Expert: Fr. Michael - 4/12/2007

Question
Was the Bible originally written in Greek or Latin? Either way, since no one currently fluently speaks the language in its original form, isn't the Bible not completely accurate. I know it has been translated, but it can only be the translation/interpretation of the meaning, and the the exact words of God as it was meant to be read.

Answer
The Old Testament is in Hebrew and some Syro-Chaldean.  The New Testament that we have is in Koine Greek.  St. Jerome made the Vulgate translation in the early years of the Church.  He was fluent in Greek and Latin, of course, and also learned Hebrew from the rabbis in Bethlehem.

There are many people who can read Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and that is the way it should be read, just as Dante should be read in Italian, Balzac in French, and Goethe in German.  Translations are only approximations.  "Traduttore, traditore," the translator is a traitor.