Modern English Bible translations consists of English Bible translations developed and published throughout the late modern period (c. 1800–1945) to the present (c. 1945–).
A bookshelf containing many English translations of the Bible
The Wessex Gospels were the first translation of the four Gospels in English without accompanying Latin text.[12] The Authorized King James Version of 1611 was sporadically altered until 1769, but was not thoroughly updated until the creation of the Revised Version in 1885; it was not until the Revised Standard Version of 1952 (New Testament in 1946) that a rival to the KJV was composed, nearly 350 years after the KJV was first published. The RSV gained widespread adoption among the mainstream Protestant Churches in America and a Catholic Edition was released in 1962. It was updated as the New Revised Standard Version in 1989.
In the late twentieth century, Bibles increasingly appeared that were much less literal in their approach to translation. In 1946, the New English Bible was initiated in the United Kingdom, intended to enable readers to better understand the King James Bible. In 1958, J. B. Phillips (1906–1982) produced an edition of the New Testamentletters in paraphrase, the Letters to Young Churches, so that members of his youth group could understand what the New Testament authors had written. In 1966, Good News for Modern Man, a non-literal translation of the New Testament, was released to wide acceptance. Others followed suit. The Living Bible, released in 1971, was published by its author Kenneth N. Taylor, based on the literal American Standard Version of 1901. Taylor had begun because of the trouble his children had in understanding the literal (and sometimes archaic) text of the King James Bible. His work was at first intended for children, but was later positioned for marketing to high school and college students, as well as adults wishing to better understand the Bible. Like Phillips' version, the Living Bible was a dramatic departure from the King James Version.
Despite widespread criticism due to being a paraphrase rather than a translation, the popularity of The Living Bible created a demand for a new approach to translating the Bible into contemporary English called dynamic equivalence, which attempts to preserve the meaning of the original text in a readable way. Realizing the immense benefits of a Bible that was more easily accessible to the average reader, and responding to the criticisms of the Living Bible, the American Bible Society extended the Good News for Modern Man to the Good News Bible (1976) by adding the Old Testament, in this more readable style. This translation has gone on to become one of the best selling in history. In 1996, a new revision of Taylor's Living Bible was published. This New Living Translation is a full translation from the original languages rather than a paraphrase of the Bible.
Another project aimed to create something in between the very literal translation of the King James Bible and the more informal Good News Bible. The goal of this was to create a Bible that would be scholarly yet not overly formal. The result of this project was the New International Version (1978). This version became highly popular in Evangelical Protestant circles.
The debate between the formal equivalence and dynamic (or 'functional') equivalence translation styles has increased with the introduction of inclusive language versions. Various terms are employed to defend or attack this development, such as feminist, gender neutral, or gender accurate. New editions of some previous translations have been updated to take this change in language into account, including the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), the New Revised Standard Version (1989), the Revised English Bible (1989), and Today's New International Version (2005). Some translations have approached the issue more cautiously, such as the English Standard Version (2001).
A further process that has assisted in greatly increasing the number of English Bible versions is the use of the Internet in producing virtual bibles, of which a growing number are beginning to appear in print – especially given the development of "print on demand".
The King James Version of 1611 (in editions following the editing of Blayney at Oxford in 1769) still has an immense following, and as such there have been a number of different attempts to update or improve upon it. The English Revised Version and its derivatives also stem from the King James Version.
The English Revised Version was the first official attempt to update the King James Version of 1769. This was adapted in the United States as the American Standard Version. The translations and versions that stem from them are shown in date order:
The New English Translation (or NET Bible) is a project to publish a translation of the Bible using the Internet. It is freely available and accompanied by extensive translator's notes. The Open English Bible aims to create the first modern public domain English translation of the Bible, using an open-source process for corrections and modernizing verses.
In addition to the above Catholic English Bibles, all of which have an imprimatur granted by a Catholic bishop, the authors of the Catholic Public Domain Version[36] of 2009 and the 2013 translation from the Septuagint by Jesuit priest Nicholas King refer to them as Catholic Bibles. These versions have not been granted an imprimatur, but do include the Catholic biblical canon of 73 books.
Sacred Name translations
These Sacred Name Bibles were all done with the specific aim of carrying into English the actual Name of God as they were in the originals. Most have been done by people from the Sacred Name Movement. They are distinguished by their policy of transliterating Hebrew-based forms for sacred names, such as "Yahweh", "YHWH", etc.
Jewish translations follow the Masoretic Text, and are usually published in bilingual editions with the Hebrew text facing the English translation. The translations often reflect traditional Jewish exegesis of the Bible. As translations of the Masoretic Text, Jewish translations contain neither the apocrypha nor the Christian New Testament.
There have been a number of attempts to produce a Bible that greatly simplifies the English. (Some of these versions are also listed in other categories: for example, the NIrV is also found under the NIV section). These are translations that are not necessarily a very dynamic translation, but go beyond simply everyday English into a restricted vocabulary set, often aimed at non-native speakers of English.
^Academic works published by Crossway typically feature the ESV translation as their primary (or sole) Bible text used for quotation.[6][7][8] Various other evangelical publishers (such as Lexham Press, Ligonier Ministries, and Cruciform Press) frequently release Christian books that use the ESV text.[9][10][11]
^Released in parts between 1913–1935 with copious study and textual notes. The New Testament with condensed notes was released in 1936 as one volume.
^NT released in 1941. The OT contained material from the Challoner Revision until the entire OT was completed in 1969. This Old Testament went on to be the base for the 1970 NAB
^New Testament only; Gospels by James Kleist, rest by Joseph Lilly.
^"Scholarly Editions". academic-bible.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
^"Current Projects". academic-bible.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
^"Endorsements". NRSV: The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Archived from the original on June 9, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
^"Endorsements". ESV.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
^Berding, Kenneth (November 18, 2019). "What Do Christians Mean When They Use the Word "Conservative"?". Biola University. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022. Theological conservative. During the past one hundred or so years since the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, the word 'conservative' has regularly been applied to Christians who believe that the Bible is true in all that it affirms, including such historical realities as the virgin birth of Christ and the literal resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This label contrasts with 'theological liberal,' which describes someone who challenges the truthfulness of the Bible, including many of the historical claims made in it.
^G. W. Bromiley, D. M. Beegle, and W. M. Smith, “English Versions,” ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 83.
^p. 5. Naudé, Jacobus A., and Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé. "Alternative revisions of the American Standard Version (1901) and retranslations within the Tyndale–King James Version tradition." HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 78, no. 1 (2022).
^p. 5. Naudé, Jacobus A., and Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé. "Alternative revisions of the American Standard Version (1901) and retranslations within the Tyndale–King James Version tradition." HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 78, no. 1 (2022).
^MCT Bible, a precise and unabridged translation (precisely and contextually denoting the Sacred Name as "Yahweh" in both the Old and New Testaments), with contextual dictionaries and concordances.
^Boswell, Freddy. 2006. Classifying "Cotton Patch Version" and similar renderings as adaptive retelling rather than translation (La clasificación de la "cotton patch version" y de otros tipos de versiones más como reescrituras adaptadoras más traducciones)." Hermēneus, Vol. 8: 45–66.
