NOTE: If a word is bold and has a footnote, it defines the term or gives you a few sentences to a few paragraphs of information on that term. This article is filled with 110 footnotes doing just that. The other footnotes (non-bold) are sources. This article also has numerous other article links that can take you far deeper so that you can appreciate the trustworthiness of the Bible. Attribution: This article incorporates some text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and Edward D. Andrews.

The Bible has been translated[1] into many languages from the biblical languages[2] of Hebrew,[3] Aramaic, and Koine Greek.[4] As of September 2020, the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,551 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,160 other languages. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,415 languages.[5]

The Latin Vulgate[6] was dominant in Western Christianity[7] through the Middle Ages. Since then, the Bible has been translated into many more languages.

English Bible translations also have a rich and varied history of more than a millennium. The English Bible Translation is known as the most accurate Bible version due to large number of excellent translations. (See HISTORY OF ENGLISH VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.)[8]

Textual variants in the New Testament[9] 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[10] was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Biblical Aramaic. From the 6th century to the 10th century AD, Jewish scholars, today known as Masoretes,[11] compared the text of all known biblical manuscripts[12] 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[13] (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text contained only consonants.[14] 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[15] and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.[16]

New Testament

The New Testament[17] was written in Koine Greek.[18] The autographs, the Greek manuscripts written by the original authors, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the manuscripts that do survive. The four main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type,[19] the Byzantine text-type,[20] The Caesarean text-type,[21] and the Western text-type.[22]

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, and the Western version of Acts.

The discovery of older manuscripts which belong to the Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus[23] and Codex Sinaiticus,[24] led scholars to revise their view about the original Greek text. Karl Lachmann[25] based his critical edition[26] of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to argue that the Textus Receptus[27] must be corrected according to these earlier texts.

Early manuscripts of the Pauline epistles and other New Testament writings show no punctuation whatsoever. The punctuation was added later by other editors, according to their own understanding of the text.

History

Ancient Translations

Aramaic Targums

Some of the first translations of the Torah began during the Babylonian exile, when Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Jews. With most people speaking only Aramaic and not understanding Hebrew, the Targums were created to allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was read in ancient synagogues.

Greek Septuagint

By the 3rd century BC, Alexandria[28] had become the center of Hellenistic Judaism,[29] 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 ascribes the translation effort to Ptolemy II Philadelphus[30] (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”[31] (354–430 AD).[32] The Septuagint (LXX), the very first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, later became the accepted text of the Old Testament[33] in the Christian church and the basis of its canon. 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), and on the Greek text for the deuterocanonical books.[34]

The translation now known as the Septuagint was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians.[35] It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a legend (primarily recorded as the Letter of Aristeas)[36] that seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators all produced identical texts; supposedly proving its accuracy.[37]

Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books not included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases, these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or of Hebrew variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than previously thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition (“Vorlage”)[38] from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic texts.

Late Antiquity

Origen’s Hexapla 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[39] of Sinope and Symmachus[40] the Ebionite, one recension of the Septuagint, and the Greek translation of Theodotion.[41] 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. The canonical Christian Bible[42] was formally established by Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem[43] in 350 (although it had been generally accepted by the church previously), confirmed by the Council of Laodicea[44] in 363 (both lacked the Book of Revelation), and later established by Athanasius of Alexandria[45] in 367 (with Revelation added), and Jerome’s Vulgate Latin translation[46] dates to between AD 382 and 405. Latin translations predating Jerome are collectively known as Vetus Latina texts.

Christian translations also tend to be based upon the Hebrew, though some denominations prefer the Septuagint (or may cite variant readings from both). Bible translations incorporating modern textual criticism usually begin with the Masoretic Text, but also take into account possible variants from all available ancient versions. The received text[47] of the Christian New Testament is in Koine Greek,[48] and nearly all translations are based upon the Greek text.

Jerome began by revising the 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.

The Bible was translated into Gothic[49] in the 4th century by a group of scholars, possibly under the supervision of Ulfilas.[50] In the 5th century, Saint Mesrob[51] translated the Bible using the Armenian alphabet[52] invented by him. Also dating from the same period are the Syriac,[53] Coptic,[54] Old Nubian,[55] Ethiopic[56] and Georgian[57] translations.

There are also several ancient translations, the most important of which are in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic (including the Peshitta[58] and the Diatessaron[59] gospel harmony), in the Ethiopian language of Ge’ez,[60] and in Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate).

