History of the Bible
Chronological Timeline

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History of the Bible Map
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1400 - 400BC Old Testament
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Chronology of the Old Testament
The first Laws of God, known as the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, was given by God and actually written by the finger of God on tablets of stone, (Ex 31:18, 2Cor 3:3,7). The remainder of the Law was received by Moses and ordained by angels, (Acts 7:53, Heb 2:2, Deut 33:2), and written down by the hand of Moses, (Jn 5:46). The writing materials, even back then, probably around 1440 BC, were either papyrus or vellum (animal skins). These words became the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, and commenced the Old Testament as we know it. Although some scholars suggest Job is the oldest book in the Bible, dating back to 2100 BC, there are other conjectures that Moses wrote the book of Job. Read more...
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200 - 70AD Dead Sea Scrolls
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The dead sea scrolls
Dead Sea Scrolls
Qumran Caves
Qumran Caves
In 1946, Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of the young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and found a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained leather and papyrus scrolls. The find was brought to an antiquities dealer, which then resulted in archaeologists searching the cave and unearthing tens of thousands of scroll fragments spread out between eleven caves. Together these fragments make up about 800 manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. This discovery, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, resulted in the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century dating the manuscripts from 200BC – 70AD. These now are the oldest Hebrew manuscripts extant. Read More...
Pictures of the qumran caves
pictures of scroll fragments
The Great Isaiah Scroll
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10th Century Masoretic Text
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10th Century Masoretic Text
929 AD Aleppo Codex
The original Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament are no longer extant, but diligent copies have been passed down through the generations. In fact, up until 1946, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the oldest Hebrew manuscript available to us was the Aleppo Codex. This codex is the most complete copy of the Hebrew Old Testament in existence today. It was written by a group of Jews called the Masoretes. These were Jewish scribes and scholars of Babylonia and Palestine, in the 6th to 10th centuries AD, who set the standard for Hebrew pronunciation and grammar.  These men made it their life’s work to follow Romans 3:2, and protect, guard, and transcribe these precious writings of the Old Testament. 
From the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD, many ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament were destroyed, and through the years, the traditions of men had corrupted the Jewish heritage. The Masoretes made it their special work to correct the faults from the years past, and prevent any corruption in the future. They presented, what is known today as the Masoretic Text. A complete Hebrew Old Testament, written as God intended, without any corruption of tradition, just the pure, Holy Spirit inspired word of God. 
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1506AD The Hebrew Grammar of Johannes Reuchlin
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Johannes Reuchlin
In 1492, Johannes Reuchlin, a German Humanist and Hebrew scholar, purchased a copy of the printed Masoretic Hebrew Bible in Rome for 6 gold coins, a year’s salary at the time. Then in 1506, Reuchlin published his De Rudimentis Hebraicis, On the Fundamentals of Hebrew, a Hebrew grammar and Lexicon. Reuchlin devoted his life to teaching the Word of God and made it possible for others to learn the Hebrew language and study the Bible for themselves. Reuchlin, along with Erasmus were declared the greatest men of the age. Read more...
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50 - 90AD The New Testament
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The New Testament:
The Word Became Flesh
Unlike the Old Testament, the text of the New Testament was written within a span of less than 50 years, dating from John Mark’s Gospel of Mark written in 50AD, and Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, written in 52AD, to the last book of the Bible, the prophetic book of Revelation, written from the isle of Patmos near the end of the first century, around 90AD. The New Testament can be divided into three separate categories, Historical, Epistles, and Prophetic. The Historical books being the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. The Epistles, individual letters written to groups of Christians explaining the gospel of Christ. And the only prophetic book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation. This book is a fitting end to the Bible, as it sums up the entire plan of redemption for man, revealing the end of this age, and giving us hope in Jesus for the ages to come. Read more...
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2nd - 3rd Century Gnostics and their false religion
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gnostics
The Gnostics and their False Religion
The Gnostics, beginning in the second century, developed their religion on knowledge or gnosis, γνωσις. For us Christians, we know this to be the knowledge of Jesus Christ, sent to redeem us from our sin, therefore being enlightened to the plan of reconciliation given to us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
                  The Gnostics will say they believe the same thing. They say they believe in the Holy Scriptures and they even believe Christ is the bringer of knowledge. This is where Jesus warns us to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. These Gnostics, although they confess they believe that Jesus was on the earth and is the Christ sent to save us, they have completely twisted the Scriptures and made it fit their agenda.
