Trace the full story of the Bible

The Bible is said to be the greatest bestseller of all time and its history is fascinating to study. As the Spirit of God blew over the authors of the Bible, they recorded the messages with whatever resources were available at the time. The Bible itself illustrates some of the materials used: clay engravings, inscriptions on stone tablets, ink and papyrus, parchment, parchment, leather and metals.

This chronology traces the unprecedented history of the Bible over the centuries. Find out how the Word of God has been scrupulously preserved, and even for long periods suppressed, during its long and arduous journey from creation to today's English translations.

History of the Chronology of the Bible
Creation - BC 2000 - Originally, the first scriptures were passed down from generation to generation orally.
Circa 2000-1500 BC - The book of Job, perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, is written.
Around 1500-1400 BC - The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments are given to Moses on Mount Sinai and later kept in the Ark of the Covenant.
Circa 1400–400 BC - Manuscripts comprising the original Hebrew Bible (39 Old Testament books) are completed. The Book of the Law is kept in the tabernacle and subsequently in the Temple next to the Ark of the Covenant.
About 300 BC - All original Hebrew books from the Old Testament were written, collected and recognized as official canonical books.
250 BC-250 - Septuagint is produced, a popular Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (39 books of the Old Testament). Also included are the 14 books of the Apocrypha.
About 45–100 AD - 27 original books of the Greek New Testament are written.
About 140-150 AD - The heretical "New Testament" of Marcion of Sinope pushed the Orthodox Christians to establish a canon of the New Testament.

About 200 AD - The Jewish Mishnah, the oral Torah, is recorded for the first time.
About 240 AD - Origen compiles the exapla, a parallel of six columns of Greek and Hebrew texts.
About 305-310 AD - The Greek text of the New Testament of Luciano d'Antiochia becomes the basis of the Textus Receptus.
About 312 AD - The Vatican Codex is probably among the 50 original copies of the Bible ordered by the emperor Constantine. Eventually it is kept in the Vatican Library in Rome.
367 AD - Athanasius of Alexandria identifies for the first time the complete canon of the New Testament (27 books).
382-384 AD - Saint Jerome translates the New Testament from the original Greek into Latin. This translation becomes part of the Latin manuscript Vulgate.
397 AD - The Third Synod of Carthage approves the canon of the New Testament (27 books).
390-405 AD - Saint Jerome translates the Hebrew Bible into Latin and completes the Latin manuscript Vulgate. It includes 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books and 14 Apocryphal books.
AD 500 - By now the scriptures have been translated into multiple languages, not limited to but including an Egyptian version (Codex Alexandrinus), a Coptic version, an Ethiopian translation, a Gothic version (Codex Argenteus) and an Armenian version. Some consider Armenian to be the most beautiful and accurate of all ancient translations.
600 AD - The Roman Catholic Church declares Latin as the only language for the scriptures.
AD 680 - Caedmon, English poet and monk, translates biblical books and stories into Anglo-Saxon poems and songs.
735 AD - Bede, English historian and monk, translates the Gospels into Anglo-Saxon.
775 AD - The Book of Kells, a richly decorated manuscript containing the Gospels and other writings, is completed by the Celtic monks in Ireland.
Circa 865 AD - Saints Cyril and Methodius begin to translate the Bible into Slavic from the old church.

950 AD - The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript is translated into Old English.
Circa 995-1010 AD - Aelfric, an English abbot, translates parts of Scripture into Old English.
1205 AD - Stephen Langton, professor of theology and later archbishop of Canterbury, creates the first chapter divisions in the books of the Bible.
AD 1229 - The Council of Toulouse prohibits and strictly prohibits lay people from possessing a Bible.
1240 AD - French cardinal Ugo of Saint Cher publishes the first Latin Bible with the chapter divisions that still exist today.
AD 1325 - The English hermit and poet Richard Rolle de Hampole and the English poet William Shoreham translate the Psalms into metric verses.
Circa 1330 AD - Rabbi Solomon ben Ismael first placed chapter divisions on the edge of the Hebrew Bible.
1381-1382 AD - John Wycliffe and associates, challenging the organized Church, believing that people should be allowed to read the Bible in their language, begin to translate and produce the first manuscripts of the entire Bible into English. These include the 39 books of the Old Testament, 27 books of the New Testament and 14 books of the Apocrypha.
AD 1388 - John Purvey reviews the Wycliffe Bible.
AD 1415 - 31 years after the death of Wycliffe, the Council of Constance entrusts him with over 260 counts of heresy.
AD 1428 - 44 years after Wycliffe's death, church officials dig his bones, burn them and scatter ash on the Swift River.
AD 1455 - After the invention of the printing press in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg produced the first printed Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, in the Latin Vulgate.
AD 1516 - Desiderius Erasmus produces a Greek New Testament, a precursor to the Textus Receptus.

