Sect. VI. §3.]

German Versions.

(4.) The Icelandic Translation of the entire Bible was printed at Holum, in Iceland, in The New Testament had been translated by 1584, under the patronage of Frederic II. Oddur Gottshalkson (whose father filled the episcopal see of Holum), and printed in Denmark, in 1539, at the expense of Christian III. This was followed by an Icelandic Version of the Epistles and Gospels for all the Sundays in the year, published in 1562, by Olaf Hialteson, the first Lutheran bishop of Holum; which may be considered as a second In 1580, the edition of certain portions of Oddur's New Testament, the compiler having availed himself chiefly of that version, in writing out the lessons of which the work consists. At Proverbs of Solomon were translated by Gissur Eincerson, the first Lutheran bishop of Skalholt, who also translated the book of Sirach, printed in the same year at Holum. length, in 1584, as above noticed, the whole of the Old and New Testaments was printed in Icelandic, through the unremitting zeal and pious liberality of Gudbrand Thorlakson, bishop of Holum, who not only contributed largely to the undertaking himself, but also obtained a munificent donation from Frederic II., with authority to raise a rix-dollar in aid Gottof the work from every church in Iceland. It is not known what share this eminent prelate had in the translation, which is considered as the production of different hands. shalkson's version of the New Testament, as well as of some parts of the Old Testament, This edition has always been very was adopted, after having been revised by Gudbrand. highly esteemed, on account of the purity of its diction; and, even at this day, it is preferred A second edition of the Icelandic Bible appeared at before more modern translations. Holum in 1644, under the editorial care of Thorlak Skuleson, bishop of that see; by whom This is the standard text from which the two most it was carefully revised and corrected.

recent impressions of the Icelandic Version have been printed. 1

(5.) The Swedish Version was made from the first edition of Luther's German Translation; it was begun by Laurence Andreas, and finished by Laurence Petri, and was printed at Upsal, in 1541, by the command of Gustavus I., king of Sweden.

(6.) The Dutch Translation appeared in 1560, and after being repeatedly printed, was superseded by a new Protestant translation, of which an account is given in page 100. infra. (7-10.) The Finnish Version was printed at Stockholm, in 16422, and again in 16423; the Lettish (or Livonian) was made by Ernest Gluck, dean of the Lutheran church in Livonia, who completed it between the years 1680 and 1688: the entire Bible was printed at Riga, in 16894; the Sorabic or Wendish (a dialect spoken in Upper Lusatia), at Bautzen (Budissæ), in 1728, and again in 1742; and the Lithuanian, at Konigsberg (Regiomonti), in 1735.

Valuable as Luther's German translation of the Scriptures confessedly is, it was severely attacked, on its publication, by the enemies of the Reformation, whose productions are enumerated by Walchius. 5 Luther's translation, reformed by the Zuinglians and Calvinists, was printed, in various editions, at Neustadt, between the years 1679 and 1695; at Herborn in 1696, 1698, 1701-5-8, and 21; at Heidelberg in 1617 and 1618, and many times since; at Cassel in 1602; and at Basle in 1651, 1659, and in the last century very frequently.

Between the years 1525 and 1529, Leo Juda published at Zurich a German-Swiss translation of the Scriptures. As far as he could, he availed himself of such parts of Luther's version as were then printed. In 1667, a new and revised edition of Leo Juda's translation was published at Zurich: the alterations and corrections in it are so numerous, that it is considered as a new translation, and is commonly called the New Zurich Bible, in order to distinguish it from the Old Zurich version of Leo Juda. "It was undertaken by Hottinger, Müller, Zeller, Hoffmeister, and others, and conducted with great care and precision. As their plan seems to have had some resemblance to that pursued by our own admirable translators, and may, perhaps, have

1 The above particulars are abridged from the Rev. Dr. Henderson's "Historical View of the Translation and different Editions of the Icelandic Scriptures," in the second volume, (pp. 249—306.) of his very interesting Journal of a Residence in Iceland, during the years 1814 and 1815. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1818.

2 This edition was accompanied with a translation in the Esthonian language, spoken in the province of Esthland or Esthonia. It is a totally distinct language, being closely allied There is also a dialect of to the Finnish. Bp. Marsh's History of Translations, p. 4. note.

the Esthonian, called the Dorpatian Esthonian, into which the New Testament was translated and published in the year 1727.

