Timeline – How We God Our Bible

EARLY DEVELOPMENT

c.1400–400 b.c.

Books of the Hebrew Old Testament written

c. 250–200 b.c.

The Septuagint, a popular Greek translation of the Old Testament, produced

a.d.45–85?

Books of the Greek New Testament written

90 and 118

Councils of Jamnia give final affirmation to the Old Testament canon (39 books)

140–150

Marcion’s heretical “New Testament” incites orthodox Christians to establish a NT canon

303–306

Diocletian’s persecution includes confiscating and destroying New Testament Scriptures

c. 305–310

Lucian of Antioch’s Greek New Testament text; becomes a foundation for later Bibles

367

Athanasius’s Festal Letter lists complete New Testament canon (27 books) for the first time

397

Council of Carthage establishes orthodox New Testament canon (27 books)

c. 400

Jerome translates the Bible into Latin; this “Vulgate” becomes standard of medieval church

ENGLISH VERSIONS FROM LATIN

c.650

Caedmon, a monk, puts Bible books into verse

c.735

Historian Bede translates the Gospels

871–899

King Alfred the Great translates the Psalms and 10 Commandments

950

The 7th-century Lindisfarne Gospels receive English translation

955–1020

Aelfric translates various Bible books

c. 1300

Invention of eyeglasses aids copying

c. 1325

Both Richard Rolle and William Shoreham translate psalms into metrical verse

1380–1382

John Wycliffe and associates make first translation of the whole Bible into English

1388

John Purvey revises Wycliffe Bible

1455

Gutenberg’s Latin Bible—first from press

ENGLISH VERSIONS FROM GREEK

1516

Erasmus’s Greek New Testament, forerunner to the Textus Receptus used by KJV translators

1525

William Tyndale makes the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into English

1536

Tyndale strangled and burned

1537

Miles Coverdale’s Bible completes Tyndale’s work on the Old Testament

1538

Great Bible, assembled by John Rogers, the first English Bible authorized for public use

1560

Geneva Bible—the work of William Whittingham, a Protestant English exile in Geneva

1568

Bishop’s Bible—a revision of the Great Bible

1582

Rheims New Testament published

1607–1611

King James Version, the “Authorized Version,” is made by team of about 50 scholars