, also referred to as the , was the fourth complete Icelandic translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, printed in 1747 by the Kongelige Vajsenhus's print shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. is the Icelandic version of . In 1727, the Vajsenhus was granted exclusive rights by

Frederick IV of Denmark Frederick IV (Danish: ''Frederik''; 11 October 1671 – 12 October 1730) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of Christian V of Denmark-Norway and his wife Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel. Early lif ...

to publish the Bible in

Denmark–Norway Denmark–Norway (Danish and Norwegian: ) was an early modern multi-national and multi-lingual real unionFeldbæk 1998:11 consisting of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway (including the then Norwegian overseas possessions: the Faroe I ...

Production

, who became bishop of

Hólar Hólar (; also Hólar í Hjaltadal ) is a small community in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland. Location Hólar is in the Hjaltadalur valley, some from the national capital of Reykjavík. It has a population of around 100. It is th ...

in 1746, had begun translating the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

from Danish and planned to publish it, but Bishop

Ludvig Harboe Ludvig Harboe (16 August 1709 – 15 June 1783) was a Danish theologian and bishop of the Diocese of Zealand from 1757 until his death. Harboe was born at Broager Peninsula in Sønderborg, Denmark. He was mostly educated in Germany. He att ...

suggested it would be better for the entire Bible to be published in Icelandic. The project abandoned Halldór's translation, choosing instead to base the new version on the with some corrections to the text.

Publication

The New Testament was released in August 1746 as an inexpensive ''

duodecimo Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents. The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. I ...

'' edition, which at a half Danish rigsdaler would be affordable to the poor. At the same time a larger ''

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

'' edition of the New Testament was prepared. In October 1747, the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

was completed in the same format. The full Bible numbered 1,742 pages and 1,000 copies were produced. The cost of the finished book was 1 rigsdaler unbound or 2 rigsdaler bound, thanks to a subsidy from the churches of Iceland.

Reprint

Demand for the was high and in 1750 an additional 2,000 copies of the ''duodecimo'' New Testament were reprinted in the same format.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waysenhussbiblia 1747 non-fiction books 1747 in Christianity 18th century in Iceland 18th-century Christian texts History of Christianity in Iceland Bible versions and translations Icelandic books