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The ChristianBible has beentranslated intomany languages from thebiblical languages ofHebrew,Aramaic, andGreek.
According to a major Bible translation organization, as of August 2025[update] the full Protestant Bible has been translated into 776 languages, theNew Testament has been translated into an additional 1,798 languages, and smaller portions have been translated into 1,433 other languages. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 4,007 languages, out of a total of 7,396 known languages (including sign languages).[1]
Textual variants in the New Testament include errors, omissions, additions, changes, and alternate translations. In some cases, different translations have been used as evidence for or have been motivated by doctrinal differences.
TheHebrew Bible was mainly written inBiblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably inDaniel andEzra) inBiblical Aramaic. Some of theDeuterocanonical books not accepted in every denomination's canons, such as2 Maccabees, originated in Koine Greek.
In the third and second centuries B.C.E., the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Koine Greek, known as theSeptuagint version. This was the version commonly used bythe writers of the Gospels.
From the 6th century to the 10th century AD, Jewish scholars, today known asMasoretes, compared the text of variousbiblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified, standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known asMasoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (calledniqqud) to the text, since the original text containedonly consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation; since some words differ only in their vowels their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in theSamaritan Pentateuch and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.[2]
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek[3] reporting speech originally inAramaic, Greek andLatin (seeLanguage of the New Testament).
Theautographs, the Greekmanuscripts written by the original authors or collators, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the manuscripts that do survive.
Most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as alternative spelling, alternative word order, the presence or absence of an optional definite article ("the"), and so on. Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a text was missing or for other reasons. Examples of major variants are theendings of Mark, thePericope Adulteræ, theComma Johanneum, and theWestern version of Acts.
Early manuscripts of thePauline epistles and other New Testament writings showno punctuation whatsoever.[4][5] Thepunctuation was added later by other editors, according to their own understanding of the text.
Four main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament have been theorized to allow grouping and analysis of manuscripts and changes: theAlexandrian text-type, theByzantine text-type, theWestern text-type and perhaps a largely lostCaesarean text-type, however many manuscripts are mixes of these.
The discovery of older manuscripts which belong to the Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th-centuryCodex Vaticanus andCodex Sinaiticus, led scholars to revise their view about the original Greek text.Karl Lachmann based hiscritical edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to argue that theTextus Receptus must be corrected according to these earlier texts.
There is also a long-standing tradition owing toPapias of Hierapolis (c.125) that the Gospel of Matthew was originally in Hebrew.[6] Eusebius (c.300) reports thatPantaenus went to India (c. 200) and found them using a Gospel of St Matthew in Hebrew letters.[7]Jerome also reports in his preface to St Matthew that it was originally composed "in Hebrew letters in Judea" not in Greek[8] and that he saw and copied one from theNazarene sect. The exact provenance, authorship, source languages and collation of the four Gospels is unknown but subject to muchacademic speculation and disputedmethods.
Some of the first translations of theTorah began during theBabylonian exile, whenAramaic became thelingua franca of the Jews. With most people speaking only Aramaic and not understanding Hebrew, theTargums were created to allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was read in ancientsynagogues.
By the 3rd century BC,Alexandria had become the center ofHellenistic Judaism, and during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC translators compiled in Egypt a Koine Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures in several stages (completing the task by 132 BC). TheTalmud ascribes the translation effort toPtolemy II Philadelphus (r. 285–246 BC), who allegedly hired 72 Jewish scholars for the purpose, for which reason the translation is commonly known as the Septuagint (from the Latinseptuaginta, "seventy"), a name which it gained in "the time ofAugustine of Hippo" (354–430 AD).[9][10] The Septuagint (LXX), the very first translation of theHebrew Bible intoGreek, later became the accepted text of theOld Testament in the Christian church and the basis of itscanon. Jerome based his Latin Vulgate translation on the Hebrew for those books of the Bible preserved in the Jewish canon (as reflected in theMasoretic Text), and on the Greek text for thedeuterocanonical books.