In 331, the Emperor Constantine[61] commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius (Apol. Const. 4) recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. 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, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.[62]

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. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions, additions, and variants (mostly in orthography).

The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible in Latin is the Codex Amiatinus,[63] a Latin Vulgate edition produced in 8th-century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.[64]

During the Middle Ages,[65] translation, particularly of the Old Testament, was discouraged. Nevertheless, there are some fragmentary Old English Bible translations,[66] notably a lost translation of the Gospel of John into Old English by the Venerable Bede,[67] which is said to have been prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. An Old High German[68] version of the Gospel of Matthew dates to 748. Charlemagne[69] in c. 800 charged Alcuin with a revision of the Latin Vulgate. The translation into Old Church Slavonic[70] was started in 863 by Cyril and Methodius.[71]

Alfred the Great,[72] 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 and the Pentateuch, 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;[73] these are called the Wessex Gospels.[74] Around the same time, a compilation now called the Old English Hexateuch[75] appeared with the first six (or, in one version, seven) books of the Old Testament.

Pope Innocent III[76] in 1199 banned unauthorized versions of the Bible as a reaction to the supposed Cathar and Waldensian[77] heresies.[78] The synods of Toulouse and Tarragona[79] (1234) outlawed possession of such renderings. There is evidence of some vernacular translations being permitted while others were being scrutinized.

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 being suppressed by the Church.[80] The entire Bible was translated into Czech around 1360.

The most notable Middle English Bible translation,[81] Wycliffe’s Bible[82] (1383), based on the Vulgate, was banned by the Oxford Synod in 1408. A Hungarian Hussite Bible[83] appeared in the mid-15th century, and in 1478, a Catalan translation in the dialect of Valencia.[84] Many parts of the Bible were printed by William Caxton[85] in his translation of the Golden Legend,[86] and in Speculum Vitae Christi (The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ).[87]

Reformation and Early Modern period

The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from the Froben[88] press, by Desiderius Erasmus,[89] who reconstructed its Greek text from several recent manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type. He occasionally added a Greek translation of the Latin Vulgate for parts that did not exist in the Greek manuscripts. He produced four later editions of this text. Erasmus was Roman Catholic, but his preference for the Byzantine Greek[90] manuscripts rather than the Latin Vulgate led some church authorities to view him with suspicion.

During 1517 and 1519 Francysk Skaryna[91] printed a translation of the Bible in Old Belarusian language[92] in twenty-two books.[93]

In 1521, Martin Luther[94] was placed under the Ban of the Empire,[95] and he retired to the Wartburg Castle. During his time there, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. It was printed in September 1522. The first complete Dutch Bible, partly based on the existing portions of Luther’s translation, was printed in Antwerp in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt.[96]

The first printed edition with critical apparatus (noting variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne[97] 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 of Paris) 

Later 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 UBS5 and NA28,[98] 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 {A} to doubtful {E}, 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[99] 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.[100]

The churches of the Protestant Reformation translated the Greek of the Textus Receptus to produce vernacular Bibles, such as the German Luther Bible[101] (1522), the Polish Brest Bible (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[102] translation (1526, revised in 1534, 1535 and 1536) and his translation of the Pentateuch (1530, 1534) and the Book of Jonah 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[103] and published under a pseudonym to create the Matthew Bible,[104] the first complete English translation of the Bible. Attempts at an “authoritative” English Bible for the Church of England[105] would include the Great Bible[106] of 1538 (also relying on Coverdale’s work), the Bishops’ Bible[107] of 1568, and the Authorized Version (the King James Version)[108] of 1611, the last of which would become a standard for English-speaking Christians for several centuries.

The first complete French Bible was a translation by Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, published in 1530 in Antwerp. The Froschauer Bible of 1531 and the Luther Bible of 1534 (both appearing in portions throughout the 1520s) were an important part of the Reformation.

The first English translations of Psalms (1530), Isaiah (1531), Proverbs (1533), Ecclesiastes (1533), Jeremiah (1534) and Lamentations (1534), were executed by the Protestant Bible translator George Joye in Antwerp. In 1535 Myles Coverdale published the first complete English Bible also in Antwerp.

