Now to begin...
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The Old Testament was then translated into Aramaic, it was called the Aramaic Targums (400 BC). This translation helped the Jewish people to understand the Old Testament in the language that they commonly spoke because of their captivity in Babylon. In Jesus' day the most commonly spoken language was Aramaic. Later the Old Testament was translated into Greek. The Old Testament was translated into Greek. This translation is known as the Septuagint (250 BC). Later in 380 A.D, the Old Testament and the New Testament was translated into Latin by St. Jerome. It was called the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate became the Bible of the Western Church until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500's. It continues to be the authoritative translation of the Roman Catholic Church to this day.
The New Testament was written in Greek. The Pauline Epistles, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts are all dated from 45-63 A.D. The Gospel of John and the Revelation may have been written as late as 95 A.D.
The first English translation of the Bible was by John Wycliffe. He translated the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate. This was a translation from a translation and not a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek. Wycliffe was forced to translate from the Latin Vulgate because he did not know Hebrew or Greek.
Now it's time to learn where the translations we read today come from.
- 1611 A.D. The King James Version into English from the original Hebrew and Greek.
- 1968 A.D. The United Bible Societies 4th Edition of the Greek New Testament. This Greek New Testament made use of the oldest Greek manuscripts which date from 175 A.D. This was the Greek New Testament text from which the NASV and the NIV were translated.
- 1971 A.D. The New American Standard Version (NASV) was published. It makes use of the wealth of much older Hebrew and Greek manuscripts now available that weren't available at the time of the translation of the KJV. Its wording and sentence structure closely follow the Greek in more of a word for word style.
- 1983 A.D. The New International Version (NIV) was published. It also made use of the oldest manuscript evidence. It is more of a "thought-for-thought" translation and reads more easily than the NASV.
The modern day translations are excellent! But often times I hear a pastor or speaker bring up the original Greek, Latin, or Hebrew words or definitions. This can often bring more insight to a passage of scripture. Often these phrases or words can bring to light the context of the day. One should read the Bible against the background of the writer and the time period, not on one's own interpretation.