Editing Vulgate (section)

== Critical value ==
In translating the 38&nbsp;books of the Hebrew Bible ([[Ezra–Nehemiah]] being counted as one book), Jerome was relatively free in rendering their text into Latin. Paleograher [[Frederic Kenyon]] notes that "the translation is of unequal merit; some parts are free to the verge of paraphrase, others are so literal as to be unintelligible."<ref name="Kenyon81"/> 

Jerome's translation has been regarded by scholars as very useful for reconstructing the state of the Hebrew text as it existed at his time, that being quite close to the [[Masoretic]] consonantal Hebrew  text version compiled nearly 600&nbsp;years after Jerome.<ref name="Kenyon81">{{cite book|last=Kenyon|first=Frederic G.|url=https://archive.org/stream/MN41613ucmf_0#page/n117/mode/2up|title=Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts|year=1939|edition=4th|place=London|page=81|author-link=Frederic George Kenyon|access-date=2011-01-06}}</ref>