3 A translation of the Scriptures into the Karelian language (spoken in Karelia, a province of East Finland), was printed in 1822 under the direction of the St. Petersburg Bible Society; but it is not known whether this version is made from the Finnish, or not. 4 Henderson's Biblical Researches, p. 111.

An edition of the New Testament, both in Livonian and Esthonian, had been already printed at Riga, in 1685 and 1686. The Lettish or Livonian is a Sclavonian dialect.

5 Walchii Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta, vol. iv. pp. 79-81.

been copied from it, this version is more particularly deserving of notice. When these learned men met together, Hottinger and Müller had each of them the Hebrew text put into their hands: Zeller had the old Zurich version; Wasser took the Italian of Giovanni Diodati and Pareus's edition of Luther's Bible; Hoffmeister had the Septuagint and the Junio-Tremellian version before him, and Freitz the Belgian Bible. When any difference arose, the point was argued by them all; each was called upon to give his opinion of the translation which was in his hands: and that reading was adopted, which, after mature consideration, seemed most agreeable to the Hebrew."

As the Zurich edition differs very materially from that of Luther, John Piscator undertook another, from the Latin version of Junius and Tremellius, which he has followed very closely. It appeared in detached portions between the years 1602 and 1604, and was repeatedly printed during the seventeenth century. Piscator's version, having become very scarce, has lately been revised by the Biblical and Divinity Professors, and three Pastors of the Helvetic church, who have corrected its orthography, and such words as have become obsolete, previously to an edition of 8000 copies of the entire Bible, and 4000 copies of the New Testament, which has been executed by the Berne Bible Society, aided by a pecuniary grant from the British and Foreign Bible Society of London.

Besides the preceding German Versions made by Protestants, there are also translations made by Romish divines; some of them appeared almost as early as that of Luther, to which, however, they are greatly inferior in point of perspicuity. Three of these are particularly mentioned by Walchius, viz.

(1.) That of John Detemberger, whose translation clearly evinces that he was utterly unfit for the task he undertook, and who hesitated not to acknowledge that he was totally ignorant of Hebrew. He took much from Luther, against whom, however, he vehemently inveighs. His translation was first published at Mayence in 1534, and has been several times printed since that time.

(2.) The Version which bears the name of John Eckius. He translated only the Old Testament, the New being executed by Jerome Emser. It was first published in 1537, and has also been repeatedly printed.

(3.) The Version of Caspar Ulenberg, which was undertaken under the patronage of Ferdinand, archbishop and elector of Cologne, is preferred by those of his own communion to all the other German Versions. He follows the Sixtine edition of the Latin Vulgate. This translation first appeared in 1630, and has undergone very numerous impressions.

The three translations just noticed include the Old and New Testaments. In addition to them, three new versions of the New Testament have, within a few years, been circulated very largely among the Romanists of Germany, who have evinced an ardent desire for the Scriptures, notwithstanding the fulminations of the Papal See against them. Of two of these versions, the Ratisbon edition, and that executed by M. Gossner, a learned Romish priest, formerly of Munich, the author has not been able to obtain any authentic particulars; the third was executed about the year 1812, by the Rev. Leander Von Ess, professor of divinity in the University of Marburg, in conjunction with his brother. It is made directly from the Greek, and has been recommended by the first Protestant clergymen at Dresden and Zurich, as well as by several authorities among the literati of the Romish communion, as exhibiting a pure and correct version of the Sacred Original. 3

There are also two translations of the Old Testament, in the dialect spoken by the Jews in Germany, called the Jewish-German. One was made by Joseph Josel Ben Alexander, and was printed by Joseph Athias, at Amsterdam, in 1679: previously to publication, it was revised by Rabbi Meir Stern, chief rabbi at the synagogue at Amsterdam. The other Jewish-German translation was executed by Rabbi Jethukiel Ben Isaac Blitz, and was printed by Uri Veibsch Ben Aaron, also at Amsterdam, in 1679. Kortholt terms this translator a blasphemous impostor, and charges him with having disguised certain prophecies relative to the Messiah, in consequence of his Jewish predilections. Of these two semi-barbarous, unfaithful, and now almost universally neglected translations, which can be of no use whatever in scripture criticism, Carpzov has given an account, with specimens. And as the German Jews are at this time said to be animated by a spirit of candid inquiry, a Jewish-German translation

1 Whittaker's Inquiry into the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures in Europe, p. 33. Cambridge, 1819. 8vo.