                  For example, they believe there was a man named Jesus, however, they believe He was merely a man, but endowed with the Spirit of Christ. They believe Jesus and Christ are two separate people. They may say they believe in Jesus, but they don’t know my Jesus. They reject that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. They say they believe in Jesus because He was the one to bring the spark of knowledge to the world. Now, those words don’t sound so bad, but that is how they deceive. In fact, it is really bad. They only believe in Jesus, not as the Redeemer and Lamb of God sent to take away the sins of the world, instead they believe Jesus, endowed with the Spirit of Christ, sent to bring the spark of knowledge so that whoever gains a knowledge of themselves, and the Creator, will be elevated to eternal life. Otherwise, if one does not gain the spark of life, they return to the creation, and never gain access to the Creator. You can see small bits of truth in their doctrine, but in reality, it is so selfish and off base, it is blasphemy. I am mentioning this religion because they have stirred up the Christian community and the effects are still running ramped in our Church today. Read more...
Alexandrian codices
hidden Fingerprints of god
comparison of the new testament and secular documents
Codex Vaticanus
Unical Alexandrian Manuscript
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Byzantine Minuscule Text
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byzantine empire
Byzantine Manuscripts
The origins of the great civilization known as the Byzantine Empire can be traced to 330AD, when the Roman emperor Constantine dedicated a “new Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell in 476, the eastern half survived for another 1,000 years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature, and learning. The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man named Byzas. Located on the European side of the Bosporus, the strait linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the site of Byzantium was ideally located to serve as a transit and trade point between Europe and Asia Minor. In 330AD, Roman Emperor Constantine chose Byzantium as the site of a new Roman capital, Constantinople. Five years earlier, at the Council of Nicaea, Constantine had established Christianity as Rome’s official religion. Read more...
Byzantine manuscripts
Byzantine Minuscule Manuscript
​Gospel of Mark 10th century
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4th Century Jerome's Latin Vulgate
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1225 Latin Vulgate Manuscript
 The Roman Empire, by the end of the 4th Century, had exchanged their universal language from Greek to Latin. Thus, Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, also known as Jerome, ventured to translate the Greek Bible to the same. Unfortunately, the original Greek language of the Holy Scriptures was all but lost in the western world, and the Latin Vulgate was deemed the Divine language of the Gospel; to the extreme that anyone who read or translated the Bible from anything but the Latin was regarded a heretic and convicted to the scaffold.
                Jerome was born in northern Italy in 345AD. When he was 29, he had a dream that said, “You are a follower of Cicero, not of Christ.” Therefore, for the next three years he committed himself to isolation, living in a cave in the Syrian desert, studying and transcribing the Scriptures. Already fluent in Greek, for that was still a common language in Rome, he learned and mastered Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament.
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5th Century - 15th Century ​The Dark Ages
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​As the centuries progressed, the Catholic Church became increasingly corrupt, seeking power and money by means of the papal see and the help of the Roman Emperor. The western half of the Roman Empire fell in 476AD to Germanic barbarians and Atilla the Hun. The eastern half, known as the Byzantine Empire, still existed for another millennium. The fall of Rome ushered in the “Dark Ages”, mainly due to one primary reason, the absence of the Holy Scriptures.
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800 The Holy Roman Empire
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Pope Charlemagne
In the time of the Middle Ages, known as the Dark Ages, lasting from 476 to the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church ruled relentlessly. But it was the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, beginning with Pope Charlemagne in 800AD, uniting the church and state. The Catholic Church had taken her control of the west. With the absence of a proficient civil government, namely Rome as the head, she became the great power of temporal and spiritual matters. Up until 476, the Catholic Church took a side seat to the throne of Rome, but in the year 800, the roles became reversed, and now the Catholic Church would have control over the chair of the Emperor. Resulting in a perpetual increase of wealth and power which brought in the time of the Great Schism (the separation of the Roman Church in the west from the Greek Byzantine Church in the east), the Inquisition (a judicial inquiry for heresy against the Catholic Church), and the Crusades (a series of holy wars against the Muslims, Jews, and non-Christians).
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The Thread of the Truth in the North
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The Truth is Preserved in the North
Lindisfarne Gospels 8th century
Even through these Dark Ages, there has always been a remnant of the Gospel shining through. Men who stood against the tyranny of the Church and stood for the Gospel and the Truth. In the beginning, surprisingly, the men who had the greatest impact on Christianity were sent and authorized by the Popes of that time. Even in the Church’s quest for power and wealth, God finds a way to preserve His Word and His people.
