Bible translation

[Pi-Sudoku]

The first person to translate the bible from latin to English was burned at the stake for herasy.

What i want to know is, who translated it to latin. I don't know this but i am guessing that it was first written in Hebrew as i believe the Torah predates christianity.

If latin wasn't the original language of the Bible than it has no holiness and so it is no sin to translate from latin as it is already translated away from the Holy text.


any thoughts

 

[Nisus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate

The Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. Jerome

"It was the first, and for many centuries the only, Christian Bible translation that translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew original rather than indirectly from the Greek Septuagint."

Septuagint-- is an older greek translation, of the bible

The Septuagint (LXX) is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) produced from the third to first century BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint

 

[spidergoat]

Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE.

...the Latin Bible, or 'Vulgate'...[was] Translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic by Jerome between 382 and 405 CE

...The Vulgate was the standard version of the Bible for Roman Catholics for over one and a half millenia.

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Of course it's no sin to translate and interpret the original texts, but you see, having it all in Latin gave political power to the Catholic bishops. This consolidation of power also distorted the translations and interpretations of early Christian texts. Many texts were simply left out.

 

[Einstuck]

In fact, the New Testament was quickly translated into Latin in the 1st and 2nd centuries by Roman Christians living in the heart of the Empire. Although circulating as separate books usually, most of the New Testament writings were written in Greek or translated from Aramaic sources (i.e., sayings of Jesus etc.). There are plenty of manuscripts and fragments around of these early translations, collectively referred to as 'the Old Latin' version.

The Lingua Franca of every empire is that of the previous empire. Thus the earlier Greek Empire spread the Greek Language everywhere, but it didn't become dominant until the Roman Empire. The Roman language (Latin) only became dominant as the Roman Empire collapsed and was metamorphized again into the Holy Roman (German) Empire. At the same time Greek and Russian dominated the Eastern half of the previous Roman Empire, until it was overrun by the Turkish Muslims.

Jerome under mandate from the now centralized Roman (Catholic) church took on the job of standardizing the Latin, and correcting any defects he found. Obviously however, his new Standard Latin translation contains some interpretational and doctrinal bias, which protestants are quick to point out. On the whole however, the work is considered a well-done and largely accurate version.