Lecture 2 History of Bible translations. 1. Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. 2. Gothic...
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Lecture 2 History of Bible translations
Lecture 2 History of Bible translations. 1. Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. 2. Gothic Bible. 3. Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome
1. Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. 2. Gothic
Bible. 3. Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome. 4.
Vespasian Psalter. 5. Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in
the Middle Ages. 6. John Wycliffe's translation of the Bible. 7.
Martin Luther's Bible. 8. English translations of the Bible in the
16th-17th centuries. 9. Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian
translations of the Bible in the 18th -20th centuries.
Slide 3
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible The most ancient
translation of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament is known as the
Septuagint (from Latin septuaginta seventy). The Septuagint has its
origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was translated in the 3rd-2nd c.
BC.
Slide 4
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible According to the
Letter of Aristeas, 70 to 72 Jewish scholars were commissioned
during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (king of Egypt 283-246 BC)
to carry out the task of translating the Hebrew text of the Torah
(the first five books of Moses' Law) into Greek.
Slide 5
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible The Letter of
Aristeas records that the royal librarian expressed an interest in
filling gaps in his special collections and also in the
conservation and linguistic accessibility of his acquisitions: The
Books of the Law of the Jews, with some few others, are wanting.
For it happens that these books are written in the Hebrew script
and language, but, according to the evidence of the experts, have
been somewhat carelessly committed to writing and are not in their
original form; for they have never had the benefit of royal
attention. It is important that these books, duly corrected, should
find a place in your library, because this legislation, in as much
as it is divine, is of philosophical importance and of innate
integrity.
Slide 6
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible The style of the
translation is not uniform, because of the different translators
involved and the different times of the various translations. The
Septuagint is noteworthy for its popular, limited, and simple
vocabulary.
Slide 7
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible The influence of
the Septuagint on the tradition of Bible translation: The Christian
Fathers down to the late fourth century AD regarded the Septuagint
as the standard form of the Old Testament and seldom referred to
the Hebrew. The Septuagint rather than the original Hebrew Bible
was the main basis for the Old Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian,
Georgian, Slavonic, and some Arabic translations of the Bible.
Slide 8
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible In the 2nd c. AD a
Jewish scholar named Aquila of Sinope was dissatisfied with the
Septuagint translation and undertook to produce a Greek rendering
of the Hebrew Bible that would represent each Hebrew word with a
corresponding Greek word. The result was a slavishly literal
rendering which was often unintelligible to a reader who did not
know Hebrew as well as Greek.
Slide 9
Early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible Toward the end of
the 2nd c. CE another Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was
prepared by Symmachus the Ebionite, a Christian of Jewish
background. His theory and method were the opposite of that of
Aquila, as his aim was to make an elegant Greek rendering. To judge
from the scattered fragments that remain of his translation,
Symmachus tended to be paraphrastic in representing the Hebrew
original. He preferred idiomatic Greek constructions in contrast to
other versions in which the Hebrew constructions are preserved.
Generally, scholars remark on the purity and idiomatic elegance of
Symmachus' Greek.
Slide 10
Gothic Bible In the 4th c. CE the Bible texts were translated
into Gothic. Today the Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th
century Bible translation, is the primary source of our knowledge
of this extinct East Germanic language.
Slide 11
Gothic Bible The translation was done by the Gothic bishop
Ulfila. In order to translate the Scriptures into Gothic Ulfila had
to invent an alphabet, as up to that point Gothic had been strictly
a spoken language. Ulfila created an alphabet of 27 characters,
using Greek and Latin letters. He also added some runes, borrowed
from ancient Scandinavian alphabets.
Slide 12
Gothic Bible Ulfila worked from the Greek text, scrupulously
following its word order and syntax. He was often forced to coin
new words or phrases.
Slide 13
Gothic Bible Of the original 336 pages of the Codex Argenteus,
188 have been preserved, containing the translation of the greater
part of the four gospels. A part of the Codex is on permanent
display at the library of the University of Uppsala, Sweden. The
manuscript is written in gold and silver ink on red parchment.
Slide 14
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome St. Jerome (?348
420), the patron saint of translators, is one of the best known
translators of all time. Jerome is known for his Vulgate (from
Latin vulgata (editio) '(edition) prepared for the public'), or
standard Latin Bible.
