A free, open reference

What this is

A free reference to the history of Bible translation. It gathers a curated catalog of 60 representative editions and versions, a timeline of 25 milestones, and a short narrative history with a primer on how translations are made. There is nothing to sign up for, and it keeps no record of who visits or what they read.

“Representative” is the operative word. The archive does not try to list every printing of every Bible. It names the texts that changed what came after them, with enough context to see why, and points you toward deeper study.

Free to use

This site claims no rights over its own content. The compiled text, data, and layout on this site are dedicated to the public. You may copy, republish, adapt, translate, print, teach from, or fold this material into another project — commercial or not — with no permission, no fee, and no obligation to credit this site. If a short attribution is useful to you, “from The Translation Archive, a free reference” is plenty, but it is not required.

Two boundaries worth stating plainly. First, the Bible translations themselves are not this site's to give away: some (the KJV, the ASV, the Berean Standard Bible, and other older or openly licensed texts) are in the public domain, while many modern versions remain under copyright by their publishers. Check the individual version before reproducing its text at length. Second, nothing here is legal advice; it is a history reference.

How it is compiled

The historical content follows the mainstream scholarly consensus on Bible translation history — the kind of account you would find agreed upon across standard reference works. Dates use common scholarly usage; where a work spans years, the archive anchors it to the date most often cited. Where scholars genuinely disagree (the exact makeup of the “Western” text, the precise share of Tyndale in the KJV, current global translation counts), the text says “roughly” or “about” rather than inventing precision.

It is a summary, not the last word, and it may contain small errors of date or emphasis. It is offered in the spirit of being corrected and improved by anyone who carries it forward.

Where to read further

• Bruce M. Metzger & Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration — the standard survey of New Testament manuscripts and the critical text.
• Bruce M. Metzger, The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions — a compact history from the Septuagint through the modern English versions.
• David Daniell, The Bible in English: Its History and Influence — the fullest account of the English line, from the Anglo-Saxon glosses to the twentieth century.
• Jaroslav Pelikan, Whose Bible Is It? — the long view of canon, text, and translation across Judaism and Christianity.
• Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible — the reference for the Masoretic Text, the Scrolls, and the Septuagint as an Old Testament witness.
• The United Bible Societies and the Wycliffe Global Alliance publish the current year-by-year statistics on how many languages have Scripture.
• The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF), Münster maintains the Editio Critica Maior, the Nestle–Aland text, and the online manuscript database.

Naming these works is not a claim of endorsement by their authors or publishers; they are simply the standard next steps.

Copy it, share it, translate it

This archive is meant to travel. Use it however is useful to you — there is no need to ask first.

• In teaching. Quote it in a lesson, print sections as handouts, or build a class around the timeline.
• As a reference. Link to it, cite it, or keep an offline copy for your own study.
• In another language. A translated edition of this archive is squarely within its purpose; the whole text is free to render into any language.
• Somewhere new. Anyone is welcome to keep their own copy of this archive online.