In no other way can the surprising beauties of style and expression be explained.

No subsequent effort could improve the Bible of King James.

Every attempt made since the seventeenth century has only resulted in spoiling and deforming the strength and the beauty of the authorized text.
Now you will understand why, from the purely literary point of view, the English Bible is of the utmost importance for study.

Suppose we glance for a moment at the principal events in the history of this evolution.
The first translation of the Bible into a Western tongue was that made by Jerome (commonly called Saint Jerome) in the fourth century; he translated directly from the Hebrew and other Arabic languages into Latin, then the language of the Empire.

This translation into Latin was called the Vulgate,--from _vulgare_, "to make generally known." The Vulgate is still used in the Roman church.