Slide 15
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome While studying in
Rome, Jerome acquired a knowledge of classical literature, pagan
philosophy and the law, which he intended to practise. At the age
of 19 he was baptized. During a journey to Trier (in present-day
Germany) Gerome learned about the lives of Egyptian monks and
decided to follow their example. He abandoned his career in the
Roman imperial civil service, gave up his worldly goods and left
for the East. He discovered Christian literature as he was studying
Greek in Antioch. Attracted by the monastic life he moved to a
desert in Syria. Since that time, Jerome devoted himself entirely
to the study of Christian literature and the Bible.
Slide 16
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome In 382 he returned
to Rome and served as a secretary, interpreter and theological
advise to the Pope. By this time, Jerome was a trilingual scholar,
familiar with Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The Pope commissioned him to
translate and revise the Bible. Jerome began by translating the New
Testament and the Psalms, working from accepted Greek texts.
Slide 17
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome After the death of
his protector Pope Damasus I in 384 Jerome fell out of favour and
was driven from Rome by the many enemies whom he had criticized for
not being zealous Christians. Jerome took refuge in Bethlehem and
continued to work as a translator. After completing one translation
of the Old Testament from Greek, he translated it anew from Hebrew.
Jerome was the first to have translated the Old Testament into
Latin directly from the original Hebrew, rather than from the
Septuagint. Jerome left a substantial body of commentaries and
other writings that have contributed to the tradition of biblical
scholarship in the West. In over hundred prefaces, numerous letters
and prologues to his translations of the Scriptures, he also set
out well- developed ideas on translation.
Slide 18
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome The Latin Vulgate
was used for centuries by the Roman Catholic Church and was
declared the official version of the Church at the Council of Trent
in 1546.
Slide 19
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome Jerome was
canonized in the 8th c. and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church
(Doctor doctorum) in the 13th c., along with three other fathers of
the Roman Church, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and Gregory the Great.
St. Jerome is regarded as having worked on his translation of the
Bible under divine inspiration and this has secured protection for
his version of the Bible.
Slide 20
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome St. Jerome makes
distinction between translation of Holy Scriptures and that of
non-sacred texts. He criticizes literalists, at the same time
affirming that in the case of the Scriptures the actual words and
even their order and significance are to be observed.
Slide 21
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From the Preface
to Chronicles of Eusebius 12 (380)... it is difficult, when
following the text of another language, not to overstep the mark in
places, and hard to keep in the translation the grace of something
well said in the original. [... ] If I translate word for word, it
sounds absurd; if from necessity, I change something in the
word-order or in the language, I am seen to abdicate the
responsibility of a translator. [... ] I pray you that whatever you
find disordered in this work, you read with the eye of a friend and
not of a critic.
Slide 22
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From the Preface
to Chronicles of Eusebius 12 (380) If there is anybody who does not
believe that the power of a language is changed in translation, let
him translate Homer literally into Latinor rather, let him
translate Homer into prose. Then he will see a laughable bit of
work, and the greatest of poets scarcely able to speak.
Slide 23
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From Letter 57, To
Pammachius, On the Best Method of Translating Not only do I admit,
but I proclaim at the top of my voice, that in translating from
Greek, except from Sacred Scripture, where even the order of the
words is of Gods doing, I have not translated word by word, but
sense for sense. [... ]
Slide 24
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From Letter 57, To
Pammachius, On the Best Method of Translating There is nothing
extraordinary about this procedure in secular or ecclesiastical
writers, when the translators of the Septuagint, the evangelists
and the apostles, did the same thing in the sacred books. In St
Mark, we read that the Lord said: Talitha cumi. This is commented
in the text: Which is translated: My girl, I say to you, get up
[Mark 5: 41]. Dare you accuse the evangelist of lying because he
adds I say to you, when all we have in the Hebrew is, My girl, get
up? But to make it more emphatic and to translate the nuance of
urgent command he added, I say to you. [... ]
Slide 25
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From Letter 57, To
Pammachius, On the Best Method of Translating The opening words of
the Hebrew text of Psalm XXI are the very words Christ spoke on the
cross: Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani. This means: My God, my God, why
have you abandoned me [Ps. 21: 2; cf. Matthew 27: 46]. Let them
state the reason why the Septuagint adds look at me, for it reads:
My God, my God, look at me, why have you abandoned me? They will
reply that there is no distortion in the sense if two or three
words are added. Let them also realize that the stability of the
Church is not threatened if, in the heat of dictation, I leave out
a few words. It is a long job to detail how much the Septuagint
adds, how much it leaves out. [... ]
Slide 26
Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome From Letter 57, To
Pammachius, On the Best Method of Translating However, it is not
for nothing that the Septuagint has become the official church
text: it was adopted either because it was the first and was
produced before the coming of Christ, or because it was used by the
apostles, at least where it did not differ from the Hebrew.
