Bible Timeline

 

Date	Language	Title	Notes
Early 200s bc	Greek	Septuagint	In Alexandria, Genesis—Deuteronomy are translated from Hebrew into Greek for the first time. The rest of the Hebrew Bible is translated later, likely prior to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
2nd century bc–5th century ad	Aramaic	Targums	Interpretive Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Scriptures are derived from oral worship in the synagogues of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia.
2nd century ad	Latin	Old Latin or Vetus Latina	Biblical books are translated from Greek into Latin. A variety of such translations of varying quality are made in the next few centuries.
2nd–4th centuries	Syriac		The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are translated into Syriac, with portions based on the Septuagint. The Hebrew Scriptures are translated first, likely by Jewish translators. Multiple translations are produced over the next few centuries; the one used by Syriac churches becomes known as the Peshitta, meaning “simple” or “common.”
Late 3rd century	Coptic		The earliest Coptic translations of biblical books are made into the Sahidic dialect. In the 4th–5th century, translations become more standardized and widespread.
4th century	Latin	Vulgate	The scholar Jerome creates a uniform Latin translation using Hebrew, Greek, and existing Latin texts. This translation becomes standard for the Roman Catholic Church.
4th century	Gothic		Arian bishop Wulfila translates biblical books into Gothic from Greek, including most of the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament.
Early 5th century	Armenian		Mesrob Mashtotz and Sahak Parthev produce the first translation of the Bible into Armenian, based on Greek, Syriac, and perhaps Hebrew.
5th century	Georgian		The Bible is translated into Georgian, possibly by multiple translators working from different source languages.
5th century	Ethiopic		Most biblical books are first translated into Ethiopic.
Late 8th century	Arabic		The earliest known translations of biblical books into Arabic are made. In the 9th century, translations become widespread.
Late 9th century	Old Church Slavonic		Bishop Methodius and his colleagues translate the New Testament and most of the Old Testament, with Apocrypha, from Greek into Old Church Slavonic.
ca. 1000	Old English	West Saxon Gospels	The four Gospels are translated into the West Saxon dialect of Old English.
ca. 1000	Old English	Old English Hexateuch	The first six books of the Old Testament are translated into the West Saxon dialect of Old English.
mid-13th century	Old French	Old French Bible	The entire Bible is translated into French from the Latin Vulgate. This is the oldest known complete biblical translation into a vernacular language of medieval Western Europe. Some books have many added explanations, but most books stick close to the Latin text, with few additions.
14th century	Czech		The whole Bible is translated into Czech.
1350	German	Augsburg Bible	The first surviving complete version of the New Testament in German is translated from the Latin Vulgate.
1382	Middle English	Wycliffe Bible, first version	A Middle English translation is made by Wycliffe, his students, and followers. It is based on the Latin Vulgate. About 10 years later it is revised to use more natural English.
ca. 1415–1440	Hungarian	Hussite Bible	The Bible is translated into Hungarian by Tamás Pécsi and Bálint Újlaki. Only partial manuscripts survive.
1466	German	Mentelin Bible	Johannes Mentelin produces the first complete printed German Bible, using a slightly modernized version of a translation that seems to come from the early 14th century. It is translated from the Latin Vulgate.
1471	Italian	Malermi Bible	Niccolo Malermi publishes the first printed Italian Bible, including the Apocrypha. It is translated from the Latin Vulgate.
1475	Czech		The first printed Czech New Testament is produced by Hussites associated with the University of Prague.
1477	Dutch		The first complete Dutch translation of the Old Testament is printed by Jacob Jacobszoon and Maurice Iemandtszoon of Middelburgh in Delft. It is based on earlier partial translations and corrected to match the Latin Vulgate.
1478	Catalan		Jaime Borrell produces the first published translation of the Bible in Catalan. It is his revision of a translation produced earlier in the century by Bonifacio Ferrer.
