The ''Skeireins'' ( got, 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃; ) is the second-longest known surviving text in the

Gothic language Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the ''Codex Argenteus'', a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable text cor ...

, after

Ulfilas Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missiona ...

' version of the Bible. It consists of eight fragments of a commentary on the

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "si ...

which is commonly held to have originally extended over seventy-eight parchment leaves. It owes its title to the 19th-century German scholar

Hans Ferdinand Massmann Hans Ferdinand Massmann (german: Maßmann; 15 August 1797 – 3 August 1874) was a German philologist, known for his studies in Old German language and literature, and for his work introducing gymnastics into schools in Prussia. Biography Massma ...

, who was the first to issue a comprehensive and correct edition of it: "Skeireins" means "explanation" in Gothic. The manuscript containing the Skeireins text is a

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

. Currently it is housed at the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

(Vat. lat. 5750) in Rome. There are conflicting views on whether the ''Skeireins'' was written directly in Gothic by a native speaker or whether it was a translation from a Greek original. Schäferdiek (1981)Schäferdiek, Knut (1981). ‘Die Fragmente der “Skeireins” und der Johanneskommentar des Theodor von Herakleia’, ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur'' 110: 175–9

/ref> observes striking similarities between the Gothic of the ''Skeireins'' and the Greek of Theodore Stratelates, Theodore of Heraclea's commentary on the Gospel of John.

References

External links

* * {{wikisourcelang-inline, , Die gotische Bibel#Die Skeireins, Text of the Skeireins in Latin script
Manuscripts of the Gothic Bible

Full text and multiple translations of the Skeireins
6th-century biblical manuscripts Gothic Bible Palimpsests Gospel of John Manuscripts of the Vatican Library

See also

References

External links