As Latin was the "lingua franca" of the Roman Empire, many of the early translations in this language were in existence throughout the various countries within the Empire's border. Tertullian mentions a complete Latin Bible ("Itala", i.e.: the original "Old Latin" produced c.A.D. 157; unfortunately many critics also use the term for a revision of this work) as being in use all over North Africa as early as A.D. 190.

The Albigenses (branded heretics by the Roman Church) continued to use this "Old Latin" long after Jerome completed his version of the Vulgate. Today we have only about 50 MSS of these Old Latin Versions.1 These bear witness to the Syrian text type of the Receptus where the Origenians have not tampered with them. In the places where they were edited, they bear witness to Origen's Hexapla.2 Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and Tertullian (160-220) testify that the scribes in Africa were constantly editing and revising the manuscripts.3

About 383 A.D., Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome to produce an official revision of the entire "Old Latin" Bible. Hort concluded, and Hills concurred, that one of the MS Jerome consulted for the Gospels was closely related to Codex A resulting in 22 significant agreements between his Latin Vulgate and the Traditional Text.4 Jerome revised the "Old Latin" O.T. basing his translation on the text of Origen's Hexapla, making use of material from all the author's columns.5 He boasted about the "vellum scrolls" which the "scholars" had that were "far superior" to the Bibles used by the common people.6 In his letters, Jerome referred to using this Greek "original" (actually Origen's Hexapla) to correct and amend the unskillful scribes.7 Remember that Helvidius, a great scholar of northern Italy and contemporary of Jerome, accused Jerome of using corrupt Greek manuscripts in producing a new Latin Bible for the Pope.8 This would have been a meaningless accusation from Helvidius if he could not have produced the pure original readings either!

THE BIBLE OF THE VAUDOIS (WALDENSES)9

Another group of Christians branded as heretics by the Roman Church was the "Vaudois" who were so called from the alpine valleys in northern Italy where they lived. Much later they became known as the Waldenses after a leader, Peter Waldo, who arose among them about 1175 A.D. History does not afford a record of cruelty greater than that manifested by Rome toward the Waldenses. Every effort at total extermination, even to the very mention of their existence, was conducted against these believers for hundreds of years. The destruction of their records began around 600 under Pope Gregory I and persecution continued past the great massacre of 1655.10

1 Hills, The King James Version Defended, op. cit., p. 119.

2 Ruckman, The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence, op. cit., pp. 77-79.

3 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), Vol. IV, p. 970 (hereafter ISBE); F.C. Burkitt, The Old Latin and the Itala (Cambridge: n.p., 1896). The latter is considered the standard source.

4 Westcott and Hort, Introduction, op. cit., p. 152; Hills, The King James Version Defended, op. cit., pp. 187-188.

5 ISBE, op. cit., (1979) Vol. IV, p. 972.

6 Ruckman, The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence, op. cit., p. 78.

7 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, gen. ed., (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Co., 1937), Vol. III, p. 1841.

8 Post-Nicene Fathers, op. cit., Vol. VI, p. 338.

9 Wilkinson, Our Authorized Bible Vindicated, op. cit., pp. 19-44. Although a Seventh Day Adventist, Dr. Wilkerson has produced a fine work from which this author acknowledges having drawn heavily. Dr. David Otis Fuller cites Wilkinson verbatim from pages 176-318 in Which Bible?

10 Wilkinson, Our Authorized Bible Vindicated, op. cit., p. 34.

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