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Multiple Jewish translators · 250 BC · Scripture
The Septuagint is the earliest large-scale translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek and remains a foundational textual witness for both Jewish and Christian Bible history. Produced for Greek-speaking Jewish communities of…
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Anonymous / traditional · 100 BC · Scripture
The Targumic tradition constitutes a major early body of vernacular translation into Aramaic, arising in Jewish communities for whom Aramaic had become the everyday language, and preserving interpretation alongside translation. Rendered from…
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Aquila of Sinope · 130 · Scripture
Aquila's Greek version is a major second-century Jewish retranslation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, celebrated for its exceptionally close adherence to Hebrew form. Made directly from the Hebrew, with the Hebrew…
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Multiple anonymous translators · 150 · Scripture
The Old Latin Bible, also known collectively as the Vetus Latina tradition, is the earliest family of Latin biblical translations and an important witness to early Greek texts. Produced for Latin-speaking Christian…
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Theodotion Theodotion's Greek Version
Traditionally attributed to Theodotion · 150 · Scripture
Theodotion's Greek version belongs to the Hebrew Bible tradition and survives today in substantial fragments. Working from the Hebrew together with a Greek predecessor, it takes as its base text the Hebrew…
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Unknown · 175 · Scripture
The Old Syriac Gospels are among the earliest surviving translations of the Gospels and stand as an important independent witness to the early text of the New Testament. Made into Syriac, the…
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Symmachus · 190 · Scripture
Symmachus's version is an important ancient Greek Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible, made directly from Hebrew and taking the Hebrew Bible as its base text. Originally broad in scope, it belonged…
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Multiple / anonymous · 200 · Scripture
The Peshitta is the standard Bible of the Syriac-speaking churches and one of Christianity's most important ancient versions, its name traditionally understood to mean something like "simple" or "common." It encompasses both…
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Bible Sahidic Coptic Bible
Multiple anonymous translators · 250 · Scripture
The Sahidic Coptic Bible is one of the earliest Egyptian-language Bible traditions and an important witness to ancient Greek textual forms. Rendered in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic, the final stage of…
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Bible Bohairic Coptic Bible
Multiple anonymous translators · 300 · Scripture
Bohairic, originally the Coptic dialect of the Nile Delta, became the dominant liturgical form of the Coptic Bible, and it remains the version used in the services of the Coptic Orthodox Church.…
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Wulfila (Ulfilas) and associates · 350 · Scripture
Associated with Wulfila (Ulfilas), the fourth-century bishop who worked among the Goths and is credited with devising the Gothic alphabet for the purpose, the Gothic Bible is the earliest substantial literary monument…
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Vulgate Jerome's Vulgate
Jerome · 383 · Scripture
Undertaken by Jerome in the late fourth century, when the Latin-speaking churches of the West were using a patchwork of earlier renderings, the Vulgate became for roughly a millennium the dominant Bible…
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Mesrop Mashtots, Sahak Partev, and associates · 405 · Scripture
A foundational work of Armenian literature and one of antiquity's great vernacular Bible translations, this version covers the complete Christian Bible and stands at the beginning of written Armenian letters, following the…
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Multiple / anonymous · 425 · Scripture
The Georgian Bible represents one of the earliest Caucasian biblical translation traditions, developed for the Christian communities of Georgia and transmitted in the Georgian script and language. In scope it is a…
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Multiple / anonymous · 450 · Scripture
The Ge'ez, or Ethiopic, Bible represents one of the world's earliest complete Christian Bible traditions outside Greek, Latin and Syriac. Ge'ez, the classical language of the Ethiopian highlands and still the liturgical…
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Philoxenus of Mabbug · 508 · Scripture
The Philoxenian version is an important sixth-century Syriac revision of the New Testament, traditionally associated with Philoxenus, bishop of Mabbug, in whose name it was undertaken within the Syriac-speaking churches. It sought…
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Thomas of Harqel (Harkel) · 616 · Scripture
The Harklean version stands among the most literal ancient translations of the New Testament and, for that reason, remains an important witness to variation in the Greek text. Covering the New Testament,…
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Paul of Tella · 617 · Scripture
The Syro-Hexapla is a Syriac translation of the Hexaplaric Greek Old Testament and one of the most important witnesses to Origen's textual work. Its scope is the Old Testament within the Septuagint…
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Bede the Venerable · 735 · Scripture
Attributed to the Northumbrian monk and scholar Bede, this rendering of the Gospel of John into Old English is the earliest recorded substantial attempt to translate a biblical book into English. Its…
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Vespasian Psalter Vespasian Psalter Old English Gloss
Anonymous glossator · 850 · Scripture
The Vespasian Psalter Old English Gloss ranks among the earliest substantial surviving English translations of Scripture. Its scope is the Psalms, entered between the lines of an existing Latin Psalter manuscript, so…
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Aldred · 950 · Scripture
The Old English gloss added to the Lindisfarne Gospels is the earliest surviving English rendering to cover all four Gospels, though it takes the form of an interlinear gloss rather than a…
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Rushworth Gospels Rushworth Gospels Old English Gloss
Farman and Owun traditionally associated with portions · 970 · Scripture
The Rushworth Gospels gloss is an important witness to regional Old English biblical language. Written between the lines of a Latin Gospel book, which serves as its base text, it covers all…
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Anonymous · 990 · Scripture
The West Saxon or Wessex Gospels are the earliest surviving free-standing complete translation of the four Gospels into English, produced in the late Anglo-Saxon period in the West Saxon dialect of Old…
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Old English Hexateuch Old English Hexateuch / Ælfrician Biblical Translations
Ælfric of Eynsham and others · 1000 · Scripture
The largest complex of Old English prose translation of the Old Testament, this body of work covers Genesis through Joshua together with related Old Testament material, rendered from Latin with the Latin…
