Michlaude Discipleship Project

Best viewed on a large-screen PC: the picture and the text sit side by side there.

Stop 5 · The twigs and leaves: where your Bible sits

Building the Bible · Stop 5 of 9

Stop 5. The twigs and leaves: where your Bible sits

Follow the Protestant branch to the top. It splits into three twigs. Each leaf is one translation.

First, learn how to read a leaf. A leaf can be a revision. A revision grows from an older English Bible. The NKJV is a revision of the KJV. A leaf can also be a fresh translation. A fresh translation is made straight from Hebrew and Greek, with no English Bible in between. Leaves on the same twig share roots. They are not copies of each other.

The Received Text line (left twig). In 1516, a scholar named Erasmus published the first Greek New Testament. He worked fast, from a handful of late Greek copies. The KJV was finished in 1611 by 47 scholars. For the New Testament, it used Erasmus's Greek. For the Old Testament, it used the standard Hebrew text. The scholars also read earlier English Bibles, such as Tyndale's.

That is the KJV's whole root: two tips on the tree, the standard Hebrew text and the later Greek copies. It never saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1947. It also lacked the great Greek codices as scholars use them today. Codex Sinaiticus was found in 1844 and 1859. Codex Vaticanus sat in the Vatican library, but it was closed to most scholars until the 1800s. Codex Alexandrinus reached England in 1627, after the KJV was done. That is no fault of the translators. Those books were out of their reach. His Greek, called the Received Text, stayed the standard Greek New Testament for more than three hundred years. The NKJV and the Spanish Reina-Valera follow the same roots.

The Revised line (middle twig). These Bibles grow from the American Standard Version of 1901, which came from the Revised Version of 1881. The RSV of 1952 revised the ASV. The NRSV of 1989 and the ESV of 2001 revised the RSV. The NASB of 1971 revised the ASV directly. The Amplified Bible and the Living Bible are also built on the ASV. Their translators used the older Greek copies found after the KJV, and the later ones check the Scrolls at hard spots.

Fresh translations (right twig). The NIV (New International Version), the NET (New English Translation), the NLT, the CEB and others were made new from Hebrew and Greek. Like the revised line, they weigh all the Greek copies and check the Scrolls. Two leaves on this twig are later editions, not new translations: the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) revises the HCSB, which was new in 2004, and the NIV Reader's Edition rewrites the NIV at an easier reading level. The NET sits at the top of this twig. We will come back to it.

The other leaves on the tree. The tree has more leaves than we have named. Here is what each one is.

LeafWhat it is
Living Bible, 1971A paraphrase by Kenneth Taylor. He retold the American Standard Version in plain, modern English.
AMP, 1965The Amplified Bible. It adds extra words in brackets to bring out shades of meaning. Its New Testament is based on the American Standard Version, and its Old Testament leans on the RSV.
NLT, 1996The New Living Translation. It began as a revision of the Living Bible, then became a new translation from the Hebrew and Greek.
CEV, 1995The Contemporary English Version, from the American Bible Society. A new translation, written for readers who find Bible language hard.
Good News, 1976Also called Today's English Version, from the American Bible Society. It is translated from the Hebrew and Greek, thought for thought.
The Message, 2002Eugene Peterson's version, often called a paraphrase. He worked from the Hebrew and Greek and retold it in everyday speech.
NIV Reader's, 1996The NIV rewritten at an easier reading level.
CEB, 2011The Common English Bible. A new translation by about 120 scholars from 24 denominations.
Brenton, 1800sAn English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Brenton, first published in 1844 and made from the Vatican text of the Greek. A Greek and English edition followed in 1851. It sits on the Orthodox branch.
NETS, 2007The New English Translation of the Septuagint. It starts from the NRSV's wording and changes it wherever the Greek differs. It is a scholars' translation, not a church Bible.
Orthodox Study Bible, 2008Its Old Testament is an English Septuagint from St. Athanasius Academy, built on the NKJV's wording. Its New Testament is the NKJV.
Geʿez Bible, 4th to 6th centuryThe ancient Ethiopian Bible, in Geʿez, the old language of that church.
Amharic BibleA Bible in Amharic, one of the main languages of Ethiopia today. It has several editions, and the tree gives no single year.
The tree as text

Title and subtitle

  • The Bible Tree. Every Bible on the shelf grows from the same roots. The Old Testament is where the branches split, most sharply in the 1500s.

Roots (below ground: no original survives, the deeper the root the older the copy)

Old Testament roots, Hebrew and Aramaic:

  • Dead Sea Scrolls, 250 BC to AD 68. Checked by modern Bibles at hard spots.
  • Septuagint, Greek, 3rd to 2nd century BC. Main text of the Orthodox and Ethiopian Bibles.
  • Masoretic Text, Hebrew, AD 9th to 11th century. Main text of the KJV line and most Protestant Bibles.

