English Scriptures Timeline

400 BC: Completion of all original Hebrew manuscripts that make up the 39 books of the old Testament.

200 BC: Completion of the first Septuagint Greek manuscripts which contain the 39 Old Testament books and 14 Apocrypha books.

1st Century AD: Completion of all original Greek manuscripts which make up the 27 books of the New Testament.

390 AD: Jerome's Latin Vulgate manuscripts produced which contain all 80 books (39 Old Test. + 14 Apocrypha + 27 New Test.

500 AD: Scriptures have been translated into over 500 languages.

600 AD: Latin was the only language allowed for scripture by the institutional church.

995 AD: Anglo-Saxon (early roots of English language) translations of the New Testament produced.

1384 AD: Wycliffe is the first person to produce a (hand-written) manuscript copy of the complete Scriptures --all 80 books -- translating from the Latin Vulgate.

1455 AD: Gutenburg invents the printing press; books may now be mass-produced instead of individually hand-written. The first book ever printed is Gutenberg's Scriptures in Latin.

1516 AD: Erasmus produces a Greek/Latin Parallel New Testament which will be used extensively to produce translations into many languages.

1522 AD: Martin Luther's German New Testament.

1525 AD: William Tyndale's New Testament; the first New Testament to be printed in the English language. It was translated largely from Greek, with only minimal use of the Latin Vulgate. Excepting the Douay-Rheims, all the Scriptures listed here up to and including the King James were essentially expansions and revisions of Tyndale's work.

1535 AD: Myles Coverdale's Scriptures; the first complete Scriptures to be printed in the English Language (80 Books: O.T. & N.T. & Apocrypha)

1537 AD: Matthews Scriptures; the second complete Scriptures to be printed in English. Done by John Rogers who used the alias "Thomas Matthew" to avoid persecution for his work (80 books)

1539 AD: The "Great Scriptures" printed; the first English Language Scriptures to be authorized for public use (80 books).

1560 AD: The Geneva Scriptures printed; the first English Language Scriptures to add numbered verses to each chapter (80 books).

1568 AD: The Bishops Scriptures printed; the Scriptures of which the King James was a revision (80 books).

1609 AD: The Douay Old Testament is added to the Rheimes New Testament (of 1582) making the first complete English Catholic Scriptures; translated from the Latin Vulgate. (80 books).

1611 AD: The King James Scriptures printed; originally with all 80 books. The Apocrypha was "officially" removed in 1885 leaving only 66 books.

1782 AD: Robert Aitken's Scriptures; the first English Language Scriptures (a King James Version without Apocrypha) to be printed in America.

1791 AD: Isaac Collins and Isaiah Thomas respectively produce the first family Scriptures and first illustrated Scriptures printed in America. Both were King James Versions, with all 80 books.

1808 AD: Jane Aitken's Scriptures (daughter of Robert Aitken); the first Scriptures to be printed by a woman.

1833 AD: Noah Webster's Scriptures; after producing his famous dictionary, Webster printed his own revision of the King James Scriptures.

1841 AD: English Hexapla New Testament; an early textual comparison showing the Greek and 6 famous English translations in parallel columns.

1846 AD: The illuminated Scriptures; the most lavishly Illustrated Scriptures printed in America. A King James Version, with all 80 books.

1885 AD: The "Revised Version"; the first major English revision of the King James.

1901 AD: The "American Standard Version", the first major American revision of the King James.

1971 AD: The "New American Standard Scriptures" (NASB) is published as a "modern and accurate word for word English translation" of the Scriptures -- not a King James Revision.

1973 AD: The "New International Version" (NIV) is published as a "modern and accurate word for word English translation" of the Scriptures -- not a KJV revision.

1982 AD: The "New King James Version" (NKJV) is published as a "modern English version maintaining the original style of the King James."