The Jews used Koine Greek, especially in the Septuagint, to communicate with Gentiles at the time the Gospels was written. Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean following Alexander the Great's conquests.

Therefore, in 382 AD, the Bible (Vulgate) was translated into Latin by St. Jerome as per recommendations of Pope Damascus the First.

St. Jerome utilised sources such as the Vetus Latina, Hebrew texts, and the Greek Septuagint. In addition, St. Jerome also translated the books Judith and Tobit from Aramaic.

The composite collection of these texts were called the "Biblia Vulgata" (Bible in common tongue).

St. Jerome, was a staunch supporter of Nicene orthodoxy, which upheld the doctrine of the Trinity and opposed Arianism. Therefore, certain ambiguous texts would have likely been translated in favour of the Nicene orthodoxy.

This translation eventually became the standard Latin version of the Bible for the Western churches where Latin gradually became a prominent language under Roman rule.

Many early vernacular translations, such as the Wycliffe Bible (first Middle English translation) and the Douay-Rheims Bible, were directly based on the Vulgate. This English translation remained the standard for Roman Catholics until the 20th century. Likewise, many other modern Catholic bible translations also used the Vulgate as a source for example: Confraternity Bible (1941), Knox Bible (1945), Jerusalem Bible (1966), RSV-CE (1966), Nova Vulgata (1979) and NRSV-CE (1989).