Slide 27
Vespasian Psalter The earliest existing English translation of
any portion of the Bible is the Vespasian Psalter (London, British
Library).
Slide 28
Vespasian Psalter It is an Anglo-Saxon illuminated Psalter
produced in the second or third quarter of the 8th century in
southern England. The Psalter contains the Book of Psalms together
with letters of St. Jerome and hymns. The text was written on
vellum in Latin and accompanied with an interlinear gloss in Old
English, which is a literal, word-for-word translation of the Latin
text.
Slide 29
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages In
862 Rastislav, a Christian prince from Moravia (today Czech
Republic) asked Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send missionaries
to preach the Christian faith in the Slavic language and educate
the people. The prince also expressed the wish that, like the
Greeks, Romans and Goths, his people have the sacred texts
translated into their language.
Slide 30
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
The Emperor and the patriarch Photius chose the brothers Cyril (827
or 828 869) and Methodius (?825 885) to perform the mission.
Slide 31
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
Natives of Thessaloniki in Macedonia, they had an excellent
knowledge of the Slavic dialect spoken in that part of Greece.
Methodius had been the commander in chief of a Slavic province in
Macedonia and in 860 he and his brother had taken part in a
diplomatic mission among the Khazars, inhabitants of the lower
Volga region. Cyril was one of the most prominent scholars of
Constantinople. He was exceptionally gifted in languages and took a
particular interest in philology and archaeology.
Slide 32
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
When Cyril learned he was being sent to Moravia, he asked the
Emperor whether the Moravians had a system of writing. If not, he
said, it would be like trying to "write on water", and he would
surely be considered a heretic, as the Roman clerics believed that
only Hebrew, Greek and Latin could be used in prayer. He was told
that if he invented a writing system, the Almighty would come to
his aid, since "God gives to those who ask in good faith and opens
the door to those who knock". Thus Cyril obtained the approval of
the Emperor and the patriarch for his undertaking.
Slide 33
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages In
Constantinople, Cyril produced the "Glagolitic" alphabet, named for
glagol, meaning word in Old Slavonic. This forty-character writing
system was derived from the Greek alphabet to which the translator
added signs he had made up himself or borrowed from Oriental
languages.
Slide 34
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages At
that time various Slavic languages spoken throughout central Europe
were rather homogenous, so the Old Slavic system could be adopted
by all members of the linguistic group. With a writing system at
their disposal, Cyril and Methodius were able to undertake the
translation of the Holy Scriptures. The first words translated
using the new Glagolitic alphabet were: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was God." (Gospel according to St. John). These
words marked the birth of Slavonic literature.
Slide 35
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
Cyril recorded the ancient language of the Slavs with astonishing
precision; his translations, based on a sound methodology, were
clearly superior to all other medieval translations.
Slide 36
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
After Cyril's death in 869, the work of Christianization and
translation was continued by Methodius. He devoted the last years
of his life to completing the Slavonic translation of the Bible and
to translating canon law and several books of the Church
Fathers.
Slide 37
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
"Cyrillic" alphabet was not invented by Cyril, but adapted from
Glagolitic. Cyrillic alphabet is a simpler form of Glagolitic,
consisting of 43 characters.
Slide 38
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
The Catholic Slavs continued to use Glagolitic longer than the
Orthodox Slavs, who replaced it with Cyrillic in the 13th c. The
Russian, Byelorussian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Serbian
alphabets derive from Old Cyrillic.
