Bible Dictionary: Gothic

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

1. (a.) Pertaining to the Goths; as, Gothic customs; also, rude; barbarous.

2. (a.) of or pertaining to a style of architecture with pointed arches, steep roofs, windows large in proportion to the wall spaces, and, generally, great height in proportion to the other dimensions -- prevalent in Western Europe from about 1200 to 1475 a. d. See Illust. of Abacus, and Capital.

3. (n.) The language of the Goths; especially, the language of that part of the Visigoths who settled in Moesia in the 4th century. See Goth.

4. (n.) A kind of square-cut type, with no hair lines.

5. (n.) The style described in Gothic, a., 2.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

VERSIONS, GEORGIAN, GOTHIC, SLAVONIC

jor'-ji-an, goth'-ik, sla-von'-ik:

1. The Georgian Version:

Georgia is the name given to the territory extending to the East of the Black Sea, a country that has had an independent national existence of 2,000 years but is now (under the name Grusinia) a part of the trans-Caucasian domain of Russia. The language has no affinities with any of the recognized groups, but is becoming obsolete under Russian pressure. Christianity was introduced into Georgia m the 4th century, and a national conversion followed. A well-supported tradition makes the first translation of the Bible almost contemporaneous with this conversion and refers it to Mesrop (died 441; see ARMENIAN VERSIONS), but the fact is not quite certain and the beginnings of a native version may really be as much as two centuries later. The oldest manuscript extant is a Psalter of the 7th-8th centuries, and the earliest copy of the Gospels is perhaps a century later; in all, Gregory (Textkritik, 573-75) enumerates 17 Georgian manuscripts of the New Testament, but his list is not exhaustive.

The first printed Bible was produced in the ancient alphabet in Moscow in 1743 and has never been reprinted, but other edd, perhaps only of the New Testament, were issued at least in 1816 and 1818, using the nonecclesiastical alphabet. According to Conybeare (ZNTW, XI, 161-66, 232-39 (1910)) the Georgian version was first made from the Old Syriac and then later (11th century) revised from the Greek In 1910 a new edition, based on two manuscripts dated respectively 913 and 995, was begun (Quattuor Ev. versio Georgia vetus, Petersburg). The Georgian version was used by S. C. Malan, The Gospel according to John, translated from the 11 Oldest VSS, London, 1862.

2. The Gothic Version:

Ulfilas, the Arian bishop of the West Goths and the chief agent in their conversion to Christianity, was also the first translator of the Bible into Gothic, a work for which he had even to invent an alphabet. According to tradition, his translation included the entire Bible with the exception of Kings (which he thought unadapted to the already too warlike character of his converts), but there is doubt whether his work actually included more than the New Testament. Too little of the Old Testament has survived to enable a settling of this question, nor is it possible to tell how much revision the New Testament translation has undergone since Ulfilas' work.

A list of the six Gothic manuscripts is given in HDB, IV, 862, to which is to be added a bilingual Latin-Gothic manuscript containing portions of Luke 24, known as the Arsinoe Fragment (published in ZNTW, XI, 1-38 (1910) and separately (Giessen, 1910)). In all there have been preserved in the Old Testament Genesis 5 (in part); Psalm 52:2; Nehemiah 5-7 (in part), and in the New Testament the Gospels and Pauline Epistles (all incomplete), with quotations from Hebrews. The best complete edition is that of Stamm-Heyne(9) (Paderborn, 1896), but as the version is of basic importance for the history of the Germanic languages there are many editions of various portions prepared for philological purposes.

The Old Testament fragments are a translation of a text very closely allied to the Lucianic Greek (see SEPTUAGINT) and are certainly not from the Hebrew New Testament undoubtedly was made from a text of the type used in Antioch (Constantinople) in the 4th century, with very slight variations, none of which are "neutral" (von Soden classes them as of the I-type). Either in making the translation or (more probably) in a subsequent revision an Old-Latin text was used, of the type of Codex Brixianus (f), and certain Old-Latin readings are well marked. For brief lists of these peculiarities see Burkitt in Journal Theological Studies, I, 129-34 (1900), or von Soden, Schriften des New Testament, I, 1469 (1906).

3. The Slavonic Version:

It is definitely known that the first Slavonic translation of the Bible was commenced in 864 or earlier by the two brothers Cyril (died 869) and Methodius (died 885), and that the latter worked on it after the former's death. Their work was undertaken for the benefit of the Balkan Slavs, and at first only the liturgical portions (Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Psalms) were translated, but, after the completion of this, Methodius carried the translation farther to include larger portions of the Old Testament. How much of this he accomplished is obscure, but he seems not to have finished the Old Testament entirely, while almost certainly he did not translate Revelation. Uncertain also is the exact dialect used for this work; although this dialect was the basis of the present liturgical language of the Russian church, it has undergone much transformation before arriving at its final stage. At different times the translation of the Bible was revised to conform to the changes of the language, in addition to other revisional changes, and, as a result, the manuscripts (some of which go back to the 10th century) exhibit very varying types of text that have not been satisfactorily classified.

An attempt to bring the discrepant material into order was made about 1495 by Archbishop Gennadius, but he was unable to find Slavonic manuscripts that included the entire Bible and was forced to supply the deficiencies (Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and most of Jeremiah and the Apocrypha) by a new translation made from the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) This Bible of Gennadius was the basis of the first printed edition, made at Ostrog in 1581, although the liturgical portions had been printed earlier (Acts and Epistles first of all in 1564). The Ostrog edition followed Gennadius fairly closely, but Esther, Canticles, and Wisdom were new translations made from the Septuagint. The next revision was undertaken by order of Peter the Great and was performed by using the Greek (Old Testament and New Testament), although the resulting text was not printed until 1751. A slightly emended edition of 1756 is still the official Bible of the Russian church.

