zapateiro.com
ES

$ git log --reverse bible

History of the Bible

30 moments that shaped how the Bible reached us: when it was written, how its books were gathered, since when it has been called the “Bible,” when chapters and verses appeared and how it came into Spanish. Choose the vertical or horizontal view, filter by topic or show only the ★ milestones, and open each “Did you know…?”

The eras follow the five volumes of 2,000 Years of Christ's Power, Nick Needham's history of the church[1], from the Age of the Early Church Fathers to the Age of Enlightenment and Awakening. What comes before Christ and after the 18th century is kept separate. Ancient dates are approximate. To go deeper into the name and the canon, read What Is the Bible?.

30 moments

c. 1400 – 132 BC

Before Christ

  1. c. 1400 – 430 BC#writing

    The Old Testament is written

    According to the traditional dating, the books of the Old Testament were written over about a thousand years, from Moses to Malachi.[2]

  2. ★ The first translation

    c. 250 – 150 BC#translations and printing

    The Septuagint

    In Alexandria the Old Testament is translated from Hebrew into Greek. First comes the Law of Moses, which was read in the synagogues, and over time the rest of the books.[3]

  3. c. 132 BC#canon

    The Law, the Prophets and the Writings

    The translator of the book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) into Greek mentions in his prologue the division of the Hebrew Scriptures into three parts.[2]

Volume 1 · 1st to 6th centuries

The Age of the Early Church Fathers

  1. 1st century#writing

    The New Testament is written

    The Gospels, Acts, the letters and Revelation are written in Greek. Paul's letters carried authority from the moment he wrote them as an apostle of Christ.[2],[3]

  2. 2nd century#the name

    “The books”

    Christians call the Old Testament Scriptures “the books” (in Greek, ta biblia), as seen in 2 Clement 14:2.[4]

  3. Late 2nd century#canon

    The Muratorian Fragment

    A Latin list of the books of the New Testament, most likely composed in the late 2nd century. It survives in a codex copied in the 7th or 8th century at the monastery of Bobbio.[3]

  4. Early 3rd century#canon

    Origen: Scripture as a “rule”

    Origen applies the word kanōn to the Bible in the sense of “norm” or “rule of faith”: the measure by which all teaching is judged.[2],[3]

  5. ★ The complete New Testament

    367#canon

    Athanasius and the 27 books

    In his 39th Festal Letter, which announced the date of Easter in 367, Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, lists the 27 books of the New Testament we have today. He is also the first to use “canon” for a list of books.[3],[2]

  6. From 382#translations and printing

    Jerome's Vulgate

    Pope Damasus asks Jerome to revise the Latin Bible, which circulated in almost as many forms as there were copies. Between 382 and 384 he revises the Gospels, and later, in Bethlehem, he becomes convinced that the Old Testament must be translated from the Hebrew.[3],[4]

  7. 393 and 397#canon

    The councils of Hippo and Carthage

    A council at Hippo (393) sets the limits of the canonical books, and the Third Council of Carthage (397) summarizes its acts. They are the first councils to rule on the canon, and they impose nothing new: they confirm what the churches already recognized.[3]

  8. ★ The name is born

    5th century#the name

    “Bible” for all of Scripture

    The name “the books” begins to be used for the whole collection of sacred books, Old and New Testaments together.[4],[5]

Volume 2 · 7th to 15th centuries

The Middle Ages

  1. ★ The chapters arrive

    Early 13th century#chapters and verses

    The chapters

    Stephen Langton, a master at the University of Paris, introduces the division of the Bible into chapters that is still used today. It spread through the pocket Bibles copied in Paris.[6],[7]

  2. 13th century#the name

    From “the books” to “the book”

    In the Western church, the Greek plural biblia begins to be read as a singular. “The books” becomes “the book”: the Bible.[4]

  3. ★ The Bible reaches Castilian

    c. 1250#in spanish

    The first Bibles in Castilian

    The pre-Alfonsine Bible (manuscript E6), translated from Latin, dates from the mid-13th century and is the most important text for knowing the Castilian Spanish of that time. Alfonso X also includes the biblical narrative in his General estoria.[8]

  4. 1380s#translations and printing

    The Wycliffe Bible

    Followers of John Wycliffe translate the whole Bible into English from the Vulgate, in two versions. It was condemned and banned shortly afterward.[9]

  5. 1422 – c. 1430#in spanish

    The Alba Bible

    Commissioned by Luis de Guzmán, Master of the Order of Calatrava, Rabbi Moses Arragel of Maqueda translates the Bible directly from Hebrew into Castilian. It is surrounded by more than six thousand glosses, mostly from Jewish commentators.[10],[8]

  6. ★ The first printed Bible

    c. 1455#translations and printing

    The Gutenberg Bible

    Johannes Gutenberg prints the Latin Bible in Mainz. It is the first book printed with movable metal type in Western Europe.[11]

Volume 3 · 16th century

Renaissance and Reformation

  1. 1516#translations and printing

    Erasmus's Greek New Testament

    Johann Froben prints in Basel the Greek New Testament of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the first to be published, alongside Erasmus's own Latin translation. It would be the accepted text of the New Testament for centuries.[12]

  2. 1543#in spanish

    Francisco de Enzinas's New Testament

    Francisco de Enzinas publishes in Antwerp the first edition of the New Testament in Spanish, translated from the Greek.[13],[14]

  3. ★ The verses arrive

    1551#chapters and verses

    The verses

    The printer Robert Estienne (Stephanus) publishes a Greek and Latin New Testament with numbered verses. His system is the one we still use.[15]

