even though it does not appear in the Greek text.

Single source translations

While most translations attempt to synthesize the various texts in the original languages, some translations also translate one specific textual source, generally for scholarly reasons. A single volume example for the Old Testament is ''The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible'' () by Martin Abegg, Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich. ''The Comprehensive New Testament'' () by T. E. Clontz and J. Clontz presents a scholarly view of the New Testament text by conforming to the Nestle-Aland 27th edition and extensively annotating the translation to fully explain different textual sources and possible alternative translations. ''A Comparative Psalter'' () edited by John Kohlenberger presents a comparative diglot translation of the Psalms of the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, using the Revised Standard Version and the New English Translation of the Septuagint. R. A. Knox's Translation of the Vulgate into English is another example of a single source translation.

Alternative approaches

Most translations make the translators' best attempt at a single rendering of the original, relying on footnotes where there might be alternative translations or textual variants. An alternative is taken by the

Amplified Bible ''The Amplified Bible'' (AMP) is an English language translation of the Bible produced jointly by Zondervan and The Lockman Foundation. The first edition as a complete volume was published in 1965. "Amplifications" are words or phrases intende ...

. In cases where a word or phrase admits of more than one meaning the Amplified Bible presents all the possible interpretations, allowing the reader to choose one. For example, the first two verses of the Amplified Bible read:

In the beginning God (Elohim) created y forming from nothingthe heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void ''or'' a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep rimeval ocean that covered the unformed earth The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.

Popularity in US

The

Evangelical Christian Publishers Association The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade association whose member companies are involved in the publishing and distribution of Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres ...

release monthly and annual statistics regarding the popularity of different Bibles sold by their members in the United States. In 2023, the top 10 best-selling translations were the following: Sales are affected by denomination and religious affiliation. For example, the most popular Jewish version would not compete with rankings of a larger audience. Sales data can be affected by the method of marketing. Some translations are directly marketed to particular denominations or local churches, and many Christian booksellers only offer

Protestant Bible A Protestant Bible is a Christian Bible whose translation or revision was produced by Protestantism, Protestant Christians. Typically translated into a vernacular language, such Bibles comprise 39 books of the Old Testament (according to the Dev ...

s, so books in other

biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek , meaning 'ruler, rule' or 'measu ...

s (such as

and

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Bibles) may not appear as high on the CBA rank. A study published in 2014 by The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University and Purdue University found that Americans read versions of the Bible as follows:Philip Goff, Arthur E. Farnsley II, Peter J. Thuesen. March 6, 201
The Bible in American Life: A National Study by The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
#

(55%) #

(19%) #

(7%) #

New American Bible The New American Bible (NAB) is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Bible first published in 1970. The 1986 Revised NAB is the basis of the revised Lectionary. In the Catholic Church it is the only translation approved ...

(6%) #

(5%) # All other translations (8%)

References

External links

Certified Translation Service
*
Great and Manifold: A Celebration of the Bible in English
' digital collection, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
A timeline and chart of various editions and translations of the Bible
in

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

* A collection of links o
the Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy
mainly from a perspective opposing Gender-Neutral translations. *

, an article comparing literal and dynamically equivalent translations from a retailer of and with a bias for the

English Bible History
with links to historic bibles
modern World English Bible for iPhone and iPad
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bible translations into English Biblical criticism