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1025AD- The Anglo-Saxon Mappa Mundi
The earliest known map of the British Isles
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The Dark Ages according to John Foxe
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The Dark Ages according to John Foxe
John Foxe-  "Acts and Monuments"
Along with evidence of Biblical ancient manuscripts, proving the preservation of the Word, we also have record of the martyrs of this time, giving their life for the Gospel as recorded by John Foxe in his “Acts and Monuments”.
Below are a few examples:
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1140 - 1217 Peter Waldo and the Waldesians
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Statue of Peter Waldo at the Luther Memorial
in Worms Germany
The Waldensian movement started in Lyon, France, toward the end of the 12th century with Peter Waldo, and spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. Peter Waldo, 1140-1217, of whom the Waldensians are named, in 1170, was a very wealthy, well-known merchant in the city of Lyon. He had a wife, two daughters, and an abundance of property. But Waldo became deeply troubled over the spiritual state of his soul and he was desperate to know how he could be saved. Therefore, he resolved to read the Bible. But since it only existed in the Latin Vulgate, and his Latin was poor, he hired two scholars to translate it into the vernacular, so he could study it.
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1382 Wycliffe Bible
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John Wycliffe 1324 - 1384
​​It was in these “Dark Ages”, when the Word of Truth was being suppressed and thousands of Christians were martyred for their faithfulness in the Name of Jesus and His Word. From the midst of this darkness, God unveiled a single beam of light to shine the Truth to the world. The words of John in his first chapter are most fitting to describe the work of this early Reformer.
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1455 Gutenberg Bible
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The Gutenberg Bible
​Johann Gutenberg has been recognized as the printer of the first Bible, in fact, he was the printer of the first published book. It was God’s hand continuing to move on the world to bring His Word back to the world. As discussed previously, the Bible, in general, was hidden from mankind for over 1,000 years, but now, God has moved upon men to unite His Word to the people. 
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1519 Erasmus Greek New Testament
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Erasmus Greek New Testament
​October 31, 1517 is the popular commencement of the dawn of the Reformation; when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittemburg door. But the reform, in which Martin Luther was about to advance, rested on the foundation that was laid just one year previous; the printed Greek New Testament produced by Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1469-1536.  The New Testament, brought to light in the original Greek tongue, was now compiled and made available for mankind to study and learn. The learned scholar, although working under and deeply associated with the Roman Catholic Church, declared his disagreement with those who wanted to keep the Scriptures from the common people. He said, “If only the farmer would sing something from them at his plow, the weaver move his shuttle to their tune, the traveler lighten the boredom of his journey with Scriptural stories!” Little did he know, the work he was about to produce would change the world forever. This Greek New Testament, in printed form, would become the standard of the New Testament, launching the translations of Martin Luther and William Tyndale into the world. Thus, fulfilling his dream, that all men would read the Bible for themselves in their common language. His new “study Bible” had two main parts, the Greek text and a revised Latin edition, more elegant and accurate than the traditional translation of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. Erasmus prefaced this monumental work of scholarship with an exhortation to Bible study. The New Testament, he proclaimed, contains the “philosophy of Christ,” a simple and accessible teaching with the power to transform lives.
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French Translations of the Bible
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French translations of the Bible
1535 Olivetan Bible leaf
As the hand of God was working through Martin Luther in Germany, the Holy Spirit was also moving on those in France. One absolutely astounding fact to understand in the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century is the uniform work of the Holy Spirit effectively engaged in the whole of Europe, namely Germany, Switzerland, England, and France. The Reformation was not accomplished my merely one man, but One Holy Spirit, working through many people and many countries to unite His Word and bring the Light to the World. 
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1524 Strasbourg Greek New Testament
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1524 Strasbourg Greek New Testament
The excitement of the Scriptures continued to spread throughout Europe. In1524, just two years after Luther’s publication of his German New Testament, and the third edition of Erasmus’ Greek Testament, another edition became available from the Strasbourg press of Wolfgang Kopfel. This edition of the Greek New Testament would be the fourth publication in Greek, following Erasmus’ 1522 edition. 
