P012 A Short History of the English Bible.

P012 A Short History of the English Bible.

Chaldee, or Aramaic.—By reason of the Babylonish captivity the Jews became more familiar with the Aramaic language than with the Hebrew.

About the time of Christ a translation of the Pentateuch was made from Hebrew into Aramaic.

Other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures were afterward translated, or, more correctly speaking, paraphrased. These versions or paraphrases are called Targums. They are ten in number, the most important being the Targum, of Onkelos.

It was first printed in 1609 at Venice.

Latin.—There were early Latin versions of the Bible, the origin of which is involved in mystery. The most celebrated of these is called the Vetus Itala, or Vetus Latina. The Old Testament was translated from the Septuagint. This version is supposed to have been made in Africa in the second century. A collation of the different emendations of the Vetus Itala was made by Sabatier; Remis, 1743, three volumes folio. In the fourth century the Vetus Itala was revised by Jerome; but, being dissatisfied with the translation, he prepared a new one, translating the Old Testament from the original Hebrew.

Jerome’s translation is known as the Vulgate. It was several hundred years after his death before its authority was recognized.

It has had several revisions by direction of different Popes, and has been for centuries the standard Bible of the Church of Rome.

It was first printed in Mentz, by Guttenberg, without date, but somewhere between 1450 and 1455. This is the first book printed with movable types.

German.—Portions of the Bible were translated into German as early as the latter part of the ninth century.

These translations increased in number until the invention of printing. Five undated editions were issued before 1477, all of them from the Vulgate. The first of these is thought to have been printed as early as 1466 in Strasburg.

Between 1477 and 1522 nine other editions followed, besides translations of detached portions.

Luther’s New Testament appeared in 1522. It was published at Wittemberg in two folio volumes. In 1524 the whole Bible, with the exception of the prophetical books, was published in three folio volumes at Nuremberg.

Luther’s Bible was translated from the original languages. The Zürich Bible was published shortly after Luther’s, and was a combination of his translation with the translations of Leo Judä and other German scholars.