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In the English Bible alone there are over 500 versions. These versions start with the very first English Bible translated and hand written by John Wycliffe during the 1980s AD. This was not a complete translation. It covered only the New Testament and part of the Old Testament and was translated from the Latin Vulgate not from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. This is unfortunate because the Vulgate was the official Bible of the Catholic Church, and back then when the Catholic Church translated the Bible from the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic they had not translated it accurately on purpose so that it said what they wanted it to say. So when Wycliffe translated the Vulgate in to English he also translated all of the mistakes in it. The first full translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek to English was done by William Tyndale from 1523-1530. Unfortunately his translation was not fully accurate either due to mistakes made by Erasmus, who is known as one of the greatest scholars of all times, when he edited the Greek New Testament in 1516. Never the less Tyndale’s work was a break through and much of it was used later in the Geneva Bible written in 1560 and King James Version which is also known as the Authorized Version, which was written in 1611. It was also utilized in the translations of many other smaller less well known translations.
Today some call it the forgotten translation. The Geneva Bible of 1560 was written by the Church of Geneva in Switzerland. During the reign of Mary, also known as “Bloody” Mary because of her persecution of the Protestants in England, many of the English reformers fled to Switzerland. It was there that they decided that they needed a Bible that they could educate their families from while they were in exile. Their work resulted in the Geneva Bible. This now almost totally forgotten Bible, was back then the most popular Bible even over the King James. When the Pilgrims left England they took with them their Geneva bibles. The Geneva Bible was the very first Bible on American soil.
The King James Version was the only version that had the royal authority and was "appointed to be read in churches." It is characterized as "the noblest monument of English prose." and is one of the most familiar forms of the Bible for many English-speaking people. But even this well loved version faced some controversy. So the King James Version was rewritten and republished under the name of the English Revised Version. The revision of the New Testament was published in 1881 and the revision of the Old Testament was published in 1885. Surprisingly, this more accurate revision was not anywhere near as popular as the original King James Version. Due to its lack of popularity and the dissatisfaction amongst the people with the English Revised Version some scholars in America decided to try their hand at revising it to make it more appealing to the people.
This new version was published in 1901 as the American Standard Version, and although a bit more popular than the English Revised Version the American Standard Version also met with some controversy. So in 1937 the International Council of Religious Education undertook the job of revising the American Standard Version. In this revision they used the American Standard Version as well as parts of the King James and the Tyndale Translation. It took 32 scholars and 50 advisors approximately 10 years to complete the revision, and when they had completed the revision they had the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
After the Revised Standard Version of 1947 the American Standard Version was again revised in 1971 and called the New American Standard Version. This version is considered to be the most accurate word for word translation of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic scriptures into modern day English. The is the most popular version of the English bible amongst Bible scholars, due to its accuracy. Many regular people though don’t care for the New American Standard because of its accuracy. Because it is almost a word for word translation of the original ancient languages many find that it doesn’t flow well in everyday conversational English. This was the reason for the making of the New International Version in 1973. Focusing on phrase for phrase accuracy instead of word for word, the New International Version, or NIV as it is better known as, is written in modern English allowing even an elementary age school child to read it with relative ease. It’s not a wonder that the NIV is the best selling version of the Bible in modern English.
In 1982 the Thomas Nelson Publishers produced their Bible which they called the New King James Version. Their original idea was to keep the basic wording the same, so the it would continue to appeal to the fans of the original King James, but to change out the most out of date words and the old Elizabethan pronouns of “thee, thy, and thou” so that it would be easier to read. When they were done however they found that they not made enough changes to legally copyright it. So they decided to make some more significant changes to it. Defeating their original purpose. Bible scholars never really took the New King James Version seriously, but it has found some popularity with the people, due to its clever marketing name.
Now you may think 1982 well that’s pretty recent but overall all of that translation and revision stuff, at least into English, is history, right. Well that’s not the case in 2002 a group of 118 plus people, 14 for Translation Oversight, 50 Translation Review Scholars, and 50 Advisors, made a major attempt as bridging the gap between the almost perfect accuracy of the New American Standard Version, NASV, and the easy reading of the New International Version, NIV. They called it the English Standard Version, and even today with all of the new translations that have come out sense 2002 the English Standard Version continues to grow in popularity because of it easy reading and accuracy.
Even now in 2004 people are coming up with new translations of the Bible. Some of them are wonderful they allow for easier studying and understanding of the Word of God. Others though are not so great they try to twist things to make them more socially acceptable. They are written to try to appeal to the world, but you can’t mix the world and God’s Word. They don’t mix, they are like water and oil and light and dark. The world will never fully understand the Bible as long as they are standing in the dark. The world is stubborn in doesn’t want to listen to the Christians; they are like a child who throws a tantrum to get his way. If the mother, the Christians, give in to that tantrum, making Bibles that are socially acceptable. What has just happened? The child has gotten his way, he has overruled the parent. As Christians when it comes to the Word of God we need to stand firm and not allow them to be conformed to the world, to not allow the tantrum throwing child to get his way.
Sources:
Jeffcoat III, John L. <http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/> English Bible History 1/15/04
Packer J.I. <http://www.bible-researcher.com/esv.html> English Standard Version 1/15/04
Mastrantonis, Rev. George, <http://www.goarch.org/print/en/ourfaith/article7068.asp> The Bible: Its Original Languages and English Translations 1/15/04
Mitchell, Frank K. <http://www.ciger.be/erasmus/> Erasmus 1/15/04
DeMar, Gary <http://www.reformed.org/documents/geneva/Geneva.html> The Geneva Bible 1/15/04
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