The translation now known as the Septuagint was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians.[11] It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a legend (primarily recorded as theLetter of Aristeas) that seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators all produced identical texts; supposedly proving its accuracy.[12]
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books not included in the Masoretic Text of theTanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or of Hebrew variants not present in the Masoretic Text. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than previously thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many[quantify] scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition ("Vorlage") from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic Text.[2]
The books collected as the Christian New Testament were written in Koine Greek.[a] In the view of many scholars, the Gospels may have collected oral apostolic tradition rather than being simply dictated.[13]
Theproto-canonical books of the Old Testament were available in two sources: Hebrew and the GreekSeptuagint translation. SinceJerome, Christian translations of the Old Testament (except the Psalms) tend to be derived from the Hebrew texts, though some denominations prefer the Greek texts (or may cite variant readings from both). Modern Bible translations incorporating modern textual criticism usually begin with theMasoretic Text, but also take into account possible variants from all available ancient versions.
Origen'sHexapla (c. 235) placed side by side six versions of the Old Testament: the Hebrew consonantal text, the Hebrew text transliterated into Greek letters (theSecunda), the Greek translations ofAquila of Sinope andSymmachus the Ebionite, one recension of the Septuagint, and the Greek translation ofTheodotion. In addition, he included three anonymous translations of the Psalms (theQuinta,Sexta andSeptima). His eclectic recension of the Septuagint had a significant influence on the Old Testament text in several important manuscripts.
In the 2nd century, the Old Testament was translated intoSyriac translation, and the Gospels in theDiatessaron gospel harmony. The New Testament was translated in the 5th century, now known as thePeshitta.
In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the New Testament was translated into variousCoptic (Egyptian) dialects. The Old Testament was already translated by that stage.
TheFrankfurt silver inscription, dated to between 230 and 270, quotesPhilippians 2:10-11 in a Latin translation. It is the earliest reliable evidence of Christianity north of theAlps.[14]
In 331, theEmperor Constantine commissionedEusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople.Athanasius (Apol. Const. 4) recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles forConstans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation forcanon lists, and thatCodex Vaticanus Graecus 1209,Codex Sinaiticus andCodex Alexandrinus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.[15]
The Biblewas translated intoGothic (an early East Germanic language) in the 4th century by a group of scholars, possibly under the supervision ofUlfilas (Wulfila).[16][17]
Canon (i.e. Item) 59 of theSynod of Laodicea in 363 specified that uncanonical books should not be read in church. Canon 60, whose authenticity is disputed,[18] then supplied a canon similar to that given by BishopCyril of Jerusalem's catechesis in 350: both lacked theBook of Revelation. The canon ofAthanasius of Alexandria in 367 added Revelation in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter. All three included the so-calleddeuterocanonical books of Baruch and Lamentations.
Jerome'sVulgate Latin translation dates to between AD 382 and 405. Latin translations predating Jerome are collectively known asVetus Latina texts. Jerome began by revising these earlier Latin translations, but ended by going back to the original Greek, bypassing all translations, and going back to the original Hebrew wherever he could instead of the Septuagint.
There are also several ancient translations, most important of which are in theSyriac dialect of Aramaic (including the Peshitta).
TheCodex Vaticanus dates toc. 325–350, and is missing only 21 sentences or paragraphs in various New Testament books: it is one of the fourgreat uncial codices. The earliest surviving complete single-volume manuscript of the entire Bible in Latin is theCodex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in 8th-century England at the double monastery ofWearmouth-Jarrow. Latin and its early Romance dialects were widely spoken as the primary or secondary language throughout Western Europe, including Britain even in the 700s and 800s.[19]
Between the 4th to 6th centuries, the Bible was translated intoGe'ez (Ethiopic).
In the 5th century,Mesrob Mashtots translated the Bible using theArmenian alphabet invented by him.[20] Also dating from the same period is the firstGeorgian translation. The creation of theGeorgian scripts, like the Armenian alphabet, was also attributed to Mashtots by the scholarKoryun in the 5th century.[21] This claim has been disputed by modern Georgian scholars, although the creation of a Georgian alphabet was likely still motivated by Christians who wished to translate holy scriptures.[22]
In the 6th century, the Bible was translated intoOld Nubian.
By the end of the eighth century,Church of the East monasteries (so-calledNestorians) had translated the New Testament and Psalms (at least, the portions needed for liturgical use) from Syriac toSogdian,[23] thelingua franca in Central Asia of the Silk Road,[24] which was anEastern Iranian language with Chinese loanwords, written inletters andlogograms derived from Aramaic script. They may have also translated parts of books into aChinese.