  4. 1553#in spanish

    The Ferrara Bible

    The first edition of the Hebrew Bible in Spanish, prepared by Abraham Usque under the protection of the Duke of Ferrara. It was intended above all for the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.[13]

  5. 1555#chapters and verses

    Verses inside the text

    In the Vulgate that Estienne publishes, the verse numbers are built into the text, the way almost all Bibles have printed them ever since.[15]

  6. ★ The first complete Bible in Spanish

    1569#in spanish

    The Bear Bible

    On September 28, 1569, the first translation of the whole Bible into Castilian directly from Hebrew and Greek is published in Basel. It was the work of Casiodoro de Reina, a Hieronymite monk from Seville persecuted by the Inquisition.[16]

Volume 4 · 16th to 18th centuries

The Age of Religious Conflict

  1. 1602#in spanish

    Cipriano de Valera's revision

    Cipriano de Valera, who had been revising it since the 1580s, publishes in Amsterdam his revision of Reina's Bible. That is the origin of the name Reina-Valera.[17]

  2. 1611#translations and printing

    The King James Version

    The Bible commissioned by King James I is published in England. It shaped the English language for centuries.[18]

Volume 5 · 18th century

The Age of Enlightenment and Awakening

  1. 1790 – 1793#in spanish

    The Bible of Scío de San Miguel

    The Piarist Felipe Scío de San Miguel translates the Bible from the Latin Vulgate. It is printed in Valencia, in the workshop of the Orga brothers.[19],[20]

After the series

19th to 21st centuries

  1. ★ A key discovery

    1947#writing

    The Dead Sea Scrolls

    A Bedouin shepherd finds the first scrolls, among them the Great Isaiah Scroll, in a cave at Qumran, by the Dead Sea.[21],[22]

  2. 1960#in spanish

    The Reina-Valera 1960

    The Bible Societies publish a new revision of the Reina-Valera, based on the 1909 edition. Today it is the most widely read and studied version in Spanish-speaking evangelical circles.[23]

  3. 2005#in spanish

    From the NBLH to the NBLA

    The Lockman Foundation publishes the Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy, derived from La Biblia de las Américas. Today it is called the Nueva Biblia de las Américas (NBLA) and it translates word for word, in present-day Spanish.[24],[25]

  4. 2010#in spanish

    The Nueva Traducción Viviente

    Tyndale publishes the NTV, the fruit of about ten years of work by more than fifty scholars. It aims to be faithful to the ancient texts and, at the same time, easy to understand.[26],[27]

References

The bracketed numbers in each moment link to these notes. Some sources are in Spanish or other languages, as noted.

  1. [1]Needham, N. R. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power (5 vols.). Christian Focus Publications. Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers. Vol. 2: The Middle Ages. Vol. 3: Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. 4: The Age of Religious Conflict. Vol. 5: The Age of Enlightenment and Awakening. View
  2. [2]Bruce, F. F. (1954). “The Canon of Scripture.” Inter-Varsity (Autumn 1954), 19-22. View
  3. [3]Bruce, F. F. (1988). The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  4. [4]Orr, J. (ed.) (1915). “Bible, The.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1. Chicago: Howard-Severance. View
  5. [5]Easton, M. G. (1897). “Bible.” Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.). London: T. Nelson and Sons. View
  6. [6]Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg. Biblia (Paris Bible), Cod. I.2.8.8. Manuscript record on bavarikon. View
  7. [7]Tyndale House, Cambridge. “Where did the Bible's chapters come from?” View
  8. [8]Biblia Medieval. Corpus of medieval Bible translations into Castilian (CiLengua and Universitat de les Illes Balears). In Spanish. View
  9. [9]Solopova, E. (2016). Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible in the Bodleian and Oxford College Libraries. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies). View
  10. [10]Ellis, A. (2025). “The Alba Bible: A Medieval Spanish Co-production by a Rabbi and the Friars of Toledo.” Co-Produced Religions. View
  11. [11]Library of Congress. “The Gutenberg Bible.” “Bibles” exhibition. View
  12. [12]Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University. “The First Published New Testament in Greek.” View
  13. [13]University of Glasgow Library. “Hispanica: Religion.” Special collections exhibition. View
  14. [14]Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse. “Enzinas, Francisco de.” In French. View
  15. [15]Pitts Theology Library, Emory University (2023). “Pitts acquires 1551 Estienne New Testament.” View
  16. [16]Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona. “La Bíblia de l'os” [The Bear Bible]. In Catalan. View
  17. [17]Museum of the Bible. “Reina–Valera Bible” (Amsterdam, 1602). View
  18. [18]Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University. “The King James Bible of 1611.” View
  19. [19]Salas Salgado, F. (2011). “La traducción de la Biblia del P. Felipe Scío y su época” [Father Felipe Scío's Bible translation and its time]. Fortunatae, 303-314. In Spanish. View
  20. [20]Princeton University Library. Catalog record for La Biblia vulgata latina traducida en español (Valencia: Joseph y Thomas de Orga, 1790-1793). View
  21. [21]The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. “The Great Isaiah Scroll.” The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls. View
  22. [22]Jewish Virtual Library. “The Dead Sea Scrolls: History & Overview.” View
  23. [23]Biblia.com. “Reina-Valera 1960” (edition description). In Spanish. View
  24. [24]The Lockman Foundation. Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy, copyright page (Copyright 2005). View
  25. [25]The Lockman Foundation. “Nueva Biblia de las Américas (NBLA).” View
  26. [26]Tyndale House Publishers. “Tyndale Celebrates Historic 72% Growth of the Nueva Traducción Viviente Across Latin America.” View
  27. [27]Biblia Vida. “Nueva Traducción Viviente (NTV).” In Spanish. View

Do you know another moment that should be here? Write it in the comments.

Comments