Before Jerome’s Vulgate became the standard Latin translation of the Bible, Augustine bemoaned “the endless diversity of the Latin translators,” complaining that “every man who happened to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and who thought he had any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two languages, ventured upon the work of translation.” In some respects, the circulation of numerous translations of varying quality is similar to the dizzying array of options currently available in English.
The pre-Vulgate Latin Bible translations to which Augustine referred are known collectively as the Vetus Latina, or Old Latin, and they come down to us today from various fragmentary manuscripts and the quotations of early church fathers. Since these translations were typically made from early Greek manuscripts which no longer survive, the Vetus Latina is important for textual criticism and the study of church history.
The new Accordance module of the Vetus Latina Old Testament now lets you read the text itself, rather than merely getting isolated readings from the critical apparatuses. You can also placed the Vetus Latina in parallel with the Vulgate, and have Accordance highlight the differences between the two.
Vetus Latina Old Testament
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