Chronological List of Major English Bible Translations
Date | Name | Abbreviation | Comments |
| 10th Century AD | West Saxon Gospels | n/a | Earliest surviving English translation. Translated from the Latin version. Contained only the gospels. |
| 11th Century AD | Old English Hexateuch | n/a | Translated from the Latin version. Contained only the Hexateuch, meaning the first six books of the Old Testament (Genesis- Joshua). |
| 11th Century AD | Old English Psalter | n/a | Translated from the Latin version. Contained only the Psalms. Exists in two versions, one in straightforward prose and the other in stylized verse. |
| 14th Century AD | John Wycliffe Bible | WYC | Translated from the Latin Version. The first translation of the entire Bible in English. |
| 1526 | Tyndale New Testament | Tyndale | Translated by William Tyndale. The first translation into English from the Greek text. Contained only the New Testament. |
| 1530 | Tyndale Pentateuch | Tyndale | Translated by William Tyndale. The first translation into English from the Hebrew text. Contained only the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis-Deuteronomy). |
| 1531 | Tyndale Jonah | Tyndale | Translated by William Tyndale. Translated from the Hebrew text. Contained only the book of Jonah. |
| 1535 | Coverdale Bible | Coverdale | Translated by Miles Coverdale. The first complete Bible in modern English. New Testament was translated from the Greek text, but the Old Testament from Latin and German translations. |
| 1537 | Matthew Bible | Matthew | Translated by John Rogers under the pseudonym “Thomas Matthew.” Mostly a composite of the work done by Tyndale and Coverdale with minor edits. |
| 1539 | The Great Bible | n/a | Primarily translated by Miles Coverdale. First “authorized version,” or version sanctioned by the English Crown. Also known as the “Cranmer Bible” and “Whitchurch’s Bible.” |
| 1560 | The Geneva Bible | GNV | First English Bible translated entirely from the original languages. First English Bible translated by a committee. First English Bible to contain verse numbers. |
| 1568 | The Bishop’s Bible | Bishop | The second authorized version of the English Bible. Went through several substantial revisions. |
| 1611 | The King James Version | KJV | Also known as the “Authorized Version” or AV. Used the “Bishop’s Bible” as its starting point. Underwent a substantial revision in 1769, where it took the basic form it has today. |
| 1885 | The Revised Version | RV | Used the KJV as its starting point and made changes to bring it in line with later manuscript discoveries and linguistic studies. |
| 1901 | American Standard Version | ASV | A substantial revision of the RV. Especially known for its consistent use of the name “Jehovah” rather than the title “the LORD” in the Old Testament. |
| 1952 | Revised Standard Version | RSV | An often controversial translation, particularly for its rendering of Messianic passages like Isaiah 7:14 and Genesis 49:10, among others. |
| 1971 | New American Standard Bible | NASB | Used the ASV as its starting point. Considered by many to be the most literal and “word for word” of all the major translations. Underwent a notable update in 1995 UPDATE: Two separate revisions of the ’95 NASB were released in 2020, one still known as the NASB and the other as the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) |
| 1978 | New International Version | NIV | Fresh translation not based on a previous version. Underwent significant revisions in 1984 and 2011. |
| 1982 | New King James Version | NKJV | Based on the same Greek and Hebrews texts as the KJV, but rendered in 20th century English. |
| 1989 | New Revised Standard Version | NRSV | A significant update of the RSV. Often used by scholars but still controversial among many churches for the same reasons as its predecessor. |
| 2001 | English Standard Version | ESV | Used the RSV as its starting point. Made significant changes based on further manuscript discoveries and corrected many of the RSV’s problematic passages, such as Isaiah 7:14. |
| 2004 | Holman Christian Standard | HCSB | Fresh translation not based on any previous version. Especially known for its (somewhat inconsistent) use of the name Yahweh rather than the title “the LORD” in the Old Testament. |
| 2006 | New English Translation | NET | Fresh translation not based on any previous version. Especially known for its detailed notes on alternative readings in manuscripts and on how they arrived at their textual choices. |
| 2014 | Modern English Version | MEV | A contemporary English translation of the same Greek and Hebrew texts used in the KJV. |
| 2017 | Christian Standard Bible | CSB | A substantial revision of the HCSB. In most cases, the revisions brought the CSB closer in wording to other modern translations and away from the distinctive phrasing of the HCSB. |
