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The history behind the words

Bible translation
family tree

Many editions. Connected histories.

Trace English Bible translations through ancient sources, direct revisions, and generations of influence.

Explore the family tree
Manuscript branches flowing through generations of translators into many bound Bibles

The translation family tree

67 documented milestones · nine families · ancient sources to 2023

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How to read the timeline

Time runs from left to right across three eras. Spacing is linear within each era; axis breaks mark changes of scale. Lanes describe publishing or textual families, not a religious ranking. Select a translation to trace its ancestry and read its sources. Follow the chart down the page to explore all nine families.

Select a translation to explore its history and sources.

Swipe across the timeline to explore its full width ↔

Family tree and timeline of English Bible translationsA timeline beginning with ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Latin textual traditions, followed by lanes for early English Bibles, the King James and Revised Standard family, Jewish English Tanakh translations, Catholic projects, other modern projects, and English Septuagint or Orthodox editions. The table after the chart contains the same relationships.
direct revisiondocumented influencesource or textual witnessThree eras, each with its own linear scale.
The complete translation table67 milestones · search and filter

Translation milestones and their documented relationships
YearTranslationFamilyRelationship shown
Scope and editorial method

Scope and caution. This is a selected history of influential English translations and editions, not a claim to list every Bible ever printed. It includes Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox projects. A lane describes publishing or textual history; it does not rank a tradition or imply exclusive use by one community.

What counts as a node? Most nodes are complete English Bibles. A few New Testaments, ancient source traditions, manuscript witnesses, project starts, or standardizing editions appear when they mark the beginning or continuation of an important line. These are identified in their notes rather than presented as equivalent kinds of publication. For “Hebrew Scriptures,” approximately 1100–100 BCE describes the books' broad composition period; their collection and recognition as an authoritative canon continued later and cannot responsibly be reduced to one closing date.

What does a line mean? A solid line is a documented revision or continuation, a dashed line is a documented influence, and a dotted line identifies a source text, textual tradition, or manuscript witness. Source links are selective: drawing every modern translation back to every Hebrew or Greek edition it consulted would make the chart unreadable. None of these lines implies theological agreement. “New translation” means a project worked from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek rather than primarily revising one earlier English edition.

Sources and further reading 27 references
  1. Cambridge University Library, Great and Manifold Blessings: The Making of the King James Bible, and David Norton, A Textual History of the King James Bible.
  2. The Jewish Publication Society, JPS 1917 history and Tanakh customer guide.
  3. National Council of Churches and Friendship Press, The Bible and Christian Life and About the NRSVue.
  4. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, NAB Old Testament preface and NABRE information.
  5. The Lockman Foundation, NASB history.
  6. Crossway, ESV translation history.
  7. Biblica, The NIV story.
  8. Tyndale House Publishers, How to translate a Bible and NLT translation process.
  9. Holman Bible Publishers, History of the CSB.
  10. Thomas Nelson Bibles, New King James Version.
  11. Saint John the Evangelist Orthodox Church, Antiochian Archdiocese, What Bible Do Orthodox Christians Use?, together with the introductory materials of the Orthodox Study Bible.
  12. World English Bible, official project description and textual basis, and the editor's project history.
  13. Cambridge University Press, The First English Bible, and the University of Glasgow, English Bibles before the King James Bible.
  14. The Lockman Foundation, NASB history and editions, and the publisher's Amplified Bible history.
  15. American Bible Society, A Brief Description of Popular Bible Translations and Good News Translation history.
  16. Cambridge University Press, Bible catalogue and translation histories, for the New English Bible and Revised English Bible.
  17. Abingdon Press, Common English Bible project history.
  18. NET Bible, First-edition preface, and Bible Gateway, NET Bible edition history.
  19. Darton, Longman and Todd, Jerusalem Bible editions, and Penguin Random House, Revised New Jerusalem Bible.
  20. The title-page history of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, and Ignatius Press, RSV Second Catholic Edition.
  21. The Jewish Publication Society, Leeser and JPS translation history; Koren Publishers, Koren Tanakh history; and Tyndale House, Koren English-text description.
  22. NavPress, The Message: questions and answers.
  23. Berean Bible, translation overview and translation committee.
  24. Legacy Standard Bible, project origin and relationship to the NASB 1995.
  25. International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, New English Translation of the Septuagint and project introduction.
  26. Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress Press, 2012); the Israel Museum, Dead Sea Scroll biblical manuscripts; Cambridge University Press, Masoretic, Leningrad, and Bomberg textual history; and the British Library catalogue description of a complete medieval Tanakh with Masorah.
  27. Robert S. Kawashima, “Biblical Literature,” Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies, for the broad eleventh- through second-century BCE composition range; and Timothy H. Lim, The Formation of the Jewish Canon, for the later and contested development of a shared Jewish canon.
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