Slide 39
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
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.
Slide 40
Church Slavonic translations of the Bible in the Middle Ages
That Bible, called the Gennady Bible (Gennadievskaia Biblia) is now
housed in the State History Museum in Moscow.
Slide 41
John Wycliffes translation of the Bible John Wycliffe (or
Wyclif, c.1320-1384) and his followers the Lollards produced the
first complete version of the Bible in English on the basis of the
Latin Vulgate. Though relatively few people could read at this
time, Wycliffes idea was to translate the Bible into the
vernacular.
Slide 42
John Wycliffes translation of the Bible Wycliffe's Bible
appeared over a period from 1382 to 1395. It was the chief
inspiration of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement
that rejected many of the distinctive teachings of the Roman
Catholic Church. John Wycliffe got the name of the "Morning Star of
the Reformation". Although unauthorized, Wycliffe's Bible was
popular. Over 250 manuscripts of the book survive.
Slide 43
John Wycliffes translation of the Bible Wycliffe's Bible was
probably the most important translated work of the 14th century in
England. It has been criticized for repetitions, imperfections and
excessively literal style, but this first complete translation of
the Bible laid the basis for English Bible translation and left its
mark on the English language in general.
Slide 44
John Wycliffes translation of the Bible Wycliffe and his
associates introduced over a thousand words of Latin origin into
the English language. Many of these words had technical meanings,
with endings like able, -ible, -ent, - al, -ive, which are now
common elements in English derivatives.
Slide 45
John Wycliffes translation of the Bible The Church prohibited
the use of Wycliffe's Bible. In 1428, forty-five years after his
death, Wycliffe's body was exhumed, burned and ashes thrown into
the Swift River.
Slide 46
Martin Luthers Bible Martin Luther (1483 1546), Augustinian
monk and theologian, was the German leader of the Reformation.
Slide 47
Martin Luthers Bible In his ninety-five theses, nailed to the
door of Wittenberg University in 1517, he expressed his
dissatisfaction with the penitential system of the Roman Catholic
Church.
Slide 48
Martin Luthers Bible A talented publicist and great writer of
treatises, with a rugged popular style, Luther emphasized original
writing in the vernacular. Through his translation of the Bible
(the New Testament, published in 1522, and the Old Testament, in
1534) he established a norm for written German, and had a radical
and lasting influence on German language and literature. The mass
distribution of Luther's Bible was facilitated by the movable
printing type, developed by Gutenberg eighty years earlier.
Slide 49
Martin Luthers Bible Luther tried to use forms of speech which
enjoyed widespread regional usage and which also had a broad social
basis. He sought increasingly to improve his own linguistic
competence, but he also paid particular attention to the language
spoken by the people.
Slide 50
Martin Luthers Bible Luther studied languages intensively, not
only Latin but also Greek and Hebrew, the two original languages of
the Bible. In order to arrive at the most appropriate and effective
renderings, he consulted experts in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and
also professional people such as foresters, game wardens and so on
to solve specific terminological problems. However, Luther's own
creativity and poetic sensitivity were unsurpassed. All these
factors contributed to the broad influence that Luther's
translation has enjoyed to this day.
Slide 51
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 1) he advocated the
return to the original languages of the Bible: Hebrew for the Old
Testament and Greek for the New Testament (without, however,
completely neglecting the Latin Vulgate). This was an innovative
philological approach which resulted from the influence of humanist
philosophers.
Slide 52
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 2) target-culture
approach. Luther reformulated the text of the Bible as a German
text, i.e. the historical text was rewritten to fit the mentality
and spirit of his time. Luther recognized that semantic equivalents
alone were not sufficient.
Slide 53
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 3) Luther tried to
formulate his translation in accordance with the rules of the
target language.
Slide 54
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 4) Luther believed that
the word should follow the meaning of the text, and not the other
way round. It required courage on Luther's part as he was dealing
with a sacred text. He believed that translation was always
interpretation, to some extent at least.
Slide 55
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 5) Luther believed that
translators should strive for moral and situational
appropriateness, and for this purpose he believed that they should
be educated in philosophy and theology and have pastoral
experience.
