Bible – the most popular book worldwide

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Photo: The oldest complete Bible, c350.
Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the Old Testament translated into Greek and the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek.

The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. As of October 2019 the full Bible has been translated into 698 languages (over 700 languages in 2020), the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,548 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,138 other languages. Thus at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,384 languages.^[1] By 2020 that had increased to over 3,500 languages.

The Latin Vulgate was dominant in Western Christianity through the Middle Ages. Since then, the Bible has been translated into many more languages. English Bible translations also have a rich and varied history of more than a millennium.

Authorized Version 1611, first edition title page

The King James Version (KJV), also known as the King James Bible (KJB) or simply the Authorized Version (AV), is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, was commissioned in 1603 and completed as well as published in 1611 under the sponsorship of James VI and I.^[a]^[b] The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its “majesty of style”, the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world. (Wikipedia)

The translators of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, first published in 1989, acknowledged the majesty of the King James Version this way in their introductory word “to the reader”: ‘In the course of time, the King James Version came to be regarded as “the Authorized Version.” With good reason it has been termed “the noblest monument of English prose,” and it has entered, as no other book has, into the making of the personal character of the public institutions of the English-speaking peoples. We owe to it an incalculable debt.’

Many people now prefer the New King James Version (NKJV). Those who prefer more current or modern language may like to meditate on the translation of these timeless stories in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), now read in many churches and used for personal study and enjoyment. The NRSV uses inclusive language (as does the original Hebrew and Greek) and includes useful section headings. Where the passage under a section heading is repeated, or has a similar passage elsewhere in the Bible, the NRSV heading gives the other references. Headings for unique passages, not repeated elsewhere, have no references, as in the unique Christmas stories in Luke and Matthew. Likewise, the Good News Bible has section headings with references to other similar passages.

You can find 50 English translations on Bible Gateway. If you type in a single verse reference you can then see 50 versions of that verse, eg. John 3:16 –
John 3:16 in all English translations

See also