New Testament roots, Greek:

  • Later Greek copies, most of what survives. Main text of the KJV line and the Orthodox Bibles.
  • Great codices, 4th century. Weighed by modern Bibles, not the KJV.
  • Earliest papyri, about AD 125 to 250. Weighed by modern Bibles, not the KJV.

Trunk, the 4th century

  • 27 New Testament books named (AD 367).
  • Jerome's Latin Bible written (c. 383 to 405).

Four branches

Ethiopian, 81 books (by tradition; Geʿez, from the Greek):

  • Geʿez Bible, 4th to 6th century
  • Amharic Bible

Orthodox, about 76 to 77 books (Greek Old Testament):

  • Brenton, 1800s
  • NETS, 2007
  • Orthodox Study Bible, 2008

Catholic, 73 books (Latin Bible, longer Old Testament). Jerome's Latin Bible, itself translated from Hebrew and Greek, stands two steps from the roots:

  • Douay-Rheims *
  • NABRE, 2011
  • Catholic American, 2027

Protestant, 66 books (1500s: back to Hebrew and Greek). It splits into three twigs:

Received Text line (KJV tradition):

  • King James, 1611
  • NKJV, 1982
  • Reina-Valera, 1960

Revised line (from the ASV, 1901):

  • Living Bible
  • RSV, 1952
  • AMP, 1965
  • NASB, 1971
  • NRSV, 1989
  • ESV, 2001

Fresh translations (from the originals):

  • NET, 2005 (the project's text)
  • CSB, 2017
  • CEB, 2011
  • NLT, 1996
  • NIV, 1978
  • CEV, 1995
  • The Message, 2002
  • Good News
  • NIV Reader's

The box on the picture, "Where each branch gets its text" (v101: redrawn and checked; explained in Stop 4)

  • Received Text line (KJV, NKJV, Reina-Valera): Old Testament from the Masoretic Text, the standard Hebrew text; New Testament from later Greek copies, the 1516 Erasmus text.
  • Revised and fresh Bibles (ESV, NIV, NET, NLT and others): Old Testament from the Masoretic Text, with the Scrolls and Greek checked at hard spots; New Testament from papyri, codices and later copies weighed against each other.
  • The NET (this project's text): Old Testament from Biblia Hebraica (Masoretic), with corrections from other witnesses; New Testament from a Greek text weighing all copies, departing in places from NA27.
  • Older Catholic Bibles (Douay-Rheims): both Testaments from Jerome's Latin Bible, itself a translation.
  • Modern Catholic Bibles (NABRE): Old Testament from the Hebrew, with Scrolls and Greek checked; New Testament from Greek copies, weighed.
  • Orthodox Bibles: Old Testament from the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint); New Testament from later Greek (Byzantine) copies.
  • Ethiopian Bible: Old Testament from the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint); New Testament from Greek.
  • Under the box: The KJV never saw the Scrolls (found 1947) or the oldest Greek codices (1844 and later).

Notes at the foot of the picture

  • * The Douay-Rheims is English made from the Latin Bible, which was itself translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. That is two steps from the roots, and each step can lose fidelity. Modern Catholic Bibles go to the roots.
  • Leaves are translations; years are first publication, and 2027 is an expected date. Orthodox and Ethiopian branches are shown from the Greek Old Testament (Asale 2016; Orthodox Study Bible introduction).
  • Canon counts: Bible Gateway (2026); the Ethiopian 81 is a tradition (Asale 2016). Roots and trunk: project sources and Bible Gateway. Lines checked 2026-10-27; see the sources page. Not shown: Syriac, Coptic and Armenian Bibles.

How to read the leaves (the box at the right of the trunk)

  • A revision grows from an older English Bible: KJV, 1611 leads to NKJV, 1982.
  • A fresh translation goes straight to the roots: Hebrew roots and Greek roots lead to the NET. No English Bible stands between them.
  • Leaves on one twig share roots. They are not copies of each other, and their order on the twig means nothing.

Boxes on the picture

  • 1. One trunk: by the 4th century the church had named the same 27 New Testament books. The Old Testament list is where the branches differ.
  • 2. The Scrolls changed the roots: found from 1947, they show the Hebrew text in more than one form. Some Bibles follow them where the Masoretic Text differs.
  • 3. The NET is a fresh leaf: made from Hebrew and Greek, not from an older English Bible. Its notes show where the roots disagree. A gold star and the words "The NET is here" mark its leaf.