2 The late Rev. Dr. Reinhart, first chaplain to the court of Saxony, and the venerable superior of the Zurich clergy, Antistes Hess.

3 Owen's History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. ii. p. 229.

4 Carpzovii Critica Veteris Testamenti, pp. 757-786.

of the New Testament has lately been printed for their benefit, at the expense London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews.

of the

2. French Versions.

The earliest attempt towards translating the Scriptures into French was made by Jean de Vignay or de Vignes, who translated the epistles and gospels contained in the Romish missal, at the request of Jane of Burgundy, queen of Philip king of France, Later in the same century, Raoul de in the early part of the fourteenth century. 1 Presles, or Praelles, at the command of Charles V. king of France, translated the Bible into French as far as the Psalms or Proverbs. A very fine manuscript of his versions is preserved among the Lansdowne MSS., No. 1175., in the British Museum. 3 In 1512, James le Fèvre, of Estaples (better known by the name of Jacobus Faber, Stapulensis) published a translation of St. Paul's Epistles, with critical notes and a commentary, in which he freely censures the Vulgate; and, in 1523, he published at Paris, in a similar manner, the whole of the New Testament. This was followed by detached books of the Old Testament, and by an edition of the entire French Bible, translated by himself. It was printed at Antwerp by Martin l'Empereur, in 1530 (again in 1534 and 1541), and was revised by the divines of Louvain, whose edition appeared in 1550, and has since been repeatedly printed. The translation of Le Fèvre is said to be the basis of all the subsequent French Bibles, whether executed by Romanists or Protestants. The first Protestant French Bible was published by Robert Peter Olivetan, with the assistance of his relative, the illustrious reformer John Calvin, who corrected the Antwerp edition wherever it differed from the Hebrew. It was printed at Neufchatel, in 1535, in folio; and at Geneva in 1540, in large quarto, with additional corrections by Calvin. Both these editions are of extreme rarity. Another edition appeared at the same place in 1588, revised by the College of Pastors and Professors of the Reformed Church at Geneva (Beza, Genlart, Jaquemot, Bertram, and others), who so greatly improved Olivetan's Bible, both in correctness and diction, that it henceforth obtained the name of the Geneva Bible' by which it is now generally known. It has gone through very numerous editions* the latest of which is that of Geneva, 1805, in folio, and also in three volumes, 8vo revised by the College of Pastors at Geneva. This is, confessedly, the most elegant French version extant; but many Protestants have wished that it were a little more literal, and they continue to prefer David Martin's revision of the Genevan version of the French Bible (of which the New Testament was printed in 1696 at Utrecht, in 4to., and the entire Bible at Amsterdam, in 1707, in two folio volumes), or the revision of Jean-Frédéric Ostervald; the best edition of which is said to be that printed at Neufchatel, in 1772, in folio, with his arguments and reflections on the different books and chapters of the Bible. Ostervald's revised text (frequently but erroneously termed a version) has been several times printed. An accurate revision of David Martin's recension of the French Bible, executed at Paris by some learned Lutheran clergymen, under the direction of the Right Rev. Bishop Luscombe, chaplain to the British Ambassador, was announced as being in the press while this sheet was passing through the press. This revision has been undertaken under the auspices of the Foreign Translation Committee of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and at the Society's expense, for the use of the members of the Church of England in the Channel (or Norman) Isles. Great attention has been given to render this revision (which, from the number and minuteness of its corrections, should rather be called a new translation than a revision) an accurate and elegant version of the sacred text. Another French Protestant version (made from the Italian translation of Diodati) was published in 1562, which for a short time was held in estimation by the Calvinists. The French translation of Sebastian Castalio, who was but indifferently

Between the 1 Guiars de Moulins, canon of St. Pierre d'Aire, in the diocese of Touraine, is commonly but erroneously considered as the first French translator of the Bible. years 1291 and 1294 he translated the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor; a popular abstract of sacred history, which has been confounded with the Scriptures. (Townley's Illustrations of Biblical Literature, vol. i. pp. 390. 392.) Several copies of this translation are in the Royal Library at Paris; and an edition of it was printed by order of Charles VIII., to whom it was dedicated, at Paris, in 1487.

2 Townley's Illustrations, vol. ii. pp. 8-11.

3 See a description of this MS. in the Bibliotheca Lansdowniana, pp. 284, 285.

VOL. II. APP.

