The Bible was originally written in three different ancient languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Old Testament was mostly written in Hebrew, with a few passages in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, made it accessible in the Hellenistic period and provided a language for the New Testament and for Christian liturgy and theology of the first three centuries CE. The Bible in Latin, the Vulgate, shaped the thought and life of Western people for a thousand years.