History of the English Bibles

2nd Century - The Old Latin version of the Septuagint, OT & NT.

5th Century - Jerome wrote his Latin Vulgate. He used the Messoretic texts for the Old Testament and the Old Latin revised with Alexandrian texts for the New Testament.

Prior to 1400 - Numerous English versions were around, but the main text, from 2-3rd century on, were Latin. Latin was political/educated language even during time of Christ, while Greek was the common language. Latin versions became Property of the church.

In 1382 - John Wycliffe - Was the first member of reformation and is called, "The Morning Star of the Reformation". He translated the Latin New Testament into English. Hereford translated the Vulgate Old Testament, and was revised by Purvey.

In 1456 - John Guttenburg - Germans invent the printing press, Print the Mazarin Latin Bible a.k.a. "The Guttenburg Bible".

In 1517 - Martin Luther - Posted his "95 Theses", in 1522 Luther had finished his German translation of the NT from the Erasamus' Greek, he later finished the OT.

In 1525, 1534 - William Tyndale - Translated the original Greek & Hebrew into English. He used Erasamus' Greek and the Messoretic for the Hebrew. For comparisons Tyndale used the Vulgate, Erasamus' Latin, and Luther's German translation. Tyndale published the New Testament, the Pentateuch, and the book of Jonah, and completed work on the books of Joshua through II Chronicles before he was killed.

Miles Coverdale (1488-1569) - Worked with Tyndale, First to complete the Old & New Testaments in English. He used Tyndale's Pentateuch, and Latin (Vulgate and Pagnini) and German (Luther) for the rest of the Old Testament. It is basically Coverdale's translation of the poetic and prophetic books which is in the KJV. For the New Testament, Coverdale used Tyndale's work, revised against the work of Luther. Coverdale also separated out the Apocrypha. The church rejected this version of the Bible, primarily because of Tyndale.

Thomas Matthew (1500-1555) - Tyndale's primary assistant was John Rogers. Thomas Matthew is probably a nom de plume for Rogers, but it is possible that he was a real person who assisted Rogers. "Matthew" added margin notes to Tyndale's Bible and also "slightly" revised his work by a French text. Matthew was the first to license & mass produce his Bible. His Bible used Tyndale for all of his completed books, and Coverdale for Ezra through Malachi and the Apocrypha.

The Great Bible (1505-1575) - Richard Taberner revised Matthew's Bible using Greek texts 1539. Named for it's sheer size, this Bible was a work of Coverdale commissioned to be a revision of the Matthew Bible. In case you're not following this, the sole purpose of this version was to have the Tyndale Bible without the Tyndale name. This Bible was then acceptable to the Church of England and became the first "Standard" English Bible. They were issued to every church and purchased by individuals. It was extremely popular and widespread, as well as being long lived, being well used even years after the release of the KJV. It was "The Great Bible" in truth, being the first English version which broke in to the common use and common homes.

1557 - Geneva Bible (1557, Revised in 1560) Revision of Tyndale - only used privately.

1. Better Greek and Hebrew translation.
2. More conservative in notes.
3. Smaller paper, more legible - Roman type.
4. First Bible using chapter and verse divisions.
5. Italics for added words for clear translation.
6. 140 editions - published through 1617.
7. More popular than Bishop's or King James.

The Geneva Bible was developed by scholars in exile in Geneva, it was very good, and was extremely popular, but never entered into churches.

1568 - Bishops Bible: Revision of Great Bible, Better translation than Geneva, Direct basis for King James version.

1611 - King James Version - 1611, over 16 revised editions

Originally commissioned by King James in 1604, the KJV was based on the Bishop’s Bible with comparisons with other contemporary works including the Geneva Bible, and the works of Matthew and Coverdale, as well as others. A large team of 48-50 scholars from Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge provided great literary quality and scholastic acceptance, and eventually, the King James Version became universally accepted.

In its early years it competed strongly with both the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible, both of which were very popular. The King James Version was end of the Tyndale family of Bibles and essentially the last English version to be developed for over 250 years, having finally satisfied the need of having an excellent translation with literary beauty and political acceptability.

1627 Discovery of 'A' Codex Alexandrinus (AD 400-440)

1844 - 1859 Discovery of 'א' Codex Sinaiticus (AD 330-360)

1862 - Young's Literal Translation (YLT) Using Masoretic Text and Textus Receptus

The Begining of the Critical Text Bibles (270 years later)

1881 - RV - English Revised a.k.a. Revised Version - The first to use the better manuscripts. The translation tended to be overly literal on a word-for-word basis and was not clearly written. It was received well into pastor's studies, but generally failed to enter common acceptance and use. Spurgeon's often quoted remark was that it was "...Strong in Greek, but weak in English."

1901 - ASV - American Standard - Made very heavy use of the Revised Version, and was actually part of same project, but the translation was independent, being performed in America.

1946, 52 - RSV - Revised Standard Version - Revised American Standard Liberalized Messianic Passages - downplayed Israel, Messiah - emphasized church. Isaiah 7:14, the prophecy of the virgin birth, uses "young woman" instead of "virgin". This version is the popular bases for ecumenical translations.

Selective Listing of Modern Bible Versions:

1971 - The Living Bible (TLB) Paraphrase of ASV (1901)

1971 - New American Standard Bible (NASB)

1978 - New International Version (NIV)

1982 - New King James (NKJ)

2001 - English Standard Version (ESV)

2001 - New English Translation (NET) 1st beta release, 2nd beta 2003, 1st edition 2006

2004 - Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

2017 - Christian Standard Bible (CSB) Major revision of the 2009 HCSB.