By 1578 both Old and New Testaments were translated to Slovene by the Protestant writer and theologian Jurij Dalmatin. The work was not printed until 1583. The Slovenes 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, who published the translation of the Gospel of Matthew 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, Welsh became the 13th language into which the whole Bible had been translated in 1588, through a translation by William Morgan, the bishop of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.

Samuel Bogusław Chyliński (1631–1668) translated and published the first Bible translation into Lithuanian.

Modern translation Efforts

Bible Translation Statistics (for selected years)
Year	Full Bible	New Testament	Portions	Total
1996	308	764	1014	2086
2006	426	1114	862	2402
2010	457	1211	897	2565
2011	513	1276	1015	2804
2012	518	1275	1005	2798
2013	513	1309	1028	2850
2014	531	1329	1023	2883
2015	554	1333	1045	2932
2016	636	1442	1145	3223
2017	670	1521	1121	3312
2018	683	1534	1133	3350
2019	698	1548	1138	3384

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 and New Testament. Either the Tanakh or the New Testament was available in an additional 1,168 languages, in some kind of translations, like the interlinear morpheme-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 realized 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. Due to the increase, at current rates, Bible translation will begin in every language by 2038, thus being 112 years faster.

As of October 2019, they estimated that around 171 million people spoke those 2,115 languages where translation work still needs to begin. In total, there are 3,969 languages without any bible translation at all, but many of these are likely to never need a Bible because they are very similar to other languages, or spoken by very few speakers.

Differences in Bible Translations

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[109] Translation
• Formal Equivalence[110] Translation (similar to literal translation)[111]
• Idiomatic,[112] or paraphrastic[113] translation, as used by the late Kenneth N. Taylor.[114]

Modern linguists, such as Bible scholar Dr. Joel Hoffman, disagree with this classification.

As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, like all languages, have some idioms 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 or to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language. For instance, in the Douay Rheims Bible, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, New American Bible Revised Edition, which are the English language Catholic translations, as well as Protestant translations like the King James Bible, the Darby Bible, the Recovery Version, the Literal Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the Modern Literal Version, the New American Standard Bible and the Updated American Standard Version are seen as more literal translations (or “word for word”), whereas translations like the New International Version and New Living Translation 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. The further away one gets from word for word translation, the easier the text becomes to read while relying more on the theological, linguistic or cultural understanding of the translator, which one would not normally expect a lay reader to require. On the other hand, as one gets closer to a word for word translation, the text becomes more literal but still relies on similar problems of meaningful translation at the word level and makes it difficult for lay readers to interpret due to their unfamiliarity 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.

For example, the New World Translation,[115] produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses,[116] provides different renderings where verses in other Bible translations support the deity of Christ.[117] The NWT also translates kurios as “Jehovah” 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.[118]

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,[119] by translation and explanatory footnotes, promotes the position that Christians should not drink alcohol, that New Testament references to “wine” are translated as “grape juice.”

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] 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 translating (a written text) and interpreting (oral or signed communication between users of different languages); under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community.

[2] Biblical languages are any of the languages employed in the original writings of the Bible. Partially owing to the significance of the Bible in society, Biblical languages are studied more widely than many other dead languages.

[3] Biblical Hebrew (עִבְרִית מִקְרָאִית, (Ivrit Miqra’it) or לְשׁוֹן הַמִּקְרָא, (Leshon ha-Miqra) ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of the Jordan River and east of the Mediterranean Sea. The term “Hebrew” (ibrit) was not used for the language in the Bible, which was referred to as שפת כנען (sefat kena’an, i.e., language of Canaan) or יהודית (Yehudit, i.e. Judaean), but the name was used in Ancient Greek and Mishnaic Hebrew texts.

[4] Koine Greek (UK: ; Modern Greek: Ελληνιστική Κοινή, romanized: Ellinistikí Kiní, lit. ’Common Greek’, [elinistiˈci ciˈni]), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic or Biblical Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries.

[5] “Latest Bible translation statistics”. Wycliffe. Retrieved 18 December 2020.

[6] The Vulgate (; Biblia Vulgata, Latin: [ˈbɪbli.a wʊlˈɡaːta]) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome of Stridon who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church.

[7] Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Church, Independent Catholicism and Restorationism.

[8] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949586979

[9] 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. There are 400,000+ textual variants in some 5,898 Greek New Testament manuscripts. Do not be alarmed by this talking point of Agnostic Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, almost all are very insignificant, and we know what the original reading is. See What Are Textual Variants [Errors] and How Many Are There?

