The Old Testament of the Bible was written in Hebrew (with a little bit in Aramaic). The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek. From the earliest times the Bible was translated into other languages. A Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint was popular among Greek speaking Jews at the time of Jesus and was used by the first Christians.

In the Middle Ages Latin was the language used by scholars throughout the western world. The only Bible was the Vulgate a Latin Bible. Books were written by hand making them too expensive for ordinary people to own. Most Christians had very little firsthand knowledge about what the Bible said and were dependent on priests and scholars to teach it.

John Wycliffe (1329 84) translated the Latin Vulgate into English believing that it should be available to everyone in their own language

The table reputed to be the one on which he wrote his translation can still be viewed at the Parish Church in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. The twon has a public monument to Wycliffe.

A German Monk called Martin Luther (1483 1546) started a Christian movement known as the Reformation. New "Protestant" churches separated from the Roman Catholic Church. Luther translated the Bible into the German language. Due to the invention of the printing press, translations of the Bible were soon available to people to own and read for themselves in their own language.

The first English Bible printed in this way was produced by William Tyndale in 1525. Many other English versions of the Bible followed, including a Catholic translation. When he became king, James I sponsored a new English translation of the Bible. His version was the first English translation to be made by a committee of Bible scholars. Published in 1611, the accuracy and graceful language of the King James Bible made it very popular throughout the Englishspeaking world.

Today many new English translations of the Bible are available in the language of today and Catholic and Protestant scholars often work together on Bible translation projects. The work of Bible translation continues throughout the world, with the aim of making the Bible available in every language. So far, the whole Bible has been translated into 371 different languages, while 2200 languages have at least a portion the Bible available.