The Bible in Hand Written Manuscript

1384 Wycliffe’s Translation (from Latin)
1396 Purvey’s Revision

The Bible in Printed Form

1525 Tyndale’s New Testament
1530 Tyndale’s Old Testament
1534 Tyndale’s New Testament (revised by Tyndale)
1535 Coverdale’s Bible (from the Latin, Luther’s German and Zwingli’s Swiss Bibles)
1537 Matthew (based on The Tyndale Bible)
1539 Taverner’s Revision (based on Matthew Bible)
1539 The Great Bible (based on Matthew Bible)
1557 Whittingham’s New Testament
1560 Geneva Bible
1568 Bishops’ Bible
1582 Rheims New Testament (based on Latin)
1610 Douai Bible (Old Testament based on Latin)
1611 King James Authorized Version
1881 Revised Standard New Testament
1885 Revised Standard Old Testament
1901 American Standard (of the Revised Standard Version)

Other Interesting Translation Facts:

• Before Wycliffe, there were about forty translations of only portions of the Bible from Latin into English.
• Between the time of Wycliffe and Tyndale, there were another twenty-six translations, including The Wycliffe Translation and its several revisions.
• From 1525 to the King James Version in 1611, there were some 212 editions— both complete and in part.
• Between the completion of the King James Version and the American Standard Version, there have been no less than 522 translations.
• Between 1901 and 1985, there have been approximately 440 recorded efforts to translation the Bible.
• Therefore, between 1384 and 1985, there have been at least 1,240 translations and/or revised editions of the Bible in whole or part.

Ever since the Revised Version, published in 1884, appeared with corrected errors of the Authorized King James Version, which is so widely used in the Christian world, many new versions came upon the scene. About the same time, (1872—1st edition; 1902—3rd edition) Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible was published. Ferrar Fenton’s, The Holy Bible in Modern English, issued in 1903, was republished with slight modifications several times into the 1940’s.

In 1939, The Complete Bible, an American translation by Goodspeed and Smith also known as The Goodspeed Bible became available. The original Revised Version was revised in 1901, and became known as the American Standard Version. The copyright to this 1901 ASV Bible was procured by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the 1920’s, and they began a revision to the ASV in 1946, publishing the Revised Standard Version in 1952. This work, conducted by a committee of many scholars, received wide publicity because it was sponsored by the Federal Council of Churches of the USA.

New translations of the Bible did not end there:

• New Testament in Modern English, (1958), B. Phillips
• Berkley Version, (1959)
• Amplified Bible, (1965), by the Lockman Foundation
• Jerusalem Bible, (1966), Roman Catholic translation in French at the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique in Jerusalem
• New Testament: A New Translation, (1968), William Barclay
• New English Bible, (1970). Scholars from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, in cooperation with Cambridge and Oxford Universities
• New American Bible, (1970), by Catholic scholars and the first departure from the Latin Vulgate
• New American Standard, (1971), by the Lockman Foundation
• Living Bible, (1974), K.N. Taylor, paraphrase of American Standard Version
• Today’s English Version, (1976), also known as The Good News Bible, sponsored by the American Bible Society
• New International Version, (1978), sponsored by the New York Bible Society using worldwide scholars, each book of the
• Bible assigned to a team of scholars
• New King James Version, (1982), sponsored by The International Trust for Bible Studies and Thomas Nelson Bible Publishers using 119 scholars
• Revised English Bible, (1989). Updating and revising of New English Bible
• New Revised Standard Version, (1994), a Revision of the Revised Standard Version

Every translation is a testimony to the great care God has provided for His written message to His faithful children. The blood of faithful martyrs who have died to bring forward to each new generation speaks volumes as to their love for God and His sacred truth. Let us be faithful to it.