The Bible was translated into the Manx language, a Gaelic language related to Irish and Scots Gaelic, in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The first extant translation of any part of the Bible into the Manx language was by John Phillips, the Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1604 until his death in 1633. He also translated the 1604 version of the Book of Common Prayer in 1610. [1]
The printing of Prayers for the Poor Families was projected by Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, in a memorandum of Whit-Sunday 1699, but this was not carried out until 30 May 1707, the date of issue of his Principles and Duties of Christianity ... in English and Manks, with short and plain directions and prayers. This was the first book published in Manx, and is often styled the Manx Catechism. It was followed in 1733, by A Further Instruction and A Short and Plain Instruction for the Lord's Supper. The Gospel of St. Matthew was translated with the help of his vicars-general in 1722, and published in 1748 under the sponsorship of Wilson's successor as bishop, Mark Hildesley (1755-1772). The remaining Gospels and the Acts were also translated into Manx under his supervision, but not published.
The Bible was translated into Manx by a committee of clergy from the Isle of Man under the direction of Bishop Mark Hildesley. [2] The New Testament appeared in 1767, and the Old Testament (including 2 books of the Apocrypha) in 1772 and the whole Bible as one volume in 1775. [3]
Of 20,000 people in the Isle of Man, few in Hildesley's day knew English. A Manx translation of the New Testament had been begun by his predecessor Thomas Wilson Hildesley himself learned Manx well enough to conduct the church services in it, but not perfectly. John Kelly made for him a grammar and dictionary. At first, with the support of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Hildesley printed the New Testament and the Book of Common Prayer, translated, under his direction, by the clergy of the diocese, as well as the Christian Monitor, John Lewis's Exposition of the Catechism, and Bishop Wilson's Form of Prayer for the use of the herring fishermen. [4]
With further assistance, around 1766, Hildesley made arrangements for the translation of the Old Testament, dividing it into 24 parts. The names of the translators are given in Weeden Butler's Life of Bishop Hildesley. [5] The work was given for final revision to Philip Moore and John Kelly. The first volume of the translation was completed on 2 July 1771; the second volume was ready for the press on 6 April 1772; and all was finished and transcribed in December of the same year, at the time of the bishop's death. The work was printed at Whitehaven under the title of: Yn Vible Cashcrick: ny, yn Chenn Chonaant. Veih ny chied ghlaraghyn, dy kiaralagh chyndaït ayns Gailck; ta shen dy ghra, chengey ny mayrey Ellan Vannin. It was published in 1773. The second edition of the Manx scriptures was published as one volume at Whitehaven in 1775.
The British and Foreign Bible Society edited the Manx Bible to produce an edition in 1819. An edition of the Manx New Testament was produced in 1810 which included footnotes. This was reprinted in 1815 and 1824. The Bible Society last printed any of the Manx Bible on paper when it produced the Gospel of John (Noo Ean) in 1936, which was a reproduction of the 1819 edition. This was reprinted in 1968 by the Manx Gaelic Society. In 1973 the Bible Society produced a booklet and exhibition to mark 200 years of the completion of the Manx Bible. The whole of the BFBS 1819 Bible was reproduced in 1979 by the Shearwater Press.
Translation | Genesis 1:1–3 | John (Ean) 3:16 |
---|---|---|
British and Foreign Bible Society 1819 | Ayns y toshiaght chroo Jee niau as thalloo. As va'n thalloo gyn cummey, as feayn; as va dorraghys er eaghtyr y diunid: as ren spyrryd Yee gleashagh er eaghtyr ny ushtaghyn. As dooyrt Jee, Lhig da soilshey 've ayn; as va soilshey ayn. | Son lheid y ghraih shen hug Jee d'an theihll, dy dug eh e ynyrcan Vac v'er ny gheddyn, nagh jinnagh quoi-erbee chredjagh aynsyn cherraghtyn, agh yn vea ta dy bragh farraghtyn y chosney. |
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father, is a central Christian prayer that Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, and a shorter form in the Gospel of Luke when "one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples'". Regarding the presence of the two versions, some have suggested that both were original, the Matthean version spoken by Jesus early in his ministry in Galilee, and the Lucan version one year later, "very likely in Judea".
Manx, also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the historical language of the Manx people.
