Class 3 - Translation & Interpretation | Student Copy
Class 3 - Translation | Presentation Copy
5 Steps to Understanding Any Biblical Text: The Interpretive Journey...
Sometimes we take it for granted that we can read the Bible in english. The Bible being an ancient book that has been passed down by copying manuscripts in a variety of languages, some of which are now dead languages.
What follows is a brief overview of Bible translations into English. This glosses over a massive collection of translations and only focuses on English. A full comprehensive history would be a massive undertaking.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tU_BuZhWBl0&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
| Date | Translation Event |
|---|---|
| 250 B.C. | The Septuagint is translated from Hebrew |
| 405 A.D. | The Latin Vulgate is translated by St. Jerome |
| 1380’s A.D. | John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible into Middle English |
| 1450’s | The invention of the printing press and the release of the Gutenberg Bible. |
| 1526 A.D. | William Tyndale publishes the first english translation to directly translate from the original languages. |
| 1534 A.D. | The Bible is translated into German by Martin Luther |
| 1611 A.D. | The King James Version (AV - Authorized Version) of the Bible is first published |
| 1880-1900 A.D. | English Revised Version and the American Standard Versions are translated and published, sharing translation teams and working to revise the KJV. |
| 1956 A.D. | The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered |
| 1970’s | Modern english translations begin to be published. |
This brief timeline shows some notable events that have happened in the history of Bible translation. What this timeline does not show is the political, social and theological context of these events. What you might notice is that there was a long gap in major translations until John Wycliffe. Due in large part to the general dark ages, but also because of theological implications of translating the Bible into other languages, besides the Latin that the Catholic church used.
All the early translations up until the early 1600’s were at some point banned, burned or censored. This might be hard for us to understand but there was largely only one western christian church until Martin Luther. Why would the one church need more than one authoritative translation of the Bible? This might be hard for us in the internet age to understand but in a world before even the printing press, the idea of there being multiple translations of the Bible was radical.