
Definition of Terms:
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The Septuagint
The Septuagint, produced in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, was the earliest known translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Commissioned in Alexandria for Greek-speaking Jews, it became the Old Testament of choice for early Christians. The Apostles and New Testament authors often quoted the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Masoretic Text, underscoring its importance in the early Church.
Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr and Origen defended the Septuagint, with Origen compiling the Hexapla to compare Greek and Hebrew versions. While Jewish communities later distanced themselves from the Septuagint, Christians continued to use it widely, viewing it as providentially inspired.
The Vetus Latina and Constantine
The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek. As Christianity spread, early translations appeared in Syriac (e.g., the Diatessaron by Tatian, and later the Peshitta). Before Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, various anonymous translations of the Bible into Latin circulated throughout the Western Roman Empire. These versions are collectively known as the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”).
These translations were not standardized, and quality varied greatly. Some books, especially the Psalms and Gospels, had multiple Latin versions.
The Vetus Latina reflects the linguistic diversity of early Western Christianity and was commonly used by Church Fathers such as Tertullian, Cyprian, and even Augustine, who praised its role in the spiritual life of ordinary Christians.
However, discrepancies and contradictions among these texts prompted ecclesiastical leaders to call for revision and standardization.
The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) played a pivotal role in the promotion of Christian Scripture. After legalizing Christianity through the Edict of Milan (313), Constantine commissioned fifty copies of the Christian Scriptures for use in the churches of his new capital, Constantinople. This marked the first state-sponsored mass production of Christian Scripture and accelerated the need for textual uniformity. Three of the most important early biblical manuscripts survive from this period:
Codex Vaticanus (4th century): Preserved in the Vatican Library, it is one of the oldest nearly complete Bibles and is written in Greek. It contains most of the Septuagint and New Testament, offering critical insight into early Christian textual traditions.
Codex Sinaiticus (4th century): Rediscovered in the 19th century at St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, this codex includes both Old and New Testaments in Greek and several apocryphal books. It reflects the use of the Septuagint and early Christian canon.
Codex Alexandrinus (5th century): Likely of Egyptian origin, this Greek codex contains nearly the entire Bible and is one of the earliest to include Revelation.
These codices represent a transition from scrolls to bound books (codices), which facilitated the easier transmission of large collections of texts like the Bible.
Jerome and the Latin Vulgate
In the late 4th century, Pope Damasus I commissioned St. Jerome to revise the Latin Bible. Jerome, fluent in Hebrew and Greek, undertook a massive project to translate the Old Testament directly from Hebrew (rather than the Septuagint) and revise the New Testament Latin texts using Greek manuscripts. Church Fathers were generally supportive of making Scripture accessible but cautious about doctrinal accuracy. Augustine worried that poor translations could lead to heresy. The Church often limited unauthorized translations, especially as heretical groups arose with their own versions of Scripture. Jerome emphasized the importance of accurate translation, but also the need for clarity and doctrinal precision.
Jerome’s Vulgate became the official Latin Bible of the Western Church, replacing the inconsistent Vetus Latina.
Though initially criticized—especially for his preference for Hebrew over the Septuagint—Jerome’s translation eventually gained widespread acceptance.
His work would remain the standard Bible of the Western Church for over a millennium, affirmed at the Council of Trent (1546).
Early Vernacular Translations
Mesrop Mashtots (c. 362–440)
Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian monk, linguist, and theologian, invented the Armenian alphabet around 405 AD. With the help of St. Sahak, he translated the Bible into Armenian, establishing the foundation of Armenian Christianity. This version, translated from Syriac and Greek sources, is still in use and considered one of the most beautiful and faithful early versions.
Bishop Ulfilas (c. 311–383)
Ulfilas, a missionary to the Gothic tribes, created the Gothic alphabet and translated large portions of the Bible into Gothic. Notably, he omitted the books of Kings because he feared their depictions of warfare might incite violence among the warlike Goths. His work represents the first substantial Germanic Bible translation.
The Georgian Bible
Also influenced by Mesrop Mashtots, the Georgian Bible began in the 5th century. Mashtots is credited with assisting in the creation of the Georgian script and sending translators to convert biblical texts into Georgian. The translation was based primarily on the Septuagint and Syriac versions.
