Manuscripts have been written by scribes with the inspired Greek Scriptures on the one side of the page and the Latin Vulgate translation alongside on the opposite side of the same page. This allowed for a comparing of the two language texts. Had the Latin translation of the whole Bible as made by the Catholic translator Jerome been made with the "correct words of truth"? Well, let those who know Latin and Greek compare the two texts and see for themselves.

In the year 1528 an Italian monk named Sanctes Pagninus published in Lyons, France, a work on which he had labored for thirty years. Its Latin title, translated into English, is "A New Translation of the Old and the New Testament." The translation was, of course, into Latin. Later an edition of this was published in Lyons, in 1542, by Servetus. However, in the meantime, along came the Spanish priest and Orientalist named Arias Montanus. King Philip II of Spain called him to labor at a projected Polyglot Bible, which the king was causing to be made at the suggestion of the famous printer, Plantin. Finally, in 1569-1572, this Bible was printed in Antwerp. Its Latin title, translated into English, is "The Sacred Bible in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, of Philip II, King, Catholic in Piety and Study, toward the Sacrosanct Church’s Use," printed by Plantin, in eight (8) volumes, folio size. Because of the place where printed it is generally called the "Antwerp Polyglot." Sometimes it is called the "Royal Bible," because of the patronage of King Philip II; and sometimes, the "Plantinian Bible", after the printer.

In this Antwerp Polyglot the Spanish priest Arias Montanus incorporated a correction of the Latin translation of the Bible by Sanctes Pagninus. Years later, Arias Montanus died, in 1598. In the year 1599 and the years 1610-1613 editions of the Latin text of the Bible by Pagninus appeared, which editions gave an interlinear and word-for-word translation of the Hebrew with the Hebrew vowel points and with the Latin translation appearing above the Hebrew text. This Hebrew-Latin Bible was long considered the most convenient Hebrew Bible for those beginning to learn Hebrew. The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania possesses original copies of the interlinear translation printed by the Plantinian printshop, and the eleven volumes bear the dates of 1610, 1611, 1612, 1613 and 1615. Volume I, containing the Bible books Genesis and Exodus bears the Latin title, which, translated into English, is "Hebrew Bible with Interlinear Latin Interpretation of Sanctes Pagninus of Lucca."

The tenth volume, which begins with the Gospel of Matthew, bears the title that, translated into English, reads: "Greek New Testament with the Common Latin Interpretation Inserted in the Lines of the Greek Context, which interpretation, indeed,... expressing the sense, evidently, rather than the words, is placed alongside in the margin of the book, and another of the Blessed Arias Montanus the Spaniard,..." In this volume the Latin translation appears above the Greek text, word for word.

Thus at the close of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth century we have this interlinear and word-for-word translation of the Bible appearing. The foregoing interlinear material was incorporated in the Polyglot Bible, which was published in 1654-1657 by the noted British prelate, Dr. Brian Walton. Original copies of this massive work, in eight large volumes, are possessed by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. The heading above the interlinear section for the Hebrew text and the heading above that for the Greek text mention the Italian monk Pagninus and the Spanish priest Arias Montanus to show the origin of the material.

Two hundred years later comes forth something more practical for Bible students in general. In the year 1857 Benjamin Wilson, a newspaper editor in Geneva, Illinois, U.S.A., published the first section of his interlinear translation of the inspired Greek Scriptures. The final section was issued in 1863. It was issued as one bound volume in 1864 and was called "The Emphatic Diaglott". The name "Diaglott" means, literally, "through tongue," but is understood to signify "interlinear." In 1902 the copyright and plates of the Diaglott were bought from the Fowler & Wells Company of New York city and were presented as a gift to the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Charles Taze Russell being then president of the Society.

In the broad left-hand column of each page the Diaglott presents the Greek text, using the recension made by the German Dr. J. J. Griesbach in 1775-1777, and under each Greek word is presented its English equivalent. In the slim right-hand column of each page is presented a modern English translation as made by Benjamin Wilson.

It was through The Emphatic Diaglott that the Society’s first president, C. T. Russell, learned that the inspired Greek Scriptures speak of the second "presence" of Christ, for the Diaglott translated the Greek word "parousia" correctly as "presence", and not as "coming" like the King James Version Bible. Accordingly when C. T. Russell began publishing the new Bible magazine in July of 1879, he called it Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ Presence. Today, this magazine is entitled "The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom", and is published in 125 languages. Apparently, in first naming the magazine in 1879 Editor Russell was unaware that in 1862, or a year before The Emphatic Diaglott was completed, Dr. Robert Young had published in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Bible translation called "Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible" and that this translation also translated the Greek word "parousia" as "presence" and not as "coming". He also produced the Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, which, on page 188, column 1, shows parousia to mean "a being alongside", or "presence". The Watch Tower issue of April, 1883, recommended this Concordance to Bible students.

After The Emphatic Diaglott there came other interlinear translations of the Sacred Scriptures. In the year 1877 there was published in London, England, by Samuel Bagster and Sons, Limited, what was called "The Englishman’s Greek New Testament", giving an interlinear word-for-word translation under the Greek text of Stephanus of 1550, along with the King James Authorized Version of 1611 in the outer column of each page. Later, in 1960, this same publishing company brought out The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. This presented in the right-hand column of each page the Greek text as compiled by the German scholar Eberhard Nestle as of 1898 with a word-for-word translation underneath as made by Dr. Alfred Marshall. Alongside, in the left-hand column of each page, was printed the King James or Authorized Version translation. As for an interlinear translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, there was published in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., in 1896, The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Only volume one has appeared, containing Genesis and Exodus, the interlinear translation being done by George Ricker Berry, Ph.D.