So where does a fella like me get his hands on one of these copies of the original languages???
How is it that after thousands of years, the Catholic church has never printed a copy of the bible in the English language composed of the originals???
Ever since St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin from the Greek, the Vulgata was the ONLY version of the Bible that you were allowed to read. The problem with the Vulgata is that it mistranslated the Greek and led to the development of odd teachings, such as marriage as a sacrament. It is interesting that in the modern translation of the Vulgata, marriage is no longer called a sacramentum but a mysterion.
During the Renaissance, you had a rebirth of the classical languages, including Greek. When scholars started reading the original language, they realized that the Vulgata was not accurate and was misleading in many areas. Without the rebirth of classical education, the Reformation would never have occurred. The Eastern Orthodox Church has always allowed the liturgy and the readings to be done in the native language of the people. It was only the Roman Catholic Church that insisted that the liturgy be conducted in Latin and only the Vulgata be used. Today, the Roman Catholic Church has completely reversed itself (which is not unusual). The Roman Catholic Church burned people at the stake for reading the Bible in their own language, but now it's perfectly acceptable. The Mass can now be conducted in the language of the people. Nearly all of the English versions of the Bible are translated from the original languages, not the Vulgata. Textual criticism has greatly improved since the days of St. Jerome, and no one, not even the Roman Catholics, us the Vulgata as a primary source.