1479	Low German		The whole Bible, with Apocrypha, is translated into a Nether-Rhenish dialect of Low German from the Latin Vulgate and printed in Cologne. It is widely used by speakers of the closely-related Dutch.
1488	Czech		The whole Bible is printed in Czech for the first time. It is produced by Hussites associated with the University of Prague, but is also used by Catholics.
1519	Latin		Roman Catholic priest and scholar Erasmus publishes a text of the Greek New Testament accompanied by his own new Latin translation. Both his Greek text and his Latin translation become important sources for 16th-century Bible translators.
1522	German	Luther New Testament	Martin Luther’s translation of the Greek New Testament into contemporary, idiomatic German is published; his Old Testament, translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, appears in portions until the middle of the next decade. The influence of Luther’s translation spreads to neighboring countries embracing the Reformation. Luther includes notes in his Bible against Roman Catholic teachings.
1523	French		Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples’ New Testament, based on Latin texts, is published.
1526	Dutch		The first complete Dutch Bible is printed by Jacob van Liesvelt. The New Testament is translated from Luther’s New Testament translation, and the Old Testament from the Latin Vulgate. The Apocrypha are included as a separate section.
1526	English	Tyndale’s New Testament	William Tyndale produces the first modern English New Testament, translated from the Greek. In 1530, Tyndale adds a translation of the Pentateuch based primarily on Hebrew. He is executed before he can complete the translation and publication of the Old Testament. Tyndale’s translation becomes a foundation for subsequent versions.
1526	Swedish		A Swedish New Testament is published, translated primarily from Erasmus’ Latin translation of the Greek New Testament.
1527	German		Anabaptists Ludwig Hatzer and Hans Denck publish a version of the Prophets from the Hebrew texts, since Luther’s translation of these books had not yet appeared.
1530	French		Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples’ complete translation of the Bible, based on Latin texts, is published. It becomes the basis for many later Catholic French translations of the Bible.
1534	German	Luther Bible	Martin Luther’s complete translation of the Bible from the original languages is published. It includes the Apocrypha as a separate section.
1535	English	Coverdale Bible	Coverdale combines and publishes Tyndale’s Pentateuch (Gen-Deut) and New Testament, filling in the rest of the Old Testament with his own translation of the Latin and Luther’s German Bible.
1537	English	Matthew Bible	John Rogers produces an edition of the Bible. He uses Tyndale’s translations where possible, including unpublished translations of Old Testament books. He fills in the rest of the Old Testament with Coverdale’s translation. The translation is pseudonymously attributed to Thomas Matthew.
1539	English	The Great Bible	Coverdale revises Matthew’s Bible. It becomes the first authorized English Bible. It is read aloud in Church of England services.
1540	French		Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the Bible is published after his death. It is the first French Protestant translation and the first French translation from Hebrew and Greek.
1541	Hungarian		János Erdösi produces the first printed Polish New Testament. It is translated from Greek.
1541	Icelandic		An Icelandic translation of the New Testament is published, based primarily on Luther’s version, but also influenced by the Vulgate and by Erasmus’ Latin translation of the Greek New Testament.
1541	Swedish		The first complete Swedish Bible is published and becomes standard. It relies heavily on Luther’s German Bible.
1543	Spanish		The first published Spanish New Testament is produced by Francisco de Enzinas.
1550	Danish		A complete Danish Bible is published, commissioned by King Christian III and translated by a committee. It is influenced by Luther’s Bible and by earlier Danish partial paraphrases of the Vulgate. It becomes the standard Bible translation in Denmark and Norway.
1553	Polish		Lutheran scholar Jan Seklucjan publishes a Polish translation of the New Testament.
1559	Spanish		Casiodoro de Reina’s translation of the Bible into Spanish is published. This is the first complete printed Spanish Bible, and includes the Apocrypha without separating them out into a separate section.
1560	English	The Geneva Bible	The first entire English Bible translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament, and Greek New Testament is created by English people living in John Calvin’s Geneva. Shakespeare and the great Elizabethan poets use this translation.
