Bible literature timeline [2]
The Old Testament era contains the story of creation—how God made everything including humanity, with whom He would enter into an eternal covenant relationship.
Creation - B.C. 2000 - Originally, the earliest Scriptures are handed down from generation to generation orally.
Circa B.C. 2000-1500 - The book of Job, perhaps the oldest book of the Bible, is written.
Circa B.C. 1500-1400 - The stone tablets of the Ten commandments are given to Moses at Mount Sinai and later stored in the Ark of the Covenant.
Circa B.C. 1400–400 - The manuscripts comprising the original Hebrew Bible (39 books) of the Old Testament are completed. The Book of the Law is kept in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple beside the Ark of the Covenant.
Circa B.C. 300 - All of the original Old Testament Hebrew books have been written, collected, and recognized as official, canonical books.
Circa B.C. 250–200 - The Septuagint, a popular Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (39 Old Testament books), is produced. The 14 books of the Apocrypha are also included. The New Testament Era and Christian Age
Greek-English Septuagint: Brenton Edition [7]
The New Testament era begins with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world. Through Him, God opens His plan of salvation to the Gentiles. The Christian church is established and the Gospel—God's Good News of salvation in Jesus—begins to spread throughout the Roman Empire and eventually into all the world.
Circa A.D. 45–100 - Original 27 books of the Greek New Testament are written.
Circa A.D. 140-150 - Marcion of Sinope's heretical "New Testament" prompted Orthodox Christians to establish a New Testament canon.
Circa A.D. 200 - The Jewish Mishnah, the Oral Torah, is first recorded.
Circa A.D. 240 - Origen compiles the Hexapla, a six-columned parallel of Greek and Hebrew texts.
Circa A.D. 305-310 - Lucian of Antioch's Greek New Testament text becomes the basis for the Textus Receptus.
Circa A.D. 312 - Codex Vaticanus is possibly among the original 50 copies of the Bible ordered by Emperor Constantine. It is eventually kept in the Vatican Library in Rome.
Codex Vaticanus B [8]
A.D. 367 - Athanasius of Alexandria identifies the complete New Testament canon (27 books) for the first time.
A.D. 382-384 - Saint Jerome translates the New Testament from original Greek into Latin. This translation becomes part of the Latin Vulgate manuscript.
A.D. 397 - Third Synod of Carthage approves the New Testament canon (27 books).
A.D. 390-405 - Saint Jerome translates the Hebrew bible into Latin and completes the Latin Vulgate manuscript. It includes the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
Saint Jerome dated 1651 by Jusepe de Ribera [9]
A.D. 500 - By now the Scriptures have been translated into multiple languages, not limited to but including an Egyptian version (Codex Alexandrinus), a Coptic version, an Ethiopic translation, a Gothic version (Codex Argenteus), and an Armenian version. Some consider the Armenian to be the most beautiful and accurate of all ancient translations.
A.D. 600 - The Roman Catholic Church declares Latin as the only language for Scripture.
A.D. 680 - Caedmon, English poet and a monk, renders Bible books and stories into Anglo Saxon poetry and song.
A.D. 735 - Bede, English historian and monk, translates the Gospels into Anglo Saxon.
A.D. 775 - The Book of Kells, a richly decorated manuscript containing the Gospels and other writings, is completed by Celtic monks in Ireland.
The Book of Kells [10]
Circa A.D. 865 - Saints Cyril and Methodius begin translating the Bible into Old Church Slavonic.
A.D. 950 - The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript is translated into Old English.
Circa A.D. 995-1010 - Aelfric, an English abbot, translates parts of Scripture into Old English.
A.D. 1205 - Stephen Langton, theology professor and later Archbishop of Canterbury, creates the first chapter divisions in the books of the Bible.
Stephen Langton by John Thomas Maquette [11]
A.D. 1229 - Council of Toulouse strictly forbids and prohibits lay people from owning a Bible.
A.D. 1240 - French Cardinal Hugh of Saint Cher publishes the first Latin Bible with the chapter divisions that still exist today.
A.D. 1325 - English hermit and poet, Richard Rolle de Hampole, and English poet William Shoreham translate the Psalms into metrical verse.
Circa A.D. 1330 - Rabbi Solomon ben Ismael first places chapter divisions in the margins of the Hebrew Bible.
A.D. 1381-1382 - John Wycliffe and associates, in defiance of the organized Church, believing that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, begin to translate and produce the first handwritten manuscripts of the entire Bible in English. These include the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
John Wycliffe by Granger [12]
Apocrypha comparison chart [13]
A.D. 1388 - John Purvey revises Wycliffe's Bible.
A.D. 1415 - 31 years after Wycliffe's death, the Council of Constance charges him with more than 260 counts of heresy.
Jan Hus before the Council of Constance, 1415 Vaclav Brozik [14]
A.D. 1428 - 44 years after Wycliffe's death, church officials dig up his bones, burn them, and scatter the ashes on Swift River.
A.D. 1455 - After the invention of the printing press in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, in the Latin Vulgate.
Page from a Gutenberg Bible, 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg [15]
The Reformation Era
The Reformation marks the beginning of Protestantism and the widespread expansion of the Bible into human hands and hearts through printing and increased literacy.
A.D. 1516 - Desiderius Erasmus produces a Greek New Testament, a forerunner to the Textus Receptus.
A.D. 1517 - Daniel Bomberg's Rabbinic Bible contains the first printed Hebrew version (Masoretic text) with chapter divisions.
