Vulgate
From Textus Receptus
The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of old Latin translations. It became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 13th century it came to be called versio vulgata, which means “the published translation”. There are 76 books in the Clementine edition of the Vulgate Bible: 46 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and three in the Apocrypha.
Composition
The Vulgate is a compound work, only some parts of which are due to Jerome.
- Old Latin, wholly unrevised: Prayer of Manasses, 4 Esdras, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.
- Old Latin, more or less revised by a person or persons unknown: Baruch, 3 Esdras, Acts, Epistles, and the Apocalypse.
- Free translation by Jerome from a secondary Aramaic version: Tobias and Judith.
- Translation from the Septuagint by Jerome: the Psalter, the Rest of Esther.
- Translation from the Greek of Theodotion by Jerome: Song of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, and The Idol Bel and the Dragon
- Revision by Jerome of the Old Latin, corrected with reference to the oldest Greek manuscripts available: the Gospels.
- Jerome’s independent translation from the Hebrew: the protocanonical books of the Old Testament, with the exception of the Psalter. This was completed in 405.
