Bible, translations of the, date back more than 2,000 years to the Septuagint (q.v.), a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek beginning in the 3rd century ac. About AD 1450, the time of the invention of printing, the number of translations was 33, and by about 1800 the number had risen to 71. By the end of 1971 parts of the Bible had been published in 1,457 languages, and the entire Bible in 253 languages. In the early Christian Church, the most important translation was the Latin version known as the Vulgate (q.v.), by St. Jerome. It is the official Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church and has been the basis for translations into many other languages, including the Douay Version (N.T. 1582; O.T. 1609—10), the only authorized Bible in English for Roman Catholics until the 20th century. The new learning in the 15th and 16th centuries revived the study of Greek and led to new translations. Very important was the work of Erasmus, whose first edition of the New Testament, containing the Greek text, his own translation into Latin, and his commentary, was published in 1516; further editions followed. The first complete English version of the Bible dates from 1382 and was credited to John Wyclilfe and his followers. A revision was completed in 1388. But it was the work of William Tyndale, a reformer and scholar, that was the model for a series of subsequent English translations. From 1525 to 1535 he translated the New Testament and part of the Old Testament. Subsequent English translations, including the Coverdale Version (1535), the Matthew’s (1537), the Great (1539), the Geneva (1560), and the Bishops’ (1568, revised 1572) Bibles, were to some degree dependent on Tyndale’s work. All previous English translations culminated in the King James Version (1611; known in England as the Authorized Version), prepared by 54 scholars appointed by King James I. Avoiding strict literalism in favour of extensive use of synonym, it was a masterpiece of English prose and the principal Bible used by English-speaking Protestants for 270 years. In the 19th century, a British committee produced the Revised Version (N.

. 1881; O.T. 1885; the Apocrypha 1895), a revision of the King James Version. In the U.S. a committee working closely with the British revision committee produced the American Standard Version (1901). These versions were used for academic study but rarely replaced the King James Version in worship services. In the 20th century, many translations have been made. The Revised Standard Version (N.T. 1946; O.T. 1952; Apocrypha 1957) was widely accepted by Protestants in the U.S. The New English Bible (N.T., 1st edition 1961, 2nd edition 1970; O.T. and Apocrypha 1970) was prepared by an interdenominational committee of British and Irish Anglican and Protestant scholars. Several private versions in modern English have heen prepared by individuals or by a few scholars. These include James Moffatt’s version (N.T. 1913, O.T. 1924; revisions 1935); a translation by Ronald Knox (N.T. 1945; O.T.1949), which is officially approved by the Roman Catholic Church; and The New Testament in Modern English (1958) by J.B. Phillips. Under the sponsorship of the American Bishops’ Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Roman Catholics published the Confraternity Version (N.T. only, 1941), which was based on the Vulgate. A new translation was begun after Pope Pius XII approved translation from the original languages. The New American Bible was published in sections begining in 1948; the complete version appeared in 1970. It is approved for use in the mass. In Europe, the outstanding Protestant translation was that of Martin Luther (N.T. 1522, complete Bible 1534), the first complete translation from the original Hebrew and Greek into a modern European language. Still the official Bible for German Protestants, it was the basis for Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, and other translations. A widely acclaimed modern translation in French, La Bible de Jerusalem (1956), was prepared by Dominican scholars in Jerusalem. A parallel translation in English was published as The Jerusalem Bible (1966).


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