BW Timeline: English Bible Versions

[MGVH]

I've been playing around with the BW Timeline tool. It's rather awkward and limiting, but it is very handy to have available. You should have a "Bible" timeline already available, but I fixed it up some, updated it, and added quite a few more versions. As you can see, I applied some color to try to indicate versions that all trace back to the KJV and ultimately Tyndale. I don't quite understand the file system used to create these timelines, but I've attached a ZIP file I think should work. Unzip the TL, ERA, ERC, and ER1 files into your BW "timeline" subdirectory. Open the timeline in BW (Resources > Miscellaneous > BibleWorks Timeline) and then open "EnglishBibleVersions." Let me know if it's not working...
In any case, this adds most of the English versions that you can access in BW.

[almather]

Thanks. Seems to work fine.

Al

[MGVH]

Good. Anyone is welcome to post further modifications to the files.
Michael & Jim, if you want, you can go ahead and include it on the user database blog.

[Sansom48]

Thank you for the time line Mark, it is very helpful and will be helpful in the future when talking to others about various translations.

[Yaku Lee]

Good work. I installed it and it works fine. It is very instructive to see that Bible translations literally poured out after 1950 or so. Thanks.

[Jim Wert]

This may be nitpicking, but many translators published the New Testament some years before the Old Testament, and often the NT was widely used before the OT was published.

Just two examples:

1. RSV NT was published in 1946, and, according to my father who was a bookstore operator and a preacher, was widely accepted. The OT was published in 1952, and was attacked by very vocal people, banned from quite a few churches.

2. New English Bible NT was published in 1961 and widely used -- in 1962 a college friend told me how useful it was for the youth Sunday School class he taught. The OT didn't come out until 1970.

This was true of other translations as well, and generally the date that each of these translations began to affect people and churches was when the NT came into use. Of course, the date that they were available with both NT and OT is important too.

--Jim

[MGVH]

You are correct, Jim, and I initially put the dates on with the final date of the whole Bible. In some instances I did include a date range. I suspect there are a number of others that have similar date ranges, and I just didn't get to them.

It is quite easy to edit the file. I've updated it myself, and the clip from the screen shows how I've added the bars to indicate a time range. I also added more colors to show 'families' of versions. Download and expand the attached zip and overwrite the existing files in your BW TIMELINE subdirectory to get this update.

[Adelphos]

Mark, you might want to make one more emendation. Specifically the Douay-Rheims. The NT was published in 1582, Genesis to Job in 1609, and the remainder in 1610, although to the best of my knowledge, even then it wasn't released for public consumption until some time after that.

[DavidR]

I hadn't seen this before, so thanks, Efird, for your post drawing attention to it. And many thanks to you, Mark, for creating this timeline. It works fine for me in BW 10. I hope you may be able to keep it updated as new and revised translations come out.

I wrote an essay a few years ago tracing the use of "perfect" and related words to render forms of τελειόω and τέλειος in 1 John 4:12-18. (My point was that while that terminology may have been accurate for Wycliffe and maybe Tyndale-KJV, it no longer is in modern English, and that something like the NIV "made complete" is preferable and offers new insights.) BW was an enormous help in carrying this out; I used it to create a couple of Parallel Versions favorites, for instance. I only wish I'd known about Mark's timeline!

[gsnheone]

You are correct, Jim, and I initially put the dates on with the final date of the whole Bible. In some instances I did include a date range. I suspect there are a number of others that have similar date ranges, and I just didn't get to them.

It is quite easy to edit the file. I've updated it myself, and the clip from the screen shows how I've added the bars to indicate a time range. I also added more colors to show 'families' of versions. Download and expand the attached zip and overwrite the existing files in your BW TIMELINE subdirectory to get this update.

I followed the instructions but, it's not showing up in my BW10,,please help!!