The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
300–201 BC
1 work
begun c. 250 BC, completed over two centuries
Greek
The translators of Alexandria
The Hebrew scriptures rendered into Greek at Alexandria, beginning with the Torah under Ptolemy II and extending over generations to the rest. Its readings often differ from the Hebrew that later became standard, and its Jeremiah is a seventh shorter.
200–101 BC
2 works
c. 150–100 BC
Greek
Pseudo-Aristeas
The story of how the Torah came to be translated: Ptolemy releases a hundred thousand Jewish slaves, sends gifts to the temple, and receives seventy-two elders who answer a philosophical question each over seven banquets and then complete the work in seventy-two days on the island of Pharos.
c. 130–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Six passages the Greek adds to a book whose Hebrew never names God: Mordecai's dream of two dragons, the texts of the royal edicts, prayers from Mordecai and Esther, and the scene where Esther faints and the king's face changes from wrath to gentleness.
301–400
5 works
c. 350–380
Gothic
Ulfilas · c. 311–383
A translation of most of the Bible into Gothic by a missionary bishop who invented an alphabet to do it, said to have omitted the books of Kings as too warlike for his converts.
c. 375; survives in Jerome's Latin
Greek, surviving in Latin
Didymus the Blind · c. 313 – 398
By a man blind from the age of four who ran the catechetical school at Alexandria and had the scriptures read aloud to him until he knew them entire. The argument turns on participation: the Spirit is shared in and never shares in anything, and only what is uncreated can be participated without being diminished.
381
Latin
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339–397
A Latin presentation of the Greek case for the Spirit's divinity, written for the emperor Gratian and drawing openly on Basil and Didymus.
2nd century core, redacted c. 3rd–5th century
Aramaic
Attributed to Onqelos
The authorised Aramaic rendering of the Torah, read in synagogue verse by verse after the Hebrew. It translates closely but never quite literally where God is concerned: no hands, no face, no walking, and the Word of the Lord standing in wherever the text would have God present too plainly.
382–405
Latin
Jerome · c. 347–420
A new Latin Bible made, against loud objection, from the Hebrew rather than the Greek Septuagint, with prefaces defending each decision.
401–500
5 works
c. 402
Latin
Rufinus of Aquileia · c. 344–411
A Latin translation of Eusebius with two further books carrying the story to the death of Theodosius, made as the Goths moved into Italy.
401–402
Latin
Jerome · c. 347 – 420
Two old friends who had studied together and shared a monastery tear each other apart in print over how much of Origen either of them had once believed. Jerome accuses Rufinus of doctoring his translations; Rufinus quotes Jerome's own earlier praise of Origen back at him.
c. 410–435
Armenian
Mesrop Mashtots, Sahak, and their pupils
Made within a generation of the invention of the Armenian alphabet, and made for that purpose. Begun from Syriac, then revised against Greek manuscripts brought back from Constantinople and Alexandria after Ephesus.
c. 400–450 in its standard form
Syriac
Anonymous
The standard Syriac Bible, its Old Testament translated directly from Hebrew and its New Testament settled in the fifth century, replacing the Diatessaron.
c. 443
Armenian
Koriun
A pupil's account of the man who invented the Armenian alphabet: the years of searching, the vision of a hand writing on stone, the first sentence set down — to know wisdom and instruction — and then the schools, the translations, and an alphabet made for Georgian and Caucasian Albanian as well.
501–600
3 works
508; survives in fragments
Syriac
Polycarp, for Philoxenus of Mabbug
A new Syriac New Testament commissioned because the Peshitta was judged too loose to settle Christological arguments, and because it lacked five books. It included 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation for the first time in Syriac.
c. 500–526
Latin
Dionysius Exiguus · c. 470–c. 544
Greek conciliar canons translated into Latin and gathered with the decretals of the popes into a single ordered collection.
c. 550–560
Latin
Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita
Cassiodorus and Epiphanius Scholasticus
Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret translated and woven into a single Latin narrative for readers who could no longer manage Greek.
601–700
3 works
615–617
Syriac
Paul of Tella
A word-for-word Syriac rendering of the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla, made at Alexandria and keeping the asterisks and obeli that marked where the Greek differed from the Hebrew.
616
Syriac
Thomas of Harkel
A Syriac New Testament revised against Greek manuscripts so literally that the Syriac breaks under it — particles, word order, and even Greek constructions with no Syriac equivalent are reproduced, with variant readings noted in the margin.
c. 635–641
Chinese
Alopen and the Church of the East mission
The gospel explained to a Tang audience in Buddhist and Daoist vocabulary: God is the Emperor of Heaven, the Messiah is born of the Cool Breeze upon a chosen woman, and the duties owed are to God, to the emperor, and to one's parents, in that order.
