Česky / Czech Bible History (3)

**List: Czech Ministry Holy Bible ( Bible, Biblí Svatá ) Czech... BOHEMIAN. "III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.    The greater part of a Bohemian version of the Scriptures appears to have been extant at the close of the fourteenth century: several translations of the Psalms, and a version of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, and of the Sunday Lessons from the Gospels, ascribed to that century, are still preserved in MS. in the libraries of Vienna, Prague, and Oels in Silesia.   Ann, queen of Richard II. of England, is well known to have possessed Bibles, Latin, German, and Bohemian.   The various books of Scripture were read and circulated in Bohemia, in separate portions, until the time of Huss and Jerome of Prague, the martyrs of the fifteenth century.   About the time that Huss began to preach against the evils of the Roman Church, the several portions of Scripture that had been translated into Bohemian were for the first time collected together.   It is uncertain whether Huss assisted in forming this collection, or whether he caused any portion of the sacred volume to be translated anew.   After his martyrdom in 1415, copies of this Bible were greatly multiplied by his followers.   Many copies were written by women, and the scriptural knowledge of the Taborite women is noticed by Æneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II.: he remarked that "it was a shame to the Italian priests that many of them had never read the whole of the New Testament, whilst scarcely a woman could be found among the Bohemians (or Taborites) who could not answer any questions respecting either the Old or New Testament."   From A.D. 1410 to 1488 (when this Bible was first printed), no less than four different recensions of the entire Scriptures can be distinctly traced, and many more of the New Testament.   About thirty-three copies of the whole Bible, and twenty- two of the New Testament, written during this period, are still extant; and of these some are copied from each other, and some appear to have been translated anew, but all have evidently been executed from the Vulgate.    The edition of this Bohemian Bible published by the United Brethren in 1488 furnishes the first instance on record of the application of the newly-invented art of printing to the multiplication of the Scriptures in a living tongue.   From the date of this publication to the year 1804, fourteen editions of this version left the press.   Between the years 1579 and 1593, a version of the Scriptures, executed by the United or Moravian Brethren from the original texts, was published in six quarto volumes at Kralitz, in Moravia.   Fourteen translators are said to have been engaged on this splendid work, and the whole was published at the expense of the Baron John Zerotimus.   Schaffarik has remarked con- cerning this translation, and the notes that accompanied it, "that they contain a great deal of that which, two hundred years later, the learned coryphæi of exegesis exhibited to the world as their own profound discoveries."    In addition to the two versions above mentioned, a translation of the entire Scriptures from the Vulgate into Bohemian was published in 1804, by Prochazka and Durich: the New Testament of this version had appeared in 1786.   A translation of the Old Testament, executed by Wartowsky from the Hebrew, still exists in MS., but has never been printed.    The design of issuing an edition of the Bohemian Bible was entertained by the Berlin Bible Society as early as 1805.   The current of political events, however, impeded the progress of the edition, which was not completed till 1807.   It consisted of 3000 copies, all of which were put into circulation in little more than twelve months.   In 1808, an edition of the Bible, carefully printed from the text of 1593, was edited by Professor Palkovitch [?G. Palkowic @ Slovakian], of Hungary, with a list of words that had become obsolete since the translation was made.   Owing to the poverty of the country, about 100 copies only got into circulation till 1812, when the stock in hand was purchased for distribution by the Bible Society. Up to the end of 1859, 35,000 copies of the Bible, and 26,000 Testaments, had been published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in this language, exclusive of the many large editions published at Berlin by its aid; but the results of this extensive distribution have not yet been fully manifested. Bishop Fabricius alone was stated to have brought into circulation 7,200 Bibles and 40,000 Testaments, and they appear to have been anxiously sought for, and well received.1    1 A recent endeavour on the part of the British and Foreign Bible Society to disseminate the Scriptures in the Provinces of the Austrian Empire has resulted in failure, owing to the decisive and bigoted opposition on the part of the ruling powers--prompted here, as elsewhere, by the denunciations of the Romish priesthood.   In 1850 and 1851, the Society's agent at Vienna commenced the printing of several editions, in the Bohemian as well as the German and Hungarian languages.   His efforts were crowned with such success, that during the first six months of his resi- dence, he dispersed 6965 volumes.   After a time, however, the depôts at Güns, Pesth, and Vienna, were summarily closed by the police; and an order made by the government to have all the copies of the Scriptures on hand sent out of the country, was rigorously enforced.   Two hundred and four bales, and one hundred and twenty-five cases, con- taining, either bound or in sheets, 58,087 copies of Bibles and Testaments, were accordingly, under the charge of a detachment of gens d’armes, conveyed beyond the frontiers of the Austrian territory, amidst the unavailing tears and sighs of tens of thousands of the people, waiting for and anxious to possess the precious volumes, of which they were so mercilessly bereft!"--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] BOHEMIAN.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: Gothic Character   n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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