A.D. 1522 - Martin Luther translates and publishes the New Testament for the first time into German from the 1516 Erasmus version.
Martin Luther 1532 [16]
A.D. 1524 - Bomberg prints a second edition Masoretic text prepared by Jacob ben Chayim.
A.D. 1525 - William Tyndale produces the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into English.
A.D. 1527 - Erasmus publishes a fourth edition Greek-Latin translation.
A.D. 1530 - Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples completes the first French-language translation of the entire Bible.
A.D. 1535 - Myles Coverdale's Bible completes Tyndale's work, producing the first complete printed Bible in the English language. It includes the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
Leaf from the Coverdale Bible of 1535 [17]
A.D. 1536 - Martin Luther translates the Old Testament into the commonly spoken dialect of the German people, completing his translation of the entire Bible in German.
A.D. 1536 - Tyndale is condemned as a heretic, strangled, and burned at the stake.
William Tyndale [18]
A.D. 1537 - The Matthew Bible (commonly known as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible), a second complete printed English translation, is published, combining the works of Tyndale, Coverdale and John Rogers.
A.D. 1539 - The Great Bible, the first English Bible authorized for public use, is printed.
The Great Bible [19]
A.D. 1546 - Roman Catholic Council of Trent declares the Vulgate as the exclusive Latin authority for the Bible.
A.D. 1553 - Robert Estienne publishes a French Bible with chapter and verse divisions. This system of numbering becomes widely accepted and is still found in most Bible's today.
A.D. 1560 - The Geneva Bible is printed in Geneva, Switzerland. It is translated by English refugees and published by John Calvin's brother-in-law, William Whittingham. The Geneva Bible is the first English Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters. It becomes the Bible of the Protestant reformation, more popular than the 1611 King James Version for decades after its original release.
The Geneva Bible 1560 Edition [20]
A.D. 1568 - The Bishop's Bible, a revision of the Great Bible, is introduced in England to compete with the popular but "inflammatory toward the institutional Church" Geneva Bible.
A.D. 1582 - Dropping its 1,000-year-old Latin-only policy, the Church of Rome produces the first English Catholic Bible, the Rheims New Testament, from the Latin Vulgate.
A.D. 1592 - The Clementine Vulgate (authorized by Pope Clementine VIII), a revised version of the Latin Vulgate, becomes the authoritative Bible of the Catholic Church.
A.D. 1609 - The Douay Old Testament is translated into English by the Church of Rome, to complete the combined Douay-Rheims Version.
A.D. 1611 - The King James Version, also called the "Authorized Version" of the Bible is published. It is said to be the most printed book in the history of the world, with more than one billion copies in print.
King James Version of the Bible [21]
Age of Reason, Revival, and Progress
A.D. 1663 - John Eliot's Algonquin Bible is the first Bible printed in America, not in English, but in the native Algonquin Indian language.
Algonquian Bible 1663 Genesis 1 [22]
A.D. 1782 - Robert Aitken's Bible is the first English language (KJV) Bible printed in America.
A.D. 1790 - Matthew Carey publishes a Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Version English Bible in America.
A.D. 1790 - William Young prints the first pocket-sized "school edition" King James Version Bible in America.
Holy Bible printed by William Young [23]
A.D. 1791 - The Isaac Collins Bible, the first family Bible (KJV), is printed in America.
A.D. 1791 - Isaiah Thomas prints the first illustrated Bible (KJV) in America.
A.D. 1808 - Jane Aitken (daughter of Robert Aitken), is the first woman to print a Bible.
A.D. 1833 - Noah Webster, after publishing his famous dictionary, releases his own revised edition of the King James Bible.
A.D. 1841 - The English Hexapla New Testament, a comparison of the original Greek language and six important English translations, is produced.
A.D. 1844 - The Codex Sinaiticus, a handwritten Koine Greek manuscript of both Old and New Testament texts dating back to the fourth century, is rediscovered by German Bible scholar Konstantin Von Tischendorf in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai.
A.D. 1881-1885 - The King James Bible is revised and published as the Revised Version (RV) in England.
A.D. 1901 - The American Standard Version, the first major American revision of the King James Version, is published.
Age of Ideologies
A.D. 1946-1952 - The Revised Standard Version is published.
A.D. 1947-1956 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered.
Dead Sea Scrolls [24]
A.D. 1971 - The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is published.
A.D. 1973 - The New International Version (NIV) is published.
A.D. 1982 - The New King James Version (NKJV) is published.
A.D. 1986 - The discovery of the Silver Scrolls, believed to be the oldest Bible text ever, is announced. They were found three years earlier in the Old City of Jerusalem by Gabriel Barkay of Tel Aviv University.
A.D. 1996 - The New Living Translation (NLT) is published.
A.D. 2001 - The English Standard Version (ESV) is published.
Bible Translation Comparison [6]
The full bible has been translated into 736 languages. The New Testament, alone, has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages. Smaller portions of the bible has been translated into an additional 1,264 languages, totaling 3,658 different languages for at least some passages of the bible. Bibles are available in 167 countries of the world.
Bible Translation Comparison Chart [25]
Word to Word translations are the most accurate representation of the bible being translated from its original languages: Hebrew and Aramaic for the Old Testament, and Koine Greek for the New Testament. Having more accuracy usually means less readability and may be more difficult to determine context and meaning.
Thought-for-thoughts and paraphrasing translations have a higher degree of readability but are less accurate direct translations. It is important to recognize which bible type is more important to you as the reader, and certain scriptural passages can be read for clarity from the different translations.