Vulgate

=== Prologues ===
<!-- This section is linked from [[Deuterocanonical books]] -->
Prologues written by Jerome to some of his translations of parts of the Bible are to the [[Pentateuch]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Genesis – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=214|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605171531/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=214|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> to [[Joshua]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Joshua – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=217|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110113021/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=217|archive-date=10 November 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> and to [[Books of the Kingdoms|Kings]] (1–2 Kings and 1–2 Samuel) which is also called the ''[[Galeatum principium]]''.<ref name="bombaxo.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=218|title=Jerome's "Helmeted Introduction" to Kings – biblicalia|website=www.bombaxo.com|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> Following these are prologues to Chronicles,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Chronicles – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=220|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140803043705/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=220|archive-date=3 August 2014|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Ezra,<ref name="Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblica">{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=222|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605194417/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=222|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Tobit,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Tobias – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=223|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605202531/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=223|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Judith,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Judith – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=224|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208131926/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=224|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Esther,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Esther – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=225|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204113212/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=225|archive-date=4 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Job,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Job – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=228|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208003644/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=228|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> the [[Gallican Psalms]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Psalms (LXX) – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=229|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204000922/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=229|archive-date=4 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Song of Songs,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Books of Solomon – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=231|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203235652/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=231|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Isaiah,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Isaiah – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=232|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208000012/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=232|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Jeremiah,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Jeremiah – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231002043/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233|archive-date=31 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Ezekiel,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Ezekiel – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=234|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231092906/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=234|archive-date=31 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> Daniel,<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Daniel – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=235|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101063508/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=235|archive-date=1 January 2014|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> the minor prophets,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Twelve Prophets – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=236|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605173410/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=236|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> the gospels.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Gospels – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=237|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110154542/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=237|archive-date=10 November 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> The final prologue is to the [[Pauline epistles]] and is better known as {{lang|la|Primum quaeritur}}; this prologue is considered not to have been written by Jerome.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=238|title=Vulgate Prologue to Paul's Letters – biblicalia|website=www.bombaxo.com|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" /> Related to these are Jerome's ''Notes on the Rest of Esther''<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Notes to the Additions to Esther – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=226|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014942/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=226|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref> and his ''Prologue to the [[Latin Psalters#Versio juxta Hebraicum|Hebrew Psalms]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Psalms (Hebrew) – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=230|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001713/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=230|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=www.bombaxo.com}}</ref>

A theme of the [[Old Testament]] prologues is Jerome's preference for the ''Hebraica veritas'' (i.e., Hebrew truth) over the Septuagint, a preference which he defended from his detractors. After Jerome had translated some parts of the Septuagint into Latin, he came to consider the text of the Septuagint as being faulty in itself, i.e. Jerome thought mistakes in the Septuagint text were not all mistakes made by [[copyists]], but that some mistakes were part of the original text itself as it was produced by the [[Septuagint#Jewish legend|Seventy translators]]. Jerome believed that the Hebrew text more clearly prefigured [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] than the Greek of the Septuagint, since he believed some quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament were not present in the Septuagint, but existed in the Hebrew version; Jerome gave some of those quotes in his prologue to the Pentateuch.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|publisher=[[Éditions du Cerf]]|year=2017|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2|editor-last=Canellis|editor-first=Aline|location=Abbeville|pages=99–109|language=fr|trans-title=Jerome : Preface to the books of the Bible|chapter=Introduction : Révision et retourn à l'''Hebraica veritas''|trans-chapter=Introduction: Revision and return to ''Hebraica veritas''}}</ref> In the ''Galeatum principium'' (a.k.a. {{lang|la|Prologus Galeatus}}), Jerome described an Old Testament canon of 22&nbsp;books, which he found represented in the 22-letter [[Hebrew Language|Hebrew]] alphabet. Alternatively, he numbered the books as&nbsp;24, which he identifies with the 24&nbsp;elders in the Book of Revelation casting their crowns before the [[Lamb of God|Lamb]].<ref name="bombaxo.com" /> In the prologue to Ezra, he sets the "twenty-four elders" of the Hebrew Bible against the "Seventy interpreters" of the Septuagint.<ref name="Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblica" />

In addition, many medieval Vulgate manuscripts included [[Jerome's first epistle to Paulinus|Jerome's epistle number&nbsp;53, to Paulinus bishop of Nola]], as a general prologue to the whole Bible. Notably, this letter was printed at the head of the [[Gutenberg Bible]]. Jerome's letter promotes the study of each of the books of the Old and New Testaments listed by name (and excluding any mention of the [[deuterocanonical books]]); and its dissemination had the effect of propagating the belief that the whole Vulgate text was Jerome's work.

The prologue to the Pauline Epistles in the Vulgate defends the Pauline authorship of the [[Epistle to the Hebrews]], directly contrary to Jerome's own views—a key argument in demonstrating that Jerome did not write it. The author of the {{lang|la|Primum quaeritur}} is unknown, but it is first quoted by Pelagius in his commentary on the Pauline letters written before&nbsp;410. As this work also quotes from the Vulgate revision of these letters, it has been proposed that Pelagius or one of his associates may have been responsible for the revision of the Vulgate New Testament outside the Gospels. At any rate, it is reasonable to identify the author of the preface with the unknown reviser of the New Testament outside the gospels.<ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" />

Some manuscripts of the Pauline epistles contain short [[Marcionite]] prologues to each of the epistles indicating where they were written, with notes about where the recipients dwelt. [[Adolf von Harnack]], citing De Bruyne, argued that these notes were written by [[Marcion of Sinope]] or one of his followers.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/origin_nt.v.i.html ''Origin of the New Testament - APPENDIX I (to § 2 of Part I, pp. 59 f.) The Marcionite Prologues to the Pauline Epistles''], Adolf von Harnack, 1914. Moreover, Harnack noted: "We have indeed long known that [[Marcionite]] readings found their way into the ecclesiastical text of the Pauline epistles, but now for seven years we have known that Churches actually accepted the Marcionite prefaces to the Pauline epistles! De Bruyne has made one of the finest discoveries of later days in proving that those prefaces, which we read first in [[Codex Fuldensis]] and then in numbers of later manuscripts, are Marcionite, and that the Churches had not noticed the cloven hoof."</ref> Many early Vulgate manuscripts contain a set of [[Monarchian Prologues|Priscillianist prologues to the gospels]].