Translations of the Bible

Only very few people can read the Bible in its original languages: Hebrew and Greek.
Furthermore, the Latin translations that were generally used in the Middle Ages can
only be used by an extremely limited number of people. Most people can only read
the Bible in the form of a translation in their mother tongue.
Editions of the Hebrew Scriptures in other languages than Hebrew have existed for a
long time. They existed many centuries before Christ.
When the Jewish exile came to an end in 537 B.C.and the Jews could return to their
own land, many Jews stayed behind in the countries in the Middle East to which they
had been moved. They stuck together and kept themselves separated from the peoples
of their new countries. They formed separate Jewish communities that came together
in their synagogues on the Sabbaths to read and discuss the Hebrew Scriptures. In the
course of the centuries, the Jews forgot the Hebrew language and started to speak the
languages of the countries where they lived. By the 3rd century before Christ, koine
Greek had become the international language that was spoken and understood
throughout the Middle East. Many Jews spoke and understood this kind of Greek far
better than the Hebrew of their ancestors.
Around 280 before Christ, about 70 Jewish scholars came together in Alexandria
(Egypt) to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. They produced the Septuaginta
translation that is still very well-known today.
In the days of Jesus, this Septuaginta translation was so popular and generally used in
Jesus' own country and among his own disciples that almost every time when the
Bible writers of the 1st century after Christ (the authors of the Greek Scriptures)
quoted texts from the Hebrew Scriptures, they used the phrasing of the Greek
Septuaginta translation.
Something similar occurred in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries after Christ. Koine
Greek, the international language, was increasingly replaced by Latin, the language of
the greatest world power in those days. As more and more people in the immense
territory of the Roman Empire became Christians, there was an increasing demand for
a Bible edition that people could read and understand. Between 390 and 405 after
Christ, the very educated Hieronymus accepted the challenge. He was well-versed in
both Hebrew and Greek and was determined not to make a a translation based on
existing translations. He translated directly from the original languages into the
vulgates Latin of his days. Just like koine Greek is a simplified, internationally
accepted version of the classical Greek, vulgates Latin is a simplified, internationally

accepted version of classical Latin. The translation by Hieronymus, still generally

known as the Latin Vulgate, was the generally accepted and used text of the
Scriptures in the Middle Ages for about a thousand years.
From the time of the invention of the art of printing and the Reformation, translations
of the Scriptures were made all over Europe in all the various European languages English, German, French, Dutch, etc. These translations have played a tremendous
part in European history, culture, and scholarship.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches in
Europe and in America founded Bible societies that set out to translate the Bible into
non-European languages and to spread the Bible on other continents. These Bible
societies have been extremely successful. By the year 1900, the Bible had been
translated into some 600 languages. About 1930, it was available in approximately
900 languages. By the end of the 20th century, the Bible had been translated into over
2000 languages.
These are famous Bible translations in English, German, French, and Dutch, with the
years in which they appeared and the name they used to refer to God.
Famous translations in English
The King James
appeared in
refers to God with Lord
Bible
1611
The Emphasized
appeared in refers to God with
Bible
1902
Yahweh
The American
appeared in refers to God with
Standard Version
1901
Jehovah
The New Jerusalem appeared in refers to God with
Bible
1985
Yahweh
Famous translations in German
Luther
appeared in
refers to God with Herr
1534
Elberfelder
appeared in refers to God with
1872
Jehova
Einnheitsbersetzung appeared in refers to God with Herr
1974
and Jahwe
Crampon

Famous translations in French

appeared in refers to God with
1904
Jehovah

Jerusalem
Osty

appeared in
1954
appeared in
1973

refers to God with

Yahv
refers to God with
Yahv

Famous translations in Dutch

Statenvertaling
appeared in refers to God with
1637
Heere
Petrus
appeared in refers to God with
Canisiusvertaling
1939
Jahweh
NBG vertaling
appeared in
refers to God with Here
1951
Willibrordvertaling appeared in refers to God with
1975
Jahwe