What is the earliest version of the Bible?

Answer 1

This is impossible to answer as The Bible is a collection of books that has evolved over thousands of years.

The Old Testament dates from hundreds of years BC and it is impossible to say categorically which of the Old Testament books was the first to be written. It is likely, however, that the books of the Law (ie the first books of the Bible) were written first as the books of prophecy all date from the exhilic and post-exhilic period - which came much later.

The New Testament dates from the first and part of the second century AD. Traditionally Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is thought to be the first book written - around 55AD, with the rest of the letters and the gospels later than this. John's gospel is thought to be the last to be written along with Revelation, around the end of the first century and start of the second.

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (with some parts in Aramaic) but the New Testament was written in Koine (ie everyday) Greek.

Therefore, when the Bible was compiled from the various books in the first few centuries AD, it was in various languages, but mainly Hebrew and Greek.

Later a Latin version was used.

It wasn't until William Tyndale (1494-1536) came along that we had the Bible in English. Tyndale was the first to translate considerable parts of the Bible into English, for a public, lay readership.

However, before this, Gutenberg was the first to produce a printed Bible - in Latin - in 1455. before this time, all Bibles were reproduced by being handwritten by professional scribes.

So, it really depends on whether you mean the earliest books of the Bible, the earlieest complete Bible in the original languages, the ealiest Bible in English or the earliest printed Bible before you can say with any certainty which is the 'earliest' version.