1517 AD - Daniel Bomberg's rabbinic Bible contains the first printed Hebrew version (Masoretic text) with chapter divisions.
AD 1522 - Martin Luther translates and publishes the New Testament for the first time in German since the Erasmus version of 1516.
AD 1524 - Bomberg prints a second edition of a Masoretic text prepared by Jacob ben Chayim.
AD 1525 - William Tyndale produces the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into English.
AD 1527 - Erasmus publishes a fourth edition of Greek-Latin translation.
AD 1530 - Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples completes the first French translation of the entire Bible.
AD 1535 - The Myles Coverdale Bible completes Tyndale's work, producing the first full printed Bible in English. It includes 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books and 14 Apocryphal books.
AD 1536 - Martin Luther translates the Old Testament into the commonly spoken dialect of the German people, completing his translation of the entire Bible into German.
AD 1536 - Tyndale is condemned as a heretic, strangled and burned at the stake.
AD 1537 - The Matthew Bible (commonly known as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible) is published, a second complete printed English translation, which combines the works of Tyndale, Coverdale and John Rogers.
AD 1539 - The Great Bible is printed, the first English Bible authorized for public use.
AD 1546 - The Roman Catholic Council of Trent declares the Vulgate as the exclusive Latin authority for the Bible.
AD 1553 - Robert Estienne publishes a French Bible with chapter divisions and verses. This numbering system is widely accepted and is still found in most of the Bible today.

AD 1560 - The Geneva Bible is printed in Geneva, Switzerland. It is translated by English refugees and published by John Calvin's brother-in-law, William Whittingham. The Geneva Bible is the first English Bible to add numbered verses to chapters. It becomes the Protestant Reformation Bible, more popular than the King James version of 1611 for decades after its original version.
AD 1568 - The Bishop's Bible, a revision of the Great Bible, was introduced to England to compete with Geneva's popular "inflammatory Bible towards the institutional Church".
AD 1582 - Abandoning its millennial Latin policy, the Church of Rome produces the first English Catholic Bible, the New Testament of Reims, from the Latin Vulgate.
AD 1592 - The Clementine Vulgate (authorized by Pope Clementine VIII), a revised version of the Latin Vulgate, becomes the authoritative Bible of the Catholic Church.
AD 1609 - The Old Testament of Douay is translated into English by the Church of Rome, to complete the combined version of Douay-Reims.
AD 1611 - The King James version, also called the "Authorized Version" of the Bible, is published. It is said to be the most printed book in the history of the world, with over a billion copies printed.
AD 1663 - John Eliot's Algonquin Bible is the first Bible printed in America, not in English, but in the Indian language Algonquin Indiana.
AD 1782 - Robert Aitken's Bible is the first English-language Bible (KJV) printed in America.
1790 AD - Matthew Carey publishes an English Douay-Rheims Bible in English.
1790 AD - William Young prints the first pocket King James Version Bible school edition in America.
AD 1791 - Isaac Collins' Bible, the first family Bible (KJV), is printed in America.
AD 1791 - Isaiah Thomas prints the first illustrated Bible (KJV) in America.
AD 1808 - Jane Aitken (daughter of Robert Aitken), is the first woman to print a Bible.
AD 1833 - Noah Webster, after publishing his famous dictionary, publishes his revised edition of the King James Bible.
1841 AD - English Hexapla New Testament is produced, a comparison between the original Greek language and six important English translations.
AD 1844 - The Sinaitic Codex, a hand-written Greek Koine manuscript with texts from both the Old and New Testaments dating back to the XNUMXth century, was rediscovered by the German biblical scholar Konstantin Von Tischendorf in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.
1881-1885 AD - The King James Bible is reviewed and published as the revised version (RV) in England.
AD 1901 - The American Standard Version is published, the first major American revision of the King James Version.
1946-1952 AD - The revised standard version is published.
1947-1956 AD - The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered.
1971 AD - The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is published.
1973 AD - The new international version (NIV) is published.
1982 AD - New King James (NKJV) version is published.
1986 AD - The discovery of the Silver Scrolls is announced, believed to be the oldest biblical text ever. They were found three years earlier in the Old City of Jerusalem by Gabriel Barkay of Tel Aviv University.
1996 AD - New Living Translation (NLT) is published.
2001 AD - The English standard version (ESV) is published.