Bible History
From Ancient Greek to Your Phone
The wild history of Bible translation — and why new versions keep coming.
The NT was written in Koine Greek — not the fancy literary Greek of philosophers, but the everyday street Greek that normal people spoke. Right from the start, the Bible was written in the language of regular people. Translation has been the vibe ever since.
The Septuagint (3rd-2nd Century BC)
Before the NT even existed, Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Old Testament into Greek. This translation — called the Septuagint (meaning "seventy," because tradition says 70-72 scholars worked on it) — became the Bible of the early . When NT authors quote the Old Testament, they're usually quoting the Septuagint.
The Latin Vulgate (~400 AD)
As the Roman Empire's common language shifted from Greek to Latin, translated the entire Bible into Latin. His translation — the Vulgate — became THE Bible of Western Christianity for over 1,000 years.