Aldhelm (c. 639–709)
Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, translated the Psalms into Old English and was among the first to use vernacular Scripture in Anglo-Saxon England. His poetic and prose writings also helped popularize biblical themes among the laity.
Bede the Venerable (c. 672–735)
Bede, a monk and scholar at Jarrow, completed a translation of the Gospel of John into Old English just before his death. His Ecclesiastical History emphasizes the importance of Scripture for evangelization and education. Bede’s concern for accurate transmission is evident in his extensive use of Latin and Greek sources.
Charlemagne (c. 742–814)
Charlemagne, crowned Emperor in 800, promoted a renewal of learning and Scripture literacy. He ordered copies of the Bible to be corrected and disseminated across the empire. His vision was both religious and political: a united Christian empire underpinned by a single, authoritative Bible.
Alcuin of York (c. 735–804)
Alcuin, a Northumbrian scholar invited to Charlemagne’s court, undertook the revision of the Latin Vulgate, correcting numerous scribal errors. His work became a model for scriptoria across Europe and helped ensure more accurate copying of Scripture.
Charles the Bald (823–877)
Charles the Bald, Charlemagne’s grandson, continued his grandfather’s efforts to promote biblical scholarship. He sponsored biblical glossaries and commentaries, including illuminated manuscripts like the Vivian Bible, reflecting the era’s reverence for Scripture.
Cyril and Methodius (9th Century)
Saints Cyril and Methodius, missionaries to the Slavs, developed the Glagolitic alphabet (a precursor to Cyrillic) and translated the Bible and liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic. This marked the beginning of a Slavic Christian identity grounded in Scripture accessible to the people.
Alfred the Great (849–899)
King Alfred promoted literacy and Christian education. He personally translated parts of the Bible and commissioned the translation of the Ten Commandments, Psalms, and Gospel passages into Old English. He viewed Scripture as essential to good governance.
Illuminated Bibles for the Illiterate
While literacy rates remained low throughout the early Middle Ages, the Church developed creative methods of conveying Scripture, especially through illuminated manuscripts.
Irish Gospel Books:
Book of Durrow (7th century): One of the oldest surviving Insular Gospel books, likely produced in a Columban monastery in Ireland. It contains the four Gospels in Latin, adorned with elaborate Celtic designs.
Book of Dimma (8th century): An Irish pocket Gospel book with striking illustrations and glosses, used by clergy for missionary purposes.
Book of Kells (c. 800): Considered a masterpiece of Hiberno-Saxon art, it presents the four Gospels with extraordinary decoration and symbolism, intended to glorify the Word and educate visually.
Book of Armagh (early 9th century): Contains New Testament texts and lives of St. Patrick, suggesting a merging of sacred Scripture with national identity.
Durham Gospels (7th century): An early Insular Gospel manuscript housed in Durham, England, reflecting the synthesis of Roman and Celtic Christian traditions.
These works were catechetical tools for the illiterate, emphasizing Scripture’s beauty and sacredness.
Late Medieval Contributions
Stephen Harding (c. 1060–1134)
A founding figure of the Cistercian Order, Stephen Harding commissioned new, accurate copies of the Latin Bible. He emphasized uniformity and careful copying, laying the groundwork for later scholastic scriptural study.
Orm of Lincolnshire (12th Century)
Orm, a canon at the Augustinian priory of Bourne, wrote the Ormulum, a metrical paraphrase of the Gospels and Acts in Middle English. Designed for priests to use in sermons, it demonstrates concern for doctrinal accuracy and orthodoxy.
Stephen Langton
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, developed the modern chapter divisions of the Bible, still used today. His innovation greatly improved scriptural navigation and study.
King Louis IX of France (124-1270)
A devout Catholic king, Louis IX promoted public Scripture reading. He also commissioned a number of richly illustrated Bibles, known as Bible moralisée editions, including:
Morgan Bible (or Crusader Bible): Lavishly illustrated scenes of the Old Testament with moral lessons, created in the 1240s.
Crusader Bible of Acre: Produced during or after Louis’s crusades, blending Gothic and Eastern Christian artistic traditions.
