I am looking for the oldest translation from the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic Bible into English.  There are so many versions, and I keep getting pointed in different directions.  Please Help!  I'm Catholic, and I want something before the King James Version.

Thank you!
RionerPoet

ysicj

The Geneva Bible was in popular use prior to the King James Version. Prior to this version there were several others in English, Mathews, The Great Bible, Tyndale's, etc. Some were not completed, just the New Testament or parts of the Old, etc.

The King James is call the majority text as it agrees with 90% of the extant manuscripts.
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Graham3

Hi
I hope this helps.

THE VULGATE

While revising the text of the Old Latin Version, St. Jerome became convinced of the need in the Western Church of a new translation directly from the Hebrew. His Latin scholarship, his acquaintance with Biblical places and customs obtained by residence in Palestine, and his remarkable knowledge of Hebrew and of Jewish exegetical traditions, especially fitted him for a work of this kind. He set himself to the task A.D. 390 and in A.D. 405 completed the protocanonical books of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and the deuterocanonical Books of Tobias and Judith from the Aramaic. To these were added his revision of the Old Latin, or Gallican, Psalter, the New Testament, revised from the Old Latin with the aid of the original Greek, and the remaining deuterocanonical books, and portions of Esther, and Daniel, just as they existed in the Itala. Thus was formed that version of the Bible which has had no less influence in the Western Church than the Septuagint has had in the Eastern, which has enriched the thought and language of Europe and has been the source of nearly all modern translations of the Scriptures

God Bless
Graham3