I was listening to the March JW Broadcast today and found this interesting.
At about the 42:25 mark, Mark Sanderson says, "In the early 16th century many people had a strong desire to know more about the bible. By that time the Latin Vulgate had been the common bible for more than 1,000 years. But, sadly, most people could not read Latin. Adding to the problem, many errors had crept into the Vulgate as it was copied over the centuries.
Translators and scholars realized that they needed to go back to the original languages if they were to produce accurate bible translations that would satisfy the growing thirst for scriptural knowledge."
That sounds like excellent methodology.
Hmmm.
J1 Matthew, Hebrew - 1555
J7 Christian Greek Scriptures in 12 languages including Hebrew - 1599
J9 Gospels, Hebrew and Latin - 1668
J17 Christian Greek Scriptures, Hebrew - 1981
etc.