to be remembered when reading Holy Scripture that the two principle background cultures, Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Hellenistic Greek, behind the major portion of the Bible, have significantly different linguistic trends in descriptive method/style:

The Hebrew trend is toward a synthetic statement (1), and the Hellenistic trend is toward the analytic (2).
The exception to that latter is when a person of Semitic/Hebrew background is writing in Hellenistic Greek.

of (1) is Deuteronomy 6:5 –
"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" which does not mean that a human is composed of three elements 'heart, 'soul', and 'might'.

They are simply aspects of human experience which overlap in this synthetic description.

of the translation of the Bible into English also demonstrates the development of the English language. The following are an example of this. For instance, note the contrast between the West Saxon Version of c.990 AD and the King James Version of 1611 AD in this sentence from Luke 15:16 –

the Transfiguration narrative translation of Mark 9:3 – 'λευκὰ λίαν ὡς χιὼν' – "very white like snow"

in the Sermon on the Mount narrative of Matthew 7:1 – 'μη κρινετε ινα μη κριθητε' – "Do not judge, that you may not be judged"

particular made an enormous contribution, but ignoring the old spelling, some of Tyndale's vigour was however later lost, as committee work often does, and as this comparison shows.

To this appreciation of the path which our Bible traversed to come into our hands today, there must also be added its terrible cost to those who laid down their lives (such as Tyndale), often in a most horrible manner. For this, we owe more than gratitude...

As a consequence of the centralization of the structures of Christendom in Western Europe, the language of the organized Church in Western Europe became Latin. The principal Bible in use was therefore the Latin Vulgate translation of Jerome. But...

As Latin became increasingly a language of the past or of the educated class alone, the people in general had no access to the Bible except through the clergy, many of whom eventually no longer understood Latin themselves.

The Bible became effectively locked away from those who needed it the most.
Piety became measured by the purchasing power of those who could afford the mechanisms of the Church to escape Purgatory.

Bede writes –

The Britons appeal to the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons to come to their aid against the Scots in the west and the Picts in the north.

Shy illiterate middle-aged cowherd Caedmon, of Whitby Abbey in Northumbria, suddenly receives the gift of poetic-song through a dream (according to Bede) and begins to paraphrase the Bible's contents in song into Anglo-Saxon for the local people. (The 229-page Caedmon manuscript is kept today in the Bodleian Library at Oxford).

May: Venerable Bede (Baeda), on his deathbed, completes translating part of the Gospel of John into Anglo-Saxon from the Vetus Italica (a Latin pre-Vulgate version).

Passages from Exodus and the first fifty Psalms are translated into Anglo-Saxon, possibly by pious King Alfred.

Nicholas Hereford (under Wycliffe's influence) translates the Old Testament (from the Latin Vulgate) from Genesis to Baruch, before fleeing burning after his condemnation by the Church Council at Blackfriars.

Purvey continues his work –

If I speke with tungis of men and aungels, sothli I haue not charite ... 

– giving the English their first direct contact with God's Word.

ecclesiastical chronicler of the time, decries this development as making the Bible –

Erasmus (lectured at Cambridge, a town of 'Lollard' influence, 1510-14) edits and publishes a New Testament in its original language (Hellenistic Greek) based in particular on two 12th century manuscripts. Lacking a complete Greek copy of the book of Revelation, Erasmus translates the last six verses back into Greek from the Latin Vulgate. He also introduces into the Greek text material found in the Latin Vulgate but not in the Greek manuscripts. (He later adds words Latin Vulgate's words of 1 John 5:7-8 (trinitarian witness) because they were later found in a Greek manuscript, not knowing that they were a back-translation addition by an Oxford monk from the Latin Vulgate.

William Tyndale publishes his English translation of the New Testament from its Hellenistic Greek original language.
October 28: Many copies of the New Testament in English by Tyndale are publicly burnt at St Paul's Cross, after the Bishop of London, Tunstall, declares Tyndale's Testament as doctrinam peregrinam (strange doctrine).
November: Pirated (Nachdruk) copies of Tyndale's New Testament (very poorly proof-read) begin arriving in England from Antwerp from the press of Christoffel van Ruremund. Some claimed to have been printed in Utopia (The ideal fictitious world of Thomas More, the arch enemy of Tyndale), others in St Peter's at Rome (cum privilegio apostolico), and still others in Basle by Adam Anonymous.

