(S. BERGERf.)
Bibliography: S. Berger, La Bible Italienne au moyen Age, in Romania, xxiii (1894), 358 sqq. (contains bibliography and list of MSS.); Bible of Every Land, pp. 277- 279, London, 1861; J. D. Hales, The Bible or the Bible Society T The Corruption of God's Word in the Italian Version of Martini, London, 1861; J. Carini, Le Versione della Biblia in volgari italiano, S. Pier d'Arena, 1894; S. Minocci, Versions Italiennes de la Bible, in Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible; KL, ii, 741-742; DB, extra vol., 406-408.
XII. Lithuanian and Lettish Versions: A forerunner of the Bible translation for Protestant Lithuanians was the rendering of the Scripture lessons from the Gospels and Epistles by B. Willent (Konigsberg, 1579) from Luther's text (edited by F. Bechtel, in Bezzenberger's Litauische und lettische Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts, part 3, Gottingen, 1882). The first translator of the Bible in a fuller sense was Jan Bretkun (Bretkunas), minister at Labiau and Konigsberg (d. 1602 or 1603). He translated the whole Bible, 1579-90. The manuscript, preserved in the university library at Konigsberg, is described by A. Bezzenberger, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der litauischen Sprache (Gottingen, 1877), pp. vi-vii. Only the Psalms were published (K6nigsberg, 1625) and the editor, J. Rhesa, introduced many changys.
The Reformed Lithuanians, anxious for a Bible,
Bible Versions
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
in 1657 commissioned Samuel Boguslaw Chylinski to go to England and have the Bible printed there (cf. H. Beinhold, in M itthcilungen dcr litatiischlitterarischen Gcscllschaft, vol. iv, part 2, p. 105). The Old Testament as far as the Psalms was presented to the synod at Wilna in print in 1663, other parts in manuscript. Of this Bible impression only three copies, all imperfect, are known to exist. Chylinski was the translator.
The New Testament, translated by Samuel Bythner, was published at Konigsberg, 1701, for the benefit of the Lutherans (new ed., Berlin, 1S66). A New Testament translated by different ministers was published at Konigsberg in 1727. The Old Testament was prepared in the same way and the whole Bible was published at Konigsberg, 1735. In the beginning of the nineteenth century the need of a new edition of the Bible was felt, and the work was undertaken, with the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by a number of clergymen and especially by L. J. Rhesa. It was based on Luther's version, with comparison of the Hebrew and Greek originals, and was published at Tilsit, 1S24.
For the Roman Catholic Lithuanians, Joseph Arnulf Giedraitis (Polish, Giedrojc), bishop of Samogitia, translated the New Testament from the Vulgate (Wilna, 1S16).
The oldest specimen of Lettish printing, the Enchiridion (Konigsberg, 1586-87; called in later editions Vademecum and " Hand-Book "), contains among other writings for ecclesiastical use the Scripture lessons for Sundays and festivals for the Evangelical Letts (in later editions enlarged by parts of the Old Testament). The first Lettish Bible, translated by E. Gluck and C. B. Witten, was published at Riga, 1685-89. In 1877 A. Bielenstein published at Mitau a thoroughly revised edition. (A. Leskien.)
Bibliography: L. J. Rhesa, Oeschichle der litthauischen Bibel, Konigsberg, 1816; H. Reinhold, Die sogenannte Chylinskische Bibelubersetzung, in Mittheilungen der litauischlitlerarischen Gesellschaft, vol. iv, part 2, p. 105; Napiereky, Chronologischer Consprrt dcr letlisch-litterarischen Gesellschaft, vol. iii, 1831; Bible of Every Land, pp. 310- 313, London, 1861; Bielenstein, Zum SOOjahrigen Jubil&um der lettischen Literatur, Riga, 1886. Consult also the Annual Reports of the BFBS.
XIII. Persian Versions: Chrysostom mentions Persians as well as Syrians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and other nations as being in possession of the Gospel; but it is very doubtful whether there was at that time a version of Scripture in the Persian tongue, since Syrian influence predominated in the Persian Empire. It is said, however, that Chosroes II had the Scriptures brought from Edessa (cf. TLZ, 1896, 432, and Theodoret, Hist, eccl., i, 5). All that was known in Europe till 1700 of Biblical and other texts is found in Lagarde, Persische Studien (Gottingen, 1884), 3-8.
