Gothic Version of the Bible

Gothic Version Of The Bible.

The Maeso-Goths were a German tribe which settled on the borders of the Greek empire, and their language is essentially a German dialect. Their version of the Bible was made by Ulphilas, in the fourth century, after Greek MSS. in the N.T., and after the Septuagint in the Old. The author is generally, regarded as an Arian; but his peculiar doctrinal sentiments do not seem to have influenced his translation. Of the O.-T. portion, nothing but a fragment of Nehemiah has been printed, although parts of other books have been discovered. A great part of the New has been published at different times in fragments. The four gospels exist in the very celebrated MS. called the Codex Argenteus, snow preserved in the library of the university at Upsal, and minutely described by Dr. E.D. Clarke and Zahn. SEE ARGENTEUS CODEX. This MS., however, has considerable chasms. The gospels have been several times printed froma it, but not very correctly. The ed. of Uppström is the most exact and beautiful (1854). Bosworth has lately published the Gothic and AngloSaxon Gospels together (Lond. 1865). Knittel discovered fragments of Paul's Epistle to the Romans in a codex rescrptus belonging to the Wolfenbüttel library, which he published in 1762, 4to, and which were republished by Zahn in the complete edition of the Gospels issued in 1808, 4to. In 1817, Angelo Mai discovered important parts of the Gothic version among five codices rescripti in the Ambrosian library at Milan. They, contain, for the most part, the Pauline Epistles, with the exception of that to the Hebrews, and two fragments of Matthew. Various portions were printed by Mai, in conjunction with Castillionmegus, in 1819. In 1829 the latter published the fragments of Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians. In 1834 fragments of the Epistle to the Romans, the First to the Corinthians, and that to the Ephesians; and in 1835, the fragments to the Paulines Epistles to the Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and the First to the Thessalonians. In 1839 the same scholar published the fragments of the. Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, Titus, and Philebaon. These were all combined in the edition by Gabelentz and Loebe 2 volumes, 1836, 1847. SEE VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.