English Versions of The BIBLE

An overview of the history and development of versions of the English Bible.

Introduction

English speakers now have access to an unprecedented number of Bible versions in their own language. Most of these are produced by and marketed to Christians—primarily Protestants, but also Roman Catholics and adherents of the Orthodox churches. Fewer versions of English-language Bibles prepared by and for members of the Jewish community exist. In recent years, an array of electronic Bible texts have also been made available.

The choice of texts and formats available to today’s readers is vast and continues to grow. However, this situation has not always been the case, and is relatively recent. At points in history, governments regulated English-language versions, and punished—even with the death penalty—those who dared to oppose official policies regarding biblical translation. Individuals who disregarded these regulations are now viewed as heroes or martyrs.

The history of Bible translations in the English language is not a dry recitation of names and dates. Rather, it is the story of real human beings who were motivated by their sincere awareness of how the word of God should be presented in a world where Hebrew and Greek (the original languages of the Bible) were no longer understood.

Early Translations

Bible translation into English goes back to the seventh century, when the poet and cowherd Caedmon retold Bible stories in his Anglo-Saxon verse. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Aldhelm of Sherborne translated the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon; England’s first church historian, the Venerable Bede, reportedly began to translate the Gospel of John, although his work is now lost.

Two centuries later, the English king Alfred the Great (871–899) included an Old English version of the Ten Commandments in his law code; at about the same time, extensive interlinear glosses—which explained Latin terms in Anglo-Saxon—began to appear in biblical manuscripts. In the late 10th century, a monk named Alfred inserted his complete Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospels between the lines of text in the Lindisfarne Gospels, an eighth-century illuminated Gospel book that is now kept in the British Library.

Wycliffe

The theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe’s translation of much of the Bible into Middle English appeared in the 1380s. His translation was part of a reformist project to make the Bible and its teachings available to the general public. Wycliffe’s translation was based on the Latin text known as the Vulgate. He died in 1384; however, his bones were dug up decades later and burned as posthumous punishment for his alleged heresy. His translation was banned, and Bible translation was subsequently forbidden in England for a period of time.

Tyndale

The priest William Tyndale, who was born about a century after Wycliffe’s death, produced an English-language version that derived directly from Hebrew and Greek, the original languages (along with a bit of Aramaic) in which the Bible was composed. Because Bible translation was banned in England, Tyndale worked in Germany, where he was active in the first part of the 16th century—at precisely the same time Martin Luther was preparing his German-language translation as part of his reformation. In 1525, Tyndale produced his New Testament. Over the next decade, Tyndale revised his initial English version of the New Testament and published renderings of portions of the Old.

Although Tyndale remained on the continent, copies of his translation were smuggled into England almost as soon as they came off the press. Like Wycliffe, Tyndale insisted that the message of Scripture should be directly accessible to all. In 1535, before Tyndale could complete his Old Testament, he was imprisoned in Brussels for 16 months, tried by the Catholic Church, and killed as a heretic. However, Tyndale’s work did not die with him, as other translators borrowed extensively from his text.

Coverdale

In 1535, Miles Coverdale produced the first complete English Bible, called the Coverdale Bible, in which he used Tyndale’s translation (wherever it was available). This Bible received the approval of King Henry VIII. In 1537, Matthew’s Bible, a revision of the Tyndale and Coverdale Bibles, appeared in England. The translation was named for Thomas Matthew; this name was a pseudonym for John Rogers, a Tyndale disciple. Despite this subterfuge, Rogers was burned at the stake. Soon thereafter, the Great Bible appeared—named for its size—which was to be placed on every church lectern in England. It combined Tyndale, Coverdale, and Matthew’s text, and was itself revised several times.

With all these Bibles available, the debate quickly changed from whether or not there should be a vernacular translation to what sort of vernacular version was best. Tyndale’s translation decisively set the terms for English-language Bibles until the present.

Controversial Issues

Tyndale’s translation also introduced two issues that became increasingly controversial throughout the remainder of the 16th and the 17th centuries. He used terms like “congregation” for “church,” and “senior” or “elder” for “priest,” to describe biblical institutions. His opponents viewed this usage as more than a linguistic choice; conservative English Catholics viewed these choices as attacks on established norms of ecclesiastical organization and governance.

Tyndale also frequently used marginal notes to comment on how the biblical text related to contemporary life. Later translators adopted this practice, but used the marginal notes to castigate others’ beliefs and practices. For example, Protestants’ marginal notes could adopt a stridently anti-Catholic tone; Puritans, who were critical of monarchies, added marginal notes whenever the biblical text allowed for negative observations about the royalty. Examples of marginal notes include:

•    Tyndale glossed Num 23:8, which states, “How shall I curse whom God curseth not,” with this remark: “The pope can tell how.”

