About the Translations

King James Version (KJV)

In 1604, King James I of England authorized that a new translation of the Bible into English be started. It was finished in 1611, just 85 years after the first translation of the New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants. Its flowing language and prose rhythm has had a profound influence on the literature of the past 300 years.

The New International Version (NIV)

The New International Version (NIV) is a translation made by more than one hundred scholars working from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. It was conceived in 1965 when, after several years of study by committees from the Christian Reformed Church and the National Association of Evangelicals, a trans-denominational and international group of scholars met at Palos Heights, Illinois, and agreed on the need for a new translation in contemporary English. Their conclusion was endorsed by a large number of church leaders who met in Chicago in 1966. Responsibility for the version was delegated to a self-governing body of fifteen Biblical scholars, the Committee on Bible Translation, and in 1967, the New York Bible Society (now International Bible Society) generously undertook the financial sponsorship of the project.

The translation of each book was assigned to a team of scholars, and the work was thoroughly reviewed and revised at various stages by three separate committees.The Committee submitted the developing version to stylistic consultants who made invaluable suggestions. Samples of the translation were tested for clarity and ease ofreading by various groups of people. In short, perhaps no other translation has been made by a more thorough process of review and revision.

The Committee held to certain goals for the NIV: that it be an Accurate, Beautiful, Clear, and Dignified translation suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing, and liturgical use. The translators were united in their commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God's Word in written form. They agreed that faithful communication of the meaning of the original writers demands frequent modifications in sentence structure (resulting in a "thought-for-thought" translation) and constant regard for the contextual meanings of words.

In 1973 the New Testament was published. The Committee carefully reviewed suggestions for revisions and adopted a number of them, which they incorporated into the first printing of the entire Bible in 1978. Additional changes were made in 1983.

The New King James Version (NKJV)

Commissioned in 1975 by Thomas Nelson Publishers, 130 respected Bible scholars, church leaders, and lay Christians worked for seven years to create a completely new, modern translation of Scripture, yet one that would retain the purity and stylistic beauty of the original King James. With unyielding faithfulness to the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts, the translatiors applies the most recent research in archaelology, linguistics, and textual studies.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB)

While preserving the literal accuracy of the 1901 ASV, the NASB has sought to render grammar and terminology in contemporary English. Special attention has been given to the rendering of verb tenses to give the English reader a rendering as close as possible to the sense of the original Greek and Hebrew texts. In 1995, the text of the NASB was updated for greater understanding and smoother reading. The New American Standard Bible present on the Bible Gateway matches the 1995 printing

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The NRSV was translated by the Division of Christian Education (now Bible Translation and Utilization) of the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical Christian group. There has also been Jewish representation in the group responsible for the Old Testament. This translation is meant to replace the Revised Standard Version, and to identify it in context with the many other English language translations available today. It is called the New Revised Standard Version because it is a revision of the Revised Standard Version of 1952.

American Standard Version 1901 (ASV)

The American Standard Version of 1901 is an Americanisation of the English Revised Bible, which is an update of the KJV to less archaic spelling and greater accuracy of translation. It has been called "The Rock of Biblical Honesty." It is the product of the work of over 50 Evangelical Christian scholars. While the ASV retains many archaic word forms, it is still more understandable to the modern reader than the KJV in many passages. The ASV uses "Jehovah" for God's proper name. While the current consensus is that this Holy Name was more likely pronounced "Yahweh,".

Bible in Basic English (BBE)

1949-1964 Bible In Basic English The form in which the Bible is given here is not simply another example of the Bible story put into present-day English. The language used is Basic English. Basic English, produced by Mr. C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute, is a simple form of the English language, which with 850 words, is able to give the sense of anything, which may be said in English. By the addition of 50 Special Bible words and the use of 100 words listed as giving most help in the reading of English verse, this number has been increased to 1000 for the purpose of putting the Bible into Basic English. Working with the Orthological Institute, a Committee under the direction of Professor S. H. Hooke, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies in the University of London, has been responsible for a new English form of the Bible made from the Hebrew and the Greek. In this undertaking, the latest ideas and discoveries in connection with the work of putting the Bible into other languages were taken into account, and when the Basic form was complete a Committee formed by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press reviewed it in detail. The Basic Bible, which in this way was watched over by two separate groups of experts through its different stages, is designed to be used wherever the English language has taken root. Frequently, the narrow limits of the word-list make it hard to keep the Basic completely parallel with the Hebrew and the Greek; but great trouble has been taken with every verse and every line to make certain that there are no errors of sense and no loose wording.