Before the advent of the printing press andmass literacy, medieval vernacular translation of scriptural texts was mainly and necessarilymediated,[25] and oral, memorized,[26]extemporized or versified. The Western Catholic church utilizedLatin as a pan-Europeanlingua franca for liturgical, and scholarly use. Local efforts sporadically provided vernacular translations in major national languages,[27] however personal study of the Bible does not necessarily occupy the same urgent role in lay Catholic life and devotion as it does in e.g.sola scriptura-style Protestantism: "the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book.'"[28]
When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginalglosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. Seetextual criticism. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions, additions, and variants (mostly inorthography).
There are some fragmentaryOld English Bible translations, notably a lost translation of theGospel of John into Old English by the VenerableBede, which is said to have been prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. AnOld High German version of the Gospel of Matthew dates to 748.Charlemagne in c. 800 chargedAlcuin with a revision of the Latin Vulgate. The translation intoOld Church Slavonic was started in 863 byCyril and Methodius.
Alfred the Great, a ruler in England, had a number of passages of the Bible circulated in the vernacular in around 900. These included passages from theTen Commandments and thePentateuch, which he prefixed to a code of laws he promulgated around this time. In approximately 990, a full and freestanding version of the four Gospels in idiomatic Old English appeared, in theWest Saxon dialect; these are called theWessex Gospels. Around the same time, a compilation now called theOld English Hexateuch appeared with the first six (or, in one version, seven) books of the Old Testament.
The arrival of the mendicant preaching orders in the 12th century saw individual books being translated with commentary, in Italian dialects.[29]
Typically the Psalms were among the first books to be translated, being prayers: for example, theearliest Polish translation from 1280.
There are numerous manuscripts of the Psalms in Catalan from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, translated from the Vulgate,Occitan, French and Hebrew, with a New Testament and full Bible translation made in the 1300s.[30] Parts of an Old Testament inOld Spanish from the late 1300s still exist.[31]
Monks completed a translation intoFranco-Provençal (Arpitan) c.1170-85, commissioned byPeter Waldo. The complete Bible was translated into Old French in the late 13th century. Parts of this translation were included in editions of the popularBible historiale, and there is no evidence of this translation's being suppressed by the Church.[32] In England, "about the middle of the fourteenth century—before 1361—the Anglo-Normans possessed an independent and probably complete translation of the whole of the Old Testament and the greater part of the New."[33]: xvii
FriarGiovanni da Montecorvino of the large Franciscan mission to Mongol China in the early 1300s translated the Psalms and New Testament into the language of theTartars: theUyghur language or perhaps theMongolian language.[34]
A royalSwedish version of 1316 has been lost. The entire Bible was translatedinto Czech around 1360.
The provincialsynods of Toulouse (1229) and Tarragona (1234) temporarily outlawed possession of some vernacular renderings, in reaction to theCathar andWaldensian heresies, in South France and Catalonia. This demonstrates that such translations existed: there is evidence of some vernacular translations being permitted while others were being scrutinized.
A group ofMiddle English Bible translations were created: including theWycliffean Bibles (1383, 1393) and thePaues' New Testament, based on the Vulgate. New translation efforts were regulated in England by the provincialOxford Synod in 1408 under church law to require the approval of a bishop; possession of material that containedLollard material (such as the so-called General Prologue found in a few Wycliffite Bibles) was also illegal byEnglish state law, in response to Lollard uprisings.
Later, many parts of the Bible in Late Middle English were printed byWilliam Caxton in his translation of theGolden Legend (1483), and in the loose paraphraseSpeculum Vitae Christi (The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ), which had been authorized into English around 1410.
ACornish version may have been made.[35]
The HungarianHussite Bible appeared in 1416.
Individual books continued to be translated: for example theGospel of John in Slovak (1469). The first 12 books of theOld Testament in Danish (also used for Norwegian) was made in c. 1480.