Arsenal Bible: An elaborate visual Bible designed to teach biblical ethics through typology.
Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X supported the translation of biblical and rabbinic texts into Castilian Spanish, fostering interreligious scholarship and promoting vernacular Scripture for lay education.
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II promoted Romance-language culture in Catalonia and supported biblical paraphrases and early translations, helping spread scriptural literacy among the aristocracy.
Guyart des Moulins
Guyart authored the Bible Historiale (1290s), a French translation of the Latin Vulgate with commentary. It was widely read in France and demonstrated growing lay interest in Scripture.
The Gutenberg Bible (1454–1455)
The Gutenberg Bible, printed in Mainz with movable type, was the first mass-produced Bible in Europe. Though in Latin, it democratized access to Scripture for monasteries, universities, and wealthy patrons. It signaled a dramatic shift: Scripture would no longer be restricted to hand-copied manuscripts, paving the way for vernacular Reformation Bibles.
Translation Controversies in the Reformation
Martin Luther
Luther’s German Bible (1522 NT; 1534 OT) famously added the word allein (“alone”) to Romans 3:28 to support justification by faith alone, although it was not present in the Greek, reflecting a theological rather than translational motive.
William Tyndale
Tyndale’s English Bible (1526) introduced a number of intentional changes:
“Church” (ekklesia) became “congregation”
“Charity” (agape) became “love”
“Priest” (hiereus) became “elder”
These changes reflected a Protestant ecclesiology and minimized sacramental theology.
NIV and Modern Bias
The New International Version (NIV) demonstrates selective translation:
Paradosis = “tradition” (2 Thess 3:6), but “teachings” (2 Thess 2:15) to downplay apostolic tradition.
Ergon = “works” (Rom 4:2) to support sola fide, but softened in Rom 2:6–7 to “what he has done” and “doing good.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation
The New World Translation denies Christ’s divinity:
John 1:1: “The Word was a god”
John 8:58: “I have been” rather than “I am,” severing the connection to Exodus 3:14.
Conclusion
The history of Bible translation reveals the Church’s evolving effort to preserve, proclaim, and transmit divine revelation. From the Vetus Latina to the Gothic and Armenian Bibles, from the illuminated Gospels of Ireland to the printing of the Vulgate, every era brought new tools—and new dangers. While many translations served the needs of evangelization and worship, others introduced doctrinal bias. Studying this tradition helps us appreciate the sacred responsibility that translation entails and the enduring unity between Scripture, Tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church.
Bible Verses:
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NRSVCE):
“First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Church Father Quotes:
Origen of Alexandria (184-253 A.D.)
“As for ourselves, with all our strength we are attempting to hold to the meaning of the divine words, examining carefully the thoughts intended by them, even if they are obscured by the poverty of the translations.” – Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 1, Chapter 1
Hilary of Poitiers (310-367 A.D.)
“The method of our salvation is founded upon the authority of the Church, not on the private interpretation of Scriptures.” –Commentary on Matthew 23.3
Basil the Great (330-379 A.D.)
“Let no man divide the Sacred Scriptures after his own fancy. It must be interpreted according to the tradition of the Church, not by one’s own judgment.” –On the Holy Spirit 27.66
Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 A.D.)
“Even the fact that the words of the inspired Scripture have passed through the hands of translators does not do away with their usefulness, if one is rightly guided in their reading.” – On the Soul and the Resurrection
John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.)
“Let us not interpret the Scriptures by our private judgment, but let us listen to the holy fathers, the doctors of the Church, and follow their interpretations.” –Homilies on Second Thessalonians 3.4
Jerome of Stridon (347-420 A.D.)
“I am not so ignorant as to suppose that the style of the apostles and prophets is always faultless, or that a translator should not preserve the sense rather than the words.” – Letter to Pammachius, Epistle 57 (395 A.D.)
Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.)
“Now among translations themselves the Italian (Old Latin) is to be preferred, for it keeps closer to the words without prejudice to clearness of expression… But even better are the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.” – De Doctrina Christiana, Book II, Chapter 15
“If we are perplexed by any apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say, ‘The author of this book is mistaken’; but either the manuscript is faulty, or the translation is wrong, or you have not understood.”– Letter 82 to St. Jerome
Vincent of Lérins (Died 445 A.D.)
