Latin

Latin was the official administrative language of the Roman Empire and the vernacular of Roman soldiers and officials throughout the provinces. It appears explicitly in John 19:20, which records that the inscription above Jesus' cross was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin — the three dominant languages of the ancient world, ensuring universal comprehension of the charge against him. The Latin Vulgate, Jerome's translation of the Bible completed c. 405 A.D., became the standard text of Western Christianity for over a millennium and remains the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.