Why do we have so many...
Bible Translations?
This section will give you some facts on some of the different translations available. They will go in order from oldest to newest versions with explanations on when, how, and for what purpose they were made. The 'BIBLE' tab below will take you to the page to see how the Bible was delivered to us from the beginning.
The Latin Vulgate
WHEN:
The Vulgate is a late 4th Century Latin translation of the Bible that became the official Latin version used by the Catholic Church in the 16th century. It is still used in the Latin church alongside the Hebrew and Greek sources. The Clementine Edition of 1592 became the standard Bible text of the Catholic Church until 1979 when the Nova Vulgata was made the official version.
HOW:
This was largely the work of Saint Jerome of Stridon. He was commissioned by Pope Damascus I in AD 382 to revise the Vetus Latina (Old Latin) used by the Roman Church. He translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament was translated by Jerome and many believe by a contemporary of his. The manuscripts used were ancient Greek, original Hebrew, Aramaic texts, the Septuagint [1], and other existing Latin translations.
WHY:
While Greek was the dominant language in the Eastern Roman Empire, Latin was the common language of the West. As Christianity spread through Greek-speaking cities and made its way across the empire, the growing Christian church needed Latin translations of its sacred writings.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for-Word
The Wycliffe Bible
WHEN:
The Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395.
HOW:
There are two distinct versions of Wycliffe's Bible that have been written. The earlier was translated during the life of Wycliffe, while the later version is regarded as the work of John Purvey. Since the printing press was not invented yet, there exist only a very few copies of Wycliffe's earlier Bible. The earlier Bible is a rigid and literal translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, and Wycliffe's view of theology is closer to realism than to the spiritual. This version was translated word for word, which often led to confusion or meaninglessness.
WHY:
These Bible translations were the chief inspiration and chief cause of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement that rejected many of the distinctive teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In the early Middle Ages, most Western Christian people encountered the Bible only in the form of oral versions of scriptures, verses and sermons/homilies in Latin (other sources were mystery plays, usually performed in the vernacular, and popular iconography). Though relatively few people could read at this time, Wycliffe's idea was to translate the Bible into the vernacular, saying "it helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which they know best Christ's sentence".
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for-Word from the Vulgate
The Tyndale New Testament
WHEN:
The Tyndale Bible generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536). Tyndale's Bible is credited with being the first English translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts. It was the first English biblical translation that was mass-produced as a result of new advances in the art of printing. The term Tyndale's Bible is not strictly correct, because Tyndale never published a complete Bible. That task was completed by Miles Coverdale, who supplemented Tyndale's translations with his own to produce the first complete printed Bible in English in 1535.
HOW:
Tyndale began a translation into English using a Greek text compiled by Erasmus from several manuscripts older than the Latin Vulgate of Jerome (c. AD 340–420). He used a number of sources when carrying out his translations of both the New and Old Testaments. When translating the New Testament, he referred to the third edition (1522) of Erasmus's Greek New Testament, often referred to as the Received Text (Textus Receptus [2]). Tyndale also used Erasmus' Latin New Testament, as well as Luther's German version and the Vulgate.
WHY:
Tyndale's translation was the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation, and the first English translation to use Jehovah ("Iehouah") as God's name as preferred by English Protestant Reformers. It was taken to be a direct challenge to the dominance of both the Catholic Church and the laws of England maintaining the church's position. One estimate suggests that the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale's words, and the Old Testament 76%.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for- Word
The Geneva Bible
WHEN:
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years, the New Testament was published in 1557 and the complete version in 1560. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan, author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). It was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower.
HOW:
The source used to translate The Geneva Bible was the Textus Receptus [2]. It was translated from scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament and the first English version that all of the Old Testament was translated directly from Hebrew.
WHY:
The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of its extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders including John Calvin and others, were intended to help explain and interpret the Scriptures for the average reader.
With its variety of scriptural study guides and aids, which included cross-reference verse citations, introductions to each book of the Bible, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indexes, and other features; the Geneva Bible is regarded as history's first study Bible.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for-Word
The King James Version (KJV)
WHEN:
The King James Bible is an English translation for the Church of England, commissioned in 1604 and completed as well as published in 1611 under the sponsorship of King James VI and I. It is noted for its "majesty of style", the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world.
HOW:
The Geneva Bible of 1560 from the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures was influential in the writing of the Authorized King James Version. The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Text [3], some LXX [1] and Vulgate influence. The New Testament from Textus Receptus [2] and some readings derived from the Vulgate.
WHY:
King James inherited a contentious religious situation. Just about 50 years before he came to power, Queen Elizabeth I’s half-sister, Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”), a Catholic, had executed nearly 250 Protestants during her short reign. Elizabeth, as Queen, affirmed the legitimacy of her father Henry VIII’s Anglican Church, but maintained a settlement by which Protestants and Puritans were allowed to practice their own varieties of the religion. The Anglican Church was thus under attack from Puritans and Calvinists seeking to do away with bishops and their hierarchy.
