Prophets and apostles wrote. Scribes copied. Translators carried it into new languages. Here is who did the work, how they checked it, and where the Restoration fits. Every claim is dated and linked to its source.
Prophets, kings, apostles and their scribes wrote in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Later the books were gathered and set in order. Switch the order, then tap any book.
Traditional authors and dates: Bible Dictionary and Bible Chronology. Where the Bible Dictionary gives no date, New Testament scholarly ranges are from BYU RSC, New Testament History, Culture, and Society (2019), marked “scholars.” For the Old Testament, scholars debate when many books reached their final form; we found no single dated range per book to show, so we show only the Bible Dictionary’s dates.
Compare the three orders on one line →
Each book on one line: its place in Bible order, the order written, and the Hebrew Bible order, with the approximate time it was written. Sort the list, or switch to side-by-side lanes. The Hebrew Bible holds the Old Testament only.
Written dates are approximate. Arrows show how many places a book moves from its place in Bible order. ↑ means earlier in that order. The Hebrew Bible has 39 books; New Testament books are marked —.
Approximate periods in the order written (estimates)
Swipe or scroll along the timeline. Tap any stop for what happened, who did the work, how they decided, and the sources.
Tap a name to see what our sources say about them. Where the sources give no names, we say so.
Before printing, every Bible was copied by hand. Careful scribes checked their copies in steps like these.
A simple demonstration in English. The slip in the copy is made up to show the method. It is not from a real manuscript.
Real, documented differences between copies, the kind textual scholars weigh. Toggle to see what one source has and the other does not.
The Joseph Smith Translation was not a translation from other languages. Joseph Smith dictated revisions to his scribes from June 1830 to July 1833, and the Bible Dictionary says it "to some extent assists in restoring the plain and precious things that have been lost from the Bible."
Bible Dictionary: Joseph Smith Translation · BYU RSC: Manuscripts and Scribes
See the Book of Mormon around the world → The stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph →For most of history a whole Bible was rare. Printing, translation, Bible societies and reading changed that.
