True History - Veritas Card # 3 (Orange Card) - St. Jerome Completes the Vulgate

St. Jerome Completes the Vulgate - 405

    During the time of Alexander, the common language of the people was Greek. During Jesus' time on earth, people in that part of the world spoke Aramaic. Many people also spoke Greek. About 200 B.C., the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek. This translation was known as the Septuagint, because it is thought that there were 70 translators working on it. It was written for the Jews in Egypt primarily, and others in various places that knew Greek. The Septuagint contained what is called the 'Apocrypha' which is the Greek word for 'hidden'. These books were of uncertain origin.
   When the New Testament was written, it came down to us in Greek, since that was the common language of the people. The Christians that were in Rome were Greek speaking immigrants. Also, the inscription on the Cross was in Latin, Greek and Aramaic.
   Athanasius, a man who stood up against heresy, wrote a Latin version of the Bible. He wanted people to be able to read the Bible in the language they understood (at this time, the common language was Latin). Because the version that Athansius had written was not very accurate, St. Jerome took it upon himself to translate the Bible into Latin in a more precise way. This version that was translated by Jerome was known as the 'Vulgate' which means common, ordinary language. St. Jerome lived in a cave near Bethlehem. He was a monk and had thoroughly studied the Hebrew language.
   Athanasius did not include the Apocrypha as part of his translation, but St. Jerome included it in the new translation. French, Italian, and Spanish were languages that came from the Latin language and Latin was spoken throughout Europe for many, many years.