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BROWSE THE GOTHIC BIBLE

By default the text is presented verse by verse, with selected interlinear
translations. Every word is ‘clickable’, linked to tentative lexical and
morphosyntactic analyses. These annotations have been generated automatically
and are gradually being disambiguated or corrected where necessary. Visit the
download page if you prefer static documents for offline reading or processing.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Configuration choose interlinear translations and other parameters


GOSPELS:

Matthew chapter 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 25 | 26 | 27

John chapter 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

Luke chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
19 | 20

Mark chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16


PAULINE EPISTLES:

Romans chapter 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Corinthians I chapter 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16

Corinthians II chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

Ephesians chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Galatians chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Philippians chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Colossians chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Thessalonians I chapter 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Thessalonians II chapter 1 | 2 | 3

Timothy I chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Timothy II chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Titus chapter 1 | 2

Philemon chapter 1


MINOR FRAGMENTS:

Nehemiah chapter 5 | 6 | 7

Skeireins leaf 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Signatures deed 1 | 2

Calendar month 10 | 11

Note. For technical reasons, the non-biblical fragments in the database have
been forced somewhat awkwardly into the ‘canonical’ reference system of the
Bible. For instance, the familiar <chapter:verse> pair becomes <leaf:sentence>
in the Skeireins or even <month:day> in the Calendar. For more natural reading,
have a look at the literal transcription of Streitberg's Anhang. Please note
that Streitberg's rendering of the Skeireins is quite outdated. If you are
seriously interested in the minor fragments, turn to Christian Petersen's
well-documented editions.


WHERE ARE THE MISSING PARTS?

Judging from emails received over the course of the last years, the most
frequently asked question seems to be: where can I find John 1:1? The short
answer is: you can't. Wulfila reputedly translated the whole Bible except the
Books of Kings, but only parts of the translation have been preserved, and none
of the surviving manuscripts is complete.1 Slightly more than half of the New
Testament is extant. With the exception of the second epistle to the
Corinthians, every book has gaps, ranging from a few verses to several chapters.
As for the Old Testament, only a small fragment of Nehemiah has survived. As far
as we know, the extant biblical texts can all be accessed from the menu above,
minus a few minor fragments (notably Codex Gissensis, containing fragments of
Luke 23 and 24).


THE GREEK TEXT

There is no doubt that the Gothic Bible was translated from Greek: daß Wulfila
die gotische Bibel aus dem Griechischen übersetzt hat, lehrt fast ein jeder Vers
seiner Übertragung, es bedarf daher nicht des ausdrücklichen Zeugnisses der Acta
S. Nicetæ (Streitberg 1919, p. XXXI). However, it is not an easy task to
determine the precise source text used by Wulfila. Streitberg's attempt to
reconstruct the unknown ‘Vorlage’, printed on the left-hand pages of his
edition, is nowadays generally criticised for being too dependent on the
theories of Hermann von Soden. See e.g. James Marchand at WEMSK (who labels the
reconstruction seriously flawed) or Elfriede Stutz:

> Wenn eine gotische Bibelausgabe einen griechischen Text enthält, beruht dieser
> auf Kombinationen des Herausgebers. So hatte Bernhardt […] einen
> griech[ischen] Text durch freie Auswahl aus der Gesamtüberlieferung unter
> Bevorzugung des Codex Alexandrinus (A) zusammengestellt, während Streitbergs
> griechische Vorlage […] ein Koine-text ist, rekonstruiert in Anlehnung an die
> textgeschichtliche Theorie Hermann von Sodens, die keine bleibende Anerkennung
> gefunden hat. Ein Germanist muß sich in diesen schwierigen Fragen auf den
> Spuren der theologischen Forschung bewegen, und dabei kann es vorkommen, daß
> er — wie Streitberg — in eine unglückliche Abhängigkeit gerät. (Stutz 1966, p.
> 31; my emphasis)

For this reason — and the amount of time it would take to transcribe
Streitberg's Greek text — it seemed wise to focus on other areas first. So
please note that the interlinear Greek text presented on this website is not
Streitberg's reconstruction of the original Greek source, but an electronic
version of Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece (26th/27th edition). This is
obviously not the version used by Wulfila. Like the other interlinear
translations, it is provided for illustrative purposes only, in order to make
the Gothic text more accessible. It should not be used for a close study of the
translation technique.2


EDITORIAL INTERVENTIONS BY STREITBERG

Angular brackets < > indicate additions to the text, square brackets [ ]
indicate deletions, italic text indicates that certain characters or words can
not be identified with complete certainty. These conventions have been retained
in the online text. Additionally, variations between parallel versions of the
same verse (e.g. Codex Ambrosianus A and B) are optionally displayed in
boldface.