The invention of printing saw complete Catholic Bibles produced in German (1466 and after; multiple),Valencian Catalan (1478), Tuscan (1471), Venetian (1471) and Dutch (1477).[30]
From the late 1300s, theBrethren of the Common Life encouraged their laypeople to read the Gospels they would hear at church at home beforehand, in the vernacular.[36]: 177 The early public demand for printed Dutch vernacular scriptures seems to have been for translations of the daily or weekly liturgical readings, and most printed books were of thisGospels and Epistles type; from the 1520s this reverted to a demand for pandect (full) Bibles.[b]
In the early 1500s there were several independent scholarly Catholic efforts to produce polyglot editions of the bible or updated Latin translations: these included theComplutensian Polyglot sponsored by CastillianArchbishop Ximénez at his newUniversity of Alcalá de Henares, Augustinian canon Erasmus'Novum Instrumentum omne (New Testament only) sponsored mainly by English bishops, and Italian Dominican friarSantes Pagnino'sVeteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio eventually sponsored by the Pope.
The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from theFroben press, byDesiderius Erasmus, who reconstructed a Greek text from several recent manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type, to accompany his Latin revision and philological annotations. This led to a gradual shift by subsequent translators away from Latin sources to Greek or Hebrew sources, though initially his Latin renditions and annotations were more influential. Erasmus produced four revised editions.
During 1517 and 1519 Catholic laymanFrancysk Skaryna printed a translation of the Bible inOld Belarusian language in twenty-two books.[37]
In 1521, fiery former friarMartin Luther was placed under theBan of the Empire, and he hid in theWartburg Castle. During his time there, he quickly translated the New Testament into German, using the 2nd edition ofErasmus'New Testament, which provide a new Latin translation, detailed annotations on Greek words, and a Greek text for reference.[38] It was printed in September 1522. It was a freer but more idiomatic translation than thenumerous other German translations in print, which were often intended as aids to following the Latin Vulgate and so more literal but less idiomatic.
The first complete Dutch Bible, partly based on the existing portions of Luther's translation, was printed inAntwerp in 1526 byJacob van Liesvelt.[39] Early Protestant translations into Germanic languages, such as theDutch,Swedish,Danish/Norwegian,Icelandic,Swiss German,Middle Low German and to some extent theEnglish, were based in Luther'sEarly New High German translation withErasmus' Latin annotations rather than all from the Greek directly.
The first printed edition withcritical apparatus (noting variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by the printerRobert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The Greek text of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as theTextus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in theElzevier edition of 1633, which termed it as the textnunc ab omnibus receptum ("now received by all").
The use of numbered chapters and verses was not introduced until the Middle Ages and later. The system used in English was developed by Stephanus (Robert Estienne of Paris). (SeeChapters and verses of the Bible.)
The churches of theProtestant Reformation translated the Greek of the Textus Receptus to producevernacular Bibles, such as the GermanLuther Bible (1522), the PolishBrest Bible (1563), the Spanish "Biblia del Oso" (in English: Bible of the Bear, 1569) which later became theReina-Valera Bible upon its first revision in 1602, the CzechMelantrich Bible (1549) andBible of Kralice (1579–1593) and numerous English translations of the Bible.
Tyndale'sNew Testament translation (1526, revised in 1534, 1535 and 1536) and his translation of thePentateuch (1530, 1534) and theBook of Jonah were met with heavy sanctions given the widespread belief that Tyndalechanged the Bible as he attempted to translate it. Tyndale's unfinished work, cut short by his execution, was supplemented byMyles Coverdale and published under a pseudonym to create theMatthew Bible, the first complete English translation of the Bible. Attempts at an "authoritative" English Bible for theChurch of England would include theGreat Bible of 1538 (also relying on Coverdale's work), theBishops' Bible of 1568, and the Authorized Version (theKing James Version) of 1611, the last of which would become a standard for English speaking Christians for several centuries.
The first complete French Bible printed was a translation byJacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, published in 1530 in Antwerp.[40] TheFroschauer Bible of 1531 and theLuther Bible of 1534 (both appearing in portions throughout the 1520s) were an important part of theReformation.
By 1578 both Old and New Testaments were translated toSlovene by theProtestant writer and theologianJurij Dalmatin. The work was not printed until 1583. TheSlovenes thus became the 12th nation in the world with a complete Bible in their language. The translation of the New Testament was based on the work by Dalmatin's mentor, the ProtestantPrimož Trubar, who published the translation of theGospel of Matthew already in 1555 and the entire Testament by parts until 1577.
