Bible Fact · Psalm 119:11 — 'I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.'
Jerome and the Latin Vulgate
The Fact
Eusebius Hieronymus — known as Jerome — was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 AD to revise the existing Latin translations of the Bible, which had become inconsistent and unreliable. Jerome was one of the most learned men of his age, fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. For the New Testament, he primarily revised existing Latin translations against the Greek. For the Old Testament, he did something unprecedented: he returned to the Hebrew original, rejecting the Greek Septuagint that Western Christianity had used for centuries. He lived in Bethlehem for 34 years, learning Hebrew from Jewish rabbis and working with a secretary in a cave near the Church of the Nativity. His translation — completed around 405 AD — was called the Versio Vulgata ('common version'). It became the standard Bible of Western Christianity from the 7th century onward, used through the Middle Ages, cited at the Council of Trent as the authoritative Catholic Bible, and still the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church today. Most English readers encounter Jerome indirectly through the KJV, which used the Vulgate alongside Hebrew and Greek texts.
Context
Jerome was famously cantankerous and got into bitter arguments with Augustine over which Old Testament text to translate from. Augustine preferred the Septuagint; Jerome insisted on the Hebrew. Jerome's position — the Hebrew original — eventually prevailed in Protestant scholarship.
Significance
For 1,000 years, every Catholic in Western Europe who heard the Bible was hearing Jerome's Latin. His words shaped medieval theology, liturgy, hymns, art, and law — an invisible infrastructure of Western civilization.
Reflection
Jerome spent 34 years in a cave translating Scripture. He could have been in Rome, near the center of power. He chose obscurity and proximity to the source. What would it look like in your life to choose the work over the acclaim?