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How We Got the English Bible - Hermeneutics: Week 5 - 6/4/25

  • Tabernacle Baptist Church
  • Jun 4
  • 3 min read

My notes for Wednesday night, June 4th. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. Our study over the next few months will be a study on Hermeneutics: Becoming Students and Teachers of the Word. Our goal is to develop tools to help us read, study, apply, and share the Bible more effectively. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.


Hermeneutics – HERMENEUEIN from Luke 24:27 to explain or interpret.  The term simply describes the practice and discipline of interpreting the Bible.

Sources for these notes include:

  • Personal study and preparation

  • Danny Akin, Hermeneutics Class notes. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

For Additional Reading

A brief history of Bible translation – John Wycliffe Bible Translators

A Brief Historical Timeline

I wanted to highlight some big events to help us see the spread of Christianity and the importance of God preserving His Word. We should rejoice that we are living in period of history that the Word of God is so readily available to believers.

From the time of Christ forward – Immense persecution of Christianity

Early 300s – Constatine made Christianity acceptable (he was later baptized)

  • A study of the Roman emperors is helpful

400 – Vulgate. The Bible into Latin.

476 – Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

476-14th Century – Middle Ages

622 – Birth of Islam. Prominent in western Arabia

1095-1182 – The Crusades

1380-1382 – John Wycliffe. The Bible from Latin to English. Handwritten (death 1384)

1428 – Wycliffe’s bones dug up and burned

1440– Printing Press

1455 – Guttenberg’s Latin Bible. First from printing press

1517 – Protestant Reformation

1520s – William Tyndale. First to write Bible in English from the Hebrew and Greek text.

1536 Tyndale strangled and burned.

1538 – The Great Bible. John Rogers. First English Bible for public use. Authorized by Church of England

1560 – Geneva Bible. Very popular Bible. Taken to America on Mayflower. Marginal notes and cross-references.

1553-1558 – Queen Mary. Bloody Mary. Persecution. Thousands of Bibles burned.

1611 – King James Bible. Authorized Version. No marginal notes. Read in all churches of England.

1881-1885 – The Revised Version. A British effort to update the language of the KJV.

1901 – American Standard Version. American adaptation of the Revised Version

1960, 1995 – New American Standard (Formal equivalence)

1971 – Living Bible. (Paraphrase)

1978 – New International Version. (Dynamic equivalence)

1982 – New King James Version. Revision of KJV. A translation.

1996 – New Living Translation. Revision of Living Bible based upon original languages. (Dynamic equivalence)

2001 – English Standard Translation. (Formal translation)

Formal Equivalence – Word-for-word. A close as possible.

Dynamic Equivalence – Though-for- thought. Readability. Convey the meaning of the text.

My Favorite Translations

  • KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV

  • I prefer Formal over Dynamic

The King James Only Controversy is based upon the belief that KJV is the best and only true English translation of the Bible.

There is much discussion over the Greek manuscripts that are used in the translation process. The early translation followed the Received Text, but older manuscripts were later used in the newer translations.  THE DEBATE RAGES ON

Received Text (Texus Receptus)  –  KJV and NKJV

Critical Text Alexandrian Text – The other modern translations.

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