The Latin Vulgate (History of the Bible, part 8)

As you now know, the Bible was written in two languages originally: Hebrew and Greek. As the Church spread, new languages became dominant. The church in Rome mainly spoke Latin, with less and less Greek speakers as time went on. They wanted a new translation of the Bible in their own language. It is only natural for people to want to read the Bible in their own language, but we must be careful to preserve the historicity and truth of the original texts.

With various strands of the Greek New Testament circulating in the early church by the 4^th century, the Church decided that they needed to compile a complete Old and New Testament. Pope Damascus commissioned his secretary, Jerome, to do the job. Jerome began by revising the New Testament and then the Old Testament. He used a previously written Latin translation of the Gospels and compared them to Greek manuscripts. When this revision was completed, his work was compiled to form the Latin Vulgate in 405. Jerome’s revision was not a word for word translation of the text, but rather it was thought for thought translation. It read very differently from the original Greek text.

Some of the changes were not readily accepted. Jerome used a new order for the books (the order we use today), and followed the psalter of the Septuagint (The Greek Old Testament). Although not everyone loved the Latin Vulgate straight away, it soon became the most widely used translation of the Bible. Very few places in the West did not use the Vulgate. Of course, the church in the East still spoke and read Greek and had no need for the new Latin version. The difference in translation and language contributed to the future Schism. In 1546, The Council of Trent declared the Latin Vulgate to be the only acceptable translation of Scripture, completely disregarding the original Greek and Hebrew texts. This would lead to issues in the future.

With more and more expansion into the West, the Church encountered more needs of translating the Bible. Next would come German and English, and with these translations, the Church completely changed.

I apologize for how long it has taken me to get back to writing. The last few weeks of the trimester had me writing papers and studying for finals. I am working on something big, but it may take a while to complete. Meanwhile, I will finish the History of the Bible and begin my defense of  Jesus Christ. Thanks for reading!