This is the first bilingual edition of the complete Vulgate with a German translation. The Vulgate is the most widely used Latin translation of the Bible since late antiquity. It was produced by Jerome around 380-400 and can be regarded as the central work of European intellectual and theological history. As it deviates from the original biblical texts in decisive parts, it offers an important insight into the Christian theology of late antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church regarded Jerome's Latin translation as the authoritative version of Holy Scripture and used it as its source.

The original Latin text of the Vulgate follows the now authoritative 5th edition by Robert Weber and Roger Gryson. The German translation is a completely new work by a team of renowned classical philologists and theologians, supported by an interdisciplinary theological-philological advisory board. The Vulgate Association based in Chur, Switzerland, was responsible for coordinating and selecting the translators and the advisory board.

The aim of the translation project is to work out Jerome's language and interpretation of the Bible independently of the theological translation tradition with all its deviations from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. The result is a translation that fulfils the highest scholarly standards and is a standard work both in its own right and as a reference work.