Scholarly translators and committed disputants: The first century of the Hungarian Bible

Abstract

The importance of the early translations, copied or printed, derived from a parallel process that fostered the development of a standard version of the Hungarian language and the norms of literary Hungarian. In Hungary Benedek Komjáti, Gábor Pesti and János Sylvester fulfilled the Erasmus program of translating and distributing the Hungarian translations of the Holy Scriptures. They knew that to achieve this they had to find the appropriate linguistic form. Therefore, they wrote also pieces in diff erent genres and did prepare Bible translations only. Due to the changes brought about by Reformation people needed new books in the vernacular in all areas of life, for example school books, catechisms, church constitution (Kirchenordnung) and of course the Bible. In the century of the Reformation, the Hungarian Protestant ministers who knew languages followed Erasmus’ example and felt their duty to translate the Holy Scriptures into Hungarian. at the end of the century the first complete Bible in Hungarian was published in Vizsoly in 1590, which was prepared by a circle of scholars. The first complete Catholic Bible translation was published in 1626 in Viennna thanks partly to György Káldi and partly to Péter Pázmány.