A Brief Overview of Hungarian Bible Translation

The Forerunners of Hungarian Bible Translation

As early as the fifth century, as they migrated across Europe, the Hungarians may have already met Christian merchants and evangelists, but despite this, it was not really until the time of Stephen I (A.D. 1000) that there is any proof that translation of Biblical texts into Hungarian and their use in church services began.

The earliest mention is in the decrees of the Synod of Esztergom in 1114, where the following can be read: “every Sunday in the big churches they expound to the people on the gospels, the letters and dogma.”

Among our famous linguistic artefacts, the Obituary (12th century) and the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary (13th century) both preserve a few biblical portions and concepts.

The Hussite Bible and Its Effects

Following on from these humble beginnings, at the beginning of the 15th century, the pre-Reformation people’s movement, named for the Czech reformer, John Huss, first initiated a felt need for mother-tongue scriptures. In 1436, the university students Tamás and Bálint started to translate those teachings and Bible books that they considered most important. They finished their work in 1439 in Moldova, where they considered themselves to be safe from the persecution of the pope. It is believed by researchers that these portions were discovered in three preserved hand-written books: the Viennese, Munich and Apor codices.

Unfortunately, the legendary translation of László Báthori, that was completed over twenty years (from 1437-1457) while he lived as a hermit, like a Hungarian Saint Jerome, in a cave in Buda, has been lost. Apparently, because of the beauty of this translation with its exegetical notes, even King Matthias had a copy in his famous Corvin library.

Translations from the Reformation Era

In the 16th century, the teachings of the Reformation spread like the wind throughout the country, and this drastically changed the attitude of Hungarians to the Bible. As a consequence of this, there was a strong felt need for a complete Bible translation.

The first printed translations to be published during this time included “The Letters of Saint Paul in the Hungarian L anguage” by Benedek Komjáthy (1553) and the New Testament (1536) translated by Gábor Pesti, which in reality only included the four gospels.

The first complete Hungarian language New Testament was published in Sárvár in 1541, translated by János Sylvester. This year is very symbolic in Hungarian history, since it was the year that the Turks captured the capital city of Buda!

The First Complete Hungarian Bible Translations

Gáspár Károli’s translation: It was not until 1590 that the first complete Hungarian Bible was published (21 years before the English King James Version was published). Although this was not the work of one man, it came to be named for the great Reformed pastor from Gönc, Gáspár Károli, who organised and managed the translation and printing processes.

Surprisingly, the work only took three years to complete, which suggests that Károli had previously prepared a rough draft, which he revised and refined with his colleagues. They tried not only to use the existing Hungarian translations, but also all the contemporary Latin translations too – the works of Vatablus, Pagninus, Sebastian Münster and Tremellius as well as the Vulgate.

Like Luther, Károli also translated the apocrypha. By the 17th century, the publishers left these books out, as by then these had become one of the factors distinguishing them from the Catholics.

Finally, on the initiation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a revision of the Károli Bible was finished in 1908.

György Káldi’s whole Bible translation, completed in 1626, has fulfilled a similar role among the Catholics as the Károli has among the Protestants.

The History of the New Protestant Translation of the Bible

During the Second World War Sándor Czeglédy translated the whole Bible.

In 1947 the British and Foreign Bible Society were already considering a revision of the Károli Bible, and it seemed natural that one of the sources, alongside the original Károli text should be the newly completed Czeglédy translation. Alongside the Bible translation experts, interested Hungarian and ethnically Hungarian pastors, theological academics, foreign professors and translation experts supported and trained by the World Bible Society were all involved in the new translation work (e.g., Professor Eugene A. Nida).

In the spring of 1975, after 28 years, the translation was finished. The first revision of the New Translation Bible was published in 1990 on the 400th anniversary of the Károli Bible. As of 2008 (the Year of the Bible in Hungary), this translation was undergoing its second revision.

Since the Second World War, several other new translations have been produced in Hungarian as a result of the work of both Protestant and Catholic translators. Just to mention a few of these:

• Whole Bibles:
  • two Catholic translations, one of them based on the Neovulgate
• New Testament translations:
  • the Békés-Dallos translation
  • the Lajos Csia translation
  • and the Easy-to-Read translation, published by the Bible League in Hungary.

There are two additional translations currently in process.

Edited and written by Attila Kovacs, director of Wycliffe Hungary, based on the book entitled “Centuries of the Hungarian Bible” by János Bottyán, (published in Budapest, Hungary, in 1982) and information retrieved from the Hungarian Bible Society’s web site (www.bibliatarsulat.hu). Translated by Helen Kovacs.

Article translated from Hungarian to English by Helen Kovacs.