Bibles

Greek (Ancient)

Ancient Greek, or Hellenic, was spoken in the eastern Mediterranean and written in its own Greek alphabet. The first Bible translation was when the Jewish Scriptures were translated into the Greek Septuagint (LXX) at Alexandria in the third century BC. The Septuagint is the standard Old Testament in the Orthodox tradition, and was also used by the Early Church, and includes the Anagignoskomena (deuterocanonical books). Alfred Rahlfs began a critical edition of the Septuagint printed as the Septuaginta in 1935. It relies mainly on Codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus. It was revised in 2006.

The Greek New Testament (GNT) was written in a form of first century Greek called Koine, and when this quotes the Scriptures it uses the Septuagint. The first printed editions were the Complutensian Polyglot Bible published in 1520, and one produced by Erasmus in 1516. Erasmus’s text is based on Byzantine texts and is known as the Textus Receptus. These were used by Reformation translations, including the King James Version. A number of translations began to use critical Greek editions, using Westcott and Hort's Greek Text. Today the Nestle-Aland 27^th edition is the basis for most modern New Testament translations and is printed as the Novum Testamentum Graece. Biblical Greek is still used as the liturgical language in the Greek Orthodox Church. The critical texts are printed by the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) for the United Bible Societies.