This Slavonic version is to be distinguished from the version in the true Russian language, begun first in 1517, revised or remade at various times, with an excellent modern translation first published complete in 1876. See , on the whole subject, especially Bebb in Church Quart. Rev., XLI, 203-25, 1895.

LITERATURE.

On all three versions see HDB, IV, 861-64, 1902, and the article "Bibelubersetzung" in PRE3, III (1897), with the important supplement in XXIII (1913).

Burton Scott Easton

GOTHIC, VERSION

goth'-ik.

See VERSIONS.

Library

Enterprise of Gainas, the Gothic Barbarian. Evils which He ...
... Book VIII. Chapter IV."Enterprise of Gaïnas, the Gothic Barbarian. Evils
which he perpetrated. A barbarian, named Gaïnas, [1588 ...
/.../the ecclesiastical history of sozomenus/chapter iv enterprise of gainas the.htm

A Comparison of the Disasters which Rome Experienced During the ...
... Chapter 29."A Comparison of the Disasters Which Rome Experienced During the Gothic
and Gallic Invasions, with Those Occasioned by the Authors of the Civil ...
/.../christianbookshelf.org/augustine/city of god/chapter 29 a comparison of the.htm

Of the Expedition of Valens against the Goths and How He Paid the ...
... miles under the hot sun of August came in sight of the barbarian vanguard, behind
which stretched the circling line of the waggons that guarded the Gothic host ...
/.../the ecclesiastical history of theodoret/chapter xxxii of the expedition of.htm

The Doomed Three
... While the fate of the three great officials yet hung in the balance, no day passed
without a visit from the Archbishop to the tent of the Gothic chief. ...
/.../chapter xxxi the doomed three.htm

Julius ii and Leo X (Ad 1503-1521)
... For some hundreds of years it had been usual to build in what is called the Gothic
style, of which the chief mark is the use of pointed arches. ...
/.../chapter xxix julius ii and.htm

The Goths
... Opposed to this Roman party was the Gothic party, headed at Constantinople by Gaïnas,
formidable in arms, in numbers, in physical strength, in native manhood ...
/.../gathering clouds a tale of the days of st chrysostom/chapter xxv the goths.htm

His Murdered Father's Head
... Their wicked faces looked as if they were all mouths. 'Their faces,' says Jordanes,
the Gothic historian, 'could hardly be called faces"rather shapeless ...
/.../chapter xxxvi his murdered fathers.htm

The Early Versions Examined, and Found to Yield Unfaltering ...
... The Peshito,"the Curetonian Syriac,"and the Recension of Thomas of Markel
(p.33.)"The Vulgate (p.34)"and the Vetus Itala (p.35)"the Gothic (p.35 ...
/.../chapter iv the early versions.htm

The Early Versions Examined, and Found to Yield Unfaltering ...
... The Peshito,"the Curetonian Syriac,"and the Recension of Thomas of Hharkel
(p.33.)"The Vulgate (p.34)"and the Vetus Itala (p.35)"the Gothic (p.35 ...
/.../chapter iv the early versions.htm

Ancient Versions of the New Testament.
... An edition of the whole Bible is in process of publication in Germany. IV.
THE GOTHIC AND OTHER VERSIONS. 11. The first information ...
/.../barrows/companion to the bible/chapter xxviii ancient versions of.htm

Thesaurus

Gothic
... Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (a.) Pertaining to the Goths; as, Gothic customs; also,
rude; barbarous. ... 5. (n.) The style described in Gothic, a., 2. Int. ...
/g/gothic.htm - 13k

Georgian
... Georgian era. 3. (n.) A native of, or dweller in, Georgia. Int. Standard Bible
Encyclopedia. VERSIONS, GEORGIAN, GOTHIC, SLAVONIC. jor'-ji ...
/g/georgian.htm - 13k

Slavonic
... 2. (a.) of or pertaining to the Slavs, or their language. Int. Standard
Bible Encyclopedia. VERSIONS, GEORGIAN, GOTHIC, SLAVONIC. ...
/s/slavonic.htm - 13k

Gotholias

/g/gotholias.htm - 6k

Rib (5 Occurrences)
... leaf. 9. (n.) Any longitudinal ridge in a plant. 10. (n.) In Gothic vaulting,
one of the primary members of the vault. These are ...
/r/rib.htm - 11k

English
... Ancient VSS, such as the Syriac and the Gothic, were produced to meet obvious
requirements of the teacher or the missionary, and met with no opposition from ...
/e/english.htm - 38k

Pendant (1 Occurrence)
... 2. (n.) A hanging ornament on roofs, ceilings, etc., much used in the later styles
of Gothic architecture, where it is of stone, and an important part of the ...
/p/pendant.htm - 8k

Band (150 Occurrences)
... brickwork, etc. 3. (vt) In Gothic architecture, the molding, or suite of moldings,
which encircles the pillars and small shafts. 4. (vt ...
/b/band.htm - 50k

Bull (114 Occurrences)
... See 1st Bull, n., 4. 9. (n.) A seal. See Bulla. 10. (n.) A letter, edict, or respect,
of the pope, written in Gothic characters on rough parchment, sealed with ...
/b/bull.htm - 40k

Vulgate
... Add to this that "directly or indirectly it is the real parent of all the vernacular
versions of Western Europe" except the Gothic of Ulfilas. ...
/v/vulgate.htm - 38k

Subtopics

Related Terms

Pendant (1 Occurrence)

Band (150 Occurrences)

Bull (114 Occurrences)