What Are Textual Variants [Errors] and How Many Are There?

[10] The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (; Hebrew: תַּנַ״ךְ‎, pronounced [taˈnaχ] or [təˈnax]), is the canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah, the Nevi’im, and the Ketuvim. These texts are almost exclusively in Biblical Hebrew, with a few passages in Biblical Aramaic (in the books of Daniel and Ezra, the verse Jeremiah 10:11, and some single words).

[11] The Masoretes (Hebrew: בעלי המסורה, Romanized: Ba’alei ha-Masora) were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries CE, based primarily in medieval Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq (Babylonia). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes (niqqud) on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions, and cantillation of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) for the worldwide Jewish community. See HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT: Who Were the Masoretes and Why Are They So Important?

HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT: Who Were the Masoretes and Why Are They So Important?

[12] 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-lingual books) containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament, as well as extracanonical works.

[13] The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; Hebrew: נוסח המסורה, romanized: Nusakh Ham’mas’sora) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Tanakh in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the mas’sora.

[14] An abjad () is a type of writing system in which (in contrast to true alphabets) each symbol or glyph stands for a consonant, in effect leaving it to readers to infer or otherwise supply an appropriate vowel. The term is a neologism introduced in 1990 by Peter T. Daniels.

[15] The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the Samaritan Torah (Hebrew: תורה שומרונית torah shomronit), is a text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the Samaritan script and used as sacred scripture by the Samaritans. It dates back to one of the ancient versions of the Hebrew Bible that existed during the Second Temple period, and constitutes their entire biblical canon.Some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the Masoretic Text.

[16] 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.

[17] The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity.

[18] Koine Greek (UK: ; Modern Greek: Ελληνιστική Κοινή, romanized: Ellinistikí Kiní, lit. ’Common Greek,’ [elinistiˈci ciˈni]), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic or Biblical Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries.

Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar. Revised by Gordon M. Messing. ISBN 9780674362505. Harvard University Press, 1956. Introduction F, N-2, p. 4A

[19] 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. See Alexandrian Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Alexandrian Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

[20] Byzantine text-type

In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. See Byzantine Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Byzantine Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

[21] An Eastern form of text, which was formerly called the Caesarean text, is preserved, to a greater or lesser extent, in several Greek manuscripts (including Θ, 565, 700) and in the Armenian and Georgian versions. The text of these witnesses is characterized by a mixture of Western and Alexandrian readings. (Bruce M. Metzger) See Caesarean Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Caesarean Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

[22] 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 Peshitta translations from the Greek, and also in quotations from certain 2nd and 3rd-century Christian writers, including Cyprian, Tertullian and Irenaeus. See Western Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

Western Text-Type of Greek New Testament Manuscripts

[23] The Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; no. B or 03 Gregory-Aland, δ 1 von Soden) is one of the oldest copies of the Bible, one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library, where it has been kept since at least the 15th century. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to 300-325 A.D. See CODEX VATICANUS: Why Is it a Treasure?

[24] Codex Sinaiticus

The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmarks and references: London, British Library, Add MS 43725; Gregory-Aland nº א [Aleph] or 01, [Soden δ 2]), or “Sinai Bible”, is one of the four great uncial codices, ancient, handwritten copies of a Christian Bible in Greek. The codex is a historical treasure.The codex is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in uncial letters on parchment and dated paleographically to 330-360 A.D. See CODEX SINAITICUS: One of the Most Reliable Witnesses to the Greek New Testament Text

[25] Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann (German: [ˈlaxman]; 4 March 1793 – 13 March 1851) was a German philologist and critic. He is particularly noted for his foundational contributions to the field of textual criticism.

[26] Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author’s work.

[27] In Christianity, the term Textus Receptus (Latin for “received text”) refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum omne (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denominations.

[28] Alexandria (or; Arabic: الإسكندرية al-ʾIskandarīyah; Egyptian Arabic: اسكندرية Eskendereyya; Coptic: ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ, romanized: Rakotī; Greek: Αλεξάνδρεια Alexándria) is the third-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and Giza, the seventh-largest city in Africa, and a major economic centre. Called the “Bride of the Mediterranean” by locals, Alexandria is the largest city on the Mediterranean, the fourth-largest city in the Arab world, and the ninth-largest urban area in Africa as well as the 79th largest urban area by population on Earth.

