Bible Translations
Bible Translations in Antiquity
Bible translations are not a recent phenomenon. The books of the Bible were translated in antiquity as well.
Erasmus’ Edition of the New Testament
For his translation of the New Testament
Luther’s Translation
The work of the reformer Martin Luther was extremely influential in the development of Bible translations.
Peshitta
The Peshitta (“the simple version”) is the Syriac translation of the Bible. It includes both the books of the Old Testament (translated from Hebrew) and the books of the New Testament (translated from Greek). The Syriac translation usually stays close to the Hebrew and Greek source text. The Peshitta was created around the fourth century AD.
Septuagint
The Septuagint is a Greek
Targumim
Targumim (plural of Targum) are Aramaic translations of the Hebrew books of the Old Testament.
The Bible in Afrikaans
Portions of the Bible were translated into Afrikaans for the first time by CP Hoogenhout, A Pannevis and SJ du Toit since 1878. The first complete Bible was, however, only published in 1933. A revised version was published in 1953. Today, the translation is known as the 1933/1953 translation and is still a very popular, traditional translation, translated from the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic source texts.
The Bible in English
The King James Version (KJV), a formal translation where each word of the source text was translated into the target language, was first published in 1611. This translation is traditionally loved and accepted by all Christians. Despite the many modern translations that are available, the KJV is still read by a large number of people throughout the world.
The Bible in isiNdebele
IsiNdebele 2012
The Bible in isiXhosa
IsiXhosa 1975 and 1996
The Bible in isiZulu
IsiZulu 1893, 1959 and 2020
The Bible in Sepedi
Sepedi 1951 and 2000
The Bible in Sesotho
Sesotho 1909 and 1989
The Bible in Setswana
Setswana 1908 and 1970
The Bible in Siswati
Siswati 1996
The Bible in Tshivenda
Tshivenda 1936 and 1998
The Bible in Xitsonga
Xitsonga 1929 and 1989
Theodotion, Aquila and Symmachus
After the Septuagint
Vetus Latina
The oldest Latin translations of books of the New Testament are referred to as the Vetus Latina. They are older than the Vulgate, the fourth century translation by Jerome. But the Vulgate became much more important.
Vulgate
The Church Father, Jerome, composed a Latin translation of the whole Bible in the fourth century AD.
Jerome translated the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew and the books of the New Testament from Greek. He also translated a number of books (from Greek) which later became known as “Deuterocanonical”.
The Vulgate became the most authoritative text of the Bible for the Western Church until the Reformation.
