VERSIONS
369
VERSIONS
lation by Prince Wakuset (Moscow, 1743), and has
appeared later with many changes (e. g., Moscow,
1816; St. Petersburg, 1818).
(7) Syriac Versions. — In the earUest years of Chris- tianity, a Syriac version of the Old Testament made dirertly from the Hebrew text was employed in the Syrian Church, but in the seventh century, Paul, Bishop of Telia, gave the Monophysites a translation (617) from the Septuagint. It followed Uterally Origen's Hexaplar text and was later revised by James jf Edessa (died 907). In the sixth century there had appeared a version of the Psalter and New Testament from the Greek at the request of Philoxenus, by whose aame it has since been known. A century later it ippeared at Alexandria in a recension of great criti- cal value.
(8) Slavic Versions. — Saints Cyril and Methodius preached the Gospel to the Slavs in the second half of he ninth century, and St. Cyril, having formed an ilphabet, made for them, in Old Ecclesiastical Slavic, )r Bulgarian, a translation of the Bible from the ^reek. Toward the close of the tenth century this .ersion found its way into Russia with Christianity, md after the twelftli century it underwent many inguistic and textual changes. A complete Slav 3ible after an ancient codex of the time of Waldimir d. 1008) was published at O.strog in 1581. When impress Elizabeth ordered a new revision of St. i^yril's translation (17.51), the translators used the Jstrog edition, correcting it according to the Septua-
- int and changing the Old Slavonic in great part to
ilodcrn Russian. This has remained the norm for ater Ru.ssian Bibles.
The I'nitcil Ridhcnians have a version approved by heir bishops and printed at Poczajow (1798) and 'rzemysl (1862).
The first complete Polish Bible was printed at >acow in 1.561, 1.574, and 1.577. As it proved unsat- sfactory to Catholics, Jacob Wujek, S.J., undertook I new translation from the Vulgate (Cracow, 1593), vhich was praised by Clement VIII, and eprinted frequently. Other PoUsh Bibles are a Socinian version (Cracow, 1.563), and a Unitarian rom the Hebrew by von Budey (Czaslaw, 1572).
In the Czech, or Bohemian, tongue, thirty-three kIS. versions of the entire Bible and twenty-eight of he New Testament are known to have existed in he fifteenth century. A New Testament was irinted at Pilsen in 1475 and 1480. A complete 5ible b)' John Pytlik and others appeared at Prague a 1488. In the si.xteenth century there were six ersions of the whole Bible and sixteen of the New f'estament. In the seventeenth century the Jesuits dited the so-called St. Wenceslaus Bible at Prague 1677, 1715, and later). A new translation was made ly Durych and Prochaska (Prague, 1778, 1786, 807). Protestant versions appeared at Pressburg 1787, 1808), Berhn (1807, 1813), and Kisek (1842).
A Slnrak version of the Bible for Catholics was lade by Bernolak (Gran, 1829).
A Servian, or Ilbjrian, version of the Bible was made V Kassich (1632). There are also two MS. versions, y Stephen Rosy (1750) and Burgadelli (1800).
,\ Croatian version of the Bible was made by tephen Istranin and Anton Dalmatin in the six- pent h century.
The Vulgate was translated into Bosnian bv Peter [atanic, O.S.F. (Budapest, 1831).
A Dalmatian version with commentary by John karic appeared at Vienna (1857-61); a Bible Society dition, the Old Testament by George Danicic and he New Testament by Vuk Karadzic, was also pub- shed there (1868).
(9) Arabic Ver-iions. — There exist six or seven irabic translations of portions of the Old Testament ccording to the Septuagint, some of them belonging the tenth century. XV.— 24
Versions directly fro.vi the Hebrew. (1)
Chaldaic Versions or Targums. — After the Baby-
lonian Captivity, the Jews developed a large use of
the Chaldaic, or Aramaic, tongue. To meet their
needs the Sacred Books were translated into tliis dia-
lect, and used in the pubhc services of the synagogues
not later than the second century B. c. At first the
translations were oral, being largely paraphrastic
interpretations with comments. In time rules of
exegesis were determined, the translations were fixed
in WTiting, and were thus widely circulated even
before the time of Christ. Of these Chaldaic ver-
sions, called Targums (Paraphrases), there is none
extant containing the entire Hebrew Bible, (a)
The earliest is on the Pentateuch and is known as the
Targum of Onkelos, whom tradition has identified
with Aquila and whose Greek translation has some-
thing of the same Uteral character. This Targum,
however, was produced by some other, probably in
Babylon in the third century, (b) A Targum on the
Prophets, in its present form of the fourtli century,
is attributed to Jonathan ben Uzziel, to whom the
Talmud alludes as a disciple of Hillel. In style it
resembles the Targum of Onkelos, but its i)araphrase
is freer, (c) A Targum on the Pentateuch, said
to be of Jeruskalmi, or of Pseudo-Jonathan, is also a
freer rendition and belongs to the sixth or seventh
century, (d) There are also Targums on the Hagi-
ographa. Psalms, Job, Proverbs, etc. (See Targum.)
(2) Syriac Versions. — The Peschitto. — As early as the second century, portions of the Hebrew Bible, as the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Psalms, had been translated into Syriac and were in use in the Syrian Church. Gradually the remaining books were given out with versions from the Greek of all the deuterocanonical books except Ecclesiast icus, which was rendered from the Hebrew. The fourth century found the Syrian Christians possessed of a complete translation of the Old Testament, which is known since the ninth century as the Peschitto or "Sim- ple". This name denotes its literal fidehty, or, as others think, a meaning like Vulgate, or Communis, or again indicates its distinction from the version of Paul of Telia, its source, which contains the critical additions of the He.xaplar text. It is the first version of the Hebrew Scriptures made for and by Christians. In antiquity and importance, it ranks next to the Septuagint, according to which it was revised later. A recent edition of the Peschitto was issued from the Dominican printing-press at Mossul (1887-91).
Of S\Tiac versions of the New Testament, one of the earliest is (a) the Diatessaron of Tatian (q. v.). (b) The Peschitto New Testament, hke the Old, is sti|l used in the Syrian Church; it was in circula- tion in the fourth century and existed, in part at least, in the third, (c) In 1842 a portion of what is believed to be an independent Syriac version was found in Egypt. Since its pubhc'ation in 1858 by Dr. Cureton, it is known as the Curetonian text. (d) The Sinaitic text of a Syrian ver.sion consists of fragments found at Mt. Sinai in 1892, and seems an independent version of great antiquity.
(3) Arabic Versions. — An Arabic version of the Hebrew Bible was made in the tenth century by Saadia ha Gaon. Only its Pentateuch, Minor Proph- ets, Isaias, Psalms, and ,Iob have been [ik .served. In 1671 an Arabic Bible was published at Rome under the direction of Sergius Risi, Archbi-shop of Dama.scus. It appeared in numerous later editions. A mutilated reprint of it (London, 1S22) was circulated by the Bible Society. To oft-set this Protestant influence, complete Arabic versions were issued both by the Dominicans at Mossul (1875-8) and the Jesuits at Beirut (1876-8).
Cai-shuni fKarshimi) Version. — This is an Arabic version made in Syriac characters for Syrian Chris- tiana chiefly of Mesopotamia, Aleppo, and adjacent
