This paper does not attempt to exhaust the history of religious translation. A few examples, however, serve to illustrate how translators have contributed to the transmission and transformation of religious texts. There is extensive and documentation on the history of translation in certain religions – the translation of the Christian Bible, in particular – but few studies have examined the translation of sacred texts in a cross-religious context. The paper focuses on the Judaic and Christian traditions, focusing on the different ways in which each of the two religions has historically envisaged Bible translation. The emphasis has been placed mainly, although not exclusively, on translations into English. Smaller sections deal with the translation of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist sacred texts; they illustrate how translators have helped to make texts accessible to an ever-expanding readership.