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Life of William Tyndale & the 1526 NT
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William Tyndale
William Tyndale is known as the father of the English Bible. Building on the foundation of John Wycliffe, and fulfilling the desire of Erasmus, who wished, “If only the farmer would sing something from them at his plow, the weaver move his shuttle to their tune, the traveler lighten the boredom of his journey with Scriptural stories.” William Tyndale is the first man to bring this desire to fruition in the English tongue, translating the New Testament into English from the original Greek text of Erasmus. The purpose of translating the Scriptures was the work of Tyndale’s life, in which he gave it in martyrdom. Today, our English Bible is substantially made up of Tyndale’s translation and largely indebted to his work.
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1531 Zurich Bible
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Ulrich Zwingli 1484-1531
Ulrich Zwingli, Father of the Swiss Reform-ation, born 1484 in Wildhaus, Switzerland, to a successful farmer in the Toggaburg Valley of the eastern lower Alps, and raised as a shepherd in the mountainous region of Switzerland.
His father and uncle, perceiving of young Ulrich’s intellect, sought to aid him with a tutor and as he became older, send him to the University of Basel. At Basel he became good friends with Reformer Capito. He also became acquainted with his life-long friend, Leo Juda. He graduated from the University of Basel in 1506. Word spread of this young master of arts from Basel. A town of Switzerland, not far from his native town of Wildhaus, asked him to be their priest. Zwingli accepted, he was ordained at Constance, and traveled to Glarus, and there took the responsibility of the priesthood. Zwingli felt he had an overwhelming obligation to his priestly duties, especially to his congregation. He was later quoted saying, “Though I was young, ecclesiastical duties inspired in me more fear than joy, because I knew, and remain convinced that I would give an account of the blood of the sheep which would perish as a consequence of my carelessness.” 
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1535 Coverdale Bible
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Myles Coverdale 1488-1569
England, through the years of history, has, for its majority, had a place for the Gospel. Not allowing itself to be swept away by the traditions of the Catholic Church. However, during the 15th century we saw England slip away from the Truth, but only for a moment. And it was in its return to the Gospel that changed the world. 
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1537 Matthew's Bible
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John Rogers
John Rogers, born 1500 in Deritend, England, became another Cambridge student and was influenced by Reformers Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. In 1534, he came to Antwerp by the Merchant Adventurers and became the chaplain of the English factory at Antwerp. William Tyndale, also being in Antwerp at this time, came to meet Rogers, and became good friends. As discussed previously in the account of Tyndale, Rogers continued Tyndale’s life-long work and dream of one day publishing the entire Bible in English.
                  At the arrest of Tyndale in 1535, Rogers was safely guarding the manuscripts of Tyndale’s latest translations, which included Joshua thru 2Chronicles and Jonah. Shortly after the conviction and death of Tyndale in 1536, Rogers, one year later, would publish the entire Bible in English under the pseudonym, “Thomas Matthew”. It is suggested he did this to protect his name from the persecution Tyndale had a year previous been afflicted.
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1539 Great Bible
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1539 Great Bible
Authorized by Henry VIII
The Matthew’s Bible became a success in England, however, the opposition of the bishops to the prologues and the anti-papal marginal notes of the Bible of 1537, resulted in yet another publication of the English Bible known as the Great Bible of 1539. This is significant because it is technically the first authorized version of the English Bible initiated and commenced by Henry VIII through his advisers, Cranmer and Cromwell. Because of its legal standing, the production of the Great Bible was led and headed by Thomas Cromwell. The vice-regent to the king chose his friend and partner in association with the first complete English Bible of 1535, Myles Coverdale. Cromwell, being backed by the crown, spared no expense. He chose to use the Matthew’s Bible of 1537 as its basis. Cromwell, through contractual agreements based on the privy-seal of the Matthew’s Bible, hired printers Grafton and Whitechurch as the publishers, and he chose Paris to be the place of publication on account of the best facilities, skillful workers, and best paper.   Read more...
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1550 Stephanus Greek New Testament
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1550 Stephanus Greek New Testament
Robert Estienne, typographer and scholar, also known as Robert Staphani, or Stephanus in Latin, was born in Paris, France1503-1559; son of the famous printer Henri Estienne. In 1526, after the death of his father, Robert took over the printing shop. While working in Paris during the rule of King Francis I, Robert established himself as the “Royal Typographer”, the “Printer in Greek to the king” because he printed many Greek editions of classical authors, grammatical works, and other schoolbooks. But Stephanus is most famous for his printing of religious texts such as: the entire Hebrew Bible, 1539-43; and his four editions of the Greek New Testament, 1546, 1549, 1550, 1551.    Read more...
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1560 Geneva Bible
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Geneva Bible