•    To provide a contemporary reference to “the hire of an whore” and “the price of a dog” (Deut 23:18), Tyndale offers: “The pope will take tribute of them yet, and bishops and abbots desire no better tenants.”

•    The Geneva Bible characterizes “the king” of Dan 11:36 as “a tyrant” whose days are numbered. Like the Pharaoh of the exodus, he is “a tyrant.” The person writing the note may have had several 16th or 17th century English monarchs in mind.

King James I

These same kinds of issues characterized the next two major Bible translations into English:

•    The Geneva Bible for the general populace

•    The Bishop’s Bible, which was used in churches

When King James I assembled the bishops and church deans at Hampton Court in 1604, he displaced these two versions. At that time, the Geneva Bible was tremendously popular among lay folk, although King James described it as “the worst” English translation. He was especially upset by the tone and substance of many of its antimonarchic marginal notes.

The production of Bible translations at this period was a political, as well as theological and literary, enterprise. James I himself convened these meetings, prepared the guidelines, chose the personnel, oversaw the process, and gave final approval (ultimately designated authorization) to the version later named for him. He also determined that marginal notes would be minimal in number and muted in controversy. He determined that the King James Version would be primarily a revision of the Bishop’s Bible (which relied heavily on Tyndale) and would be acceptable to both Anglicans (high church) and Puritans (low church).

The translators themselves, six committees in all (three for the Old Testament, two for the New, and one for the Apocrypha), were left to carry out the translation. Extensive committee notes and biographical and autobiographical accounts of many of these individuals provide insights into the procedures these translators followed. These sources also provide insights into the education, religious leanings, and temperament of many of the individual translators. Careful textual comparisons reveal that these translators were indebted to previous or contemporary sources—predominately Tyndale, whose translation was used 83 percent of the time. Such famous lines as “In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1), “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) and “In the Beginning God created the Word” (John 1:1) are attributed to Tyndale.

However, the KJV team borrowed from numerous other sources, including Catholic and Jewish ones. While no Jews served as KJV translators, many of the Old Testament translators (Lancelot Andrewes, Edward Lively, John Richardson, John Harding, and John Rainolds) were deeply steeped in both the Hebrew language and the exegetical traditions of Judaism. The KJV teams charged with preparing the Old Testament translation adopted “Jewish” readings already incorporated into earlier English-language versions, and sought out others on their own. They relied heavily on the writings of the 12th-century Jewish exegete and grammarian David Kimchi, also known as Radak. An analysis of the first 15 chapters of the book of Isaiah in KJV reveals a high number of English renderings that reflect Kimchi’s interpretations, including:

•    “the chains” (Isa 3:19)

•    “and their honourable men are famished” (Isa 5:13)

•    “they shall lay their hands upon Edom and Moab” (Isa 11:14)

•    “the golden city” (Isa 14:4).

Theological considerations, however, could prove more powerful than Kimchi: Isa 7:14 begins: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive,” and not, “a young woman shall give birth,” as Kimchi had it.

Max L. Margolis writes: “[KJV] has an inimitable style and rhythm; the coloring of the original is not obliterated. What imparts to the English Bible its beauty, aye, its simplicity, comes from the [Hebrew] original.” It is this beauty and simplicity that has accorded to the KJV a central place among English-language Bibles and among major works of English literature in general.

The first publication of the completed KJV in 1611. However, reprintings and subsequent editions of the KJV frequently introduced new errors even as they sought to correct old mistakes. For example, the KJV edition of 1631 earned the nickname “The Wicked Bible” because it omitted the word “not” in the commandment prohibiting adultery. Accidental mistakes of this sort resulted from the fact that printers lacked sufficient type to set an entire volume, so that they constantly needed to reset pages. Because of this, highly publicized errors were committed.

Moreover, the tentativeness and modesty of the KJV translators themselves slowly yielded to dogmatic views about the authority of their text; this process was accelerated when the practice was abandoned of printing the translators’ own introduction. In the Introduction, for example, the translators state forthrightly, “Truly we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one, but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principal good one.” Elsewhere, they note they have “avoid the scrupulosity of the Puritans [as also] we have shunned the obscurity of the Papists.” Moreover, they acknowledge their dependence on the work of myriad predecessors.

Derivative Versions

Versions of the Bible, like groups of humans, can have family trees. The KJV itself has many descendants. The KJV did not immediately eliminate all of its rivals—the Geneva Bible, for example, constituted the Scripture for the America-bound Pilgrims. Yet, after a few decades, it was firmly established as the “authorized” text for Protestant churches and occupied a prominent spot in almost all home and institutional libraries where English was the language of everyday communication. The first major and official revision of the KJV didn’t appear until the 1880s—the English Revised Version (ERV), which was published between 1881 and 1885, with the New Testament preceding the Old. Although this project had strong ecclesiastical and scholarly support, it failed to win over the majority of those who had been longtime adherents of the KJV. While the ERV was somewhat easier to understand, it lacked the literary style and grace of the KJV, and never achieved the success its proponents had anticipated.

