Calvin Synod Herald, 1974 (74. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1974-10-01 / 10-11. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 3 Beginnings of the Hungarian Bible Translation III. Complete Translations We see that many scholars attempted to translate the entire Bible into the Hungarian language. Complete translations have been mentioned, the Hussite Bible, Báthori’s translation, Benczédi’s promise of a complete translation and Heltai almost reaching the goal. The first scholar who translated the complete Bible into Hungarian was Gáspár Károlyi, a Reformed minister from the city of Gönc, Abaúj County. This complete translation was printed in the neighboring village of Vizsoly in 1590. This Bible is often called the Vizsolyi Biblia — Vizsoly Bible after the place in which it was printed. Károlyi was born in Nagykároly, Szatmár County, around 1529. His name was written as “Károli”, “Caroli”, “Carolj”; his full name was Gáspár Radies Károlyi. In 1556 he was a student at the University of Wittenberg, where he matriculated under the name of Caspar Carolus Pannonius. In 1559 he became minister of the Gönc congregation. Károlyi was a scholar, writer, church diplomat and organizer, and Dean of the Kassa Valley Reformed Churches. Translating the entire Bible into the Hungarian language was his main and most important accomplishment. He started his work approximately in 1586 and worked on it for three years. His fellow-workers and helpers were: János Pelei, a teacher in Gönc partiddá (a part of the Sárospatak school), Mátyás Thúri of Abaújszántó, János Czeglédi, a minister in Vizsoly, Imre Huszti, his fellow minister in Gönc, and his younger brother, Mihály Károlyi. When Károlyi arrived in Gönc, Bencédi was his fellow-minister and helped in the beginning of his translating, or rather his works were used as reference. Károlyi was well acquainted with the original languages; Hebrew and Greek. In his translations, the original texts were used, but they also used the Erasmus translation, the Vulgate, Bencédi’s translation of the Psalms and probably other Hungarian translations. It has not been proven that a translation which Bencédi was supposed to have written was used or not. A special shop in Vizsoly was acquired for the first printing of the entire Bible. Bálint Mantskovits was hired as the printer. Machines, letters and paper were purchased in Germany at the expense of magnates, among them: István Báthori of Ecsed, Zsigmond Rákóczi, later Prince of Transylvania, István Drugeth of Homonna and Gáspár Magócsi. The translation and its language was criticized by both Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, but this translation still emerges from the past as a monument of faith, literature and language which has had an immense influence not only upon Protestants, but upon the entire Hungarian literature and nation. This first complete translation of the Bible by Károlyi until the year 1940, was revised several times, and reprinted 100 times; the New Testament of Károlyit translation was reprinted 65 times. These editions were put out not only in Hungary, but abroad also.45 This Károlyi translation is the most spread among Hungarians, and is a cherished gem of Hungarian Protestants. Ferenc Toldy, a literary historian, does not give a good evaluation to this Bible.43 Géza Féja finds the translation correct and its language expressive.44 Thirty-five years after Károlyi’s translation was published, the first Roman Catholic Hungarian translation appeared in Vienna by György Káldi. Káldi made his translation from the Vulgata, the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Káldi translated the text of the Vulgata. About its language, Ferenc Toldy, himself a Roman Catholic, gives a favorable evaluation.46 It is written in eloquent Hungarian and is of high literary taste, but it has not been spread among the people as the Károlyi translation was. Actually it was not planned for wide distribution among the Hungarians, or Hungarian Roman Catholics. In the foreword to his translation, Káldi writes: “It is not necessary for everyone to read the Bible.”47
