History of the Bible
Note: Most dates are approximate.
14th - 7th Century BC
Sometime during this rather large block of time, the Pentateuch (the
first five books of the Bible) took its final form.
Traditional Conservative View: The Pentateuch was written by Moses during Israel's wilderness period, with additions made after his death, perhaps by Joshua. Since archeology has now proven that writing existed in the time of Moses, and since Moses would probably have been educated in the palace, it is not unlikely that he would have been his people's scribe as well as their leader.
Liberal View: Liberal scholars believe the Pentateuch is a compilation of a variety of sources and that it was edited into its final form during the Babylonian Exile. They consider the songs of Deborah and of Miriam to be among the oldest writings of the Old Testament. The liberal view relies on the documentary hypothesis, which speculates that the Pentateuch utilized the following sources:
1. Yahwist - Presumably written during David's reign, it refers to God as Yahweh.
2. Elohist - Presumably written in the northern part of the divided kingdom, around the 9th century BC, it refers to God as Elohim.
3. Deuteronomic - Presumably, the Deuteronomic code was written during the reign of Hezekiah. Scholars accepting this hypothesis believe this code is "the book of the law" rediscovered during Josiah's reign. Deuteronomic historians are also credited with writing Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
4. Priestly - Finally, it is presumed that during the Exile, the priests collected the previous three sources and edited the Pentateuch into its final form, no doubt adding new material of their own in the process. The Pentateuch was then known as the "Torah" or law.These sources do not actually physically exist today. Their prior existence is merely a hypothesis based on some scholars' interpretations of the textual evidence.
621 BC
The high priest finds the "Book of the Law" during Josiah's reign,
leading to a national revival. Reference to this discovery proves that the book of
the law must have existed well before this time; long enough, at least, to have been lost
and rediscovered. Liberal scholars assume that the "Book of the Law"
refers only to the deuteronomic code, while conservative scholars tend to think it refers
to the complete books of Leviticus and/or Deuteronomy.
250 BC - 70 AD Septuagint Compiled
The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures,
and it began with just the Pentateuch. Over time, however, it came to include all of
the Hebrew scriptures, as well as additional books written in Greek, which Protestants
term the "Apocrypha." The
Septuagint, including most of the Apocrypha, forms the Old Testament scriptures in the
Catholic, Greek, Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian Bibles. However, the Catholic Bible
excludes 3 Ezra (also called 1 Esdras) and the Prayer of Manasseh. The Ethiopian
Bible also includes other Pseudepigraphal books not in the Septuagint,
such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees. The books of the Apocrypha that the Catholics call
"deutercanonical" include 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith,
Sirach, Wisdom, and Baruch, as well as additional parts of Esther and Daniel (such as Bel
and the Dragon).
200 BC - Prophets
By this date, the prophets are widely accepted as part of the Hebrew Scriptural
canon
135 - 63 BC
I and II Macabees, later included in the Septuagint and the apocrypha, were
written during this time, recounting the Maccabean Revolt of 167-164 B.C.
200 BC - 200 AD Pseudepigraphal Writings
The term pseudepigrapha literally means
"false inscriptions." We are aware of at least 52 of these works, which were
written by Jews and Christians between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. Writers often credited their
works to famous biblical characters, such as Enoch. Though not part of most Bible canons
today, these works influenced both Judaism and Christianity as well as the writers of the
Bible. For instance, Jude in his epistle refers to a story from the Assumption of
Moses and directly quotes the Book of Enoch.
30 - 40 AD - Sayings of Jesus
Some bible scholars believe the sayings of Jesus were collected during this period and
that parts of this document, called the "Q" source by scholars, underlie the
gospels of both Matthew and Luke.
59 AD - Paul's Letters
Most of the apostle Paul's letters were in circulation by this date, and they are
the first unified Christian writings that have come down to us today.
65 AD - Mark
The Gospel of Mark was probably in circulation by this date.
80 AD - Matthew, Luke, and Acts
The Gospel of Matthew was probably in circulation by this date. It may have
been written for the Jewish Christians in Palestine and Syria, who had recently been
banned form attending the synagogues. At about this time, a gentile convert to
Christianity wrote Luke and the Acts, which are directed at the Greek communities.
90 AD - John
The Gospel of John was probably in circulation by this date.
90 AD - Hebrew Canon Established By This Date
After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the Jews began to associate
Christianity with the Roman threat. Christians were expelled from the synagogues,
and a strict separation between Jews and Christians began to develop. The rabbis met
in Jamnia to solidify the canon, and under the leadership of Johanan ben Zakkai they
selected twenty-four books to be included in the Palestinian Hebrew Scriptural
canon. None of the Apocryphal books were seriously considered for
inclusion. The only two books that were hotly debated were Song of Solomon and
Ecclesiasties, but they were finally included. The Palestinian canon is the accepted
Jewish canon to this day. The canon is also equivalent to the Protestant
Old Testament, though Protestants divide the books further into
thirty-nine: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (the Pentateuch);
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles,
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (the Histories); Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs (Wisdom
Literature); Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micha, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
(Prophets).
