AProtestant Bible is aChristian Bible whosetranslation or revision was produced byProtestantChristians. Typically translated into avernacular language, such Bibles comprise 39 books of theOld Testament (according to theHebrew Bible canon, known especially to non-Protestant Christians as theprotocanonical books) and 27 books of theNew Testament, for a total of 66 books.^[2] Some Protestants use Bibles which also include 14 additional books in a section known as theApocrypha (though these are not considered canonical) bringing the total to 80 books.^[3][4] This is in contrast with the 73 books of theCatholic Bible, which includes sevendeuterocanonical books as a part of the Old Testament.^[5] The division between protocanonical and deuterocanonical books is not accepted by all Protestants who simply view books as being canonical or not and therefore classify books found in the Deuterocanon, along with other books, as part of the Apocrypha.^[6] Sometimes the term "Protestant Bible" is simply used as a shorthand for a bible which contains only the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.

It was inLuther's Bible of 1534 that the Apocrypha was first published as a separateintertestamental section.^[7]Early modern English Bibles also generally contained an Apocrypha section but in the years following the first publication of theKing James Bible in 1611, printed English Bibles increasingly omitted the Apocrypha. However, Lutheran and Anglican churches have still included the Apocrypha in theirlectionaries,^[8] holding them to be useful for devotional use.^[9]

The practice of including only the Old and New Testament books within printed Bibles was standardized among many English-speaking Protestants following a 1825 decision by theBritish and Foreign Bible Society.^[10] More recently, English-language Bibles are again including the Apocrypha, and they may be printed as intertestamental books.^[11] In contrast,Evangelicals vary among themselves in their attitude to and interest in the Apocrypha but agree in the view that it is non-canonical.^[12]

ManySerbian Orthodox Christians useDaničić-Karadžić Bible of 1867, which contains 66 books and was modeled after earlier Protestant translations intoLatin andGerman.^[13] Despite the fact that it is often used in religious services, the Serbian Orthodox Church does not consider the translation to be in official use.^[14]

The firstproto-Protestant Bible translation wasWycliffe's Bible, that appeared in the late 14th century in the vernacularMiddle English. Wycliffe's writings greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech proto-ReformerJan Hus (c. 1369–1415).[15] TheHussite Bible was translated intoHungarian by twoHussite priests,Tamás Pécsi andBálint Újlaki, who studied inPrague and were influenced by Jan Hus. They started writing the Hussite Bible after they returned to Hungary and finalized it around 1416.^[16]

One of the central events in the development of the Protestant Bible canon was the publication ofLuther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534).^[1] Following theProtestant Reformation, Protestants Confessions have usually excluded the books which other Christian traditions consider to bedeuterocanonical books from thebiblical canon (the canon of theRoman Catholic,Eastern Orthodox, andOriental Orthodox churchesdiffers among themselves as well),^[17] most early Protestant Bibles published theApocrypha along with the Old Testament and New Testament.

TheGerman-languageLuther Bible of 1534 did include the Apocrypha. However, unlike in previousCatholic Bibles which interspersed thedeuterocanonical books throughout the Old Testament,Martin Luther placed the Apocrypha in a separate section after the Old Testament, setting a precedent for the placement of these books in Protestant Bibles. The books of the Apocrypha were not listed in the table of contents of Luther's 1532 Old Testament and,in accordance with Luther's view of the canon, they were given the title "Apocrypha: These Books Are Not Held Equal to the Scriptures, but Are Useful and Good to Read" in the 1534 edition of his Bible translation into German.^[18]

In theEnglish language, the incompleteTyndale Bible published in 1525, 1534, and 1536, contained the entire New Testament. Of the Old Testament, althoughWilliam Tyndale translated around half of its books, only thePentateuch and theBook of Jonah were published. Viewing the canon as comprising the Old and New Testaments only, Tyndale did not translate any of the Apocrypha.^[19] However, the first complete Modern English translation of the Bible, theCoverdale Bible of 1535, did include the Apocrypha. Like Luther,Miles Coverdale placed the Apocrypha in a separate section after the Old Testament.^[20] Other early Protestant Bibles such as theMatthew's Bible (1537),Great Bible (1539),Geneva Bible (published bySir Rowland Hill^[21] in 1560),Bishop's Bible (1568), and theKing James Version (1611) included the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament.^[11] Although within the same printed bibles, the Apocrypha was usually to be found under a separate heading and sometimes carrying a statement to the effect that the such books were non-canonical but useful for reading.^[22]

Protestant translations into Italian were made byAntonio Brucioli in 1530, byMassimo Teofilo in 1552 and byGiovanni Diodati in 1607. Diodati was a Calvinist theologian and he was the first translator of the Bible into Italian from Hebrew and Greek sources. Diodati's version is the reference version for Italian Protestantism. This edition was revised in 1641, 1712, 1744, 1819 and 1821. A revised edition in modern Italian,Nuova Diodati, was published in 1991.

Several translations of Luther's Bible were made into Dutch. The first complete Dutch Bible was printed inAntwerp in 1526 byJacob van Liesvelt.^[23] However, the translations of Luther's Bible hadLutheran influences in their interpretation. At the CalvinisticSynod of Dort in 1618/19, it was therefore deemed necessary to have a new translation accurately based on the original languages. The synod requested theStates-General of the Netherlands to commission it. The result was theStatenvertaling orStates Translation which was completed in 1635 and authorized by the States-General in 1637. From that year until 1657, a half-million copies were printed. It remained authoritative in Dutch Protestant churches well into the 20th century.