January: English ambassador in the Low Countries, John Hackett, on instruction of Cardinal Wolsey, conducts book-burnings of English Bibles in Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom.
May 26: Archbishop Warham writes to his fellow bishops asking that they share the expense with him of buying up all English Bibles in order to burn them.

January: Tyndale's English translation of the Hebrew Pentateuch is published by van Hoochstraten, and George Joye's English translation of the Hebrew Psalms is published, in Antwerp.
May 24: Archbishop Warham at a meeting of 'divines' issues a denunciation of Tyndale's 'corrupted' translation of the Old Testament 'as in the New', and also a Public Instrument for the 'abolishing of the Scripture and other Books to be read in English'.
The Bishop of London demonstrates this ban by a great public burning of English New Testaments and other books in St Paul's churchyard.
June: Under the influence of Lord Chancellor Thomas More, King Henry VIII commands that all English Scriptures are forbidden and are to be surrendered to the bishop's officers within fifteen days.

Christoffel van Ruremund prints a third pirated edition of Tyndale's English New Testament and smuggles these into England. (See November 1526).
May: William Tyndale sends a message to King Henry VIII from Antwerp, pleading for the king to permit the Bible in the language of the people if he sacrifices himself to the king –

Tyndale refutes Thomas More's damning of his English New Testament, for translating the Greek ecclesia as 'congregation' (rather than as 'church'), by citing More's own complete acceptance of his friend Erasmus' translating the same Greek word into the Latin as congregatio.
George Joye translates Isaiah into English for publishing at Antwerp.

A fourth pirate edition of Tyndale's English New Testament is published by van Ruremund's widow with some unfortunate 'corrections' by George Joye, such as –

It should have read – 'else he will lean to the one...' (Matt.6), and did so in Tyndale's revised edition in November. Joye also changed the pirate copies of Tyndale's 1526 edition by putting 'life after this' in the place of 'resurrection' (Matt.22) when reference to the body was not too obvious, in order to accord with his own theology.
May: George Joye translates Jeremiah into English for publishing by van Ruremund's widow (under the 'van Endhoven' alias).
November: Tyndale's revised New Testament in English is published by Martin Emperor (Lempereur), with more than five thousand changes to the 1526 edition. Tyndale's description of its content reads –

At the back Tyndale includes 40 passages from the Old Testament read in services according to the Sarum Use (a local medieval variation of the Roman rite that had become the standard in England).

More, under imprisonment in the Tower of London, recruits traitorous Henry Phillips to betray William Tyndale in Antwerp to the imperial authorities for execution.

December 10: The Convocation of bishops petitions the king –

No royal command is forthcoming, but Miles Coverdale begins to incorporate Tyndale's existing translations into his Bible. Missing books are translated by himself from the German versions of Luther and Zwingli, with guidance from the Vulgate and the Latin translation of Pagnini.

May 21: In Antwerp, Henry (Harry) Phillips of Dorset (paid by Thomas More; beheaded July 6, 1535), having infiltrated himself into godly translator Tyndale's trust, arranges his arrest for heresy by imperial officers.
May 23: William Tyndale is arrested by emperial officers after being identified by Phillips.
Tyndale is imprisoned in Vilvoorde castle's dank dungeon.
Months later Tyndale patiently writes (apparently to the marquis of Bergen) –

Miles Coverdale publishes the first complete English Bible which he dedicates to King Henry VIII. It was probably printed at Zurich, Switzerland.

Thomas Cromwell issues an injunction that every church must be provided with a Bible.
August: Three canons from Louvain University (Tapper, Latomus, Doye) sit on the Commission which eventually condemns Tyndale's views and finds him guilty of heresy.
August 5: William Tyndale is publicly defrocked from the priesthood ('unhallowing of Guillem Tindal') and submitted to the secular power for public burning at the stake.
October 6: Tyndale, first translator of the New Testament into English, is burnt alive at the stake in the town square between church and castle of Vilvoorde, in the presence of the Commission. His ashes are poured into the river Zenne.