Apart from the additions and deletions indicated by brackets, Streitberg made
numerous corrections that are not marked in the text, but mentioned in the
apparatus at the bottom of the page, typically in the form qiþiþ] qiþiþiþ CA.
Conversely, phonologically relevant ‘orthographical errors’ were left untouched
in the text, but corrected in the apparatus, e.g. greitiþ] CA für gretiþ:

> Orthographische Fehler sind nur dann im Text verbessert, wenn sie für die
> Erkenntnis der Aussprache bedeutungslos sind (Streitberg 1919, Erläuterungen,
> p. LI).

Regrettably, the critical apparatus has not yet been digitized. We do plan to
integrate it into the TEI edition later on, possibly with annotations and
references to recent emendations (e.g. Snædal 1998). Meanwhile, it is important
to bear in mind that the electronic edition in its current form offers a
partially normalized text with many unmarked emendations to the manuscript. It
should be used in conjunction with the apparatus in the printed version or —
better still — facsimile editions of the manuscripts (the Codex Argenteus can
now be studied online).


SIGLA USED IN THIS EDITION

 * CA = Codex Argenteus
 * A = Codex Ambrosianus A
 * B = Codex Ambrosianus B
 * C = Codex Ambrosianus C
 * D = Codex Ambrosianus D
 * E = Codex Ambrosianus E
 * Car = Codex Carolinus
 * Giss = Codex Gissensis
 * Taur = Codex Taurinensis
 * Lat5750 = Codex Vaticanus
 * Naples = Charter of Naples
 * Arezzo = Charter of Arezzo


NOTES

(1) Three historical sources mention Wulfila as the author of a translation of
the Holy Scriptures. We refer to Streitberg 1920, §10: Philostorgios, Sokrates
und Sozomenos erzählen übereinstimmend, daß Wulfila die gotischen Buchstaben
erfunden und die h. Schriften übersetzt habe; Philostorgios mit der
Einschränkung, Wulfila habe die Bücher der Könige unübersetzt gelassen, um den
kriegerischen Sinn seines Volkes durch sie nicht noch stärker zu entflammen.
(read more...). The statements from the church historians mentioned above, cited
from Streitberg 1919, pp. XIX-XXIII:

> Sokrates: «τότε δὲ καὶ Οὐλφίλας ὁ τῶν Γότθων ἐπίσκοπος γράμματα ἐφεῦρε
> Γοτθικά· καὶ τὰς θείας γραφὰς εἰς τὴν Γότθων μεταβαλὼν, [...]»;
> 
> Sozomenos: «πρῶτος δὲ γραμμάτων εὑρετὴς αὐτοῖς ἐγένετο καὶ εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν
> φωνὴν μετέφρασε τὰς ἱερὰς βίβλους»;
> 
> Philostorgios: «μετέφρασεν εἰς τὴν αὐτῶν φωνὴν τὰς γραφὰς ἁπάσας, πλήν γε δὴ
> τῶν βασιλειῶν [...]»

These claims notwithstanding, the real extent of the original Gothic Bible
cannot be determined with certainty. There definitely was a complete translation
of the Gospels and Pauline Epistles, and there is no reason to doubt Wulfila's
authorship. Some scholars, however, have doubts about the reliability of
Philostorgios' remark regarding the Books of Kings and the authorship of the
Nehemiah-fragment (cf. Stutz 1966, p. 29).

(2) Most of the time, there is a one-to-one correspondence between Greek and
Gothic words, but there are also many deviations from this pattern. As
Streitberg points out, the deviations are much more interesting than the
correspondences, especially for the study of syntax:

> [Es] ist stets von der griechischen Vorlage bei Beurteilung der gotischen
> Verhältnisse auszugehn. [...] Von besonderer Bedeutung [...] sind jene Fälle,
> wo die gotische Konstruktion in irgendeinem Punkte von der griechischen
> abweicht. Denn allein diese Abweichungen geben uns den Schlüssel zum
> Verständnis der wahren gotischen Syntax. (Streitberg/Stopp 1981, §234)

Obviously, the lack of a reliable reconstruction of the ‘Vorlage’ makes it
harder to determine whether an unexpected word order or other apparent deviation
actually tells something about syntax or style, or simply reflects an
alternative reading in the unknown base text.

Provided by Project Wulfila 2004, University of Antwerp, Belgium. Last modified
on 2006-03-30 by TDH.