Vulgate

The Vulgate (Latin: Vulgata) is the great Latin translation of the Holy Scriptures that profoundly shaped the history of Western Christianity. It emerged as a revision and translation of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures, produced primarily from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) and, for several parts of the Old Testament, directly from the Hebrew texts. This monumental work was carried out at the end of the 4th century by Sophronius Eusebius Jerome (Stridon, 347 – Bethlehem, 420), one of the most influential Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who devoted many years to studying biblical languages and revising earlier translations while working between Rome, Antioch, and Bethlehem.

The name derives from the Latin expression vulgata editio, meaning “the edition made common” or “published for the people.” The term reflects both the extraordinary diffusion that this version achieved throughout the Latin-speaking world and the intention to provide a text accessible to a wider audience. Its style avoided excessive rhetorical refinement and instead favored a more direct language, closer to common usage. In earlier times, the term vulgata had also been used to refer to the widespread Greek translation of the Septuagint itself, which played a similar role in the Hellenistic Jewish world and in early Christianity.

Over the centuries the Vulgate gradually became the authoritative biblical text of the Latin West. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) formally affirmed its authority for theological and liturgical use within the Catholic Church, and for many centuries it remained the standard biblical text. In the twentieth century, following advances in biblical scholarship and the renewal encouraged by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the text underwent further revision, resulting in the Nova Vulgata, which today represents the official Latin edition of the Bible in the Catholic tradition.