Folia Theologica 9. (1998)

György Benyik: Hungarian Bible Translation

HUNGARIAN BIBLE TRANSLATIONS

235

SIMON HEVESI (1868-1943), a rabbi of Lugos. He wrote a study on The Book of Job in 1905 and translated The Book of Jeremiah and The Lamentations of Jeremiah for family and school (1930).

HERMANN HERTZ J. translated the Pentateuch and haftharas.88 He published a bilingual Torah with commentary (the Israelite Hungarian Literry Society edition). He wanted to translate into colloquial Hungarian and though he took the comments from the Talmud and Midrash, he also applied the methods of modern philology. Although it was intended to be a scholarly commentary it was new only in Hungary, because the Biblical Studies of that time were already far beyond the concepts contained in this work.

Development of Catholic and Protestant Bourgeois Mentality

The following translators worked alone without being much encouraged by their churches. While the Catholics translated from Latin, the Protestants used the Greek and Hebrew versions. Some of them taught at schools of Theology and with their publications belong to the first representatives of Hungarian Theological literature. The Protestants traditionally published their works in Hungarian. IZIDOR GUZMICS established the first Hungarian Catholic Theological monthly and the slowly developing Catholic papers also started to publish Hungarian translations.

IMRE CSICSÁKY (I860-?), a Catholic priest of Csanád Diocese, wrote studies on the poetry of the Bible.89 He translated The Lamentations of Jeremiah90 from the Vulgate and compared it with the Hebrew text.

GERGELY HEREPEI (18o7-1859), an engineer, who later became a preacher in Göttingen and who studied in Marburg. With Dániel Incze he wrote a New Testament commentary91 based upon an earlier German work.

ISTVÁN BOLEMAN (1795-1882) studied at Selmecbánya and at Tübingen. He was the director and religious teacher of the Lutheran Ly88 Budapest, 1939. New edition, 1984.

89 A szentírás költészetéről, in Religió 1884.; A bibliai költészet metrikája, in Egyetemes Philológiai Közlöny 1885-1886. Cf. studies in Religió 1884.

90 Budapest, 1885.

91 Új testamentom. A szent Írásnak a szent tudomány jelen álláspontjához s korunk kivánataihoz alkalmazott fejtegetés gyakorlati magyarázata. After Wohlfart J. Fr. T.’s German study. Kolozsvár, 1854.