'Matthew's Bible' is printed in Antwerp by John Roger (a friend of Tyndale), under the alias of Thomas Matthew, and dedicated to King Henry VIII who licensed 1500 copies. He uses Tyndale's translation (New Testament, Pentateuch, and Joshua to 2 Chronicles) supplemented with Coverdale's contribution. The initials 'W.T.' between the two testaments recognise the predominance of William Tyndale's contribution.

Thomas Cromwell issues an injunction that every church must be provided with a Bible.

The 'Great Bible' is printed in Paris under Thomas Cromwell's patronage, and placed in all the churches of England.

May: King Henry VIII orders that a copy of the Bible in English (Myles Coverdale's revision of Tyndale's translation, the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English) be placed in every parish church with instructions that the Scriptures were to be read "humbly and meekly, reverently and obediently" under the watchful eye of the church, and restricted the private use of the Bible.

English Bibles are now legalized and officially distributed.
But, a statute is enacted to prohibit the reading of the English Bible to –

Richard Iugge ('dwellynge in Paules churchyarde') publishes the Tyndale New Testament (the first English printer to do so – 'after the last copye corrected by his lyfe'), where so many of Tyndale's Testaments had been burnt.

The 'Geneva Bible' (also known as the 'Breeches Bible' for translating a Genesis 3 phrase 'they made themselves breeches' instead of 'aprons') is published with prefaces, maps, tables, concordances, illustrations, and marginal notes and glosses.

The 'Douai-Reims Bible' (a Catholic translation) is published.

The English 'Geneva Bible' (GB) is printed in that city.

A second edition of the 'Douai-Reims Bible' is published.

The King James or Authorized Version is published.
Of King James' 54 translators (in six teams – two at Westminster, two at Oxford, two at Cambridge), only one is not an Anglican clergyman. Their translation is heavily dependant on Tyndale's work and makes very few significant changes to Tyndale's English translation which are in any way helpful (without giving him any credit however) –

the betrayed and martyred Tyndale's translation contributes to the King James or Authorized Version (according to a 1998 analysis, Moynahan 2003, p.1) – 75.8%  of its Old Testament;  and 84.0%  of its New Testament.

Version also adds a propaganda preface of fawning honour to James –

(A great advertisment for Christianity, not!)

and condemnation of any possible criticism from –

and also from–

During the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, appointed by parliament to create Britain's first national army, inists that his troops are provided with a pocket sized Bible, comprising a selection of short passages mainly from the Old Testament and printed in pamphlet form.

Later, five editions of a reprint of 50,000 copies were circulated among Federal troops in the American Civil War.

A new edition of the King James Version is published with mainly spelling adjustments.

German Lutheran scholar Johann Albrecht Bengel publishes his text of the New Testament and Apparatus Criticus, which marks the beginning of modern textual criticism of the New Testament.

A new edition of the King James Version is published reconciling the 1701 and 1611 versions.

Constantius Tischendorf publishes a two volume Greek New Testament with all variant readings known at this time.

The Revised Version (RV) is published.

J.N. Darby's translation (Darby) is published.

Young's Literal Translation (YLT) is published.

The Douay-Rheims Bible (DRB) is published.

An illustrated New Testament, published in London by W. Walters, is issued to British forces fighting the Akfikaners in the South African Boer War.

The American Standard Version (ASV) is published, on textual basis –
NT: Westcott and Hort 1881 and Tregelles 1857, (Reproduced in a single, continuous, form in Palmer 1881).
OT: Masoretic Text, with some Septuagint influence.

The YWCA publishes a New Testament which is circulated among Britis troops in the First World War.

A pocket New Testament (so-called "Olive Wood" from its wooden cover) is issued to South African forces during the Second World War.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is published.

The Modern King James Version (MKJV) is published.

The Amplified Bible (AMP), by Frances E. Siewert and 12 others, is published.

The Bible in Basic English (BBE) is published.

