The Brest Bible ( pl, Biblia Brzeska) was the first complete Protestant Bible translation into Polish, published by Bernard Wojewodka in 1563 in

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...

and dedicated to King

Sigismund II Augustus Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler ...

. Polish full original title: ''Biblia święta, Tho iest, Księgi Starego y Nowego Zakonu, właśnie z Żydowskiego, Greckiego, y Łacińskiego, nowo na Polski ięzyk, z pilnością y wiernie wyłożone.''

Overview

It is sometimes also named after the Radziwiłł family surname of Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, the benefactor of the undertaking, or after

Pińczów Pińczów is a town in southern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 (2005). Pińczów belongs to the historic Polish province of Lesser Poland, a ...

, where the translating was commissioned and translators chosen and authorized at the

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

synods of 1559 and 1560, and where the work was accomplished.Various authors, ed. Marek Derwich and Adam Żurek, ''Monarchia Jagiellonów, 1399–1586'' (The Jagiellon Monarchy: 1399–1586), pp. 131–132, Urszula Augustyniak. Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2003, .''Polskie przekłady Biblii'' (Polish translations of the Bible) from Biblia, biblijna.strona.pl web site''Biblia Brzeska'' (Brest Bible) from Biblia – serwis biblistyczny, www.biblia.wortale.net web site The Brest Bible is one of the earliest modern era translations of all of the Bible, from, for the most part, the

original Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion t ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

languages.

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

was also utilized to a lesser degree and so was a French translation. The Brest Bible, produced by a group of Calvinist scholars, was preceded by the

Luther Bible The Luther Bible (german: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation from Latin sources by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in September 1522, and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocry ...

of 1534 and the Geneva Bible of 1560. The text of the translation, which stresses contextual and phraseological, rather than word-for-word translating, is highly reliable in respect to the originals and represents some of the finest Polish usage of the period. Among the leading

theologians Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

involved with the team

translation project A translation project is a project that deals with the activity of translating. From a technical point of view, a translation project is closely related to the project management of the translation process. But, from an intercultural point of vi ...

were Grzegorz Orszak, Pierre Statorius, Jean Thénaud of Bourges,

Jan Łaski Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form J ...

, Georg Schomann, Andrzej Trzecieski, Jakub Lubelczyk, Szymon Zacjusz, Marcin Krowicki,

Francesco Stancaro Francesco Stancaro (also Latin: Franciscus Stancarus) (1501 in Mantua – 1574 in Stopnica) was an Italian Catholic priest, theologian, Protestant convert, and Protestant reformer who became professor of Hebrew at the University of Königsberg ...

of Mantua, and Grzegorz Paweł of Brzeziny. The translation work took six years to complete.''Biblia Brzeska, zwana również Radziwiłłowską lub Pińczowską'' (Brest Bible, known also as Radziwiłł or Pińczów Bible) from www.polska.pl web site Mikołaj Radziwiłł's son,

Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł ( lt, Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis) (2 Augustus 1549 – 28 February 1616) and nicknamed "the Orphan" ( pl, Sierotka, lt, Našlaitėlis), was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman ( szlachcic), ...

, converted to Catholicism and as a Counter-Reformation zealot arranged for a public burning of all the specimens of the Bible of Brest that he could locate and buy (some have survivedBiblia święta...
, 1653 in PBI) at

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

' central market.

References

External links

"Biblia święta..."
– digitised version by Polska Biblioteka Internetowa (Old and New Testament),

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20180612143359/http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=2752&from=&dirids=1 "Biblia święta...", Old Testament– digitised by Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa. {{Authority control 1563 books 1560s in Poland 16th-century Christian texts History of Brest, Belarus Bible translations into Polish