The Printed Bible

Johannes Gutenberg's press in Mainz, Germany produced the first major book printed with movable metal type in the West — the famous "42-line Bible." About 180 copies were printed; roughly 49 survive today. It dramatically lowered the cost of Scripture and helped fuel the spread of the Reformation across Europe.

Commissioned by King James I and translated by 47 scholars working from the original Hebrew and Greek, the Authorized Version drew on earlier English Bibles by Tyndale, the Geneva Bible, and the Bishops' Bible. Its majestic language made it the most printed and widely read English Bible for over 350 years.

Published by Crossway in 2001, the ESV is a revision of the 1971 Revised Standard Version and traces its lineage back to the ASV of 1901. It is an "essentially literal" translation drawn directly from the original languages — the Hebrew of the Old Testament (with Aramaic sections in Daniel and Ezra) and the Greek of the New Testament — aiming to pair faithful word-for-word accuracy with classic English readability.

First published in 1971 by The Lockman Foundation (with the New Testament in 1963), the NASB is a revision of the 1901 American Standard Version. It is one of the most literal English translations, rendered directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to stay as close to the source text as possible. Major updates followed in 1995 and again in 2020 (NASB 2020).