[29] Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria (now in southern Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa region, both founded at the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great.

[30] Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος Ptolemaios Philadelphos, “Ptolemy, sibling-lover”; 309 – 28 January 246 BC), also known posthumously as Ptolemy the Great, was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the Great who founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom after the death of Alexander, and Queen Berenice I, originally from Macedon in northern Greece. During Ptolemy II’s reign, the material and literary splendor of the Alexandrian court was at its height.

[31] Augustine of Hippo (; Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.

[32] Sundberg, Albert C., Jr. (2002). “The Septuagint: The Bible of Hellenistic Judaism”. In McDonald, Lee Martin; Sanders, James A. (eds.). The Canon Debate. Hendrickson Publishers. p. 72.

Septuagint” …[Latin omitted]… Augustine thus indicates that this name for the Greek translation of the scriptures was a recent development. But he offers no clue as to which of the possible antecedents led to this development: Exod 24:1–8, Josephus [Antiquities 12.57, 12.86], or an elision. …this name Septuagint appears to have been a fourth- to fifth-century development.”

[33] The Old Testament (often abbreviated 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 writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language.

[34] The deuterocanonical books (from the Greek meaning “belonging to the second canon”) are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East to be canonical books of the Old Testament, but which Protestant denominations regard as apocrypha. They date from 300 BC–AD 100, mostly from 200 BC–AD 70, before the definite separation of the Christian church from Judaism. These are not inspired, they are not a part of the true canon of 39 Old Testament books. Some only have a little historical value.

[35] Karen Jobes and Moises Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint, ISBN 1-84227-061-3 (Paternoster Press, 2001). The as of 2001 standard introductory work on the Septuagint.

[36] The Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the 3rd or early 2nd century BC, assigned by some Biblical scholars to the Pseudepigrapha. Josephus, who paraphrases about two-fifths of the letter, ascribes it to Aristeas of Marmora and to have been written to a certain Philocrates. The letter describes the Greek translation of the Hebrew Law by seventy-two interpreters sent into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, resulting in the Septuagint translation—though some have argued that its story of the creation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is fictitious. The letter is the earliest text to mention the Library of Alexandria.

[37] Jennifer M. Dines, The Septuagint, Michael A. Knibb, Ed., London: T&T Clark, 2004.

[38] A Vorlage (German pronunciation: [ˈfoːɐ̯laːɡə]; from the German for prototype or template) is a prior version or manifestation of a text under consideration. It may refer to such a version of a text itself, a particular manuscript of the text, or a more complex manifestation of the text (e.g., a group of copies, or a group of excerpts).

[39] Aquila (Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ʿăqīlas, fl. 130 AD) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; Latin: Aquila Ponticus) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a proselyte, and disciple of Rabbi Akiva.

[40] Symmachus (; Greek: Σύμμαχος “ally”; fl. late 2nd century) translated the Old Testament into Greek.

[41] Theodotion (; Greek: Θεοδοτίων, gen.: Θεοδοτίωνος; died c. 200) was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar, perhaps working in Ephesus, who in c. 150 CE translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Whether he was revising the Septuagint or was working from Hebrew manuscripts that represented a parallel tradition that has not survived, is debated. In the 2nd century Theodotion’s text was quoted in The Shepherd of Hermas and in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho.

[42] The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, ‘the books’) is a collection of religious texts, writings, or scriptures sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, Islam, Rastafari, and many other faiths. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God.

[43] Cyril of Jerusalem (Greek: Κύριλλος Α΄ Ἱεροσολύμων, Kýrillos A Ierosolýmon; Latin: Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus; c. 313 – 386 AD) was a theologian of the early Church.

[44] The Council of Laodicea was a regional Christian synod of approximately thirty clerics from Asia Minor which assembled about 363–364 AD in Laodicea, Phrygia Pacatiana.

[45] Athanasius I of Alexandria (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor or, primarily in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria (as Athanasius I).

[46] The Vulgate (Biblia Vulgata, Latin: [ˈbɪbli.a wʊlˈɡaːta]) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome of Stridon who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church.

[47] In Christianity, the term Textus Receptus (Latin for “received text”) refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum omne (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denominations.

