The translation of Holy Scripture into a vernacular language generally has been based upon the form of the language that was spoken at the time of the translation. Hence, the sacred language and the vernacular language initially correspond to one another, and the translations of the bible thus represented a linguistically creative enrichment of the living popular tongue. As a sacred language Latin really has no parallel. The effect of Latin was to make the liturgy the preserve of the clergy, and the laity became purely passive. This was countered by the efforts to use sound and spectacle in the performance of the liturgy.
Christian worship is no longer cultic in nature.
Thus Jesus not only prayed in his native tongue in his private prayers, he also gave his disciples a formal prayer couched in the vernaclar when he taught them the Lord's Prayer. In so doing, he removes prayer from the liturgical sphere of sacred language and places it right in the midst of everyday life. It is astounding how little legalism the early Christians showed in transmitting the words of Jesus. Even so central a text as this is reshaped with relative freedom, adapted to local usage, and elaborated. The community had no sacred texts in the sense of ones that had to be repeated without the slightest change.