Following the distribution of a Welsh New Testament and Prayer Book to every parish Church in Wales in 1567, translated byWilliam Salesbury, Welsh became the 13th language into which the whole Bible had been translated in 1588, through a translation byWilliam Morgan then vicar of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (later Bishop of Llandaf and St Asaph.[41][42]
In 1613, Jesuits in Kyoto published alectionary of the Sunday Gospel readings and other Gospel material in Japanese; this is now lost.
Samuel Bogusław Chyliński (1631–1668) translated and published the first Bible translation intoLithuanian.[43]
In 1660,John Eliot published theEliot Indian Bible in the language of theMassachusett people, an indigenous American group who lived in the area around what is todayBoston, Massachusetts. This was the first translation of the Bible into anindigenous American language. This translation was produced by Eliot in an effort to convert the dwindling population ofMassachusett to Christianity in praying towns such asNatick, Massachusetts.
In 1671, acomplete Bible translation into Arabic was made in Rome. In 1671, the annualGospel readings were translated by a Jesuit intoKonkani, an Indian language.
| Year | Full Bible | New Testament | Portions | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 308 | 764 | 1014 | 2086 |
| 2006 | 426 | 1114 | 862 | 2402 |
| 2010 | 457 | 1211 | 897 | 2565 |
| 2011 | 513 | 1276 | 1015 | 2804 |
| 2012 | 518 | 1275 | 1005 | 2798 |
| 2013 | 513 | 1309 | 1028 | 2850 |
| 2014 | 531 | 1329 | 1023 | 2883 |
| 2015 | 554 | 1333 | 1045 | 2932 |
| 2016 | 636 | 1442 | 1145 | 3223 |
| 2017 | 670 | 1521 | 1121 | 3312 |
| 2018 | 683 | 1534 | 1133 | 3350 |
| 2019 | 698 | 1548 | 1138 | 3384 |
| 2020 | 704 | 1551 | 1160 | 3415 |
| 2021 | 717 | 1582 | 1196 | 3495 |
| 2022 | 724 | 1617 | 1248 | 3589 |
| 2023 | 736 | 1658 | 1264 | 3658 |
| 2024[44] | 756 | 1726 | 1274 | 3756 |
| Oct 2025[45] | 781 | 1804 | 1473 | 4058 |
The Bible is the most translated book in the world, with more than half of the world's languages having at least some portion of the biblical text in their language,[44] and around 99% of people being able to access the biblical text in a language they understand.[46]
TheUnited Bible Societies announced that as of 31 December 2007[47] the complete Bible was available in 438 languages, 123 of which included the deuterocanonical material as well as theTanakh and New Testament. Either the Tanakh or the New Testament was available in an additional 1,168 languages, in some kind of translations, like the interlinearmorpheme-by-morpheme translation (e.g. some Parallel Bible, withinterlinear morphemic glossing).
In 1999, Wycliffe Bible Translators announcedVision 2025 — a project that intends to commence Bible translation in every remaining language community by 2025. It was realised that, at the rates of Bible translation at that point, it would take until at least 2150 until Bible translation began in every language that was needing a translation. Since the launch of Vision 2025, Bible translation efforts have increased dramatically, in large part due to the technology that is now available. By 2019, there had been a sustained reduction in the time it took to begin a new translation, and it was estimated that a new translation will begin in every language by 2038, thus being 112 years faster.[48] A new translation was beginning every 120 hours (5 days), and by 2025 it was estimated a new translation work was beginning every 14 hours.[49]
As of September 2023, they estimated that around 99.8 million people spoke those 1,268 languages where translation work still needs to begin. This represents 17.1% of all languages (based off an estimate of 7,394 total languages) and 1.3% of the human population (based on a global population of 7.42 billion). By April 2025, this had fallen to 801 languages[49] and further reduced to 550 by October 2025 which represented about 38.9 million people.[50][45]
In total, it was estimated in 2024 that there are 3,736 languages without any Bible translation at all, but an estimated 1,148 of these (with a population of 9.6 million people) are likely to never need a Bible because they are very similar to other languages, or spoken by very few speakers where the language will likely die out very soon.[51] In October 2025, this had reduced to 3,333 languages without any scripture.[45]
Bible translation is currently happening in approximately 4,447 languages in 167 countries.[49][45] In November 2024, it was estimated that this work impacts 1.15 billion people, or about 15.5 percent of all language users, who have (or will soon have) new access to at least some portions of Scripture in their first language.[51] In April 2025, this had risen to 1.78 billion individuals (21% of the global population).[49]
Modern critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly research, including discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in some cases within a few decades of the original New Testament writings.[52] Today, most critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such asUBS4 andNA27, consider the Alexandrian text-type corrected by papyri, to be the Greek text that is closest to the originalautographs. Theirapparatus includes the result of votes among scholars, ranging from certain {A} to doubtful {E}, on which variants best preserve the original Greek text of the New Testament.
