Why is the Vulgate--Catholic Bible--in Latin and not Greek? I do not understand why the official translations are translated from Latin instead of the laguages they were written in (Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek)

Latin was the common language of much of the Western World in the fourth and fifth centuries and so it was the common language of vernacular bibles of the time. The "Vulgate" of Saint Jerome was commissioned by the Pope of the time and approved as the official Latin version among other Latin versions in existence. The first English version, the Douay Rheims, was made from this Latin Vulgate, in part because the ancient manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate were more reliable and intact than the original Greek and Hebrew. The science of manuscripts and known collections was not yet fully developed. Since then and starting in the mid twentieth century, the Church has approved modern language versions based upon the original languages of Greek (NT) and Hebrew (OT).

Thanks, Dieter

Father Echert

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