From Scrolls to Modern Bibles

1. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus

   The Law of Moses is put into Greek in Egypt. A letter under the name of Aristeas tells it: King Ptolemy Philadelphus asks for the Jewish Law for his library, and seventy-two elders translate it. The Jewish Encyclopedia says the letter’s history is not reliable. The Greek Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

2. Third century B.C. to A.D. 68

   The Dead Sea Scrolls are copied. They include copies of books of the Bible in Hebrew.

3. Late 300s A.D.

   Jerome translates the Bible into Latin. His Latin Bible is called the Vulgate.

4. About 500 to 750 A.D.

   Jewish scribes, the Masoretes, add vowel marks to the Hebrew letters. By about 750 the marks are part of the text. They did not change the letters.

5. 1008 A.D. (or possibly 1009)

   The Leningrad Codex is copied: a handwritten book holding the complete Hebrew Bible, with its vowel marks. The Hebrew on Open Scroll’s cards follows it.

6. Early 1200s

   Stephen Langton, teaching in Paris, divides the Bible into chapters.

7. 1526

   William Tyndale’s New Testament is printed at Worms: the first New Testament printed in English. It is based on the third edition of the New Testament by Erasmus.

8. 1534

   Martin Luther’s full German Bible is printed. It sets the extra books apart in a section of their own, after the Old Testament.

9. 1546

   The Council of Trent lists the books it receives, and names Jerome’s Vulgate the authentic Latin text.

10. 1551

    Robert Estienne, a printer, numbers the verses of the New Testament.

11. 1560

    The Geneva Bible is the first English Bible with chapter and verse numbers all the way through.

12. 1582

    The Douay-Rheims New Testament is published at Reims, for English Catholics. It is translated from the Latin Vulgate.

13. 1609 and 1610

    The Douay-Rheims Old Testament follows.

14. 1611

    The King James Bible is published. It prints 14 more books in a section headed Apocrypha, between the Old and New Testaments.

15. 1749 to 1752

    Bishop Challoner revises the Douay-Rheims.

16. 1769

    The King James text used in Open Scroll’s King James Version dates from this year.

17. 1862

    Robert Young dates the preface of his Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, at Edinburgh.

18. 1899

    An American edition of the Douay-Rheims is printed. It is the Douay-Rheims in Open Scroll.

19. 1901

    The American Standard Version is published. It prints Jehovah where the English Revised Version printed LORD and GOD.

20. 1947

    A young Bedouin shepherd finds the first Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave near Qumran. Eleven caves there held scrolls.

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1. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Aristeas, Letter of.”
2. Jewish Virtual Library, “The Dead Sea Scrolls”: found 1947, eleven caves, third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E.
3. Jerome, Preface to the Books of Solomon, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6.
4. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Punctuation”; Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (1910), section 7; The Leningrad Codex: A Facsimile Edition (Eerdmans, 1998).
5. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Stephen Langton”; New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Estienne”; F. F. Bruce, History of the Bible in English.
6. Gruber Rare Books Collection, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago: “William Tyndale” and the Luther Bible of 1534.
7. Council of Trent, Fourth Session, 8 April 1546.
8. Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), “Douay Bible.”
9. Robert Young, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, preface to the first edition (Edinburgh, 1862), as given by bible-researcher.com.
10. Preface to the American Standard Version (1901).
11. eBible.org: King James Version + Apocrypha (eng-kjv), Douay-Rheims 1899 (engDRA), Young’s Literal Translation (engylt), World Messianic Bible (engwmb).

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