Slavic translations of the Bible
Encyclopedia
This article deals with the history of translation of the Bible
into Slavic languages
, beginning in the second half of the 9th century. (See also list Bible translations by language
, and specific language entries for major languages.)
The oldest translation, commonly called the Old Church Slavonic
, is closely connected with the activity of the two apostles to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius
, in Great Moravia
, 864
–865
. The oldest manuscripts are written either in the so-called Cyrillic or the Glagolitic character. The former is the Greek majuscule writing of the 9th century with the addition of new characters for Slavic sounds which are not found in the Greek
of that time; the latter was a style writing that was completely independent of any other writing system, which ceased to be used as late as the 20th century.
The oldest manuscripts are written in the Glagolitic, which is older than the Cyrillic. The oldest manuscripts extant belong to the 10th or 11th century, and the first complete collection of Biblical books in the Church Slavonic language originated in Russia in the last decade of the 15th century. It was completed in 1499 under the auspices of Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod
(1484–1504), and the Old Testament
was translated partly from the Vulgate
, and partly from the Septuagint. The New Testament is based upon the old Church Slavonic translation. That Bible, called the Gennady Bible (Gennadievskaia Biblia) is now housed in the State History Museum
on Red Square
.
During the 16th century a greater interest in the Bible was awakened in South and West Russia, owing to the controversies between adherents of the Orthodox Church
and the Roman Catholics
and Greek-Catholics. In the second half of the 16th century the Gospel
s, Acts
, and Epistles, and parts of the Psalter
were often printed at Lviv
and Vilnius
, though the oldest edition of the Acts and Epistles was issued at Moscow
in 1564.
In 1581 the first edition of the Church Slavonic Bible was published at Ostrog
by Ivan Fyodorov
, a number of Greek manuscripts, besides the Gennady's Bible
, having been used for this edition. But neither the Gennadius nor the Ostrog Bible
was satisfactory, and in 1663 a second somewhat revised edition of the latter was published at Moscow.
In 1712, Tsar
Peter the Great
issued an ukaz ordering the printed Slavonic text to be carefully compared with the Greek of the Septuagint and to be made in every respect conformable to it. The revision was completed in 1724 and was ordered to be printed, but the death of Peter (1725) prevented the execution of the order. The manuscript of the Old Testament
of this revision is in the synodal library at Moscow.
Under the Empress Elizabeth the work of revision was resumed by an ukaz issued in 1744, and in 1751 a revised "Elizabeth" Bible
, as it is called, was published. Three other editions were published in 1756, 1757, and 1759, the second somewhat revised. All later reprints of the Russian Church Bible are based upon this second edition, which is the authorized version of the Russian Church.
in Belarus
. He published at Prague
, 1517–19, twenty-two Old Testament
books in Old Belarusian language
, in the preparation of which he was greatly influenced by the Bohemian Bible of 1506. Other efforts were made during the 16th and 17th centuries, but the Church Slavonic predominated in all these efforts.
For further reference go to http://www.pravapis.org/art_skaryna1.asp
from 1579, the definitive edition in 1613. Among modern translations the Ecumenical Version of 1979 is commonly used. The newest translation in modern Czech was completed in 2009.
until the 1940s. In 1835 the British and Foreign Bible Society contracted a Bulgarian monk, Neofit Rilski
, who started on a new translation which, in later editions, remains the standard version today.
Slovene Prostestant Pastors Primož Trubar
and Jurij Dalmatin
translete the Bible. Dalmatin's work the full Old and New Testament. There are other Slovene versions. István Küzmics
and Miklós Küzmics
in Prekmurian Slovene (Nouvi Zákon
, Szvéti evangyeliomi) translete the Bible. Our works also unique in the European literature.
from 1852. The whole Bible (including the Deuterocanonical books
) translated in Macedonian by the Archbishop Gavril was printed in 1990.
Bible version, that of the New Testament of 1547, is extant in a manuscript in the Royal Library at Berlin. The translator was Miklawusch Jakubica, who employed a now-extinct dialect of Lower Sorbian. In the 18th century Gottlieb Fabricius, a German, made a translation of the New Testament which was printed in 1709. In a revised form this version was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1860.
