In what language was the bible written? And...?

Question

...how many languages did it pass through before it was translated into english?

Is it not possible to discuss religion without preaching?

Answer 1

OT -- Hebrew
NT -- Greek

I believe it went from there to the German language and a few others before getting into english. But nothing was lost in translation.....nothing.

The message is still clear: Salvation through the atoning work of Jesus Christ

Answer 2

The original Quranic manuscript is written in Arabic Language. Every single Muslim have an identical Arabic copy based on the original Quranic manuscript written in Arabic. When Muslims perform their 5 daily prayers, they recite the Quran in its original language, the Arabic Language. Many Muslims memorize the Quran by heart at young age. The English, Spanish or French Quranic translations are nothing but interpretation to the meanings of the words of the Quran, and they are only used as a reference for those Muslims who don't speak Arabic

Unlike Muslims, almost the majority of Christians don't even know where the original manuscripts are located at. None of the Christian Churches have, in their possession, a copy in either Hebrew or Greek that is based on the original manuscripts. Christians have translations, translations, translations and as for the original Bible, it's buried somewhere overseas collecting dust.

The Bible (OT & NT) has endured many severe predicaments because of the language barrier. The original manuscripts (ancient Hebrew and Aramaic scriptures) were translated to Greek and Latin. In fact, from the year 800 AD to 1539 AD, Latin was the only language of the Bible. Because of the continuous waves of translations; Aramaic, to Greek, to Latin, to English; Christians most definitely and seriously handicapped any attempts to faithfully translate the original author's intended meanings. This problem, all thanks be to the Almighty (swt), has been completely avoided in the Qur'an, since it has remained from the time of its inspiration to the present day in the same language it was originally revealed in, the Arabic Language. The Arabic Language has remained a living language from that day to this, and the book itself has always been in the hands of the people and not "the elite."

Answer 3

From first to last written in as many as 10 different languages before the Greek and Latin. Dead Sea Scrolls were in Sanskrit and my brother can read them. That be "Old testament" NT written in Hebrew mostly and translated into Greek and Latin. U do know the first Christians were renegade or cast out Jews don't you? U believe a book can survive as many as 14 translations and be word for word accurate? Not likely. Not even probable. You have to consider the culture and the education level of the people who allegedly wrote it. Then the culture and politics of every translator. It starts to get a bit foggy here. The very words of GOD? Maybe a few filtered thru translations......Maybe the Ideas of God but I wouldn't bet my life on that. The Bible and all organized religeon is a creation of man. Faith is exactly that. Just faith..........cant be proved or disproved. Boils down to your own choice.

Answer 4

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and a couple verses are in Aramaic, which is the "street-form" of Hebrew.

The New Testament was written in Greek, and translated into several languages, including Syrian, Latin, Ethiopian, etc etc etc. The King James Version, the first "English Bible" was authorized over 1500 years after Christ. The oldest known fragment of the New Testament dates back to 90 AD and is a fragment of John, which is interesting because some liberal scholars have claimed that John's gospel was not written until 200AD. Also we know that John was the last one to author his gospel, so the other gospels must date much farther back.

We know that Paul began writing some of his epistles before the gospels were written
We know that Luke wrote his gospel after the other gospels were written
And we know that Luke wrote Acts of the Apostles before Paul died.................

So put it all together and the New Testament was written much sooner than scholars have thought.

Answer 5

The Old Testament was originally written in Aramaic, Hebrew and some portions were written in the language of Babylon (sorry, can't remember how to spell it). The New Testament was written in Greek because the "universal" language of the times was the Greek of Alexander. Most modern translations are taken from the oldest manuscripts we can find. I think the King James was the first, widely accepted English version.

Answer 6

Hebrew; Aramaic; & Greek were the languages used to write the books that have come to us via the King James version.
I think some of the NT Books thrown out by the early church may well have been written in Latin.
The KJ version was translated into Enlish from the Latin texts, by a committee.
And we all know the quote "A Camel is a racehorse designed by a Committee" don't we.

Answer 7

The Bible was written in Aramaic, Hebrew, Koine Greek and Coptic. There are plenty of translations available from those languages into English. However, Biblical scholars readily admit that there thousands and thousands of mistakes in the translations. We also have none of the original books and some of the words of those original languages do not have an English equivalent.

Answer 8

The most recent English translations were from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts, so there was no intervening language. One of the most common Bibles in medieval times was the Latin bible - for of course the first translators of the Bible we use most today were the people who killed Christ and then thought about their mistake, the Romans - who spoke Latin.

It's commonly thought that the KJV renders the language of the Bible best, but modern Christians who don't realize that all those "Thou shalts" and "Why dost thous" were themselves MODERN English at the beginning of the seventeenth century are just exposing another gap in their knowledge of their favourite book.

Translations always, always, always lose - and there are some very bad acts of translation to deal with as well.

Answer 9

The various books of the Bible were written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. It was translated into Latin and then into English. By 500 AD, it had been translated into over 500 languages.

Answer 10

The main languages used to write the bible was Hebrew, Hebrew Aramaic (which was a language) & Greek. Once the Roman Empire had made Christianity its main faith, it was then re-written into Latin, then after that until the early middle ages the monks re-wrote it copying it word for word, then in the middle of the middle ages it was then translated into the european languages of the day (Frence, Anglo German & German). That was at the point the first printing presses became available.

Answer 11

The bible is a huge book which contains many chapters that were written at many different times and in several different languages. Including: Greek, Hebrew and Latin. The New Testament was generally translated into Latin and then into English and then into modern English (how aweful!).
More information on the bible can be found at www.newadvent.org