200 AD
Tertullian was the first to use the title "New Testament" to
describe the commonly accepted Christian scriptures.
367 AD - Earliest New Testament List
The earliest surviving list of books exactly matching the modern New Testament
Canon dates from 367 AD and comes from a festal letter to the churches written by
Athanasius of Alexandria. Shortly after this letter, the theologians Jerome and Augustine
defined the canon of 27 books.
397 AD - New Testament Canon Officially Established
In A.D. 393, the Synod of Hippo officially listed the 27 books
of the New Testament, which had already been widely accepted in practice. This
ruling was reconfirmed four years later by the Synod of Carthage in 397
A.D., thus putting an end to debates about the canon. Up to this point, many books
had been questioned. Revelation and Hebrews, in particular, were strongly disputed
by many Christians, as were James, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John. These books were
eventually included in the canon but other disputed books, considered inspired by some,
were not: Shepherd of Hermas, 1 and 2 Clement, and the Didache. The books selected at the
Council of Carthage have been accepted as the New Testament ever since, by both
Protestants and Catholics. These books include: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1
Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1
Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation. (This is the order in
which these books are arranged in modern Bibles--they were not always placed in this
order.) The disputes are now for all practical purposes at an end, though individuals may
continue to question; Martin Luther, after all, questioned whether Revelation should be
included.
405 AD - Vulgate
Jerome completed his Latin translation of the Bible, known as The Vulgate, at
about this time. He worked with the Septuagint, older Latin translations, and the
old Hebrew texts. In doing so, he noticed that some of the works contained in the
Septuagint and older Latin translation were not in the Hebrew canon. These books he
described as "the crazy wanderings" of a man who has lost his senses. He
gave these books the label "Apocrypha," which means "hidden."
Nevertheless, they continued to be popular among Christians.
1236 AD
Chapter divisions were added to the Bible by Cardinal Caro.
1382 AD - Wycliffe
The first complete English translation of the Bible was made from the Latin
Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers. All of Wycliffe's works were condemned at the
Council of Florence in 1415.
1408 Council of Oxford
This council forbade translations of the Bible into the vernacular unless approved by
Church authority.
1454-1456 - Guttenburg
Access to the Bible was dramatically increased by Guttenburg's invention of the
printing press.
1525 - Tyndale's Bible
Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament was made from Erasmus's Greek
text and compared to the Vulgate. In 1536, Tyndale was put to death.
1534 - Luther's Bible
By this time, Luther had translated the entire Bible into German (he finsihed the New
Testament first). A version was published in 1541 in Wittenberg. In
translating the Old Testament, Luther excluded the Apocrypha from the canon. He also
assigned a greater value to some New Testament books than to others, considering James,
Jude, Hebrews, and Revelation to be inferior.
1535 Miles Coverdale
Coverdale, the first Protestant Bishop of Exeter, published his English Bible
translation, which was translated from Latin and German.
1539 The Great Bible
Also known as Cromwell's Bible, it was the first English Bible to be authorized
for public use in churches. It was revised in 1561 and was then known as the
Bishop's Bible.
1551 AD
Individual verse and numbers were added to the Bible by Robert Stephens.
1557 Geneva Bible
The only New Testament translation to be published during Mary Tudor's reign, it
was most likely the Bible Shakespeare read, and it remained the family Bible in England
until the Civil War (1642). The text was divided into verses for the first time in
any English Bible.
1610 Catholic Bible
A Catholic English translation of the Old Testament was published. Earlier,
a New Testament had been translated at Rheims, and some claimed the King James was
indebted to it.
1611 King James (Authorized Version)
The most famous English Bible translation was commissioned by King James and
included the Apocrypha as an appendix.
1611 Algonquin Bible
This was the first Bible translated into a Native American language.
1885 Revised Version
1901 American Standard Version
1945 Knox Bible
Ronald Knox translated the Bible in an idiomatic style from the Vulgate.
1946 Revised Standard Version
This Version is a rewording of earlier English translations, substitituing modern
idiom for archaic language. The Apocrypha was so translated in 1957, and a Catholic
version of the RSV appeared in 1966. The New Revised Standard Version came out in
1998 (scroll down in timeline for details).
1947 Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered
Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the oldest surviving Hebrew Old Testament
manuscripts dated form the 9th century (A.D.). The Dead Sea Scrolls, which contain
about 170 biblical manuscripts, date from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century (A.D.).
1966 Jerusalem Bible
This is the first complete English, Catholic Bible translation made from the
original lanaguages.
1970 The New American Bible
The New American Bible was completed primarily by Catholic scholars, and it is
the first American Catholic translation based on the original languages. (Previous
translations were based on the Vulgate.)
1978 New International Version
This translation, made by Evangelicals and relying directly on the original
languages, was finally completed after over two decades of study.
1982 New King James Version
1988 New Revised Standard Version
This version insists on gender neutral language, and was created by a committe of
Protestant and Catholic scholars, which included also one Jewish scholar.
Got It? Good! Now take the quizzes on the Old Testament
and New Testament
canons I contributed to FunTrivia!
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Last Updated Sunday, January 02, 2005