The Old Testament, translated by J. G. Fritz, was printed at Cottbus
in 1796. An edition of the entire Bible was published by the Prussian Bible Society in 1868. Michael Frentzel, Pastor in Postwitz (d. 1706), translated the New Testament into the Upper Sorbian, and his version was published by his son, Abraham Frentzel (Zittau
, 1706). A complete edition of the Bible, the work of different scholars, was first published at Bautzen
, 1728. A second revised edition was prepared by Johann Gottfried Kuhn and issued in 1742; a third improved edition prepared by Johann Jacob Petschke was published in 1797. Passing over other editions, it is worth while to note that the ninth edition of the complete Bible (Bautzen, 1881) was revised by H. Immisch and others and contains a history of the Upper Lusatian Wendish Bible translation. For the Roman Catholic Wends of Upper Lusatia G. Lusanski and M. Hornik translated the New Testament from the Vulgate, and published it at Bautzen, 1887–92; the Psalms were translated from the Hebrew by J. Laras (Bautzen, 1872).
.
Bible translations
The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Indeed, the full Bible has been translated into over 450 languages, although sections of the Bible have been translated into over 2,000 languages....
into Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
, beginning in the second half of the 9th century. (See also list Bible translations by language
Bible translations by language
Bible translations have been made into 2,572+ languages, one of the two Testaments in 1,668 languages, and the full Protestant Canon of the Bible in 457 languages as of May 2011....
, and specific language entries for major languages.)
Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
, is closely connected with the activity of the two apostles to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
, in Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
, 864
864
Year 864 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* July 25 – Edict of Pistres: Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings....
–865
865
Year 865 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Ethelred succeeds as king of Wessex .* Louis the German divides his kingdom among his sons....
. The oldest manuscripts are written either in the so-called Cyrillic or the Glagolitic character. The former is the Greek majuscule writing of the 9th century with the addition of new characters for Slavic sounds which are not found in the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
of that time; the latter was a style writing that was completely independent of any other writing system, which ceased to be used as late as the 20th century.
The oldest manuscripts are written in the Glagolitic, which is older than the Cyrillic. The oldest manuscripts extant belong to the 10th or 11th century, and the first complete collection of Biblical books in the Church Slavonic language originated in Russia in the last decade of the 15th century. It was completed in 1499 under the auspices of Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod
Gennady (Archbishop of Novgorod)
Gennady was Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov from 1484 to 1504. He was most instrumental in fighting the Heresy of the Judaizers and is famous for compiling the first complete codex of the Bible in Slavic in 1499, known as the Gennady Bible. Gennady is a saint of the Russian Orthodox...
(1484–1504), and the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
was translated partly from the Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
, and partly from the Septuagint. The New Testament is based upon the old Church Slavonic translation. That Bible, called the Gennady Bible (Gennadievskaia Biblia) is now housed in the State History Museum
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...
on Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
.
During the 16th century a greater interest in the Bible was awakened in South and West Russia, owing to the controversies between adherents of the Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
and the Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and Greek-Catholics. In the second half of the 16th century the Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
s, Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
, and Epistles, and parts of the Psalter
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
were often printed at Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
and Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, though the oldest edition of the Acts and Epistles was issued at Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1564.
In 1581 the first edition of the Church Slavonic Bible was published at Ostrog
Ostrog
Ostrog may refer to:* Ostrog, Slovenia, a settlement in Šentjernej municipality in Slovenia* Ostrog monastery, a Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery in Montenegro* Ostroh, a historic town in Ukraine* Ostrog, a Russian term for a small fortress...
by Ivan Fyodorov
Ivan Fyodorov (printer)
Ivan Fyodorov or Fedorovič , was one of the fathers of Eastern Slavonic printing...
, a number of Greek manuscripts, besides the Gennady's Bible
Gennady's Bible
Gennady's Bible is the first full manuscript Bible in Old Church Slavonic, produced in 1490s. Gennady , Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov, set the task to collect all Bible translations in one book. Before him there were only separated and incomplete Slavonic translations of various...