John Rainolds, a scholar called on to help in its translation, hoped that James would turn his face against the Bishops’ Bible, but his plan backfired when the King insisted that the new translation be based on it and condemned the “partial, untrue, seditious” notes of the Geneva translation. James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology of, and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for-Word
The American Standard Version (ASV)
WHEN:
The American Standard Version (ASV), is a Bible translation into English that was completed in 1901. It was originally best known by its full name, but soon came to have other names, such as the American Revised Version, the American Standard Revision, the American Standard Revised Bible, and the American Standard Edition. Because of its prominence in seminaries, it was sometimes simply called the "Standard Bible" in the United States.
HOW:
It was derived from the English Revised Version 1881 - 1885 [4]. The Textual basis of the New Testament: Westcott and Hort 1881 [5] and Tregelles 1857 [6], used the Vaticanus [7] and Sinaiticus [8]. The Old Testament: Masoretic Text [3] with some Septuagint [1] influence.
WHY:
The American Standard Version of 1901, is rooted in the work begun in 1870 to revise the Authorized Version/King James Bible of 1611. This revision project eventually produced the Revised Version (RV).
The Revised Version (RV) aimed "to adapt King James' version to the present state of the English language without changing the idiom and vocabulary," and "to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship." To those ends, the Greek text that was used to translate the New Testament was believed by most to be of higher reliability than the Textus Receptus [2]. The readings used were compiled from a different text of the Greek Testament by Edwin Palmer. While the text of the translation itself is widely regarded as excessively literal and flat, the Revised Version is significant in the history of English Bible translation for many reasons. At the time of the RV's publication, the nearly 300-year-old King James Version was the main Protestant English Bible in Victorian England. The RV, therefore, is regarded as the forerunner of the entire modern translation tradition. It was also considered more accurate than the King James Version in a number of verses.
There were two rationales for the ASV. One reason was to obviate any justification for the unauthorized copied editions of the RV that had been circulating. Another reason was to use more of the suggestions the American team had preferred, since the British team used few of their suggestions in the Revised Version. There were several changes to the King James Version text in the American Standard Version that were not present in the Revised Version.
Features of the ASV: The divine name of the Almighty is consistently rendered Jehovah in the ASV Old Testament, rather than LORD as it appears in the King James Bible. The reason for this change, was that "...the American Revisers...were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament..." Other changes from the RV to the ASV included (but were not limited to) substituting "who" and "that" for "which" when referring to people, and Holy Ghost was dropped in favor of Holy Spirit.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Literal; Word-for-Word
The New King James Version (NKJV)
WHEN:
The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson. The New Testament was published in 1979, the Psalms in 1980, and the full Bible in 1982. It took seven years to complete. The anglicized edition was originally known as the Revised Authorized Version, but the NKJV title is now used universally.
HOW:
The New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus [2], derived from the Byzantine text-type [9]. The Old Testament from the Masoretic [3] Text with Septuagint [1] influence.
WHY:
The translators have sought to follow the principles of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV revisers call "complete equivalence [10]" in contrast to "dynamic equivalence [11]" used by many contemporary translations. The task of updating the English of the KJV involved significant changes in word order, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. One of the most significant features of the NKJV was its replacement of early modern second-person pronouns, such as "thou" and "thine"; and corresponding verb forms, such as "speakest"; with their twentieth-century equivalents.
The Executive Editor of the NKJV, Arthur L. Farstad, addressed textual concerns in a book explaining the NKJV translation philosophy. While defending the Majority Text (also called the Byzantine text-type [9]), and claiming that the Textus Receptus [2] is inferior to the Majority Text, he noted (p. 114) that the NKJV references significant discrepancies among text types in its marginal notes: "None of the three [textual] traditions on every page of the New Testament ... is labeled 'best' or 'most reliable.' The reader is permitted to make up his or her own mind about the correct reading."
TRANSLATION TYPE: Formal Equivalence [11]; A Literal translation, translating the meaning of words and phrases in a more literal way, keeping literal fidelity.
The New American Standard Bible (NASB95)
WHEN:
The New American Standard Bible is an English translation of the Bible by the Lockman Foundation. The New Testament was first published in 1963, and the complete Bible in 1971. The most recent edition of the NASB text was published in 1995.
HOW:
The Hebrew text (OT) used for this translation was the third edition of Rudolf Kittel's 'Biblia Hebraica' [12] as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls [13]. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia [14] was consulted for the 1995 revision. For Greek (NT), Eberhard Nestle's 'Novum Testamentum Graece' [15] was used; the 23rd edition in the 1971 original, and the 26th in the 1995 revision.
WHY:
The New American Standard Bible is considered by some sources as the most literally translated of major 20th-century English Bible translations. According to the NASB's preface, the translators had a "Fourfold Aim" in this work:
- These publications shall be true to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
- They shall be grammatically correct.