Darby English Bible Darby's Holy Scriptures (Darby)

A New Translation from the Original Languages was published originally in two parts: the Old Testament (1884) and the New Testament (1890). These are English translations of a collation done on his earlier German and French translations. Both are posthumous, as John Nelson Darby himself died in 1882.

Douay-Rheims Version

An English translation of the Vulgate by Roman Catholic scholars.

The Douay Version is the foundation on which nearly all English Catholic versions are still based. It was translated by Gregory Martin, an Oxford-trained scholar, working in the circle of English Catholic exiles on the Continent, under the sponsorship of William (later Cardinal) Allen. The NT appeared at Rheims in 1582; the OT at Douay in 1609. The translation, although competent, exhibited a taste for Latinisms that was not uncommon in English writing of the time but has seemed excessive in the eyes of later generations. The NT influenced the Authorized Version. This edition of the text was been converted from the 1899 edition of the John Murphy Company, Baltimore, Maryland.

English Standard Version^TM

The English Standard Version (ESV) stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations of the past half-millennium. The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526; marking its course were the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV). In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression. Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.

To this end each word and phrase in the ESV has been carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text. The words and phrases themselves grow out of this Tyndale-King James legacy. Archaic language has been brought to current usage and significant corrections have been made in the translation of key texts. But throughout, our goal has been to retain the depth of meaning and enduring language that have made their indelible mark on the English-speaking world and have defined the life and doctrine of the church over the last four centuries.

Good News Bible

Scriptures marked as "(GNB)" are taken from the Good News Bible � Second Edition © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

The text of the Good News Bible (GNB) appearing on or deriving from this application is for personal use only. Any other use of the GNB must be in conformity with the Quotation Policy for the Good News Bible. For more information about the Good News Bible, the Quotation Policy and for inquiries about permission to use the Good News Bible, go to www.americanbible.org.

Noah Webster's Translation

Noah Webster's enduring fame is as a lexicographer, but his last major work, a revision of the King James Bible (KJB), is one of the few versions of the Bible published between 1611 and 1885 (when the Revised Version Old Testament and New Testament appeared) not to have sunk into total oblivion. Webster's Bible is a light revision in that for the most part it reads like the KJB; indeed, it is probably too light. Webster did not always revise where he probably should have. Moreover, his work is inconsistent, demonstrating both a failure to work thoroughly and the great difficulty of making the kind of judgements he set out to make. Such conclusions, however, do not make his work valueless. Webster's Bible is significant both because it is American and because it is by Noah Webster. It provides an excellent source for the historical evaluation of the KJB's English. Indeed, the greatest value of his work lies in the quality of the criticism of the language of the KJB and the consequences this (rather than his particular changes) had for American Bibles through its influence on the Americans who first worked on the Revised Version and then created the American Standard Version. In short, as befitted the man who played the leading role in defining American standards of English, Webster helped to shape the language of what was for half a century the most important American Bible.

World English Bible (WEB)

The WEB Bible as it might appear by the name is being translated specifically for the purpose of being distributed over the WEB. In the words of those working on the translation from the ASV 1901, "...there is NO OTHER complete translation of the Holy Bible in normal Modern English that can be freely copied (except for some limited "fair use") without payment of royalties. This is the vacuum that the World English Bible is trying to fill."

Weymouth New Testament

Richard Francis Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech: an idiomatic translation into everyday English from the text of 'The Resultant Greek Testament' by Richard Francis Weymouth; edited and partly revised by Ernest Hampden-Cook. London: James Clarke and Co., 1903.

This edition is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the 2nd edition of Weymouth's version, but it is the first. Ernest Hampden-Cook, Weymouth's secretary, edited Weymouth's manuscript in the year following Weymouth's death to produced this first edition. Weymouth produced the version as a translation of his own Greek text, The Resultant Greek Testament. The Preface (by Weymouth, dated 1902) states that the version was designed chiefly 'to furnish a succint and compressed running commentary (not doctrinal) to be used side by side with its elder compeers.' A second edition appeared in 1904; a third in 1909; a fourth, 'newly revised by several well-known New Testament scholars, in 1924; a fifth, 'newly revised by James Alexander Robertson,' in 1929, reprinted in 1936.

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

The Bible text designated YLT is from the 1898 Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young who also compiled Young's Analytical Concordance. This is an extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings.

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