, having been used for this edition. But neither the Gennadius nor the Ostrog Bible
Ostrog Bible
The Ostrog Bible was one of the earliest East Slavic translations of the Bible and the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Old Church Slavonic, published in Ostroh, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , by the printer Ivan Fyodorov in 1581 with the assistance of the Ruthenian Prince...
was satisfactory, and in 1663 a second somewhat revised edition of the latter was published at Moscow.
In 1712, Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
issued an ukaz ordering the printed Slavonic text to be carefully compared with the Greek of the Septuagint and to be made in every respect conformable to it. The revision was completed in 1724 and was ordered to be printed, but the death of Peter (1725) prevented the execution of the order. The manuscript of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
of this revision is in the synodal library at Moscow.
Under the Empress Elizabeth the work of revision was resumed by an ukaz issued in 1744, and in 1751 a revised "Elizabeth" Bible
Elizabeth Bible
The Elizabeth Bible is the authorized version of the Russian Orthodox Church. Elizabeth Bible was the third complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic, published in Russia in 1751 under and with the assistance of the Russian Empress Elizabeth.In 1712, Tsar Peter the Great issued an...
, as it is called, was published. Three other editions were published in 1756, 1757, and 1759, the second somewhat revised. All later reprints of the Russian Church Bible are based upon this second edition, which is the authorized version of the Russian Church.
Old Belarusian
An effort to produce a version in the vernacular was made by Francysk Skaryna (d. after 1535), a native of PolatskPolatsk
Polotsk , is a historical city in Belarus, situated on the Dvina river. It is the center of Polotsk district in Vitsebsk Voblast. Its population is more than 80,000 people...
in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. He published at Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, 1517–19, twenty-two Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
books in Old Belarusian language
Old Belarusian language
Old Belarusian was a historic East Slavic language, written and spoken at least in the 14th–17th century, and reported spoken as late as the very beginning of the 19th century, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, probably...
, in the preparation of which he was greatly influenced by the Bohemian Bible of 1506. Other efforts were made during the 16th and 17th centuries, but the Church Slavonic predominated in all these efforts.
For further reference go to http://www.pravapis.org/art_skaryna1.asp
Czech
Jan Huss' Bible was printed in 1488, the Bible of KraliceBible of Kralice
The Bible of Kralice was the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into the Czech language. Translated by the Unity of the Brethren and printed in the town of Kralice nad Oslavou, the first edition had six volumes and was published between the years 1579 and 1593...
from 1579, the definitive edition in 1613. Among modern translations the Ecumenical Version of 1979 is commonly used. The newest translation in modern Czech was completed in 2009.
Bulgarian
The Bulgarian Orthodox church continued to use the Old Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
until the 1940s. In 1835 the British and Foreign Bible Society contracted a Bulgarian monk, Neofit Rilski
Neofit Rilski
Neofit Rilski or Neophyte of Rila , born Nikola Poppetrov Benin was a 19th-century Bulgarian monk, teacher and artist, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival....
, who started on a new translation which, in later editions, remains the standard version today.
Slovene
In the 16th century16th century
As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century lasted from 1501 to 1600. It is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of the West occurred....
Slovene Prostestant Pastors Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar or Primož Truber was a Slovene Protestant reformer, the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, a consolidator of the Slovene language and the author of the first Slovene-language printed book...
and Jurij Dalmatin
Jurij Dalmatin
Jurij Dalmatin was a Slovene Lutheran minister, writer and translator.Born in Krško in around 1546, Dalmatin became a preacher in Ljubljana in 1572. He was the author of several religious books, such as Karšanske lepe molitve , Ta kratki würtemberški katekizmus , and Agenda...
translete the Bible. Dalmatin's work the full Old and New Testament. There are other Slovene versions. István Küzmics
István Küzmics
István Küzmics also known in Slovenian as Štefan or Števan Küzmič was the most important Lutheran writer of the Slovenes in Hungary....
and Miklós Küzmics
Miklós Küzmics
-Biography:Küzmics was born in Dolnji Slaveči and died in Kančevci. His parents was János Küsmics and Erzsébet Lev. He was trained as a school supervisor for the Slovene Catholic schools in Prekmurje...
in Prekmurian Slovene (Nouvi Zákon
Nouvi Zákon
The Nouvi Zákon is the most famous work of the Hungarian Slovene writer István Küzmics. The Nouvi Zákon is the translation of the Holy Gospel into the Prekmurje dialect...