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skilled in that language, appeared at Basil in 1655; being accommodated to his Latin version above noticed, it was liable to the same objections, and was never held in any esteem. The translation of the entire Bible by Charles le Cène, who quitted France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was published, in a folio volume, in 1741, thirty-eight years after his death, by his son, a bookseller at Amsterdamn. The States of Groningen prohibited the circulation of this version in their province, on account of its Socinian tendency. A French translation of the New Testament, by the celebrated critic, le Clerc, appeared at Amsterdam, in two volumes 4to.: it is said to be tainted with Socinian principles, and has never been much read. But the French Protestant version of the New Testament, executed by MM. Beausobre and L'Enfant (Amsterdam 1718, in two volumes 4to.), is highly and deservedly esteemed for its closeness. An English translation of the Gospel of Matthew, made from this version, was published at Cambridge, in 1779, in 8vo., to which was prefixed a translation of the excellent introduction which accompanied the French edition. This volume has been several times printed.

A reformation of the Geneva Bible was undertaken by Renat Benoist (Renatus Benedictus), professor of divinity in the college of Navarre. It was published, with notes, in 1566; but being condemned by a brief of pope Gregory XIII. in 1575, a new edition was undertaken by the divines of Louvain, who freed it from the corrections of the reformed, and made it altogether conformable to the Latin. This edition was printed at Antwerp in 1575, and at various places since. In 1820, a version of St. John's Gospel, in the dialect spoken at Toulouse, and in its vicinity, was printed at Toulouse. There are several other French translations by private individuals, as, 1. The entire Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate by Jacques Corbin, an advocate of the parliament of Paris, and published in 1643, with the approbation of the faculty of theology of Poitiers: at present, it is but little esteemed in France; -2. The New Testament, from the Vulgate, by Michael de Marolles, published in 1649: it is executed principally from Erasmus's Latin version, but in some passages from the Vulgate, and has often been reprinted ;-3. Father Amelotte's translation of the New Testament, from the Vulgate, was published in 1666, 1667, and 1668, in 4 volumes 8vo., with notes. It has been very justly and severely criticised, for its blunders, by Father Simon. His principal design, in publishing this version, was to supersede the French Protestant translation, and especially that of the learned Port-Royalists (which was then in the press), whose bitter enemy Amelotte was;-4. The version of the New Testament by the Port-Royalists, which was depreciated, before its publication, by the adversaries of the Jansenists, appeared in 1667, in two volumes 8vo. It was printed at Amsterdam by the Elzevirs, for Gaspard Migeot, a Bookseller of Mons (whence it is sometimes called the Testament of Mons), with the approbation of the archbishop of Cambray, and the bishop of Namur, and with the privilege of the king of Spain; but it was condemned by the popes Clement IX. and Innocent XI. This version (which is from the Vulgate) was begun by Antoine le Maître, after whose death it was finished by his brother Isaac Louis le Maître de Sacy, with the assistance of the celebrated Port-Royalists, Arnaud, Nicole, Claude Sainte Marthe, and Pierre-Thomas du Fosse. This version was greatly esteemed, especially by the Jansenists;-5. The version of the New Testament, by Antoine Godeau, bishop of Grasse, appeared at Paris in 1668, in two volumes 8vo. it is made from the Vulgate, and holds a middle way between a literal version and a paraphrase; — 6. The New Testament, by Father Quesnel, is made more conformable to the Vulgate than the translation published at Mons (No. 4.), which he took for his basis: it is accompanied with moral reflections, which are justly admired for their piety, and were commended by pope Clement XI., who afterwards, in 1713, condemned this version by the celebrated Bull beginning with the words 'Unigenitus Dei Filius,' together with one hundred and one propositions extracted from it, and every thing that either had been written or should be written in defence of it! The first part of Quesnel's Version and Reflections was published in 1671, and the work was completed in the course of the nine following years. Editions of the whole work were printed at Brussels in 1693 and 1694, in 4 vols. 8vo., at Trevoux in 1698, and at Paris in 1699. This edition is said to be more ample than the preceding, and has often been reprinted both in 8vo. and 12mo. Quesnel's Reflections were translated into English, and published in 4 volumes 8vo. at London, in 17191725;-7. A Translation of the New Testament, published by the Jesuits at Bordeaux, in 1686, with the approbation and permission of the ecclesiastical authorities of the

1 Le Sént Ebangely dé Nostré Seignour Jesus Christ seloun Sént Jan, traduit én Léngo Toulouzenzo. A Toulouso, 1820. 12mo.

place.