Protestant translations into Spanish began with the work ofCasiodoro de Reina, a former Catholic monk, who became aLutheran theologian.^[24] With the help of several collaborators,^[25] de Reina produced theBiblia del Oso orBear Bible, the first complete Bible printed in Spanish based on Hebrew and Greek sources. Earlier Spanish translations, such as the 13th-centuryAlfonsina Bible, translated from Jerome'sVulgate, had been copied by hand. The Bear Bible was first published on 28 September 1569, in Basel, Switzerland.^[26][27] The deuterocanonical books were included within the Old Testament in the 1569 edition. In 1602Cipriano de Valera, a student of de Reina, published a revision of the Bear Bible which was printed inAmsterdam in which the deuterocanonical books were placed in a section between the Old and New Testaments called the Apocrypha.^[28] This translation, subsequently revised, came to be known as theReina-Valera Bible.

The first Protestanttranslations of portions of the Bible into Welsh were made in the 16th century with the Gospels and Epistles being published in 1551. In 1567, the entirety of the New Testament along with the Psalms were published in Welsh, whileWilliam Morgan translated thefirst version of the whole Bible into Welsh fromGreek andHebrew in 1588.

For the following three centuries, most English language Protestant Bibles, including theAuthorized Version, continued with the practice of placing the Apocrypha in a separate section after the Old Testament. However, there were some exceptions. A survivingquarto edition of theGreat Bible, produced some time after 1549, does not contain the Apocrypha although most copies of the Great Bible did. A 1575 quarto edition of theBishop's Bible also does not contain them. Subsequently, some copies of the 1599 and 1640 editions of theGeneva Bible were also printed without them.^[29] TheAnglican King James VI and I, the sponsor of the Authorized King James Version (1611), threatened to fine and imprison anyone who omitted the Apocrypha.^[4]

The Souldiers Pocket Bible, of 1643, draws verses largely from the Geneva Bible but only from either the Old or New Testaments. In 1644 theLong Parliament forbade the reading of the Apocrypha in churches and in 1666 the first editions of the King James Bible without the Apocrypha were bound.^[30] Similarly, in 1782–83 when the first English Bible was printed in America, it did not contain the Apocrypha and, more generally, English Bibles came increasingly to omit the Apocrypha.^[11]

In 1826,^[31] theNational Bible Society of Scotland petitioned theBritish and Foreign Bible Society not to print the Apocrypha,^[32] resulting in a decision that no BFBS funds were to pay for printing any Apocryphal books anywhere. They reasoned that by not printing the secondary material of Apocrypha within the Bible, the scriptures would prove to be less costly to produce.^[33][34] The precise form of the resolution was:

That the funds of the Society be applied to the printing and circulation of the Canonical Books of Scripture, to the exclusion of those Books and parts of Books usually termed Apocryphal^[35]

Similarly, in 1827, theAmerican Bible Society determined that no bibles issued from their depository should contain the Apocrypha.^[36]

Since the 19th century changes, manymodern editions of the Bible and re-printings of theKing James Version of the Bible that are used especially by non-Anglican Protestants omit the Apocrypha section. Additionally, modern non-Catholic re-printings of the Clementine Vulgate commonlyomit the Apocrypha section. Many re-printings of older versions of the Bible now omit the apocrypha and many newer translations and revisions have never included them at all. Sometimes the term "Protestant Bible" is used as a shorthand for a bible which only contains the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.^[37]

Although bibles with an Apocrypha section remain rare in Protestant churches,^[38] more generally English Bibles with the Apocrypha are becoming more popular than they were and they may be printed as intertestamental books.^[11]Evangelicals vary among themselves in their attitude to and interest in the Apocrypha. Some view it as a useful historical and theological background to the events of the New Testament while others either have little interest in the Apocrypha or view it with hostility. However, all agree in the view that it is non-canonical.^[39]

Protestant Bibles comprise 39 books of theOld Testament (according to theJewish Hebrew Bible canon, known especially to non-Protestants as theprotocanonical books) and the 27 books of theNew Testament for a total of 66 books. Some Protestant Bibles, such as the originalKing James Version, include 14 additional books known as theApocrypha, though these are not considered canonical.^[3] With the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament, the total number of books in the Protestant Bible becomes 80.^[4] Many modern Protestant Bibles print only the Old Testament and New Testament;^[33] there is a 400-yearintertestamental period in the chronology of the Christian scriptures between the Old and New Testaments. This period is also known as the "400 Silent Years" because it is believed to have been a span whereGod made no additional canonical revelations to his people.^[40]

These Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament books of the Bible, with their commonly accepted names among the Protestant Churches, are given below. Note that a leading numeral is normally pronounced in the United States as theordinal number, thus "First Samuel" for "1 Samuel".^[41]

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MostBible translations into English conform to the Protestant canon and ordering while some offer multiple versions (Protestant,Catholic, Eastern Orthodox) with different canon and ordering. For example, the version of theEnglish Standard Version (ESV) with Apocrypha has been approved as a Catholic bible.^[42]

Most Reformation-era translations of the New Testament are based on theTextus Receptus while many translations of the New Testament produced since 1900 rely upon the eclectic and criticalAlexandrian text-type.

Notable English translations include:

A 2014 study into the Bible in American Life found that of those survey respondents who read the Bible, there was an overwhelming favouring of Protestant translations. 55% reported using theKing James Version, followed by 19% for theNew International Version, 7% for theNew Revised Standard Version (printed in both Protestant and Catholic editions), 6% for theNew American Bible (a Catholic Bible translation) and 5% for theLiving Bible. Other versions were used by fewer than 10%.^[55] A 2015 report by the California-basedBarna Group found that 39% of American readers of the Bible preferred the King James Version, followed by 13% for the New International Version, 10% for theNew King James Version and 8% for theEnglish Standard Version. No other version was favoured by more than 3% of the survey respondents.^[56]

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