Critical editions that rely primarily on the Alexandrian text-type inform nearly all modern translations (and revisions of older translations). For reasons of tradition, however, some translators prefer to use the Textus Receptus for the Greek text, or use theMajority Text which is similar to it but is a critical edition that relies on earlier manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type. Among these, some argue that the Byzantine tradition contains scribal additions, but these later interpolations preserve the orthodox interpretations of the biblical text—as part of the ongoing Christian experience—and in this sense are authoritative. Distrust of the textual basis of modern translations has contributed to theKing-James-Only Movement.
A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological approaches to translation have been used. Inside the Bible-translation community, these are commonly categorized as:
though modern linguists, such as Bible scholar Dr.Joel Hoffman, disagree with this classification.[53]
Other translation approaches include:
AsHebrew andGreek, the original languages of the Bible, like all languages, have someidioms and conceptsnot easily translated, there is in some cases an ongoing critical tension about whether it is better to give a word-for-word translation, to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language, or to invent a neologism.
For instance, in theDouay Rheims Bible,Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition,New American Bible Revised Edition, which are the English languageCatholic translations, as well asProtestant translations like theKing James Bible, theDarby Bible, theRecovery Version, theLiteral Standard Version, theNew Revised Standard Version, theModern Literal Version, and theNew American Standard Bible are seen as more literal translations (or "word-for-word").
Translations like theNew International Version andNew Living Translation sometimes attempt to give relevant parallel idioms.The Living Bible andThe Message are two paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary language.
Less literal translations reflect the translator's theological, linguistic or cultural interpretations; the result is more easily consumed bylay readers. This contrasts with more literal translations where interpretation is left to the reader; lay readers may be unfamiliar with ancient idioms and other historical and cultural contexts.
In addition to linguistic concerns, theological issues also drive Bible translations. Some translations of the Bible, produced by single churches or groups of churches, may be seen as subject to a point of view by the translation committee.
Historian David Lawton notes that in the Middle Ages in the West, even up to the late period, there was "little or no sense that the Bible, even if seen as single or whole, should necessarily stand alone and self-sufficient. It [was] a period without fundamentalists in the modern sense."[55] The Bible was translated (usually from the Vulgate) in accordance with CatholicSacred Tradition.
However, in modern times, theSecond Vatican Council commended approvedecumenical cooperation on biblical translation, so that versions could be available which "all Christians" could use.[56]
Renderings of the name of God relate to doctrinal positions. For example, theNew World Translation, produced byJehovah's Witnesses, provides different renderings where verses in other Bible translations support the deity of Christ.[57] The NWT also translateskurios as "Jehovah" rather than "Lord" when quoting Hebrew passages that used YHWH. The authors believe that Jesus would have used God's name and not the customarykurios. On this basis, the anonymous New World Bible Translation Committee insertedJehovah into the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) a total of 237 times while the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) uses Jehovah a total of 6,979 times to a grand total of 7,216 in the entire 2013 Revision New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures while previous revisions such as the 1984 revision were a total of 7,210 times while the 1961 revision were a total of 7,199 times.[58]
A number ofSacred Name Bibles (e.g., theSacred Scriptures Bethel Edition) have been published that are even more rigorous in transliterating the tetragrammaton using Semitic forms to translate it in the Old Testament and also using the same Semitic forms to translate the Greek wordTheos (God) in the New Testament—usually Yahweh, Elohim or some other variation.
Other translations are distinguished by smaller but distinctive doctrinal differences. For example, thePurified Translation of the Bible, by translation and explanatory footnotes, promotes the position that Christians should not drink alcohol, with New Testament references to "wine" translated as "grape juice".[citation needed]
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