Bible, English translations

• William Tyndale's translation of the Bible again relied heavily on the Vulgate; however, he was a good Greek scholar and thus he did make use of Erasmus' Greek text and some other helps that had been unavailable to Wycliffe. The NT was completed in 1525 and the Pentateuch in 1530. He was martyred before he could complete the OT.
• Miles Coverdale, a friend of Tyndale, prepared and published a Bible dedicated to Henry VIII in 1535. The NT is based largely on Tyndale's version.
• Matthew's Bible appeared in 1537. Its authorship is somewhat unclear; it is probable that it was produced by John Rogers, a friend of Tyndale. Apparently Rogers came into possession of Tyndale's unpublished translations of the historical books of the OT and so included these in this version, which again rests heavily on the work of Tyndale, as well as Coverdale.
• The Great Bible of 1539 was based on the Tyndale, Coverdale and Matthew's Bibles. It was a large volume, chained to the reading desk in churches, and from this fact derives its name.
• The Geneva Bible of 1560 was produced by scholars who fled to Geneva, Switzerland, from England during the persecution instigated by Queen Mary. It was a revision of the Great Bible.
• The Bishops' Bible of 1568 was produced under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is to a large extent simply a revision of the Great Bible, with some influence of the Geneva Bible. It was used chiefly by the clergy and was unpopular with the average person.
• The Douay Bible was a Roman Catholic version translated from the Latin Vulgate. The NT was published at Rheims in 1582 and the OT at Douay in 1609-1610. It contains controversial notes and until recently was the generally accepted English version for the Catholic Church.
• The King James (or Authorized) Version was published in 1611. It was produced by 47 scholars under the authorization of King James I of England. The Bishops' Bible served as the basis for this version, though the translators did study the Greek and Hebrew texts and consulted other English translations. It was the most popular translation in English for well over three hundred years, undergoing at least three revisions before 1800. The New King James Version appeared in 1982. The NT had been published in 1979. One hundred nineteen scholars worked on the project, sponsored by the International Trust for Bible Studies and Thomas Nelson Publishers. They sought to preserve and improve the 1611 version.
• The Revised Version was published between 1881 and 1885. It was made by a group of English and American scholars. It was to a large extent a revision of the King James translation, though the scholars involved did check the most ancient copies of the original scriptures, using manuscripts that were unavailable at the time the King James Version was produced.
• The American Standard Version of 1900-1901 is the American version of the Revised Version, with those renderings preferred by the American members of the Revision Committee of 1881-1885.
• The Revised Standard Version was published in 1952. In 1928 the copyright of the American Standard Version was acquired by the International Council of Religious Education, which authorized a revision by a committee of 32 scholars. The NT was issued in 1946, the complete Bible in 1952. The copyright is currently owned by the Division of Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. The Revised Standard Version Bible Committee is a continuing body, which is both ecumenical and international, with active Protestant and Catholic members from Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Additional revisions were made in the NT in 1971 and in 1990 the New Revised Standard Version was issued.
• The Berkeley Version was published in 1959. The NT was originally translated into modern English by a single individual, Gerrit Verkuyl in 1945. With a staff of 20 translators, including professors from various Christian colleges and seminaries, all under his direction, a translation of the OT was rendered.
• The Amplified Bible appeared in 1965. It was commissioned by the Lockman Foundation and is unusual -- even idiosyncratic -- in that it has bracketed explanatory words to try to explain somewhat difficult passages.
• The Jerusalem Bible was published in 1966. It is a Roman Catholic work originally done in French at the Dominican Biblical School in Jerusalem in 1956. The French title was La Bible de Jerusalem. The English version was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts, but it follows the French version on most matters of interpretation. It is the only major English translation that makes use of the divine name "Yahweh" in the OT. The translation includes the Apocrypha. A revision called The New Jerusalem Bible came out in 1989.
• The New English Bible was published in 1970. It was produced by a joint committee of Bible scholars from leading denominations in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, assisted by the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge. Twenty-two years were spent in the work of translation, with the NT arriving in 1961. The full Bible includes the Apocrypha. It is printed in paragraphed, single-column format, with verse numbers along the outside margin of the pages. A revision of this translation, called the Revised English Bible, appeared in 1989.
• The New American Standard Bible was published in 1971. It is a revision of the American Standard Version and was commissioned by the Lockman Foundation. A group of Bible scholars worked for 10 years, translating from the original texts and attempting to render the grammar and terminology of the American Standard Version into more contemporary English, except when God is addressed. Then it reverts to King James style language. The NT appeared in 1963.
• The Living Bible appeared in 1971. It is a paraphrase by Kenneth N. Taylor; he sought to express what the writers of scripture meant in the simplest modern English possible. It scarcely needs to be said that sometimes he got it terribly wrong! It is a paraphrase of the American Standard Version; it is not a translation from the original languages.
• Today's English Version (Good News Bible) was published in 1976. The NT, entitled Good News For Modern Man, was published in 1966 by the American Bible Society. A translation committee of Bible scholars was appointed to work with the United Bible Societies to make a similar translation of the OT. Their objective was to provide a faithful translation into natural, clear, and simple contemporary English. American and British editions of the complete Bible appeared in 1976. In 1995 an updated version was produced, called the Contemporary English Version, which is notable for removing anything that might be misunderstood as anti-semitic from its translation of the NT.
• The New International Version was published in 1978. The Committee enlisted Bible scholars from a broad range of denominations and countries and has become the most widely used of the modern translations.