15th-19th Cen, Translations after the Reformation - With the Protestant Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the desire for people to read and understand the Bible in their own language, an increasing number of translations appeared in Europe. Although some were made from the Latin Vulgate, increasingly the original Hebrew and Greek texts were used.
With the rise of European trade and colonisation, and Christian missionary work, translations were made into many of the languages and dialects of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Starting in the 17th century, the work shows no signs of diminishing. Both modern European and world translations are illustrated in the two Maps following.


Map - Modern European Translations of the Holy Bible 15th-19th centuries

Translations in approximate date order within each century:
15th cen
- German, Italian, Catalan, Czech
16th cen - Dutch, French, English, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Polish, Slavonic, Icelandic, Slovenian, Welsh, Hungarian
17th cen - Finnish, Irish, Rumanian, Latvian
18th cen - Lithuanian, Estonian, Portuguese
19th cen - Gaelic, Serbo-Croat, Slovak, Norwegian, modern Greek, Bulgarian, Basque, Russian


Map - Some of the Modern World Translations of the Holy Bible excluding Europe 17th-19th centuries

Translations complete or part in approximate date order by century and continent:
17th cen America - Massachusetts Indian (Mass.)
18th cen Asia - Tamil, Malay
19th cen Africa - Malagasy, Amharic, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Yoruba, Sudanese, kiSwahili - America - Cree Indian, Labrador Eskimo, Sioux/Dakota - Asia - Bengali, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Burmese, Persian, Urdu, Armenian, Javanese, Thai, Japanese, Taiwanese, Kashmiri - Pacific - Tahitian, Hawaiian, Samoan, Maori, Tongan, Fijian

5. MODERN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS and VERSIONS

16th and 17th Cen, Major Translations in the English Language- As part of the Reformation, a series of increasingly authoritative and official translations were made within the English Protestant church. This started with the 1525 'Tyndale Bible', and ended in 1611 with the 'King James' or 'Authorized Version', which reigned supreme in the English-speaking world well into the 20th century. The Catholic translation from the Latin Vulgate at this time was the 1610 'Douay Bible'.
Over this period, and later, various translations and revisions were made by Protestant scholars, but failed to gain acceptance over the King James Version. The Catholic Douay Bible was officially revised in the 18th century as the Challoner versions.
19th and early 20th Cen, The First Modern English and American Versions- In 1885, a revision of the King James Bible, the 'Revised Version' was published in England, followed by the 'American Standard Version' in 1901. Up to the Second World War, a number of individual authors translated the New Testament into modern speech. During this period the Catholic Bible remained the Douay-Challoner version.
from 1947, The Dead Sea Scrolls - The first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered around Qumran in Israel in 1947; others further south of Qumran. These Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts and parts of the Old Testament, dating from the time of Jesus, are more than 1,000 years older than any previously known manuscripts. Until then, the earliest Hebrew documents in existence were 9th century AD copies of the Pentateuch. The Dead Sea Scrolls helped to confirm just how accurate the translations of the Jewish Bible have been over the centuries
latter half of 20th Cen, Further American and English Versions- A number of major translations and revisions have been made since World War 2. All attempt to get even closer to the original texts, while being more readable and understandable by contemporary society. Well-known titles, mostly American with the dates of publication of the entire Bible - New and Old Testament, include:
1952 - 'Revised Standard Version'
1965 - 'Amplified Bible'
1966 - 'Jerusalem Bible' (British Catholic version)
1970 - 'New English Bible' (British)
1971 - 'New American Standard Bible'
1971 - 'The Living Bible' (a paraphrase)
1976 - 'Good News Bible'
1978 - 'New International Version'
1982 - 'New King James Version'
1989 - 'Revised English Bible' (British)
1990 - 'New Revised Standard Version'
Many of these versions are recorded on CD-ROM discs for computer use. Yet nearly 400 years on, the 1611 “King James Version' is usually included along with its modern equivalents
end of 20th Cen, Translations of the Holy Bible - The Bible, in whole or part, has been translated into some 1,750 languages and dialects and the work continues. By continent, the totals with numbers of complete Bibles in brackets are:
Africa 500 (100)
Americas 400 (15)
Asia and Pacific 800 (125)
Europe 50 (over 40 complete)
World total 1,750 (280 complete Bibles)

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Maps by GordonSmith can be used without further permission. Please quotehttp://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/JBPhillips.htm