A ''Vorlage'' (; from the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

for ''prototype'' or ''template'') is a prior version or manifestation of a text under consideration. It may refer to such a version of a text itself, a particular

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

of the text, or a more complex manifestation of the text (e.g., a group of copies, or a group of excerpts). Thus, the original-language version of a text which a translator then works into a

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

is called the ''Vorlage'' of that translation. For example, the

Luther Bible The Luther Bible (german: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation from Latin sources by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in September 1522, and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocry ...

is a translation of the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denomi ...

, so the Textus Receptus is the ''Vorlage'' of the Luther Bible. Sometimes the ''Vorlage'' of a translation may be lost to history. In some of these cases the ''Vorlage'' may be reconstructed from the translation. Such a reconstructed ''Vorlage'' may be called a ''retroversion'', and it invariably is made with some amount of uncertainty. Nevertheless, the ''Vorlage'' may still be reconstructed in some parts at such a level of confidence that the translation and its retroversion can be used as a witness for the purposes of

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...

. This reconstructed ''Vorlage'' may stand on its own as the sole witness of the original-language text, or it may be compared and used along with other witnesses. Thus, for example, scholars use the reconstructed ''Vorlage'' of the Greek

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

translation of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

at parts to correct the Hebrew

Masoretic The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

version when trying to determine oldest version of the Hebrew Bible that they can infer. Or, as another example, the

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

fragments of Plato's

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

included among the

Nag Hammadi library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

are used to help attest to the original Greek text which

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

himself wrote. For the bulk of the

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars specu ...

, the ''Vorlage'' exists only as a retroversion of the Coptic translation, as no other witness to the original Greek text for most of the sayings recorded therein is known.Plisch, Uwe-Karsten ''Das Thomasevangelium, Originaltext mit Kommentar''. (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007).

References

Applied linguistics Biblical criticism Communication Humanities Textual criticism Translation Textual scholarship {{ling-stub