Slide 56
Martin Luthers Bible Luther's linguistic achievements were
grounded in certain translation principles: 6) When translating,
Luther always took the sound of the spoken language into account.
In this he relied on his experience as a preacher.
Slide 57
Martin Luthers Bible As a translator, Luther was distinctly
reader- oriented; his aim was to put together a Bible text for the
general public. His translation, characterized by a combination of
popular speech and poetic dignity, became for many Northern
Europeans a new original, and served as the basis of some Bible
translations into the Scandinavian languages.
Slide 58
Martin Luthers Bible Through his translation of the Bible,
Luther helped bring about the enrichment and standardization of the
German lexicon, and contributed to the development of a balanced
syntax. His main contribution is, however, in the field of
stylistics. Clarity, general understanda- bility, simplicity and
vividness were the most important stylistic features of Luther's
Bible.
Slide 59
Martin Luthers Bible Luthers Open Letter on Translation (1530)
is an important text in the history of translation theory.
Slide 60
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The most influential Bible translator in English was William
Tyndale (c.1494 1536). A humanist and theologian, educated at both
Oxford and Cambridge, he was determined, in the spirit of the
Reformation, to make the Bible widely available in the vernacular
to both laymen and clergy.
Slide 61
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Tyndale was accused of heresy and after failing to get the support
of the bishop of London in his plan to translate the Bible into
English, Tyndale left England for the Continent and lived there as
a fugitive.
Slide 62
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
In 1524, Tyndale visited Luther in Wittenberg and worked on his
translation of the New Testament. The work was completed in 1525.
Tyndale worked from the Greek and Hebrew source texts. The first
English New Testament to be printed, Tyndales translation was
smuggled into England in 1526. Tyndale also began work on the Old
Testament. Eventually he was betrayed to agents of Charles V,
strangled and burned at the stake in 1536.
Slide 63
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Tyndales Bible translation was the dominant stylistic and scholarly
influence in the history of English biblical translation. Its mark
on the Geneva Bible, and the King James Bible is decisive,
although, for doctrinal reasons, not acknowledged.
Slide 64
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
According to some modern scholars, Tyndale achieved for the English
language what Newton did for physics.
Slide 65
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
In Tyndale's time, Latin was still the language for anything
serious or official. In 1600, only 30 of the 6,000 volumes in the
Oxford University Library were in English. Tyndale's decision to
write in English was to a great degree motivated by the Lollard
movement and the example of Luther. Tydale believed that both
Hebrew and Greek translated much more easily into English than into
Latin and that English better reflected the wide range of styles
contained in the Old Testament.
Slide 66
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The principal feature of Tyndale's language is its clarity. His
skills derived from his Oxford logical and rhetorical training, his
knowledge of eight languages including Greek and Hebrew, his
experience as a preacher and his awareness of a native English
tradition of writing. Tyndale translated into the language people
spoke, not the way the scholars wrote. At a time when English was
struggling to find a form that was neither Latin nor French,
Tyndale gave the nation a Bible language that was English in words,
word order and rhythm.
Slide 67
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Tyndale made use of plain, monosyllabic vocabulary and coined many
new words which have now become part of the language: Passover,
scapegoat, and even the word Jehovah itself. He created phrases
which have become part of the English-speaking mentality: eat,
drink and be merry the salt of the earth the spirit is
willing...
Slide 68
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Using simple, straightforward syntax, Tyndale forged memorable
lines such as this passage from the parable of the prodigal son:
"this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and
is found."
Slide 69
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
By contrast with the enormous Bibles produced on the Continent,
Tyndale's Bibles were pocket sized. This was important: the Bible
could be easily smuggled (the English Church was still opposed to
reading the Bible in the vernacular) and carried around and read by
ordinary readers. The only complete surviving copy of his 1526 New
Testament, newly acquired for the sum of one million pounds, was
exhibited at the British Library in 1994, on the occasion of
Tyndale's 500th birthday.
Slide 70
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
W.T. To the Reader: Tyndales Story of His Translation (the preface
to Tyndales translation of Genesis in his Pentateuch, printed in
1530)
Slide 71
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Henry VIII was hostile to Tyndale's Bible - both because of
Tyndale's preference for non-ecclesiastical vocabulary, and also on
account of his attacks on Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon
- and in 1530 Tyndale's New Testament was banned by royal
proclamation. Henry then promised that an officially authorised
English Bible would be prepared by learned and catholic
scholars.
