It was ordered by the Synod of Dordrecht in 1618, financed by the government of the Protestant Dutch Republic and first published in 1637.

[7] The Statenvertaling was written with specific guidelines for translation established by the synod during its 8th session on 20 November 1618.

Onthoudt dit eens voor al; waer ghy voortae het woort HEERE met groote letteren geschreven vindt/ dat aldaer in 't Hebr.

In 1646 the House of Lords in England commissioned Theodore Haak (1605-1690) a respected German polyglot and academic to begin work on an English translation of the Statenvertaling met Aantekeningen – the Dutch State Bible.

[12] Charles Spurgeon, a Calvinist Baptist, wrote: "Haak's Annotations come to us as the offspring of the famous Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Annotations as the production of a still more venerable assembly; but if, with my hat off, bowing profoundly to those august conclaves of master minds, I may venture to say so, I would observe that they furnish another instance that committees seldom equal the labors of individuals.