- They shall be understandable.
- They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him; therefore, no work will ever be personalized.
The NASB is an original translation from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, based on the same principles of translation, and wording, as the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901. It offers an alternative to the Revised Standard Version (1946–1952/1971), which is considered by some to be theologically liberal, and also to the 1929 revision of the ASV.
Seeing the need for a literal, modern translation of the English Bible, the translators sought to produce a contemporary English Bible while maintaining a word-for-word translation style. In cases where word-for-word literalness was determined to be unacceptable for modern readers, changes were made in the direction of more current idioms. In some such instances, the more literal renderings were indicated in footnotes.
The greatest strength of the NASB is its reliability and fidelity to the original languages. In 1995, the Lockman Foundation reissued the NASB text as the 'NASB Updated Edition' (more commonly, NASB95). Since then, it has become widely known as simply the "NASB", supplanting the 1977 text in current printings. In the NASB95, consideration was given to the latest available manuscripts with an emphasis on determining the best Greek text.
The NASB95 represents recommended revisions and refinements, and incorporates thorough research based on current English usage. Vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure were meticulously revised for greater understanding and smoother reading, hence increasing clarity and readability. Terms found in Elizabethan English such as "thy" and "thou" have been modernized, while verses with difficult word ordering are restructured. Punctuation and paragraphing have been formatted for modernization, and verbs with multiple meanings have been updated to better account for their contextual usage.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Formal Equivalence [11]; A Literal translation, translating the meaning of words and phrases in a more literal way, keeping literal fidelity.
The New International Version (NIV)
WHEN:
The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011, and has become one of the most popular and best selling modern translations.
HOW:
A team of 15 biblical scholars, representing a variety of denominations, worked from the oldest copies of reliable texts, variously written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Each section was subjected to multiple translations and revisions, and those assessed in detail to produce the best option. For the NT; the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament [15] was used to translate. For the OT; Biblia Hebraica [12], Masoretic Text [3], Dead Sea Scrolls [13], Samaritan Pentateuch [16], Aquila [17], Symmachus [18], and Theodotion [19], Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta [20], Aramaic Tergums [21], and for Psalms Juxta Hebraica [22] of Jerome.
WHY:
The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English. Everyday Bible readers were used to provide feedback on ease of understanding and comprehensibility. Finally, plans were made to continue revision of the Bible as new discoveries were made and as changes in the use of the English language occurred. The goal was to produce a more modern English language text than the King James Version.
TRANSLATION TYPE: Mixed Formal and Dynamic Equivalence [11]; A balance between Word-for-Word and Thought-for-Thought or literal and phrase by phrase translations.
The Latest Less Common Translations - From Late 1990's
New Living Translation (NLT)
The New Living Translation method combined an attempt to translate the original texts simply and literally with a dynamic equivalence [11] synergy approach used to convey the thoughts behind the text where a literal translation may have been difficult to understand or even misleading to modern readers.
A part of the reasoning behind adapting the language for accessibility is the premise that more people will hear the Bible read aloud in a church service than are likely to read it or study it on their own.
It has been suggested that this "thought-for-thought" methodology, while making the translation easier to understand, is less accurate than a literal (formal equivalence [11]) method, and thus the New Living Translation may not be suitable for those wishing to undertake detailed study of the Bible.
The manuscripts used to translate are the same as the NASB. The NLT was written for a middle school level reader; hence, better for listening to than studying from.
The English Standard Version (ESV)
During the early 1990's, Crossway president Lane T. Dennis engaged in discussions with various Christian scholars and pastors regarding the need for a new literal translation of the Bible. In 1997, He contacted the National Council of Churches to obtain rights to use the RSV text as a base for a new translation. Crossway later formed a translation committee and started work on the ESV in the late 1990's.
In the translation process, approximately six percent of the 1971 RSV text base being used was changed. Crossway claims that the ESV continues a legacy begun by the Tyndale New Testament of precision and faithfulness in English translation from the original text, followed in the same standard by the KJV of 1611, the English Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the ASV of 1901, and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV).
The manuscripts used to translate are the same as the NASB. It was translated using the formal equivalence [11] method of translating.
The Message Version (MSG)
The Message is a highly idiomatic translation of the Bible in contemporary language by Eugene H. Peterson, published in segments from 1993 to 2002. It is a personal paraphrase of the Bible in English from the original languages. The contemporary American slang used in the translation deviates from a more neutral International English, and it falls on the extreme dynamic end of the dynamic and formal equivalence [11] spectrum.
According to the Introduction to the New Testament of The Message, its "contemporary idiom keeps the language of the Message (Bible) current and fresh and understandable". Peterson notes that in the course of the project, he realized this was exactly what he had been doing in his thirty-five years as a pastor, "always looking for an English way to make the biblical text relevant to the conditions of the people".
Translation was from the original language using; idiomatic/extreme dynamic equivalence [11]/paraphrased method.