Bible History
From Ancient Greek to Your Phone
The remarkable history of Bible translation — and why new versions keep appearing.
fresh.bible editorial3 min read
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The New Testament was written in Koine Greek — not the formal literary Greek of philosophers, but the everyday Greek that ordinary people spoke. From the very beginning, the Bible was written in the language of regular people. Translation has been central to that mission ever since.
The Septuagint (3rd-2nd Century BC)
Before the New Testament even existed, Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Old Testament into Greek. This translation — called the (meaning "seventy," because tradition holds that 70-72 scholars worked on it) — became the Bible of the early . When New Testament authors quote the Old Testament, they are usually quoting the Septuagint.