701–800
2 works
735
Latin
Cuthbert of Jarrow · 8th century
A pupil's account of Bede's last days, dictating a translation of John's gospel into English between fits of breathlessness and finishing the final sentence on the day he died.
c. 790–800
Old High German
Anonymous
Isidore's treatise on the faith against the Jews rendered into German by a translator who refuses to construe word for word, inventing German vocabulary for Latin theological terms and using a consistent spelling system of his own devising.
801–900
9 works
c. 860–862
Latin
John Scotus Eriugena · c. 815–c. 877
A Latin version of the whole Dionysian corpus, made from a Greek manuscript the Byzantine emperor had sent as a diplomatic gift.
c. 863
Old Church Slavonic
Constantine-Cyril · c. 826 – 869
A verse preface to the Slavonic gospels, arguing that a soul without letters is dead, that hearing in a foreign tongue is like hearing a bell of brass, and that it is better to speak five words with understanding than ten thousand in a language nobody knows.
begun 863
Old Church Slavonic
Constantine-Cyril and Methodius · Cyril, c. 826 – 869; Methodius, c. 815 – 885
The gospels, the psalter, the epistles, and the liturgy rendered into Slavonic in a purpose-built alphabet, for a mission to Moravia. Frankish clergy objected that God could be worshipped in three languages only; the brothers took the case to Rome and won.
c. 860–873
Arabic
Hunayn ibn Ishaq · 808 – 873
The caliph's chief translator sets out six reasons people adopt a religion — force, wealth, tribal loyalty, a persuasive orator, permission to indulge, and evidence — and argues that Christianity spread with none of the first five going for it.
c. 858–878
Latin
Anastasius Bibliothecarius · c. 810 – c. 878
The papal librarian, who knew Greek in a Rome where almost nobody did, translating the acts of councils, the Greek lives of the saints, Maximus, and the Dionysian scholia — and writing prefaces explaining to Latin readers what they were about to encounter.
c. 870–880
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The life of the missionary called Cyril, who devised an alphabet for the Slavs, translated the liturgy, and defended vernacular worship against those who allowed only three sacred languages.
c. 885–890
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The career of Cyril's brother, who continued the Slavonic mission in Moravia, was imprisoned by Frankish bishops, and translated most of the Bible before his death.
c. 890–896
Old English
Alfred the Great · 849–899
Gregory's handbook for bishops translated into English by a king, with a preface lamenting that learning had so decayed that few south of the Humber could understand Latin.
c. 890–899
Old English
Alfred the Great and his circle · 849–899
The Consolation of Philosophy rendered into English with substantial additions, Christianising Lady Philosophy and adding discussions of fate, free will, and kingship.
901–1000
4 works
c. 920–930
Judeo-Arabic
Saadia Gaon · 882 – 942
The Torah and much of the rest of the Hebrew Bible translated into Arabic, deliberately smoothing anthropomorphism — where the Hebrew has God's hand, the Arabic has his power — and adding a running commentary against Karaite and Muslim readings.
c. 965–975
Old English
Æthelwold of Winchester · c. 904–984
Benedict's rule in English, made so that nuns and monks without Latin could hear their own rule and understand what they had promised.
c. 997
Old English
Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955 – c. 1010
Ælfric explains that he translated Genesis reluctantly and only as far as Isaac, and why: unlearned readers will see the patriarchs with several wives and conclude they may live so too, since they cannot tell what the old law permitted from what the new law requires.
c. 985–1028
Georgian
Euthymius the Athonite · c. 955–1028
Greek scripture, liturgy, and patristic works rendered into Georgian at the Iviron monastery on Athos, along with a Greek version of an Indian Buddhist tale reworked as a Christian romance.
1001–1100
1 work
c. 1044–1065
Georgian
Giorgi Mtatsmindeli · 1009–1065
A revision of the Georgian scriptures and service books against Greek originals, undertaken to bring the Georgian church into line with Byzantine usage.
1101–1200
3 works
c. 1110–1130
Georgian
Ioane Petritsi · 11th–12th century
A translation of and commentary on Proclus, arguing that Neoplatonic metaphysics can be reconciled with Christian doctrine.
1143
Latin
Lex Mahumet Pseudoprophete
Robert of Ketton · 12th century
The first translation of the Qur'an into any European language, made in Spain for the abbot of Cluny as part of a whole dossier on Islam.
c. 1155–1156
Latin
Peter the Venerable · c. 1092–1156
A refutation of Islam addressed, unusually, to Muslims themselves, arguing that they should be approached with reasons rather than arms.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1260–1286
Latin
William of Moerbeke · c. 1215–c. 1286
Aristotle rendered from Greek into Latin word for word, along with Proclus, Archimedes, and Greek commentators, at the request of his friend Aquinas.
1301–1400
4 works
c. 1333–1348
Old French
La Légende dorée
Jean de Vignay · c. 1282–c. 1350
Voragine's saints' lives translated into French for the queen, one of the many vernacular versions that carried the collection across Europe.
1–40 of 56 matching · 1780 in the Library