Jerome
In the inter-Testamental period persecution so scattered the Jews into the diaspora that they spoke every conceivable language -- but forgot their Hebrew. Because Greek was the quasi-universal language, the Septuigent provided the Scriptures. It is to this work that Jerome looked when he went about translating the New Testament.
It was the Septuigent to which the apostles referred when the spoke of "the Word of God." That was their Bible.
When Jesus began His ministry, the Word (logos) became the "living Word." As God the Father's Son, Jesus communicated perfectly what the Father wished to be known.
From the time of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, until about A.D. 50, the teaching fell to the apostles, but they could not be everywhere, so they taught much to the churches with letters. Some of these letters later were accepted into the New Testament canon. This was a period of oral tradition.
From about 50 A.D. on, the scriptures were dispensed in a format we might call "written tradition." The process of canonizing the New Testament took a long time, the Gospels being fixed in the last quarter of the second century,
Eusebius
Better known to us as Jerome, he was born in Dalmatia in 331. Raised in a Christian family, Jerome was sent to Rome to study rhetoric and philosophy. There he was baptized and committed himself to serious abstinence. While in Antioch with three friends in 373, Jerome came down with a severe fever. Whether in a vision or dream, Jerome perceived that Christ Himself said to him, "You are not a Christian." This was met with such gravity that Jerome went to the desert, vowing to improve his Greek and learn Hebrew (a rare skill). Four years later he was ordained a priest in Antioch then went on to Constantinople to study
Several years later Jerome went to Rome, where he became fast friends with Bishop Damascus and ultimately become the latter's secretary. Jerome was quite impatient with the moral weakness and affluent lifestyle of the Church in Rome, making it no secret -- so much so that he was asked to leave upon Damascus' death.
Leaving Rome, Jerome moved to Bethlehem to live as a monk and to revise the Latin Old Testament. But the existing Latin was based on the Septuigent rather than the Hebrew and had was so weak that Jerome decided to go back directly to Origen's Hebrew. He completed the work in 405, speding the balance of his life as an apologist for the orthodox faith. He had to flee Bethehem for two years as a result of persecution, but returned, dying in the year 418.
Jerome's translation of both the Old and New Testaments was far superior to that of all other Latin editions. Accepted by Augustine, it was soon used in all western churches. The work became known as the "Vulgate," or "the Bible in the common language." In fact, it was so revered that several generations forbade any other translation that might replace it. Consequently, people who didn't know Latin were denied access to the Word of God.