According to the information gathered by French scholar Jean Carmignac, there were translations to Hebrew of the New Testament made by individual scholars as far back as the fourteenth century. However, none of these was ever used by anyone as an everyday Bible.

Today any modern Hebrew speaker usually has three different translations to choose from. All three are relatively new translations – made later than 1850. But only the Bible Society’s translation was written in Modern Hebrew. The work was done right here in the land of Israel.

The two older translations (both in public domain) are those of Delitzsch and Zalkinson. Zalkinson’s translation was limited to biblical Hebrew and was published in London in 1885 by the Trinitarian Bible Society (an organization unrelated to modern national Bible Societies). Delitzsch’s translation was funded by the British and Foreign Bible Society. He attempted to render it into the Hebrew which might have been spoken at Jesus’ time. This meant using many words which are found in the Mishnah and other post-biblical documents. The Delitzsch translation was published for the first time in Germany in 1877.