The Brest Bible (Polish : Biblia Brzeska) was the first complete Protestant Bible translation into Polish, published by Bernard Wojewodka in 1563 in Brest and dedicated to King Sigismund II Augustus.
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.
It is sometimes also named after the Radziwiłł family surname of Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, the benefactor of the undertaking, or after Pińczów, where the translating was commissioned and translators chosen and authorized at the Calvinist synods of 1559 and 1560, and where the work was accomplished. [1] [2] [3]
The Brest Bible is one of the earliest modern era translations of all of the Bible, from, for the most part, the original Hebrew and Koine Greek languages. Latin Vulgate was also utilized to a lesser degree and so was a French translation. The Brest Bible, produced by a group of Calvinist scholars, [1] was preceded by the Luther Bible of 1534 and the Geneva Bible of 1560. [2] [3]
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 involved with the team translation project were Grzegorz Orszak, Pierre Statorius, Jean Thénaud of Bourges, Jan Łaski, Georg Schomann, Andrzej Trzecieski, Jakub Lubelczyk, Szymon Zacjusz, Marcin Krowicki, Francesco Stancaro of Mantua, and Grzegorz Paweł of Brzeziny. [1] The translation work took six years to complete. [2] [3] [4]
Mikołaj Radziwiłł's son, Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł, 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 survived [5] ) at Vilnius' central market. [3] [4]
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called "Arians" or "Socinians", but themselves preferred simply to be called "Brethren" or "Christians," and, after their expulsion from Poland, "Unitarians".
The Radziwiłł family was a powerful magnate family originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, nicknamed The Black, was a Polish-Lithuanian noble who held several administrative positions within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Voivode of Vilnius, Grand Lithuanian Chancellor, and Grand Hetman of Lithuania.
Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł and nicknamed "the Orphan", was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman (szlachcic), Ordynat of Nyasvizh from 1586, Court Marshal of Lithuania from 1569, Grand Marshal of Lithuania from 1579, castellan of Trakai from 1586, voivode of Trakai Voivodeship from 1590, voivode of Vilnius Voivodeship from 1604 and governor of Šiauliai. After the treaty at Vienna in 1515 all Radziwills were Imperial Princes and he held a position as Imperial Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
Katarzyna Tomicka (c.1517–1551) was a Polish noblewoman, known as the sister-in-law and opponent of her sister-in-law queen Barbara Radziwiłł.
Nesvizh, Niasviž is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative centre of the Nyasvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Region and site of Niasviž Castle a World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300.
Piotr of Goniądz was a Polish political and religious writer, thinker and one of the spiritual leaders of the Polish Brethren.
Pińczówpronounced [ˈpʲiɲt͡ʂuf] is a town in 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, and lies in the valley of the Nida river. The town has a station on a narrow-gauge line, called Holy Cross Mountains Rail
Jakub Wujek was a Polish Jesuit, religious writer, Doctor of Theology, Vice-Chancellor of the Vilnius Academy and translator of the Bible into Polish.
Martin Czechowic (c.1532–1613) was a Polish Socinian (Unitarian) minister, Protestant reformer, theologian and writer.
The Jakub Wujek Bible was the main Polish Bible translation used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland from the late 16th century till the mid-20th century.
Georg Schomann was a Socinian (Unitarian) theologian.
Pierre Statorius, Polish: Piotr Stoiński, Piotr Stojeński was a French grammarian and theologian, who settled among the Polish Brethren, becoming rector of a Calvinist Academy in Pińczów at the invitation of Francesco Lismanino.
The earliest Bible translations into the Polish language date to the 13th century. The first full ones were completed in the 16th.
Marcin Krowicki (1500–1573) was a Polish Catholic priest who became a Calvinist in 1551 and a Unitarian in 1562. He was one of the translation team for the original Pińczów Bible. He was one of those who argued against a fully pacifist stance among the Polish Brethren. In 1561 he published Obraz własny antykrystów identifying the Catholic Church as the antichrist. He then became a schoolteacher in Podlasie.
The Catholic Church venerates five patron saints of Poland. The primary patron saints are the Blessed Virgin Mary the Queen of Poland, Saint Adalbert, and Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów. The secondary patron saints are the Jesuits Saint Stanislaus Kostka and Saint Andrew Bobola. Historically, several other saints also were considered patrons of Poland.
The Bible of Queen Sophia is the oldest surviving translation of the Old Testament into the Polish language and the first complete translation of the Bible into Polish. The work is seen as a significant milestone in the history of the Polish language, and the most extensive example of the medieval Old Polish language.
Nowy Testamynt po ślonsku [The New Testament in Silesian] was published in 2017 in Radzionków, Upper Silesia, Poland by Szymon Tobor’s publishing house, Wydawnictwo Tobor. de:Gabriel Tobor translated the New Testament into the Silesian language from the 16th-century Polish language Jakub Wujek Bible. For the sake of this translation the translator developed a specific spelling fully based on Polish orthography, rather than follow the standard Silesian spelling system.
Jonas Radvanas was a Renaissance poet and protestant reformer from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Very little is known about his life and he is best remembered as the author of an epic poem Radviliada dedicated to the military achievements of Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł. However, the poem goes beyond a simple panegyric and paints a broader patriotic image of the Grand Duchy. In total, he wrote 18 poems that were published in various publications by the Calvinists in the Grand Duchy. All of his works were written in Latin.
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