“Therefore, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all… We must take great care to interpret the Scriptures according to the Church’s authority and not our own private opinions.” –Commonitorium 2
Scholar Quotes:
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Lord High Chancellor of England
“The whole Bible long before Wycliff’s day was by virtuous and well learned men translated into the English tongue, and by good and godly people with devotion and soberness well and reverently read.” –Dialogues III
“The clergy keep no Bibles from the laity but such translations as be either not yet approved for good, or such as be already reproved for naught as Wycliff’s was. For, as for old ones that were before Wycliff’s days, they remain lawful and be in some folks’ hand. I myself have seen, and can show you, Bibles, fair and old, which have been known and seen by the Bishop of the diocese, and left in laymen’s hands and women’s too.” –Dialogues III by Sir Thomas More
John Henry Blunt, Anglican cleric & historian.
“But as of the earlier period, so of this, there are none but fragmentary remains, the ‘many copies’ which remained when Cranmer wrote in 1540 having doubtless disappeared in the vast and ruthless destruction of libraries which took place within the few years after the date.” -History of the English Reformation (1868).
Dr. James Gairdner (1828-1912), British archivist & historian
“The truth is the Church of Rome was not at all opposed to the making of translations of Scriptures or to placing them into the hands of the laity under what were deemed proper precautions. It was only judged necessary to see that no unauthorized or corrupt translations got abroad; and even in this matter it would seem the authorities were not roused to special vigilance till they took alarm at the diffusion of Wycliffite translations in the generation after his death.” –Lollardy and the Reformation in England (1908).
John Read Dore, Anglican historian.
“(On Wycliff’s translation of the Bible), The authorities of the English Church took into consideration the desirability of introducing a vernacular Bible into England, and the great majority of the Council were of the opinion that, considering the religious troubles on the continent and the unsettled state of things at home, at this juncture the translation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue, and its circulation among the people, would rather tend to confusion and distraction than to edification…. there was no anxiety whatever for an English version excepting among a small minority … the universal desire for a Bible in England that we read so much about in most works on the subject existed only in the imagination of the writers.” –Old Bibles: an account of the early versions English Bible. (1888)
David Price & Charles Ryrie
“Unquestionably, anti-Catholic outbursts are sufficiently numerous to make a strong impression on any reader.” -Let It Go Among Our People: An Illustrated History of the English Bible from John Wyclif to the King James Version (2004)
Bruce M. Metzger
“flagrant errors in the teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses… the system taught by the sect, while liberally buttressed with Scriptural quotations, teems with erroneous and heretical notions. These are of two main varieties. On the one hand, the teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, although making a pretense of being “all the Bible and nothing but the Bible,” is absolutely silent on several of the most central facets of the Christian Faith… On the other hand, the second main variety of errors in the teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses arises not from a minimizing or exclusion of part of the Biblical teaching, but rather from a one-sided emphasis upon certain Scriptural passages, interpreted in a purely wooden fashion without taking into account the context or the analogy of faith. By thus joining together portions of Scripture which were never intended to go together it is possible, of course, to prove anything from the Bible… The whole approach should be that the Bible, properly understood, and the historic Christian faith offer far more than does the distorted and aberrant teaching of Pastor Russell and his followers.” -‘THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND JESUS CHRIST: A Biblical and Theological Appraisal’ by Bruce M. Metzger in Theology Today 10/1 (April 1953), pp. 65-85.
Ron Rhodes
“Jehovah’s Witnesses regard The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures as “an accurate, easy-to-read translation of the Bible”. What many don’t realize is that four of the five men on the translation committee producing the complete 1961 edition had no Hebrew or Greek training whatsoever… The fifth, who claimed to know both languages, failed a simple Hebrew test while under oath in a Scottish court… What all this means is that the Watch Tower’s official version of the Bible is “an incredibly biased translation,” –Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
H.H. Rowley, British Scholar:
(on the New World Translation): “a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated… an insult to the Word of God.”
