JEROME'S LATIN VULGATE

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Introduction

The Latin Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that served as the standard ecclesiastical text for Western Christianity for over 1,500 years. 

Timeline

In 382 AD, Pope Damasus I commissioned his secretary, the scholar St. Jerome, to revise existing Latin translations (the Vetus Latina) to create a single, authoritative version. Jerome spent decades on the project, completing it around 405 AD. He notably translated the Old Testament directly from Hebrew (rather than the Greek Septuagint) and revised the Gospels using the original Greek.The name comes from the Latin vulgata, meaning "common" or "popular," as it was written in the everyday Latin spoken by the people of the late Roman Empire. 

Council of Trent (1546) declared the Vulgate as the official, authentic Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Impact

The Vulgate introduced numerous terms into the English language, including "creation," "salvation," "justification," "testament," and "angel". For over a millennium, it was the primary source for Western European art, hymns, and mystery plays. The Vulgate typically includes 76 books in its Clementine form (46 Old Testament, 27 New Testament, and 3 Apocrypha), which include the deuterocanonical books (e.g., Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Maccabees) recognized by the Catholic Church but often omitted from Protestant Bibles. 

Reference

The Vulgate in the Bible | History & Creation | Study.com. (2023). Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/vulgate-overview-history-facts-latin-bible.html

‌Editor, B. net. (2020, December 30). The History of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Bibles.net. https://www.bibles.net/history-of-septuagint-and-vulgate/

‌Read the The Latin Vulgate w/ Apocrypha Free Online. (2026). Bible Study Tools. https://www.biblestudytools.com/vula/

‌Nelson, R. (2018, September 7). What Is the Vulgate? The Beginner’s Guide. OverviewBible. https://overviewbible.com/vulgate/

‌Vulgate | sacred text. (2019). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgate

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