[48] Some scholars hypothesize that certain books (whether completely or partially) may have been written in Aramaic before being translated for widespread dissemination. One very famous example of this is the opening to the Gospel of John, which some scholars argue to be a Greek translation of an Aramaic hymn.

[49] Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable text corpus.

[50] Ulfilas (c. 311–383), also known as Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally “Little Wolf”, was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary, is credited with the translation of the Bible into Gothic, and participated in the Arian controversy. He developed the Gothic alphabet – inventing a writing system based on the Greek alphabet – in order for the Bible to be translated into the Gothic language.

[51] Mesrop Mashtots (listen ; Armenian: Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց Mesrop Maštoc’; Eastern Armenian: [mɛsˈɾop maʃˈtotsʰ]; Western Armenian: [mɛsˈɾob maʃˈdotsʰ]; Latin: Mesrobes Mastosius; 362 – February 17, 440 AD) was an early medieval Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman and hymnologist. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches

[52] The Armenian alphabet (Armenian: Հայոց գրեր, Hayots’ grer or Հայոց այբուբեն, Hayots’ aybuben; Eastern Armenian: [haˈjotsʰ ajbuˈbɛn]; Western Armenian: [haˈjotsʰ ajpʰuˈpʰɛn]) is an alphabetic writing system used to write Armenian. It was developed around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader.

[53] The Peshitta (Classical Syriac: ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ or ܦܫܝܼܛܬܵܐ pšīṭta) is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church (Thozhiyoor Church), the Syro Malankara Catholic Church, the Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro Malabar Catholic Church. The consensus within biblical scholarship, although not universal, is that the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from Biblical Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD, and that the New Testament of the Peshitta was translated from the Greek.

[54] There have been many Coptic versions of the Bible, including some of the earliest translations into any language. Several different versions were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the Old and New Testament in five of the dialects of Coptic: Bohairic (northern), Fayyumic, Sahidic (southern), Akhmimic and Mesokemic (middle).

[55] The Bible was translated into Old Nubian during the period when Christianity was dominant in Nubia (southern Egypt and northern Sudan). Throughout the Middle Ages, Nubia was divided into separate kingdoms: Nobadia, Makuria and Alodia.

[56] Geʽez (; ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] (listen), and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.

[57] Georgian (ქართული ენა, romanized: kartuli ena, pronounced [kʰartʰuli ɛna]) is the most widely-spoken of the Kartvelian languages and serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 87.6% of its population.

[58] The Peshitta (Classical Syriac: ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ or ܦܫܝܼܛܬܵܐ pšīṭta) is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church (Thozhiyoor Church), the Syro Malankara Catholic Church, the Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro Malabar Catholic Church. The consensus within biblical scholarship, although not universal, is that the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from Biblical Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD, and that the New Testament of the Peshitta was translated from the Greek.

[59] The Diatessaron (Syriac: ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ ܕܡܚܠܛܐ, romanized: Ewangeliyôn Damhalltê; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony, and was created by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic.

[60] Geʽez (; ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] (listen), and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.

[61] During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine’s reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to.

[62] The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, pp. 414–15, for the entire paragraph.

[63] The Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving complete manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version of the Christian Bible. It was produced around 700 in the north-east of England, at the Benedictine monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, now South Tyneside and taken to Italy as a gift for Pope Gregory II in 716.

[64] The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, known simply as Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey (Latin: Monasterii Wirimutham-Gyruum), was a Benedictine double monastery in the Kingdom of Northumbria, England. Its first house was St Peter’s, Monkwearmouth, on the River Wear, founded in AD 674–5.

[65] In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.

[66] 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.

[67] Bede ( BEED; Old English: Bǣda [ˈbæːdɑ], Bēda [ˈbeːdɑ]; 672/3 – 26 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (Latin: Beda Venerabilis), was an English Benedictine monk at the monastery of St. Peter and its companion monastery of St.

[68] Old High German (OHG, German: Althochdeutsch, German abbr. Ahd.) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.

[69] Charlemagne ( SHAR-lə-mayn, -⁠MAYN, French: [ʃaʁləmaɲ]) or Charles the Great (Latin: Carolus Magnus; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, Charlemagne united the majority of western and central Europe.

[70] Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek ecclesiastical texts as part of the Christianization of the Slavs.

[71] Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the “Apostles to the Slavs.” They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic.

[72] Alfred the Great (848/849 – 26 October 899) was king of the West Saxons from 871 to c. 886 and king of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf, who died when Alfred was young.

