Page 1 of 1

Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible

PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:57 am
by Hunter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Bible
Gothic Bible
The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible as translated by Wulfila in the fourth century into the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic (Gothic) tribes.

Codices
Surviving fragments of the Wulfila Bible consist of codices from the 6th to 8th century containing a large part of the New Testament and some parts of the Old Testament, largely written in Italy. These are the Codex Argenteus, which is kept in Uppsala, the Codex Ambrosianus A through Codex Ambrosianus E, containing the epistles, Skeireins, and Nehemiah 5–7, the Codex Carolinus (Romans 11–14), the Codex Vaticanus Latinus 5750 (Skeireins), the Codex Gissensis (fragments of the Gospel of Luke) and the Fragmenta Pannonica, and fragments of a 1 mm thick metal plate with verses of the Gospel of John. ...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfilas
Ulfilas (or Wulfila)
Ulfilas (Gothic: ******* ; Wulfila; "Little Wolf"), also Ulphilas, Orphila[1] (ca. 311 – 383[2]), bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth and half-Greek from Cappadocia who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work as a missionary. In 348, to escape religious persecution by a Gothic chief, probably Athanaric[3] he obtained permission from Constantius II to migrate with his flock of converts to Moesia and settle near Nicopolis ad Istrum in modern northern Bulgaria. There, Ulfilas translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language. ...


http://www.answers.com/topic/ulfilas
Ulfilas (ca. 311-ca. 382), Arian bishop of the Visigoths, or West Goths, translated at least part of the Bible into Gothic. He developed the Gothic alphabet on the basis of the Greek and Roman alphabets and enriched the Gothic, or East Germanic, language. ...



Rare Gothic Bible Editions to read online or download:

1.This Bible can be safely browsed here ---> http://www.wulfila.be/gothic/browse/#TOC
(This comparative version illustrates the Gothic, Greek and English in a line-by-line format.)

2. https://archive.org/details/diegotischebibel01heid <--- This is edition is NOT in English
Die gotische Bibel (1908)

Volume: 1-2
Translator/editor: Wilhelm Streitberg
Publisher: Heidelberg : Carl Winter
Language: Gothic and Greek.
Call number: AKM-0226
Digitizing sponsor: University of Toronto
Book contributor: PIMS - University of Toronto
Collection: pimslibrary; toronto


3. https://archive.org/details/firstgermanicbib00ulfi <--- This has a long informative English introduction
The first Germanic Bible (1891)

Author: Ulfilas, Bishop of the Goths, ca. 311-381?; Balg, G. H. (Gerhard Hubert), 1852-1933; Bernhardt, Ernst, b. 1831; Massachusetts Bible Society
Subject: Gothic language; Gothic language
Publisher: Milwaukee, Wis. : The Author
Language: Gothic; Ancient Greek
Call number: b13502761
Digitizing sponsor: Boston University
Book contributor: School of Theology, Boston University
Collection: bostonuniversiyschooloftheology; blc; americana

Re: Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible

PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 9:09 am
by Hunter
Below, is some more background relating to Ulfilas (or Wulfila).

http://histclo.com/chron/ancient/ger/ger-wulfila.html

The Germanic Tribes: The Wulfila Bible

Wulfila or Little Wolf was a Christian missionary to the still pagan Goths in the the 4th century. The Patriarch of Constantinople in the years before the rise of the papacy consecrated Wulfila bishop of the Gothic Christians. Wulfila converted many Germanic tribesmen to the Arian form of Christianity. He also created the Gothic alphabet which he based on the Greek and Latin alphabets. Bishop Ulfila or Wulfila translation of the Bible is a landmark in German history and a major source document for linguists.

Bishop Wulfila (c311-c381)

Wulfila or Little Wolf was a Christian missionary to the still pagan Goths in the the 4th century. He worked more than 30 years in Lower Moesia. The Patriarch of Constantinople in the years befor the rise of the papacy consecrated Wulfila bishop of the Gothic Christians. Wulfila converted many Germanic tribesmen to the Arian form of Christianity. He also created the Gothic alphabet which he based on the Greek and Latin alphabets. Wulfila also translated the Bible into Gothic about 350 AD. This is the earliest translation of the Bible or any other book into a Germanic language. His Gothic alpahbet permitted the Germanic peoples to express ideas in writing for the first time.

The Wulfila Bible

Bishop Ulfila or Wulfila translation of the Bible is a landmark in German history and the beginning of German literature. It is also a major source document for linguists as it is the earliest written version of any Germanic language. He did not translate the book of Kings. Through time, many parts have been lost, but enough remains for linguists to have a clear insight in the oldest Teutonic language that has survived, and because it is the oldest, the present day Germanic [Teutonic] languages are always compared with East-Gothic.

The Lord's prayer at the front is in East-Gothic. The letters in red, are East-Gothic letters. At the bottom of each triple line are the Latin equivalents. Even though the language is 1650 years old, the writing is quite recognisable, although a flaw in my own Dutch translations is a possibility. The Lord's Prayer in all Teutonic languages starts with calling God, Father. Though East-Gothic has the word Fadar, Wulfila did not want to use it, because it referred too much to an earthly father and from that to an earthly kingdom. Those were not desirable references for the warlike Goths, and it has been suggested that those titles in connection with the omitted books of I & II Kings would just stimulate the Goths in making more war. So he used the word Atta that has the double meaning of Father and Eternal.

Wulfila used the word Thiud instead of king, making reference to an earthly kingdom impossible. The English translator may have found it awkward to use the term God-dom, but that is what Wulfila meant to say, to emphasise its spiritual value. It is easy to see the difference between Kingdom and Thiudangardi. The latter word stands for God's Garden = Paradise. Equivalents for Thiud are Teutonic Good, Guth, God, Gott, and Greek and Latin Theos and Deos. Wodan, Odin, and Zeus are also equivalents. (Thiuth, Thiud, which is related to the God of God's Kingdom in the Bible, stands also for people or folk, as in Teuton, Tysk, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch.)

Atilla

Atilla the Hun in Wulfila's day threatened both the Goths and other Germanic tribes as well as the Romans. Wulfila and his translation of the Bible is the reason that we know the Hun chief by his name Attila. Ulfila borrowed Atta from the Greek word Athanasie meaning eternity. (Note ete in the word eternity). Unlike all other Germanic translations into Father, he substituted the word Atta, or Atha. (Frisian maybe an exception as it uses Heit, which was Haita during the 16th century.) The East Gothic word Fadar referred to an earthly father whereas Atta referred to an eternal father. The Hun leader was thus referred to by the Goths as Attila. The ending ila is a diminition so that they really called him "Little eternal father."


...and for deeper study about Ulfilas and the Goths, see the link to the book listed below, whereby, it can be read online or securily downloaded.

https://archive.org/details/ulfilasapostleof00scot
Ulfilas, apostle of the Goths : together with an account of the Gothic churches and their decline (1885)

Author: Scott, Charles Archibald Anderson, 1859-1941
Subject: Ulfilas, Bishop oth the Goths, ca. 311-381; Goths
Publisher: Cambridge : Macmillan and Bowes
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: 199601
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Collection: Princeton; americana