The culture of the Isle of Man is influenced by its Celtic and, to a lesser extent, its Norse origins, though its close proximity to the United Kingdom, popularity as a UK tourist destination, and recent mass immigration by British migrant workers has meant that British influence has been dominant since the Revestment period. Recent revival campaigns have attempted to preserve the surviving vestiges of Manx culture after a long period of Anglicisation, and significant interest in the Manx language, history and musical tradition has been the result.
Parts of the Bible have been translated into Welsh since at least the 15th century, but the most widely used translation of the Bible into Welsh for several centuries was the 1588 translation by William Morgan, Y Beibl cyssegr-lan sef Yr Hen Destament, a'r Newydd as revised in 1620. The Beibl Cymraeg Newydd was published in 1988 and revised in 2004. Beibl.net is a translation in colloquial Welsh which was completed in 2013.
Literature in the Manx language, which shares common roots with the Gaelic literature and Pre-Christian mythology of Ireland and Scotland, is known from at least the early 16th century, when the majority of the population still belonged to the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man.
Thomas Christian (1754–1828) was the translator of John Milton's Paradise Lost into Manx Gaelic, while leaving out passages in a way that were widely considered to have greatly improved the narrative structure of Milton's original. Rev. Christian was also an author of Manx carols and other Christian poetry important to Manx literature. He spent most of life as the Anglican vicar of Marown parish, Isle of Man.
Thomas Wilson was Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1697 and 1755.
John Phillips was the Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1604 and 1633. He is best known for writing the first dateable text in the Manx language in his translation of the 1604 Book of Common Prayer in 1610.
Mark Hiddesley or Hildesley was an Anglican churchman. He served as vicar of Hitchin in Hertfordshire and later as Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1755 and 1772, where he encouraged Bible translations into Manx.
John Joseph Kneen was a Manx linguist and scholar renowned for his seminal works on Manx grammar and on the place names and personal names of the Isle of Man. He is also a significant Manx dialect playwright and translator of Manx poetry. He is commonly best known for his translation of the Manx National Anthem into Manx.
John Kelly LL.D. was a Manx scholar, translator and clergyman.
Translations of the Bible into Irish were first printed and published in the 17th century: the New Testament, the Tiomna Nuadh, in 1602, the Old Testament, the Sean Thiomna, in 1685, and the entire Bible, the Biobla in 1690.
Bible translations into Oceanic languages have a relatively closely related and recent history.
The Athabaskan language family is divided into the Northern Athabaskan, Pacific Coast Athabaskan and Southern Athabaskan groups. The full Bible has been translated into two Athabaskan languages, and the complete New Testament in five more. Another five have portions of the Bible translated into them. There are no Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages with portions of the Bible translated into them.
The New Testament was first published in Scottish Gaelic in 1767 and the whole Bible was first published in 1801. Prior to these, Gaels in Scotland had used translations into Irish.
Robert Corteen Carswell RBV is a Manx language and culture activist, writer and radio presenter. In 2013 he received the Manx Heritage Foundation's Reih Bleeaney Vanannan award for outstanding contributions to Manx culture.
Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh, also known as the Manx Language Society and formerly known as Manx Gaelic Society, was founded in 1899 in the Isle of Man to promote the Manx language. The group's motto is Gyn çhengey, gyn çheer.
In addition to English, literature has been written in a wide variety of other languages in Britain, that is the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This includes literature in Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Latin, Cornish, Anglo-Norman, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Manx, and Irish. Literature in Anglo-Saxon is treated as English literature and literature in Scots as Scottish literature.
Doug Fargher (1926–1987) also known as Doolish y Karagher or Yn Breagagh, was a Manx language activist, author, and radio personality who was involved with the revival of the Manx language on the Isle of Man in the 20th century. He is best known for his English-Manx Dictionary (1979), the first modern dictionary for the Manx language. Fargher was involved in the promotion of Manx language, culture and nationalist politics throughout his life.
Leslie Quirk, also known as Y Kione Jiarg, was a Manx language activist and teacher who was involved with the language's revival on the Isle of Man in the 20th century. His work recording the last native speakers of the language with the Irish Folklore Commission and the Manx Museum helped to ensure that a spoken record of the Manx language survived.