[73] West Saxon was one of four distinct dialects of Old English. The three others were Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian (the latter two were similar and are known as the Anglian dialects).

[74] The Wessex Gospels (also known as the West-Saxon Gospels) refer to a translation of the four gospels of the Christian Bible into a West Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced from approximately AD 990 to 1175 in present-day England, this version is the first translation of all four gospels into stand-alone Old English text.

[75] The Old English Hexateuch 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 Ælfric of Eynsham. It is the first English vernacular translation of the first six books of the Old Testament, i.e., the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and Joshua. It was probably made for use by lay people.

[76] Pope Innocent III (Latin: Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential of the medieval popes.

[77] The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a proto-Protestant church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the “Poor Men of Lyon” in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what are today France and Italy.

[78] The only heresies was their exposing the false teachings of the Catholic Church by translating the Bible in the common man’s language. The Catholic Church had the Bible locked up in the Latin language for 1,000 years trying to conceal their false teachings. Even the Catholic Priests did not understand Latin.

[79] The Council of Toulouse (1229) was a Council of the Roman Catholic Church called by Folquet de Marselha the Bishop of Toulouse in 1229 AD. The council forbade laity to read vernacular translations of the Bible.

[80] Sneddon, Clive R. 1993. “A neglected mediaeval Bible translation.” Romance Languages Annual 5(1): 11–16 [1] Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine.

[81] Middle English Bible translations (1066-1500) covers the age of Middle English, beginning with the Norman conquest and ending about 1500. Aside from Wycliffe’s Bible, this was not a fertile time for Bible translation.

[82] 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.

[83] The Hussites (Czech: Husité or Kališníci; “Chalice People”) were a Czech Proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Hussite movement began in the Kingdom of Bohemia and quickly spread throughout the remaining Lands of the Bohemian Crown, including Moravia and Silesia.

[84] The Valencian Community (Valencian: Comunitat Valenciana, Spanish: Comunidad Valenciana), or simply Valencia (Valencian: València, Spanish: Valencia), is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid with more than five million inhabitants.

[85] William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491) was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer was the first English retailer of printed books.

[86] The Golden Legend (Latin: Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum) is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Varagine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.

[87] The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ is an adaptation/translation of Pseudo-Bonaventure’s Meditations on the Life of Christ into English by Nicholas Love, the Carthusian prior of Mount Grace Priory, written ca. 1400.

[88] Johann Froben, in Latin: Johannes Frobenius (and combinations), (c. 1460 – 27 October 1527) was a famous printer, publisher and learned Renaissance humanist in Basel.

[89] Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus; 28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) was a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. As a Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style.

[90] Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek or Byzantine Greek) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of Classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of administration and government in the Byzantine Empire.

[91] Francysk Skaryna (alternative transcriptions of his name: Francišak Skaryna or Francisk Skaryna; Latin: Franciscus Scorina, Belarusian: Францыск (Францішак) Скарына [franˈt͡sɨsk skaˈrɨna]; Polish: Franciszek Skaryna, Czech: František Skorina; 1470 – before 29 January 1552) was a Ruthenian humanist, physician, and translator. He is known to be one of the first book printers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in all of Eastern Europe, laying the groundwork for the development of the Belarusian izvod of the Church Slavonic language.

[92] Ruthenian language (Latin: lingua ruthenica, also see other names) is a common exonymic designation for a group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly those that were spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in the East Slavic regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Regional distribution of those varieties, both in their literary and vernacular forms, corresponded approximately to the territory of the modern states of Belarus and Ukraine.

[93] Полная биография Георгия (Доктора медицинских и свободных наук Франциска) Скорины, Михаил Уляхин, Полоцк, 1994

[94] Martin Luther (; German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ] (listen); 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, former Augustinian monk, and is best known as a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation and as the namesake of Lutheranism. Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507.

[95] The imperial ban (German: Reichsacht) was a form of outlawry in the Holy Roman Empire. At different times, it could be declared by the Holy Roman Emperor, by the Imperial Diet, or by courts like the League of the Holy Court (Vehmgericht) or the Reichskammergericht. People under imperial ban, known as Geächtete (from about the 17th century, colloquially also as Vogelfreie, lit. “free as a bird”), lost all their rights and possessions. They were legally considered dead, and anyone was allowed to rob, injure or kill them without legal consequences. The imperial ban automatically followed the excommunication of a person, as well as extending to anyone offering help to a person under the imperial ban.

