“How did we get our English Bible?”

QUESTION: How did we get our English Bible?

ANSWER: The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic (the Old Testament) and Greek (the New Testament). Most people spoke Greek so they could read and understand the original New Testament. In the fourth century, Jerome, and other lesser-known translators, translated the Bible into Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. Portions were also translated into other languages of that time. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate Bible was the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church for many years.

The Catholic Church was the officially recognized church up until 1054 when the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church split from it. However, there were always unofficial groups of believers who refused to be part of the officially recognized church which became increasingly corrupt, drifting further away from the truths of the Bible as time passed.

There were English translations of parts of the Bible before the seventh century, however it wasn’t until the fourteenth century that the first great effort was made to translate the entire Bible into English, and that was the Wycliffe Version. Then in the sixteenth century came the Tyndale Bible, Cranmer Bible, Great Bible, Bishop’s Bible and Geneva Bible plus some others before the Authorized King James Version of 1611. Most of these versions were built upon the earlier ones with improvements being made each time. These translations into the language of the common people followed the Reformation which began in the early 1500s.

Since that time, the King James Version has gone through seven major revisions, most of them being to correct typographical errors and update the language. Recent years have seen a proliferation of English translations, some featuring a more literal translation of the Bible and others concentrating on simplicity of language and ease of understanding.

By Sam Hadley