Greek Bible

Greek Bible

The Septuagint is the first known translation of the Bible into Greek It consists of the Hebrew Bible, along with other texts, some of which may have been originally written in Greek. The Septuagint is the oldest surviving translation of Holy Scripture into any language and is the main source of the Old Testament that was used by writers of the New Testament.

The New Testament part of the Christian Bible was originally written in Greek, but newer translations were written as the Greek language developed and evolved in the passage of time. One of the first translations of the New Testaments into Modern Greek was conducted by Seraphim in Lesvos and was edited in London in 1703 by the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; the translation was condemned by the Patriarchate of Constantinople one year later. Neofytos Vamvas, a dean and professor of the University of Athens, later published a translation of the Bible in Katharevousa (a type of Modern Greek) in 1850. This edition was used over one century later, in 1994, by Spyros Filos, who created the first translation of the Bible in Demotic Greek (the Modern Greek vernacular); this translation is now used by the Greek Evangelical Church, while it is also recognized by the Orthodox Church. At the same time, a team of professors of Theology from the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki had been working on another translation into Demotic Greek; this edition has been approved by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece and is also used in Evangelical and Charismatic churches.