The Today's English Version (Good News version) is published by the American Bible Society.
The Jerusalem Bible (JB), by 36 translators, is published.

The New English Bible version (NEB) with Apochrypha is published.
The New American Bible (NAB), with Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books, by 55 translators, is published under direction of Pope Pius XII.

The Revised Standard Version improved is published.
The New American Standard (NAS) version, by 54 translators, is published, on textual basis –
   • NT: High Correspondence to the 23rd edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.
   • OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with Septuagint influence.

The Black Heritage Edition of the King James Version is published in the USA (Nashville) with a preface highlighting the contribution of 'black' persons in Scripture and, among other, brief sketches of 'Contemporary Black Achievement'.

The New International Version (NIV), by 115 translators, is published.

The New King James Version (NKJV), by 119 translators, is published.

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), by 30 translators, is published.

'The Message' version (thought for thought translation), by Eugene H. Peterson, is published.

The New American Standard Version (NASB) Updated is published.
The Contemporary English Version (CEV) is published.

The New Living Translation (NLT), by 90 translators, is published. Orginally intended to be a correction of the Living Bible paraphrase the phrase 'dynamic translation' to improve its acceptance among scholars.

translation the accuracy of the original language text of the New Testament is despised (for being Greek/Gentile) by, for instance, ignoring the significant name change of dual-citizen Apostle Paul from his Jewish to his Roman name after his crucial confrontation in Paphos (Ac.13) by giving him the Judaized name "Sha'ul" throughout and so hiding his personal reorientation shown in Holy Scripture.

The New Testament of the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is published.

The English Standard Version (ESV), an adaptation of the Revised Standard Version, by 100+ translators, is published (Crossway Bibles of Good News Publishers).
The New Testament of Today's New International Version (TNIV), based on the New International Version, by 115 translators, is published.

Charles VanderPool publishes his English translation based on the Old Testament Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew, and the Greek New Testament.

Please be aware that the New Living Translation (NLT) of the Old Testament is seriously misleading in certain places.
   A trustworthy paraphrase requires of the translators –

of the significance of cultural idiom in translation is the translation of this Afrikaans language idiom into English:

Literally: 'We've eaten a sack of salt together' – which is actually saying – "We have known one another a long time'.

So, not knowing the idioms of a culture results in totally misleading translation, and with the Bible this has serious consequences!

lack of this in the New Living Translation of the Old Testament is demonstrated in at least two places –

Modern translations depend mainly upon the Hebrew Masoretic text such as found in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. The level of copying accuracy over the centuries behind this text is unparalleled by any other manuscript history.

However, the Masoretic text is far from infallible. First century Jewish priest-historian, Josephus, makes us aware that even the master scrolls of the Torah kept in the Jerusalem Temple, at that time (many centuries before the Masoretic scholars), were of three versions in irresolvable spelling differences (ma'on, the za'atutei, and hi' scrolls).

Though extremely few, some textual errors in the Hebrew deserve mention as they have intruded upon our understanding of the sacred text –

'scar-tissue' damage to the best existing Hebrew text is evident today when one compares the (pre-Christian) Jewish Septuagint translation, the Dead Sea Scrolls copies of portions of the Old Testament, the Syriac Peshitta, Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Jewish Targums (translations).

manuscript dating, it had been thought that the codex format (like our books in contrast to the scroll format) only came into use in the second century AD, and therefore some early New Testament papyrus fragments of this format were dated accordingly, even though textual form placed them in the first century. However, the Roman satirist-poet Martial, in his Epigram I, 2 (84 to 86 AD), refers to copies of his own manuscripts in codex format terms. This then requires a reworking of scholars' understanding of first century copying and distribution of New Testament writings during the lifetime of their authors, which is still lacking among some.

Modern translations are based mainly upon the Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed.) edited by Eberhard Nestle, and the Greek New Testament published by the United Bible Society.

Regarding controversy over the Greek text of our modern New Testament – See: Wescott & Hort

sampling of that great gospel text from John 3:16 in English compared as the language has changed.

And a sampling of the same text in the languages of some others whom God loves . . .

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