A translation of the Pentateuch by the Persian Jew Jacob ben Joseph Tawus, printed in Hebrew characters, is contained in a polyglot Pentateuch of Constantinople (1546), and was transcribed into Persian characters with a Latin translation by T. Hyde in vol. iv of Walton's Polyglot. The Gospels, translated from the Greek, were edited by
Abraham Wheelocke and, after his death, by Pierson (London, 1657), and another translation from the Syriac was printed in vol. v of Walton's Polyglot, and used by Tischendorf after the edition of C. A. Bode (Helmstadt, 1750-51). In Paris are parts of two different translations of the Old Testament, the one made from the Hebrew, the other from the Aramaic (cf. Zotenberg, Catalogue des manuscrits Hebreux, etc., Paris, 1S66 sqq., and Lagarde, Persische Studien, i, 69, and ii, and his Symmicta, ii, Gottingen, 1879, 14-17). On Jewish reports about the Bible in the language of Elam and Media cf. L. Blau, Einleitung in die heilige Schrift (Budapest, 1894), 80-94.
E. Nestle.
For partial translations of the Bible, particularly of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, the Minor Prophets, Esther, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Job, and Lamentations, preserved in manuscript, cf. JE, iii, 190, vii, 318- 319. The oldest fragments of this character are probably those found in the Pahlavi Shikandgumanig Vijar, which dates from the latter part of the ninth century (ed. Jamasp-Asana and E. W. West, Bombay, 1887; transl. by E. W West, SEE, xxiv, 117 sqq.). These fragments are Gen. i, 2-3, ii, 16-17, iii, 9, 11-16, 18-19, vi, 6; Ex. xx, 5; Deut. xxix, 4, xxxii, 35; Ps. xcv, 10; Isa. xxx, 27-28, xliii, 19; Matt, i, 20, v, 17, vii, 17-18, xii, 34, xv, 13, xviii, 32; Luke v, 31-32, vi, 44, xv, 4; John i, 11, 14, viii, 23, viii, 37-38, 42-45, 47; and Rom. vii, 19-20. They were quoted for anti- Christian polemics, and from the forms of the proper names seem to have been derived from a Syriac original, though traces of the Targum of the pseudo- Jonathan (see above, A, V, § 3) may be discovered in the renderings of Ex. xx, 5 and especially of Gen. iii, 14 (cf. L. H. Gray, in Actes du XIV congres international des orientalistes, i, Paris, 1905, 182-186). Equally interesting are the fragments of the New Testament in Estrangelo script but in an Iranian dialect (probably Sogdhian, thus constituting almost the only known remains of this dialect), discovered in Turf an, Eastern Turkestan, in 1903. These citations are Manichean in origin, and the following passages are thus far known: Matt, x, 14 sqq.; Luke i, 63-80; John xx, 19 sqq.; Gal. iii, 25 sqq., and a number of smaller fragments which are adaptations and compilations rather than translations (cf. F. W. K. Miiller, in appendix to the Abhandlungen dcr Berliner Akadcmie, 1904, pp. 34-37, and Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akadcmie, 1907, pp. 260-270). Mention may also be made of a Persian version of Gen. i-vi, 6, by Abliichand, a Hindu converted to a mixture of Judaism and Mohammedanism by the Judeo-Persian poet Sarmad early in the seventeenth century, and preserved in the Dabistan. This version differs materially from the translation of Jacob Tawus.
Bibliography: Walton's Polyglot, Prolegomena, 16, and S. Clericus in vol. iv; S. Munk, Vne version persane MS. de la Bibliothique Royale, Paris, 1838; Bible of Every Land, pp. 64-71, London, 1861; A. Kohut, Beleuchtung der persischen Pentateuchiibersetzung, Heidelberg, 1871; T. Noldeke, in ZDMG, li (1893), 548; Horn, .4 us italienischen Bihliulheken, in ZDMG, Ii (1893); Scrivener, Introduction, ii, 165; Gregory, Textkritik, i, 575-578.