RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible Versions
was not accurate enough. The Sociman Simon Budny especially charged against the Brest Bible that it was not prepared according to the original texts, but after the Vulgate and other modern versions, and that the translators cared more for elegant Polish than for a faithful rendering. He undertook a new rendering, and his translation (" made anew from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin into the Polish ") was printed in 1572 at NesviSh. As changes were introduced in the printing which were not approved by Budny, he disclaimed the New Testament and published another edition (1574). The charges which he made against the Brest Bible were also made against his own, and the Socinian Adam Czechowicz published a new and improved edition of the New Testament (Rakow, 1577). The interesting preface states that Czechowicz endeavored to make an accurate translation, but did not suppress his Socinian ideas; e.g., he used " immersion " instead of " baptism." Another Socinian New Testament was published by Valentinus Smalcius (Rakow, 1606).
The Brest Bible was superseded by the so-called Danzig Bible, which finally became the Bible of all Evangelical Poles. At the synod in Ozarowiec, 1600, a new edition of the Bible was proposed and the work was given to the Reformed minister Martin Janicki, who had already translated the Bible from the original texts. In 1603 the printing of this translation was decided upon, after the work had been carefully revised. The work of revision was entrusted to men of the Reformed and Lutheran confessions and members of the Moravian Church (1604), especially to Daniel Mikolajewski (d. 1633), superintendent of the Reformed churches in Great Poland, and Jan Turnowski, senior of the Moravian Church in Great Poland (d. 1629). After it had been compared with the Janicki translation, the Brest, the Bohemian, Pagnini's, and the Vulgate, the new rendering was ordered printed. The Janicki translation as such has not been printed, and it is difficult to state how much of it is contained in the new Bible. The New Testament was first published at Danzig, 1606, and very often during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The complete Bible was issued in 1632, and often since. The Danzig Bible differs so much from that of Brest that it may be regarded as a new translation. It is erroneously called also the Bible of Paliurus (a Moravian, senior of the Evangelical Churches m Great Poland, d. 1632); but he had no part in the work.
For the Roman Catholics the Bible was translated from the Vulgate by John of Lemberg (Leopolita, hence this was called the Leopolitan Bible) and published at Cracow, 1561, 1574, and lo77. This Bible was superseded by the new translation of Jakub Wujek (a Jesuit, b. about 1540; a. at Cracow 1593). Wujek criticized the Catholic and non-Catholic Bible versions and spoke very favorably of the Polish of the Brest Bible, but asserted that it was full of heresies and of errors in translation. With the approbation of the Holy bee the New Testament was first published at Cracow, 1593, and the Old Testament in 1599,
after Wujek's death. This Bible has often been reprinted. Wujek's translation follows, in the main, the Vulgate. (A. Leskien.)
Bibliography: For the beginnings of Slavic versions consult: Vita sancti Methodii, russo-slovenice et latine, ed F Miklosich, Vienna, 1870; C. Dummler, Die pannonische Legende vom heiligen Method, in Archiv fur Kunde osterr. Geschichtsguellen, vol. xiii; idem and F. Miklosich, Die Legende vom heiligen Cyrillus, in Denkschriften der Wiener Akademie, phil.-histor. Classe, xix (1870); Jagic", ZurEntstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslav-Sprache,Vienna., 1900. On the history of versions consult: S. W. Ringeltaube, Nachricht von polnischen Bibeln, Danzig, 1744; R. G. Ungar, Allgemeine bbhmische Bibliothek, part 1, Theologie, Prague, 1786 (a bibliography of Bohemian versions); J. Dobrowsky, Ueber den ersten Text der bohmischen BibeliXbersettung, Prague, 1798; idem, Glagolitica, ib. 1807; C. F. Schnurrer, Slavischer Bilchernachdruck in Wurtemberg im 16. Jahrhundert, Tubingen, 1799; G. J. Dlabacz, Nachricht von einem bisher noch unbekannten bohmischen A. T,, Prague, 1804; Bible of Every Land, pp. 291-310, London, 1861; I. Kostrencic, Geschichte der protestantischen Litteratur der Sudslaven, 1569-65, Vienna, 1874; W. R.Morfill, Slavonic Literature, London, 1883; Archiv fur Slarieche Philologie, by V. Jagic, especially supplement vol. by F. Pastirnek, Berlin, 1892 (contains bibliographical lists of works on Slavonic subjects for the years 1876-91, including whatever has appeared during that time on the Russian Bible); V. Vondrak, Die Spuren der altkirchenslavischen Evangelieniibersetzung, Vienna, 1893; F. Ahn, Bibliographische Seltenheiten der Truberlitteratur, Leipsic, 1894; L. J. M. Bebb, The Russian Bible, in Church Quarterly Review, Oct., 1895, pp. 203-225; T. Else, Die slovenischen protestantischen Druckschriften des xvi. Jahrhunderts, Venice, 1896; Scrivener, Introduction, ii, 157 sqq.; BD, extra vol., pp. 417-420.
XVII. Spanish Versions: It is very difficult to decide at what time the first Spanish version was made. In treating of Spanish Bibles, a distinction should be made between the Catalonian and the Castilian speech. Of Biblical manuscripts in the former there are many from the fifteenth century, one (of the New Testament) from the fourteenth. Report has it that the Dominican Romeu Sabruguera of Mallorca (d. 1313), who translated the Psalms, worked on a translation of the entire Bible; but the report can not be verified. Most of the Catalonian translations of parts of the Bible (Proverbs, the Prophets, Pauline and Catholic Epistles) depend on the Vulgate and early French versions; a translation of the Psalms depends wholly on the French; the Gospels in the oldest manuscripts are not based on the Vulgate but on a text in southern French. Of an alleged translation supposed to have been printed in Valencia, 1478, no bibliographical datum or exemplar is known, only a few fragments being so attributed.
Of the Castilian translations almost as little is known, since no efficient examination of Spanish manuscripts has yet been made. If tradition may be accepted, the oldest version belongs to the thirteenth century, having been made at the request of Alphonso of Castile and John of Leon; but there is no confirmation of this statement. It is a remarkable fact that the early Castilian versions of the Old Testament were made by Jews, and the basis was, naturally, the Hebrew text. Luis de Guzman, grand master of the Order of Calatrava, entrusted in 1422 to the learned rabbi Moses Arragel of Maqueda the work of translating and annotating the Scriptures, but with the help and under the supervision of the Franciscan Arias
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