Censorship of the Bible includes restrictions and prohibition of possessing, reading, or using the Bible in general or any particular editions or translations of it.

Violators of Bible prohibitions have at times been punished by imprisonment, forced labor, banishment and execution, as well as by the burning or confiscating of the Bible or Bibles used or distributed. The censorship may be because of explicit religious reasons, but also for reasons of public policy or state control, especially in authoritarian states or following violent riots.

Censorship of the Bible has occurred in the past and continues today. In the 20th century, Christian resistance to the Soviet Union's policy of state atheism occurred through Bible-smuggling. The People's Republic of China, officially an atheist state, engages in Bible burning as a part of antireligious campaigns there.

The extent and nature of past censorship of the Bible in Western Europe are controversial. Historically, Catholic writers have portrayed restrictions on vernacular translations as temporary prudential responses to regional outbreaks of organized violence and heresy with a policing rather than theological basis;Ludwig Friedrich Otto Baumgarten-Crusius: Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte. Zweite Abtheilung. Verlage der Crökerschen Buchhandlung, Jena 1832; Zweiter Theil: Spezielle Dogmengeschichte. 21: Angelegenheit des Schriftgebrauchs. pp. 901–911 (Online-Version) Protestant writers have portrayed them as churchmen suppressing the truth in order to maintain power.

In most cases, the bans on pious lay people possessing or publicly reading certain Bibles were related to unauthorized vernacular Scripture editions not derived from the Latin Vulgate, or from orthodox translations also containing heretical or confusing material. Clerics were never forbidden to possess the Vulgate Bible translation in Latin. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum of the Catholic Church included various translations or editions of the Bible.

Background The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, a form of ancient Greek. The books were translated into several other languages, including Latin and Gothic. From about AD 300 onward, Latin began to assert itself as the language of worship in Western Christianity. This was aided by the fact many European languages, called the Romance languages, are all descended from Latin. In contrast the earliest written Western Germanic languages date only from the 6th century. From AD 382–420, a new translation was made into the Latin vernacular, the Vulgate, which became the dominant translation for Western Christianity in the 7th-9th centuries. From about the 9th century it was regarded as the only valid Bible translation. In Eastern Christianity, on the other hand, Greek remained dominant.

Diocletianic Persecution During the Diocletianic Persecution, Bibles were targeted as part of a larger program intended to wipe out Christianity. On February 24, 303, Diocletian's first so-called "Edict against the Christians" was published.Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 22; Clarke, 650; Potter, 337; de Ste Croix, "Aspects", 75; Williams, 176. Among other persecutions against Christians, Diocletian ordered the destruction of their scriptures and liturgical books across the entire Roman empire.Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 8.2.4; De Martyribus Palestinae praef. 1; and Optatus, Appendix 2; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 22; Clarke, 650; Liebeschuetz, 249–50; Potter, 337; de Ste Croix, "Aspects", 75.

During the Middle Ages For the ordinary semi-literate or illiterate laity, the main source of scripture was oral and regular: the priest's vernacular paraphrase of the day's readings according to the liturgical calendar during the homily, bolstered by derived works such as dramas, poems, songs, icons, paintings, carvings and sculptures.

Historian Wim Francois notes "the late medieval Catholic church did not forbid the reading of the Bible in the vernacular, [...] there was no central Roman policy [...] pertaining to Bible reading in the vernacular, and [...] biblical books circulated in most of Europe's linguistic regions." Bans were regional and on unauthorized translations, and often used the policing of actual or predicted violence as a justification.

Old Church Slavonic There were some controversies about whether the translation in Old Church Slavonic was permissible. According to St. Methodius, he was officially allowed to use it by John VIII in 880.

Yet Christians were forbidden to use the Old Church Slavonic translation by John X in 920 and by the Lateran Synod of 1059, with the synod being confirmed by Nicholas II and Alexander II. In a letter to Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia dated January 2, 1080, Pope Gregory VII refused to re-establish the earlier permission to use the Slavonic language liturgy, including the scripture reading. The reason he gave, in the explicit context of questioning Vratislaus' loyalty and orthodoxy in the highly political Investiture Controversy, was that "(Not without reason has it pleased Almighty God that) the Sacred Scripture should be obscure in certain places, lest, if it were freely open to all, it would perhaps become worthless and would be subject to scorn, or it would perversely lead the mind into error due to mediocre translations."

Waldensians: France and Italy

Between 1170 and 1180, Peter Waldo commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular "Romance" (Franco-Provençal). He is credited with providing Western Europe with the first translation of the Scriptures in a 'modern tongue' outside of Latin., p=18-19 In 1199, Pope Innocent III, writing in a letter to the bishop of Metz about Waldensians, banned secret meetings (which he labeled as occultis conventiculis, or "hidden assemblies") in which the Bible was freely discussed. However, he noted that the desire to read and study the divine scriptures was not to blame; rather, he commended it.It has been claimed, however, the individual by himself apart from private meetings could hardly procure Bible texts, so this ban was practically equivalent to a Bible ban for lay people. Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller, Siegfried M. Schwertner, Claus-Jürgen Thornton, Matthias Glockner: Theologische Realenzyklopädie. Walter de Gruyter, 1977, , p. 66. However, lay people were exposed to multiple forms of biblical material, scripture readings weekly in the Mass, in translated homilies, and memorized passages: refer Wim François, op. cit, p. 25.

