Caedmon, by 680, had rendered Bible stories in common speech in poetic paraphrase, according to Bede. Bede (died 735) is credited with a translation of John's Gospel. King Alfred (848-901) had portions of the Bible translated into the vernacular. But until the time of Wycliffe (14th cen.) and Tyndale (16th cen.), the Bible was translated Into English only sporadically and piecemeal.

Wycliffe's Version (1382). This was the first complete translation into English, revised c. 1400, condemned and burned in 1415. At least 170 MS. copies have survived. Its weakness was that it was based on the Latin Vulgate instead of the original Greek.

Tyndale's Translation (1525-35). Translated from the original Hebrew and Greek, the significance of Tyndale's version lies in its being first in a line of translations, so creative and impressive in its style that it formed the backbone of the Authorized King James Version of 1611.

The Coverdale Version (1535). Miles Coverdals leaned on Tyndale's scholarly work. He supplemented it, where it had not been finished, by his own translation from German' and Latin. He presented the first completed English Bible in print.

The Thomas Matthew Bible (1537). Largely a revision of Tyndale by Tyndale's friend John Rogers, it was nevertheless published under the name of Thomas Matthew.

The Taverner's Bible (1539), a revision by Richard Taverner of the Matthew Bible minus most of the notes and polemic data.

The Great Bible (1539) was the first authorized Bible, called "great" from its size. It was also styled the"Cranmer Bible" because of Archbishop Cranmer's preface to the second edition (1540).

The Geneva Bible (1560) was a revision of the Great Bible.

The Bishops Bible (1568) was the second authorized English Bible and was intended to supersede the Geneva Bible, the Bible of the people, and the Great Bible, the pulpit Bible of the churches. The translation work was done mainly by scholarly bishops.

The Douay Version (1609-10) was the first Roman Catholic Bible in English.

The King James Version (1611) was the culmination of these preceding early translations and revisions, and became the third "authorized" English Bible, sponsored by James I of England. It employed the chapter divisions of Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury in the 13th cen., and the verse divisions of Robert Estienne (1551). This version reigned supreme from 1611 to 1881.

The Revised Version (1881-85). A revision of the King James Version based on a literal translation of the Greek and Hebrew texts by sixty-five English scholars.

The American Standard Version (1901). An American edition of the Revised Version of 1885, including preferred readings and format changes, by a group of American scholars under the direction of William H. Green of Princeton Seminary.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1952); New Testament (1946). Authorized by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., widely used by denominations in that group and many not in its membership. Although this version has many exceliencies, it is weak and obscure in its translation of certain key O.T. messianic passages.

The New English Bible: New Testament (1961). A new translation by English scholars under the direction of 0. H. Dodd of Cambridge. It is aimed at the original Greek into idiomatic English, from archaisms and from transient modernisms. It has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception in the U.S., but not without question by many evangelicals.