of the NEW TESTAMENT were printed at Moscow, 1702, 8vo. and 1732, 4to.; and of the PSALMS, 1716, 8vo. The Bible has since been printed in the modern Russ, by the Russian Bible Society, in addition to several editions of the Slavonian. In the province of LIVONIA, only one edition of the entire BIBLE is noticed as being printed, during the whole of this century, in the Livonian or Lettish dialect! This edition was undertaken by JAMES BENJAMIN FISCHER, son and suocessor of John Fischer, superintendent-general of the duchy of Livonia, who edited the Bible of 1689. In the revision of the edition, he employed five divines; and on the completion of their labours, caused it to be printed, at Konigsberg, in 1739. The impression consisted of 9000 copies, and greatly aided the dissemination of light and truth among the poor Livonians, dispersed through 119 parishes. Previous, indeed, to the publication of the entire Bible, the NEW TESTAMENT, in Livonian, had been printed separately at Riga, in 1730, 8vo; and according to Le Long, and Marsh, in Livonian and Esthonian, at Konigsberg, in 1701, 4to: beside which, the PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, and ECCLESIASTICUS, were printed together, at Konigsberg, 1754, 8vo; and a Manual, containing several selections from the Scriptures, was published at Konigsberg, in the same year; the GOSPELS and EPISTLES, as read in the churches, with the History of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, were also published at Riga, in 1703.6* ESTHONIA appears to have been but little better supplied with copies of the Sacred Scriptures than Livonia. (61) Marsh's Michaelis, II. pt. i. pp. 154, 156; pt. ii. p. 635. Adleri Bibliotheca Biblica, pt. iv. Plut. 44, pp. 129, 130. (62) Seventh Report of Brit. and For. Bible Society, No. xiv. p. 31. Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse, IV. p. 164. Le Long, I. p. 447. Paris, 1723, fol. Marsh's Hist. of the Translations of the Scripture, p. 4. Adleri Biblioth, Biblica, pt. iv. Plut. 50, p. 146. In the Dorpatian dialect a NEW TESTAMENT was printed in 1727, at Riga, in 8vo; and in the year 1739, the celebrated Count Zinzendorf promoted the printing of the whole BIBLE in the Reval-Esthonian dialect, to which he contributed 500 rix-dollars. This edition was printed at Reval, in 4to. In the Tenth Report of the "British and Foreign Bible Society," another edition of the Bible in the same dialect, printed in 1773, 4to, and of the NEW TESTAMENT, in 1790, 12mo, are noticed as presented to that Society. The GOSPELS and EPISTLES for the festivals were also printed in the Esthonian language, in 1700, in 8vo.63 From the EUROPEAN we now proceed to the ASIATIC Versions. Among these the GEORGIAN may be first noticed, on account of the connection of that country with Russia. According to the history of the Gruzian or Georgian church, the people of that country were converted to the Christian faith about the year 320, by the preaching of a Grecian virgin, called Ninna, who still occupies the first place in the calendar of their saints; and the females of modern times still follow the good example of Ninna, insomuch that a proper knowledge of the doctrines of Revelation is still considered among the better ranks in Georgia as an indispensable part of female education. A lamentable paucity of copies of the Scriptures exists among the Georgians, occasioned by there never having been more than one edition of the entire BIBLE, printed in the GRUZIAN, or Georgian tongue.* This was executed in Moscow, in 1742—3, in a (63) Adleri Bibliotheca Biblica, pt. iv. Plut. 51, p. 147. Tenth Report of Brit. and For. Bib. Soc. App. No. lxxvi. p. 151, Seventh Report of Brit. and For. Bib. Soc. App. No. xxxviii. p. 65. *The translation of the Old and New Testament into the Georgian language, was made in the eighth century, by St. EUPHEMIUS, the Georgian, founder and patron of the Iberian, or Georgian monastery at Mount Athos, where his Autograph of the Bible is still preserved. He was also the author and translator of other works, the autographs of which remain in the monastery. He is styled by the Georgians the VOL. III. 2 I large folio volume. The language of the translation is nearly the same as that which is at present spoken in Georgia, excepting that the style is more dignified; but the alphabet differs from that in common books; which may account for Sir John Chardin saying, that in Mingrelia, in the seventeenth century, "few could read or understand" the Georgian Scriptures,* unless we suppose a new version to have been since made, which is scarcely probable. The preceding edition was printed under the inspection of the Georgian princes, ARCIL and BACCHAR; and the matrices from which the types were cast, being found to have escaped the Bonapartean conflagration, an edition of 5000 copies of the NEW TESTAMENT, and subsequently other editions of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT, were