Cathars/Albigensians

France After the end of the Albigensian Crusade, the provincial Council of Toulouse (1229) tightened the provisions against the heretics in this ecclesiastical province. The Inquisition procedure was adopted, and the University of Toulouse was founded, also called the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. At the synod, a general Scripture book ban was pronounced for lay people of this ecclesiastical province; only Psalterium and Brevier in Latin were allowed.Correspondence on the formation, objects, and plan of the Roman Catholic Bible Society, 1813Edward Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, Edited with an introduction by Edward Peters, (Scolar Press, London, 1980) , p.194–195.Pierre Allix, Ecclesiastical History of Ancient Churches of the Albigenses (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1821.)Realenzyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 2, p. 703

This quote was not repeated in 1233 at the provincial Council held in Bréziers. Although sections of the Council of Toulouse were used, this statement was omitted.August Hahn: Lehrbuch des christlichen Glaubens. First part. 2nd Ed., Friedrich Christian Wilhelm Vogel, Leipzig 1857, p. 202- (Online-Version) (berichtet fälschlicherweise von einer Wiederholung des hier 1229 zitierten Canons auf der Synode von Béziers 1233, ebenso wie Hegelmaier; andere Teile von Toulouse kamen sehr wohl 1233 vor nur nicht dieser.)

At the synod of Béziers (Concilium Biterrense) in 1246 it was also decided that the laity should have no Latin and vernacular and the clergy no vernacular theological books.

Spain At the provincial Second Council of Tarragona (Conventus Tarraconensis) in 1234, the Spanish bishops, according to a decree of King James I of Aragon, declared that it was forbidden for anyone to own a Romance language translation of books of the Old and New Testament. This had to be burned within eight days, otherwise they would be suspected as heretics.The Church Council of Tarragona (1234 AD), 2nd Cannon.D. Lortsch, Historie de la Bible en France, 1910, p.14.Carl Mirbt (Ed.): Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums und des römischen Katholizismus, 3. Auflage, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1911, p. 155–156 (Online bei Archive.org);298. 3., Synode zu Tarragona (1234): Bibelverbot; Mansi XXIII 329. – Heferle V 1037.301. Konzil von Béziers (August 19, 1246): Verbot von Übersetzungen theologischer Bücher; Mansi XXIII 724. – Heferle V p. 1145 ff.D. Lotsch: Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, p. 14

The bans were not permanent but responses to exigencies. The provincial Council of Tarragona of 1318 introduced bans for the Beguines which were obsolete by 1329.

Germany At the diocesan synod of Trier (Synodus Dioecesana Trevirensis) convened by Archbishop Theodoric II in 1231, alleged heretics called anachronistically Euchites were described as having translated the scriptures into German:August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben: Geschichte der deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luthers Zeit. 3. Ausgabe, Carl Rümpler, Hannover 1861, p. 52 ff. (Online-Version)

Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor issued an edict against German interpretations of Scripture at the request of Pope Urban V 1369 in Lucca, This was in order that such interpreters would not seduce laymen and malevolent spirits to heresy or error.Martin Leutzsch (article in German): Bibelübersetzung als Skandal und Verbrechen. In: Rainer Dillmann: Bibel-Impulse: Film − Kunst − Literatur − Musik − Theater − Theologie. Lit Verlag, Berlin 2006, , pp. 42–57, here pp. 46–48. Nevertheless, his son allowed the German translation of the Wenceslas Bible in 1385, a manuscript that, if finished, would have been the costliest and largest Bible of the Middle Ages.

England: Lollardy

There is a controversy among academics over the connection of the Middle English Bible translations known as the Wycliffite Bibles. These orthodox translations appeared in the 1380s and 1390s and in some cases included heterodox material associated with the Lollards, the religious wing of an anti-clerical political movement which to some extent drew inspiration or leadership from John Wycliffe.

John Wycliffe (1330–1384), a theologian espousing radical clerical poverty and some pre-Reformation views, is associated with some of the first translations of the Bible from Latin into English from 1382 to 1395. Some of his theological-political teachings were rejected in 1381 by Oxford University and in 1382 by the church. He was forced to retire, for fear of a popular uprising.

In 1401, Parliament passed the De heretico comburendo law in order to suppress Wycliffe's followers and censor their books. His associates or helpers Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey subsequently appealed or escaped charges of heresy by recanting Wycliffite theological-political teachings; the issue of bible translations was not part of it.