1563	Polish		Jan Seklucjan publishes the whole Bible in Polish.
1567	Welsh		William Salesby publishes his translation of the New Testament into Welsh.
1571	Basque		Jean Leicarraga’s translation of the New Testament is published.
1582	English	Bishops’ Bible	Bishops of the Church of England create a revision of the Great Bible.
1582	English	Douay-Rheims New Testament	Roman Catholic scholars produce an English translation of the Latin New Testament.
1584	Icelandic		The first complete Icelandic Bible is produced under the direction of Bishop Gudbrandur Thorláksson. It largely incorporates the 1540 Icelandic New Testament, and also relies on Luther’s translation and the Vulgate.
1584	Slovenian		The first complete Slovenian Bible is published in Wittenberg.
1588	Welsh		The first complete Welsh Bible is published. It includes the Apocrypha. William Morgan and associates translated mostly from Hebrew and Greek.
1588	French	The French Geneva Bible	A committee of pastors in Geneva produce a standardized revision of Pierre Robert Olivétan’s 1540 translation. It becomes the dominant French Protestant biblical translation until 1744.
1590	Hungarian		The whole Bible, translated mostly by Gáspár Károlyi, is printed in Polish for the first time. It becomes the standard Bible for Hungarian Protestants.
1602	Spanish	Reina-Valera version	Cipriano de Valera publishes a revision of de Reina’s Spanish Bible translation and places the Apocrypha in a separate section. The Reina-Valera version becomes the standard Protestant Spanish translation.
1609–1610	English	Douay-Rheims Old Testament	Roman Catholic scholars produce an English translation of the Latin Old Testament.
1602	Irish		Nicholas Walsh completes the first Irish New Testament.
1611	English	King James Version (KJV) or Authorized Version	King James I sponsors this version, first published as the “Authorized Version.” It is a revision of the Bishops’ Bible in light of the original languages and other major translations of the previous century. It becomes the first English Bible published without notes that condemn the Roman Catholic Church.
1632	Polish		A revision of Seklucjan’s Polish Bible translation is published and becomes the favored translation among Polish Protestants.
1642	Finnish		The first complete Finnish translation of the Bible is published.
1663	Wampanoag (Massachusetts)	Eliot Indian Bible	John Eliot’s translation of the whole Bible into Wampanoag, a Native American language, is published in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1668	Malay		The first complete New Testament is published in Malay. Portions had been published beginning in 1629.
1679	Romansch		The first complete Bible is published in Romansh, a language spoken in Switzerland.
1688	Romanian	The Bible from Bucharest	The first complete Romanian Bible is published. Both Testaments are translated from Greek by Spatharus (Nicolae) Milescu.
1689	Latvian		The first complete Latvian Bible is published, translated by Ernst Glück and C.B. Witten.
1690	Irish		The first complete Irish Bible is published.
1693	Portuguese	Almeida New Testament	The revised second edition of João Ferreira de Almeida’s New Testament is published in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). The first edition of 1681 was not widely circulated because of printing errors and most copies were destroyed.
1701	Lithuanian		The first complete Lithuanian New Testament is published. Gospels and epistles arranged for liturgical reading had been published as early as 1591.
1714–1728	Tamil		The first translation of the Bible into Tamil, a language of India, is produced in installments by Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Benjamin Schultze.
1715	Estonian		The New Testament is first published in Estonian. Gospels and epistles arranged for liturgical reading had already been published in the 1630s.
1735	Lithuanian		The entire Bible is first published in Lithuanian.
1739	Estonian		The entire Bible is first published in Estonian.
1719–1751	Portuguese		The entire Bible is published in Portuguese in installments.
1766	Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic)		Poul Egede publishes the first translation of the New Testament into Kalaalisut, an indigenous language of Greenland.

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Rachel Klippenstein, “Translations of the Bible, Timeline of,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).