undertaken by the "Moscow Bible Society," in 1815, and following years, Beside the complete edition of the Scriptures in 1743, the whole of the NEW TESTAMENT, with a part of the OLD, consisting of the PSALMS and the PROPHETS, werę printed at Teflis, in Georgia, by order of Prince VAKTANGH, at the beginning of the eighteenth century: the PSALMS are also stated to have been printed separately, at Teflis, in 1711; and another edition of the Georgian Psalms, at Moscow. The ARMENIAN is another of the Asiatic versions. The BIBLE in this language was reprinted at Constantinople, 1705, 4to. by order of the Armenian partriarch, Nahabet; and again at Venice, in 1733, in fol. by order of the patriarch, Abraham; and corrected by Mchitar or Mikkitar. Other editions appear to have been subse "Chrysostom" of their nation, See an interesting letter from Dr. Pinkerton, dated Odessa, December 12th, 1819, in the Sixteenth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, App. p. 33. * See vol. I. p. 203; and Fourteenth Report of Brit. and For. Bible Society, App. p. 133. (64) Marsh's Hist. of Translations, &c. p. 38. British Mag. 1810, p. 64. Lond. 8vo. quently printed at Venice; for in a letter from Stephen Aconzio, superior of the Armenian College of St. Lazaro or Lazarus, to the British and Foreign Bible Society, dated "Venice, April 15th, 1818," he says, "With regard to the information requested of me, I have the honour to state to the benevolent society, that, in the Armenian nation, there is no prohibition to read the Holy Scriptures: on the contrary, all are under obligation to read them, as soon as they are able to read, and can obtain a copy. Wherefore, we acquaint this Foreign Bible Society, that, beside the New Testament already purchased by it, we have also two editions of the entire Bible, in Armenian." Toward the close of this century a new and corrected edition of the Armenian Scriptures, to be accompanied with a Latin translation, was projected by the learned members of the Academie Clementine, à la Rue St. Honoré, at Paris, among whom was the Abbé Villefroy, who had resided many years among the Armenians. The prophecy of HABAKKUK was published as a specimen, Paris, 1775, 8vo; but the edition of the entire Bible does not appear to have been completed." In PERSIA, the influence of Mohammedanism prevented the dissemination of Christian truth; and the few editions which were published in Europe, of some parts of the PERSIC version of the Scriptures, by Dr. Calenberg, Professor Bode, and others, were chiefly printed for the accommodation of Oriental scholars, to whom the language was not vernacular. We have, however, to record the singular fact of an attempt made by the Persian usurper, NADIR SHAH, to obtain a translation of our Scriptures! The occasion of (65) Le Long, edit. Masch, pt. ii. vol. I. sec. 9, pp. 176–178. Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse, III. p. 443. Thirteenth Report of Brit. and For. Bib. Soc. App. p. 97, this undertaking is thus related by Khojeh-Abdul-Kureem, a Cashmerian of distinction, who accompanied Nadir Shah, on his return from Hindoostan to Persia: "Whilst Nadir was engaged in his expedition to Turan, he assisted at a disputation of the Mohammedan doctors on the diversity of religious sects, in which the following passage was quoted from the Koran. 'MOHAMMED is the apostle of GOD; and those who are with him are fierce against the unbelievers, but compassionate towards one another. Thou mayest see them bowing down, prostrate, seeking a recompense from God, and his good will. Their signs are in their faces, being marks of frequent prostration. This is their description in the PENTATEUCH, and their description in the GOSPEL.'* Nadir demanded of the first Mullah the explanation of the passage: he replied that the Shiites, or followers of Ali, applied this passage to that chief; but that the Sonnites [or Orthodox] held that it evidently pointed out their four first caliphs, whose character it very clearly expressed. The prince then inquired whether the Pentateuch and Gospel were still in existence; and on being assured they were, he resolved to decide the question by the help of those books, and therefore ordered Mirza Mahadi, a native of Ispahan, to apply to the Jews and Christians, to obtain Persian translations of those works. Mirza Mahadi immediately set out, and laboured day and night to accomplish his mission. At length I saw him arrive at Cazvin, with seven persons well versed in those books; and he himself presented a complete translation of them to our monarch. But as he was busied in making preparations for the war in Daghistan, he postponed the discussion till his return from that *See Sale's Koran, II. ch. xlviii. p. 387, Lond. 1801, 8vo. Mirza Mahadi was the author of "The History of the Life of Nadir Shah, king of Persia; " translated from the Persian into French by Sir William Jones. |