Slide 72
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The Great Bible (or the Cromwell Bible) was prepared by Myles
Coverdale, working under commission of Sir Thomas Cromwell,
Secretary to Henry VIII. In 1538, Cromwell directed the clergy to
provide "one book of the Bible of the largest volume in English,
and the same set up in some convenient place within the said church
that ye have care of, whereas your parishioners may most
commodiously resort to the same and read it."
Slide 73
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The Great Bible includes, with the objectionable features revised,
the New Testament and the Old Testament portions that had been
translated by William Tyndale. The remaining books of the Old
Testament had been translated by Myles Coverdale, who used mostly
the Latin Vulgate and German translations as sources rather than
working from the original Greek and Hebrew texts.
Slide 74
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The Great Bible's New Testament revision is chiefly distinguished
from Tyndale's source version by the addition of numerous phrases
and sentences found only in the Vulgate. For example, here is the
Great Bible's version of Acts 23:24-25: "...And delyver them
beastes, that they maye sett Paul on, and brynge him safe unto
Felix the hye debyte (For he dyd feare lest happlye the Jewes
shulde take hym awaye and kyll him, and he hym selfe shulde be
afterwarde blamed, as though he wolde take money.) and he wrote a
letter after thys maner."
Slide 75
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
During the reign of Queen Mary I of England (1553 1558), a number
of Protestant scholars fled from England to Geneva in Switzerland,
where John Calvin provided the primary spiritual and theological
leadership. Among these scholars was William Whittingham, who began
the translation of the Bible now known as the Geneva Bible.
Slide 76
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The first full edition of this Bible, with a further revised New
Testament, appeared in 1560. The Geneva Bible was translated from
scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old
Testament. The English rendering was substantially based on the
earlier translations by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale (80-90%
of the language in the Geneva New Testament is from Tyndale).
However, the Geneva Bible was the first English version in which
all of the Old Testament was translated directly from Hebrew.
Slide 77
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant
translations of the Bible into the English language. It was the
primary Bible of the 16th century Protestant movement and was the
Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton,
John Knox, and John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress. It was
one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower, and it was
still respected by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the time of the
English Civil War.
Slide 78
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
For the very first time, a mechanically printed, mass- produced
Bible was made available directly to the general public. It
contained a variety of study guides and aids (collectively called
an apparatus), which included verse citations which allowed the
reader to cross- reference one verse with numerous relevant verses
in the rest of the Bible, introductions to each book of the Bible
which summarized the material that each book would cover, maps,
tables, woodcut illustrations, indexes, as well as other included
features all of which led to the reputation of the Geneva Bible as
history's very first study Bible.
Slide 79
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Elizabeth's archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, set out to
have another official version of the Bible made. He selected a
revision committee, with instructions to follow closely wherever
possible the Great Bible, and to make such a version that it might
be freely, easily, and naturally read. The result is known as the
Bishops' Bible (issued in 1568).
Slide 80
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The intention was for this Bible to be used in church as a pulpit
Bible. The version was more elevated in style than the Geneva
Bible. The first edition was exceptionally large and included 124
full-page illustrations. The text lacked most of the notes and
cross-references in the Geneva Bible, which contained much
controversial theology, but which were helpful to people among whom
the Bible was just beginning to circulate in the vernacular.
Slide 81
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
In January 1604, King James I of England convened the Hampton Court
Conference where a new English version of the Bible was proposed in
response to some problems of the earlier translations detected by
the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England.
Slide 82
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that
the new version would conform to the theology and reflect the
episcopal structure of the Church of England. The translation was
done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of
England and all except one were the clergy.
Slide 83
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
In common with most other translations of the period, the New
Testament was translated primarily from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic
texts, although with secondary reference both to the Latin Vulgate,
and to more recent scholarly Latin versions. The Authorized King
James Version was completed in 1611.