While Americans and the British both speak the same language, their versions of English vary slightly. Thus an Americanized version of the ERV appeared in 1901, with spelling and grammar conforming to usage in the United States. The descendants of this American Standard Version (or ASV) form two branches of the KJV family tree. One branch is the New American Standard Bible (NASB), which first appeared in the 1960s and has been continually revised and updated since. This version aims to present a consciously literal rendering of the ancient languages of the Bible in a style that reflects the characteristics of biblical Hebrew and Greek. On occasion, this produces an English text that lacks literary style; successive editions of the NASB have set out to improve the version’s readability without sacrificing its intentionally literal style.

The other branch has produced two versions:

•    The Revised Standard Version (RSV: 1946 for the New Testament; 1952, for the Old Testament)

•    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV: 1990)

Both of these translations seek to update the language and style of the KJV without introducing colloquial language or trendy stylistic changes. These versions were sponsored by the National Council of Churches, which has led to some criticism of these volumes as too liberal. In the early 1950s, critics set copies of the RSV on fire, accusing its translators of being Communists. Nonetheless, the RSV and NRSV have been widely used in academic and seminary settings.

One other member of the KJV family goes directly back to the KJV itself—the New King James Bible. This version aimed to maintain the maximum amount of “original” KJV material, while updating when absolutely necessary.

The KJV and its descendants occupy a central place in a study of English-language versions of the Bible. However, the 20th century witnessed an unparalleled expansion in Bible translating, especially in the period following World War II, and particularly among Protestants.

Early Twentieth Century

Two editions are noteworthy from the period prior to the 1940s:

•    The British version by James Moffatt, which appeared over the period of a decade (1913–1924)

•    The American translation (1923–1927), which was produced under the editorial leadership of J. M. Powis Smith and Edgar J. Goodspeed

These two editions differ in some respects; however, they are among the best examples of early modern-speech translations. Both texts aim to make use of contemporary language and style to convey the translators’ understanding of the ancient texts. Both of these versions mark a decisive and intentional change from the tradition embodied by the KJV and its descendants.

This new approach met both criticism and acclaim. The American Bible Society adopted the approach with their Good News Bible (GNB: 1976) and Contemporary English Version (CEV: 1995). The editors of the CEV describe its language as “contemporary” and its style as “lucid and lyrical.” As with the GNB, the translators of the CEV don’t assume that readers of the CEV are comfortable with the technical terminology that is found in more literal renderings of the Bible. Such versions may also be shaped specifically for those who have limited vocabularies and people for whom English is a second language.

When a translation is very free, it is generally characterized as a paraphrase. In such works, the style and vocabulary of the original languages are essentially jettisoned in favor of modern-sounding language and allusions. While academic commentators on the Bible often disparage paraphrases, they may serve a useful role as a “first step” for individuals who are reluctant or unable to read and appreciate the Bible in more traditional formats. Well-known paraphrases include:

•    The Living Bible (LB: 1971), which was largely superseded by the more scholarly New Living Translation (1996).

•    The Message (2002), which continues to be heavily promoted and widely sold. The translator of The Message, Eugene Peterson, did not intend for this version “to replace the excellent study Bibles that are available.” Rather his “intent is simply to get people reading who don’t know that the Bible is readable at all, at least by them.”

Looked at solely on the basis of sales, the most popular and influential English-language version is the New International Version (NIV), which has spawned two related editions:

•    The New International Reader’s Version (NIrV: 1998), which seeks to make the NIV accessible to a wider audience.

•    Today’s New International Version (TNIV: 2005), which is marked by increased sensitivity to issues such as gender.

All NIV-related products reflect the conservative theological presuppositions of more than 100 scholars who worked on this translation. The following statement expresses the goals that motivated these translators: “that it [the NIV] be an accurate translation and one that would have clarity and literary quality and so prove suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorization, and liturgical use.” The NIV was revised in 2011, and the previous (1984) version was discontinued.

English Standard Version

Additional Protestant or Protestant-sponsored versions that are commonly available include:

•    The English Standard Version (ESV: 2001), which is “essentially literal.”

•    The Revised English Bible (REB: 1989), a British translation that is non-literal but seeks to maintain high standards of style and vocabulary.

•    The Holman Christian Standard Bible (2003), which promotes its “accessible, reliable and dignified text.”

