The Gustav Vasa Bible ( sv, Gustav Vasas bibel) is the common name of the

Swedish Bible translation There are remarkably few Bible translations into Swedish that have been made before the last two centuries. The Latin common Bible is known to have been used by the Catholic Church during the Christian part of the middle ages, but at least paraphra ...

published in 1540–41. The full title is as appears on the right: ''Biblia / Thet är / All then Helgha Scrifft / på Swensko''. The translation into English reads: "The Bible / That is / All the Holy Scripture / In Swedish". The men behind the translation were

Laurentius Andreae Laurentius Andreae ( Swedish: Lars Andersson ) (c. 1470 – 14 April 1552) was a Swedish Lutheran clergyman and scholar who is acknowledged as one of his country's preeminent intellectual figures during the first half of the 16th century. In h ...

and the Petri brothers Olaus and

Laurentius Laurentius is a Latin given name and surname that means "''From Laurentum''" (a city near Rome). It is possible that the place name ''Laurentum'' is derived from the Latin ''laurus'' ("laurel"). People with the name include: In Early Christian ...

. Of them, Archbishop Laurentius is regarded as the main contributor. However, had the work not been commissioned by the Swedish King

Gustav Vasa Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksför ...

, who had in effect broken with the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in Rome in the 1520s, the work would not have been possible. The Bible follows the German translation by Martin Luther from 1526 closely, not only in language, but in the fonts used and the typography as a whole. The Danish version, printed a few years earlier, also did this. The Bible established the use of the Swedish language. It established a uniform spelling of words, particularly the infinitive ending -a instead of the more Danish-sounding -e, and defined the use of the vowels å, ä and ö. It did use ''th'' for , as in English, as is apparent on the title page; but this eventually changed to ''d''. This Bible was reprinted as a facsimile in 1938 and 1960. Few people today, however, are able to read the text with ease. This has to do partly with the spelling and partly with the typeface.

References

Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1 ...

, article ''Gustav Vasa Bible''

External links

* {{Authority control 1541 books Early printed Bibles Swedish books Bible translations into Swedish 1541 in Christianity Gustav I of Sweden