THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
a Bohemian New Testament. It is certain that Huss had the Bible in Bohemian before him as a whole and he and his successors undertook a revision of the text according to the Vulgate. The work of Huss on the Bible antedated 1412. During the fifteenth century the revision was continued. The first complete Bible was published at Prague, 14SS; other editions were issued at Kuttenberg, 1489, and Venice, 1506. These prints were the basis of other editions which were published from time to time.
With the United Brethren a new period began for the translation of the Bible. In 1518 the New Testament appeared at Jungbunzlau at the instance of Luke of Prague (q.v.). It was not satisfactory and the same must be said of the edition of 1533. Altogether different was the translation made by Jan Blahoslav from the original Greek (1564, 156S). The Brethren soon undertook the translation of the Old Testament from the original and appointed for this work a number of scholars, who based their translation upon the Hebrew text published in the Antwerp Polyglot. The work began in 1577 and was completed in 1593, and from the place of printing, Kralitz in Moravia, it is known as the Kralitz Bible (6 parts, 1579-93, containing also Blahoslav's New Testament). This excellent translation was issued in smaller size in 1596, and again in folio in 1613 (reprinted at Halle in 1722, 1745, 1766; Pressburg, 1787; Berlin, 1807).
After the year 1620 the publication of non- Catholic Bibles in Bohemia and Moravia ceased, and efforts were made to prepare Bibles for the Catholics. After some fruitless beginnings the work was entrusted to certain Jesuits, who took the Venice edition of 1506 as the basis, but relied greatly, especially for the Old Testament, on the Brethren's Bible. Between 1677 and 1715 the so-called St . Wenceslaus Bible was published at the expense of a society founded in honor of the saint. A new edition appeared at Prague 1769-71. A thoroughly revised edition, using the text of the Brethren's Bible, was published in 1778-80. Still more dependent on the Brethren's Bible was Prochaska's New Testament (Prague, 1786), and his edition of the whole Bible (1804). Editions of Prochaska's text, slightly amended, were issued in 1851 and 1S57. The Bible edited by Besdeka (Prague, 1860) gives the text of the Brethren's Bible with slight changes. G. Palkovic translated the Bible from the Vulgate into Slovak (2 parts, Gran, 1829).
The oldest Sorbic 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 dialect (the Lower Sorbic) now extinct. In the eighteenth century Gottlieb Fabricius, a German, 6- Wend.ish macle a translation of the New Testa- Versions. ment 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 Kottbus 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 Wendish of Upper Lusatia (Upper Sorbic), 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 Kiihn 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. Luscanski 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).
The history of the Polish translation of the Bible begins with the Psalter (cf. W. Nehring, Altpolnische Sjirachdenkmaler , Berlin, 1886). A manuscript of the second half of the fourteenth century, in the abbey of St. Florian, near Linz, in Latin, Polish, and German is probably the 7. Polish oldest. A critical edition of the Po- Versions. lish. part was published by Nehring (Psalterii Florianensis pars Polonica, Posen, 1883) with a very instructive introduction. Besides the Florian Psalter there is the Psalter of Pulawy (now in Cracow) belonging to the end of the fifteenth century (published in facsimile, Posen, 1880).
Polish Bibles originated after the middle of the fifteenth century. An incomplete Bible, the socalled Sophia Bible (named after Queen Sophia, for whom it was intended, according to a remark from the sixteenth century; also called the Sarospatak Bible from the place where it is preserved), contains Genesis, Joshua, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, II (III) Esdras, Tobit, and Judith (ed. A. Malecki, Biblia Krolowej Zofii, Lemberg, 1871). With the Reformation period activity in the work of translation increased as the different confessions endeavored to supply their adherents with texts of the Bible. An effort to provide the Lutherans with the Bible in Polish was made by Duke Albert of Prussia (q.v.) in a letter directed in his name to Melanchthon. Jan Sieklucki, preacher at Konigsberg (d. 1578), was commissioned to prepare a translation, and he published the New Testament at Konigsberg, 1551 and 1552. The Polish Reformed (Calvinists) received the Bible through Prince Nicholas Radziwill (1515-65). A company of Polish and foreign theologians and scholars undertook the task, and, after six years' labor at Pincow, not far from Cracow, finished the translation of the Bible which was published at the expense of Radziwill in Brest-Litovsk, 1563 (hence called the Brest or Radziwill Bible). The translators state that for the Old Testament they consulted besides the Hebrew text the ancient versions and different modern Latin ones. The Brest Bible was not universally welcomed. The Reformed suspected it of Socinian interpretations; the Socinians complained that it