The New Century Version (NCV: 1991), God’s Word (GW: 1995), and the New Life Version (NLV: 1969) are all nonliteral versions which seek to present easy-to-understand texts for people with little or no previous exposure to the Bible in translation (or to middle- or upper-brow literature in general). The translators of God’s Word affirm that, “Many Bible translations contain theological terms that have little, if any, meaning for most non-theologically trained readers. God’s Word avoids using these terms and substitutes words that carry the same meaning in common English.”

Catholic Versions

For English-speaking Roman Catholics, there were no English-language translations made directly from the Hebrew or Greek available until after World War II. Prior to that time, Catholic translations into English (as well as into other modern languages) were made from the Latin Vulgate. In particular, there was the Rheims-Douai Bible (1582–1610), which was painstakingly revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1750). Today, most North American Roman Catholics make use of the New American Bible (NAB: 1991), which is regularly revised or updated; they may also read the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB: 1985).

Jewish Versions

For their translation of the Bible, most English-speaking Jews utilize The Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, which, in its most recent edition (1999), displays the Hebrew and English texts on facing pages. Its editors emphasize that this version “was made directly from the traditional Hebrew text into the idiom of modern English” and that “it represents the collaboration of academic scholars with rabbis from the three largest branches of organized Jewish religious life in America.” Two other Jewish versions, both quite literal, have also appeared in recent years:

•    The ArtScroll Tanach (1996)

•    The Schocken Bible (1995)

Jewish versions of the Bible do not contain the New Testament or the Apocrypha.

Available Translations

While modern Bible readers have an incredibly wide array of choices, the richness of these selections can cause considerable confusion. One issue is that similar sounding titles are often found on the cover of very different translations. For example, the NASB (New American Standard Bible) and the NAB (New American Bible) are easily confused, though the NASB is a conservative Protestant edition, while the NAB was specifically produced by and for Roman Catholics.

When choosing a biblical version, readers should read through the introduction to a Bible before settling on a choice. They should also examine the makeup of the translation committee (or the affiliation[s] of the translator, if the version is prepared by a single individual) and the identity of the group (or groups) that are sponsoring a given translation. For some people, the format (large print, etc.) or the number and nature of notes will be decisive.

Biblical readers should also determine whether a particular translation is literal or free. All translations will appear somewhere on this “literal-to-free continuum.” Versions that are more literal can also be called formal equivalence translations, in that those responsible for these versions seek to reproduce in English as many features as possible of the Hebrew or Greek. The more literal translations tend to sound somewhat foreign, in keeping with the fact that the Hebrew and Greek texts being rendered are from antiquity. Such versions also require the reader to go to the text, meaning users of more literal translations need to make more of an effort to understand the language and the grammar of the English they are reading.

Freer translations are often said to follow the approach of functional equivalence. In such versions, more attention is given to how a particular phrase functioned in ancient Hebrew or Greek than to the form in which that phrase was set. Colloquial, or at least modern, English expressions predominate in these versions, and the grammar is usually easy to follow. In contrast to more literal versions, freer translations bring the text to the reader—they are easier to read or listen to than more literal texts.

Bibliography

Ackroyd, P.R., G.W.H. Lampe, and S.L. Greenslade, eds. The Cambridge History of the Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963–1970.

Bailey, Lloyd R., ed. The Word of God: A Guide to English Versions of the Bible. Atlanta: John Knox, 1982.

Bobrick, Benson. Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. New York: Simon & Shuster, 2001.

Greenspoon, Leonard J. “Jewish Translations of the Bible.” Pages 2005–20 in The Jewish Study Bible. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. New York: Oxford, 2003.

———. “The Bible: A Buyer’s Guide.” Bible Review (Fall 2005): 37–44.

———. “The King James Bible and Jewish Bible Translations.” Pages 123–38 in The Translation That Openeth the Window: Reflections on the History and Legacy of the King James Version. Edited by David G. Burke. New York: American Bible Society, 2009.

Hargreaves, Cecil. A Translator’s Freedom: Modern English Bibles and Their Language. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993.

Kee, Howard Clark, ed. The Bible in the Twenty-First Century. New York: American Bible Society, 1993.

Kraus, Donald. Choosing a Bible for Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer. New York: Seabury Books, 2007.

Kubo, Sakae, and Walter E. Specht. So Many Versions?: 20th Century English Versions of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983.

Lewis, Jack P. The English Bible from KJV to NIV: A History and Evaluation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.

McGrath, Alister. In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. Garden City: Doubleday, 2001.

Metzger, Bruce M. The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2001.

Nicolson, Adam. God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Orlinsky, Harry M. A History of Bible Translation and the North American Contribution. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991.

Sheeley, Steven M., and Robert N. Nash, Jr. The Bible in English Translation: An Essential Guide. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997.

Leonard J. Greenspoon^[1]

 

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JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

^[1] Greenspoon, Leonard J. 2016. “Bible, English Versions of the.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.