, Szvéti evangyeliomi) translete the Bible. Our works also unique in the European literature.
Macedonian
Early history of Macedonian translations are closely linked with translations into Bulgarian dialectsBulgarian dialects
Bulgarian dialects are the regional spoken varieties of the Bulgarian language, a South Slavic language. Bulgarian dialectology dates to the 1830s and the pioneering work of Neofit Rilski, Bolgarska gramatika...
from 1852. The whole Bible (including the Deuterocanonical books
Deuterocanonical books
Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to the protocanonical books, which are...
) translated in Macedonian by the Archbishop Gavril was printed in 1990.
Polish
Bible translations into Polish date to 13th century. First full translations were completed in the 16th century. Today the official and most popular Bible in Poland is the Millennium Bible (Biblia Tysiąclecia) first published in 1965.Russian
- See also: Archangel GospelArchangel GospelThe Archangel Gospel is a Cyrillic Gospel Book manuscript written in 1092. It is the fourth oldest Eastern Slavic manuscript. The book is stored in the collection of Russian State Library. UNESCO added the Arkhangelsk Gospel to the international register Memory of the World Programme in 1997.The...
, Russian. And the The Four Gospels ("Четвероевангелие" ("Chetveroevangelie")) Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander by Pyotr Mstislavets (1574-1575)
Sorbian (Wendish)
The oldest SorbianSorbian languages
The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code...
Bible version, that of the New Testament of 1547, is extant in a manuscript in the Royal Library at Berlin. The translator was Miklawusch Jakubica, who employed a now-extinct dialect of Lower Sorbian. In the 18th century Gottlieb Fabricius, a German, made a translation of the New Testament which was printed in 1709. In a revised form this version was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1860.
The Old Testament, translated by J. G. Fritz, was printed at Cottbus
Cottbus
Cottbus is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree. As of , its population was .- History :...
in 1796. An edition of the entire Bible was published by the Prussian Bible Society in 1868. Michael Frentzel, Pastor in Postwitz (d. 1706), translated the New Testament into the Upper Sorbian, and his version was published by his son, Abraham Frentzel (Zittau
Zittau
Zittau is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, close to the border tripoint of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. , there are 28,638 people in the city. It is part of the Görlitz district....
, 1706). A complete edition of the Bible, the work of different scholars, was first published at Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
, 1728. A second revised edition was prepared by Johann Gottfried Kuhn and issued in 1742; a third improved edition prepared by Johann Jacob Petschke was published in 1797. Passing over other editions, it is worth while to note that the ninth edition of the complete Bible (Bautzen, 1881) was revised by H. Immisch and others and contains a history of the Upper Lusatian Wendish Bible translation. For the Roman Catholic Wends of Upper Lusatia G. Lusanski and M. Hornik translated the New Testament from the Vulgate, and published it at Bautzen, 1887–92; the Psalms were translated from the Hebrew by J. Laras (Bautzen, 1872).
Ukrainian
The known history of the Bible translation into Ukrainian began in 16th century with Peresopnytsia Gospels, which included only four Gospels of the New TestamentNew Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
.
External links
- Croatian - Hrvatska Biblija – translation: "Zagreb"
- Croatian - Hrvatska Biblija - web download: Bible in Croatian-full text – translation: Dr Ivan Saric 1942.
- Macedonian Bible Translations Online.
- Macedonian Bible – Online Parallel Bible with alternate choices for chapter display version Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian, KJV
- Bible in Church Slavonic (iOS)
- Slovene Biblical Society
- Slovene Biblia – An article in Slovene
- Slavic Bible - PDF – "Russia"