Fraternity-Testvériség, 1990 (68. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1990-07-01 / 3-4. szám
Page 6 TESTVÉRISÉG 400th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMPLETE TRANSLATION AND PRINTING OF THE HUNGARIAN BIBLE The year of 1990 marks the 400th Anniversary of the complete translation and printing of the Hungarian Bible in the town of Vizsoly, Abaúj County, Hungary. Remembering this historic Anniversary, lectures are being presented in Budapest, in Vizsoly and wherever members of the Reformed Church reside. This Anniversary is also being observed by literary and cultural circles since this first complete translation of the Bible set the foundation for Hungarian literary and cultural development. We, descendants of the Reformed Church in Hungary also observe this memorable Anniversary since we were nurtured on this Hungarian Bible. In short, let us see the background of this first complete Bible in Hungarian: Many scholars attempted to translate the entire Bible into the Hungarian language. Complete translations that have been mentioned, the Hussite Bible, Báthori's translation, Benczédi's promise of a complete translation and Heltai almost reached 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 particula (a part of the Sárospatak school), Mátyás Thúri of Abaúj szántó, 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.
