1593 New Testament title page - Jakub Wujek

The Jakub Wujek Bible ( pl, Biblia Jakuba Wujka) was the main Polish

Bible translation The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. all of the Bible has been translated into 724 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,617 languages, and ...

used in the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland from the late 16th century till the mid-20th century. The translation was done by a Polish

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

Jakub Wujek Jakub Wujek (1541 – 27 April 1597, son of Maciej Wujek) was a Polish Jesuit, religious writer, Doctor of Theology, Vice-Chancellor of the Vilnius Academy and translator of the Bible into Polish. He is well-known for his translation of the Bib ...

(after whom it is commonly named), with the permission of

Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

and the

Jesuit Order , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

. It was based on the sixto-clementine revision of the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

. The first edition was completed in 1593, but the full authorized edition was ready only two years after Wujek's death, in 1599.

History

The full title of the Bible is: ''Biblia to iest Księgi Starego y Nowego Przymierza według Łacińskiego przekładu starego, w kościele powszechnym przyiętego, na Polski ięzyk z nowu z pilnością przełożone, z dokładaniem textu Żydowskiego y Greckiego, y z wykładem Katholickim, trudnieyszych miejsc, do obrony wiary swiętej powszechnej przeciw kacerstwóm tych czasów należących: przez D. Iakuba Wuyka z Wągrowca, Theologa Societatis Iesu.'' (Bible, that is, the Books of the Old and New Testament according to old Latin translation, in universal church accepted, translated anew to the Polish language with attention, with additions of Jewish and Greek texts, with Catholic exposition of difficult passages, for the defence of the universal holy faith against the heretics of these times, by D. Iakub Wuyek of Wągrowiec, Theologa Societatis Iesu.) In 1584, Polish

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and the

primate of Poland This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.Stanisław Karnkowski Stanisław Karnkowski of Junosza (1520–1603) was the Great Referendary of the Polish Crown (since 1558), the Great Secretary of Poland (since 1563), bishop of Włocławek (1567-1580) as well as archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland (sinc ...

, decided that a new Polish 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 ...

was needed, as the previous Leopolita's Bible from 1561 was not seen as adequate, and contemporary

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

translations were seen as better. Jakub Wujek, already known for excellent translations of parts of the Bible in his

homilies A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...

, was chosen to head the task. The first edition of 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 ...

was ready in 1593. The translation was accompanied by footnotes, explanations and polemics. The

Clementine Vulgate The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition wikt:promulgate, promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second ...

, issued in 1592, caused a delay in the translation, as it had to be checked for consistency with the new

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

version. Wujek finished the work on the

, revised with the Clementine Vulgate in 1594, and on 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 ...

in 1596; the works were immediately published. The final version of Wujek's Bible was ready in 1599, after corrections from a Jesuit commission, two years after Wujek's death in 1597. The Jakub Wujek Bible replaced the Leopolita's Bible (1561), and was in turn replaced by the

Millennium Bible The Millennium Bible ( pl, Biblia Tysiąclecia; full title: ''Pismo Święte: Starego i Nowego Testamentu, Biblia Tysiąclecia'', English: ''The Sacred Scripture: of Old and New Testament, the Millennium Bible'') is the main Polish Bible translati ...

(1965). Some modern scholars tend to rank the first edition, from 1593/1594, over that from 1599.

Importance

Wujek's Bible is widely recognized as an excellent translation, one of the most important works of the

Renaissance in Poland The Renaissance in Poland ( pl, Renesans, Odrodzenie; literally: the Rebirth) lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and is widely considered to have been the Golden Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Crown ...

, and a major work advancing the written

Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...

. Various parts of it were quoted by Polish poets, including

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

and

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mode ...

. It would also serve as a major Polish-language

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Bible till the

of the 20th century (1965) and was also an important source for the first Polish-language Protestant Bible, the

Gdańsk Bible Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

of 1632.

Notes

External links

The Wujek Bible
at Poland.pl
Original Wujek Bible from 1599
Wielkopolska Digital Library
Original Wujek Bible
damaged copy, in the Polish Internet Library
Original New Testament, part of Wujek's Bible from 1593
Wielkopolska Digital Library
Wujek Bible
1923 edition in the Internet Archive
New Testament, modernized 1936 edition based on Wujek Bible

{{Authority control Jesuit publications 1593 books 1590s in Poland Bible translations into Polish

History

Importance

Notes

Further reading

External links