[96] Jacob van Liesvelt or Jacob van Liesveldt (Antwerp, c. 1489, – Antwerp, 28 November 1545), was a Flemish printer, publisher and bookseller.

Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász, Guido Latré (eds) Tyndale’s Testament, Brepols 2002, ISBN 2-503-51411-1, p. 120.

[97] Robert I Estienne (French: [etjɛn]; 1503 – 7 September 1559), known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin and sometimes referred to as Robert Stephens, was a 16th-century printer and classical scholar in Paris. He was the proprietor of the Estienne print shop after the death of his father Henri Estienne, the founder of the Estienne printing firm.

[98] Novum Testamentum Graece (The New Testament in Greek) is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle-Aland edition after its most influential editors, Eberhard Nestle and Kurt Aland.

[99] In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.

[100] The King James Only movement asserts that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other translations of the Bible. Adherents of the King James Only movement, largely members of evangelical, conservative holiness movement, traditional High Church Anglican, and Baptist churches, believe that the KJV is the greatest English translation ever produced, needing no further improvements, and they also believe that all other English translations which were produced after the KJV are corrupt. See The King James ONLY Movement (KJV Onlyists)

The King James ONLY Movement (KJV Onlyists)

[101] The Luther Bible (German: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in September 1522 and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534.

[102] William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled Tynsdale, Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494 – c. 6 October 1536) was an English scholar who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known as a translator of the Bible into English, influenced by the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther.A number of partial English translations had been made from the 7th century onwards, but the religious ferment caused by Wycliffe’s Bible in the late 14th century led to the death penalty for anyone found in unlicensed possession of Scripture in English, though translations were available in all other major European languages.Tyndale worked during a renaissance of scholarship, which saw the publication of Johann Reuchlin’s Hebrew grammar in 1506.

[103] Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles (1488 – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English.

[104] 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 able to translate before being captured and put to death.

[105] The Church of England (C of E) is a Christian church which is the established church of England. The archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor.

[106] The Great Bible of 1539 was the first authorised edition of the Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. The Great Bible was prepared by Myles Coverdale, working under commission of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, Secretary to Henry VIII and Vicar General.

[107] The Bishops’ Bible is an English translation 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 James Bible that was completed in 1611.

[108] The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. 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.The KJV was first printed by John Norton and Robert Barker, who both held the post of the King’s Printer, and was the third translation into English language approved by the English Church authorities: The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second had been the Bishops’ Bible, commissioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1568).

[109] The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source text and the target text, as evidenced in biblical translation. The two have been understood basically, with dynamic equivalence as sense-for-sense translation (translating the meanings of phrases or whole sentences) with readability in mind, and with formal equivalence as word-for-word translation (translating the meanings of words and phrases in a more literal way), keeping literal fidelity. The dynamic equivalence is not really a Bible translation, it is a mini commentary. The translator does not give you what God said but rather what the translator thinks God said. It is an interpretive translation.

[110] See previous footnote.

[111] Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is a translation of a text done by translating each word as literally as possible, as the syntax will allow. Literal translation if done right and in a balanced manner gives the reader what God said, not what a translator thinks God’s Word says. The modern obsession with interpretive translations has caused some scholars to actually be dishonest in their misinforming about literal translations.

[112] Idiom, also called idiomaticness or idiomaticity, is the syntactical, grammatical, or structural form peculiar to a language. Idiom is the realized structure of a language, as opposed to possible but unrealized structures that could have developed to serve the same semantic functions but did not.

[113] A paraphrase is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words. The term itself is derived via Latin paraphrasis from Greek paráfrasis (παράφρασις, literally ‘additional manner of expression’).

[114] 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 International. Taylor was born in Portland, Oregon.

[115] The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is a translation of the Bible published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The New Testament portion was released in 1950, as The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, with the complete Bible released in 1961; it is used and distributed by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

[116] Jehovah’s Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist who claim to be a Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in evangelism and an annual Memorial attendance of over 17 million.

[117] https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/new-world-translation-accurate/

[118] 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.

[119] The Holy Bible: A Purified Translation is an edition of the New Testament which was published in 2000. A year earlier, 40,000 copies of the Gospel of John from this translation had been mailed to Southern Baptist pastors.

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