Of the wilful alterations and falsifications introduced into this version, in order to support the peculiar dogmas of the Romish Church, an account was published It is supposed that nearly the whole of this version was by bishop Kidder in 1690. bought up and destroyed, as very few copies are known to be in existence2;-8, 9. Between 1697 and 1703, the Jesuits, Bouhours, Michael Tellier, and Pierre Bernier, published another translation of the New Testament; but this, as well as the version of Charles Hure, also from the Vulgate (Paris, 1702, in four volumes 12mo.), are now nearly forgotten ;-10. The French version of the ingenuous critic, Father Simon, published with notes in 1702, was translated into English by Mr. Webster, in two This version was condemned by an ordinance of the cardinal volumes 4to. 1730. "Instructions," issued by the celede Noailles, archbishop of Paris, and also by two brated Bossuet, bishop of Meaux ;-11. The Translation of M. Eugène de Genoude, from the sacred texts, accompanied by the Latin Vulgate, is in all respects conformable to the dogmas of the Romish Church. It was first published at Paris, in 1820-24, in 23 vols. 8vo. and has been repeatedly printed. This translation has been much commended in some French Journals, and as vehemently criticised by others. It is, however, allowed to be executed in elegant French. Various portions of the Bible have been translated into French by other writers, who are not of sufficient note to require a distinct mention.

3. (French) Basque Version.

The French Basque dialect is spoken in the department of the Pyrennees, and the The New Testament, in this dialect, was first printed at province of Navarre. Rochelle in 1571, with a dedication in French to Joan d'Albret, queen of Navarre, In 1826, a new by John de Licarrague de Briscous. It is furnished with parallel passages in the margin, and at the end are summaries of contents, indexes, &c.+ edition of the Gospel of St. Matthew in this dialect was printed at Bayonne, from a copy that was discovered in the University Library at Oxfords. and in 1829, the

1 Le Nouveau Testament de notre Seigneur J. C., traduit de Latin en François par les Théologiens de Louvain; imprimé a Bordeaux, chez Jacques Mongiron-Millanges, ImpriAvec approbation et permission. meur du Roi et du Collège, 1686.

2 Two copies are at Oxford, one in the Bodleian Library, and another in that of Christ Church College; two others are in Dublin, in the University Library, and in the Library founded by Archbishop Marsh; and a fifth is in the possession of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex. (Dr. Cotton's Memoir of a French Translation of the New Testament, p. 9.) The late Rev. Dr. Grier, in the preface to his "Answer to Ward's Errata of the Protestant Bible" (London, 1812. 4to.), has given many specimens of the falsifications, forgeries and additions made by the Jesuits to the text of the Bordeaux French version of Two or three passages are subjoined as examples of the corruptions the New Testament. thus wilfully made in this version : — Acts xiii. 2. Or comme ils offroient au Seigneur le sacrifice de la messe. offered unto the Lord the sacrifice of the mass, &c.

- Now as they

By This is one of the most notorious falsifications to be found in the French translation; it was designedly made, to support the unscriptural doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass. it, the translators departed from the Latin Vulgate as well as from the English Protestant version. This is the very passage respecting which Monsieur Veron, when asked why he "Because he had often been asked by Calvinists, wrested it from its natural meaning, replied, what scripture affirmed that the apostles said mass." (Simon's Crit. Hist. of the New Testament, p. 357.)

1 Tim. iv. 1. Or l'Esprit dit clairement, qu'en derniers temps quelques uns se sépareront de la foy Romaine.-Now the Spirit says, that in the latter times some shall depart from the Roman faith.

Here the Bordeaux translators have been guilty of another forgery, for the purpose of representing the Romish church as the only church.

2 Cor. viii. 19. Et non seulement cela, mais aussi il a esté ordonné par les églises, compagnon de notre pélerinage.—And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches the companion of our pilgrimage.

In this passage Saint Paul is merely speaking of his having selected a brother to accompany him on his travels; but in the Bordeaux version the apostle's language is altered, for the purpose of showing that the practice of pilgrimage is warranted by Scripture. 3 Schoell, Histoire Abrégée de la Littérature Grecque, tome ii. pp. 159-166. Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, art. Quesnel, vol. xxv. pp. 426-429.

4 Adler's Bibliotheca Biblica, part iv. p. 151.

5 Archives du Christianisme pour 1826. p. 47.

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