Slide 84
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The main concern of the translators was to produce a Bible that
would be appropriate and dignified in public reading. In a period
of rapid linguistic change, they avoided contemporary idioms,
tending instead towards forms that were already slightly
archaic.
Slide 85
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
Conservative features of the Authorized King James Version : use of
the pronouns thou and you as singular and plural respectively
possessive its, first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary in
1598, is avoided and his is usually used, as for example at Matthew
5:13: "if the salt haue lost his sauour, wherewith shall it be
salted?" use of -eth for the third person singular present form of
the verb, as at Matthew 2:13: "the Angel of the Lord appeareth to
Joseph in a dreame". preference of which to who or whom as the
relative pronoun for persons, as in Genesis 13:5: "And Lot also
which went with Abram, had flocks and heards, & tents"
Slide 86
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The translators also tended to enliven their text with stylistic
variation, finding multiple English words or verbal forms, in
places where the original language employed repetition.
Slide 87
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
The Authorized Version is notably more Latinate than previous
English versions, especially the Geneva Bible. Several translators
admitted that they felt more comfortable writing in Latin than in
English. The translators of the New Testament books habitually
quote Old Testament names in the renderings familiar from the
Vulgate Latin, rather than in their Hebrew forms (e.g. "Elias",
"Jeremias" for "Elijah", "Jeremiah").
Slide 88
English translations of the Bible in the 16 th -17 th centuries
By the first half of the 18th century, the Authorized Version was
unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and
Protestant churches. Over the course of the 18th century, the
Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard
version of scripture for English speaking scholars.
Slide 89
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries In 1712, Tsar Peter the Great
issued an ukaz ordering the printed Slavonic text of the Bible 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.
Slide 90
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries 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. The
Elizabeth Bible is the authorized version of the Russian Orthodox
Church.
Slide 91
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries First attempts to translate
books of the Bible into modern Russian language of that time took
place in 16th and 17th centuries: by deacon of Posolsky Prikaz
Avraamiy Firsov, pastor E. Gluk, archbishop Methodiy (Smirnov)
Slide 92
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The full-scale Bible translation
into Russian language began in 1813 since the establishment of the
Russian Bible Society. The full edition of the Bible with Old
Testament and New Testament was published in 1876. This work is
called Russian Synodal Bible (Russian: ). It is a Russian
non-Church Slavonic translation of the Bible commonly used by the
Russian Orthodox Church.
Slide 93
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The translation was performed by
four Orthodox theological academies, in Moscow, Saint Petersburg,
Kazan and Kiev. The final editorship was performed by the Synod and
personally by Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.
Slide 94
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The translation of the Old
Testament is based on the Jewish text while that of the New
Testament is based on the Greek printed editions of that time. This
decision was grounded on Filaret's 1834 note "On the need of the
Russian Church for a translation of the whole Bible from the
original texts to the modern Russian language".
Slide 95
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The known history of the Bible
translation into Ukrainian began in 16th century with Peresopnytsia
Gospels, which included only four Gospels of the New
Testament.
Slide 96
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The major translations of Holy
Scripture into Ukrainian were performed by: Pylyp Morachevskyi;
Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi and Ivan Pulyui; and
Metropolitan Ilarion (Ivan Ohienko).
Slide 97
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries Pylyp Morachevskyi
(1806-1879)
Slide 98
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries Panteleimon Kulish (1819- 1897)
was the first person known to translate the whole of the Bible into
the modern Ukrainian language.
Slide 99
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries The first unabridged Ukrainian
version was published in 1903 in Vienna, as all Ukrainian
translations were then banned in the Russian Empire. Panteleimon
Kulish and his co-workers translated from Old Church Slavonic, so
the text preserves some Church Slavonic and Greek idioms, and even
words absent from the modern Ukrainian language.
Slide 100
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries Metropolitan Ilarion (Ivan
Ohienko, 1882-1972)
Slide 101
Church Slavonic, Russian and Ukrainian translations of the
Bible in the 18 th -20th centuries Though there have been
discussions about "modernization" of Ohienko's Bible with the aim
of getting rid of archaisms without changing the meaning, some
scholars insist that Ohienko's text should remain "untouched" as an
important monument of the biblical translation literature of
Ukraine of the 30-40s of the last century.