Collection Spotlight-Bibles Part II
Bibles From Around the World, Part II
Cantonese
The flyleaf reads: "Given by the Primary S.S. Dept. Congregational Church Kirkland Washington, U.S.A." and has a bookplate that indicates that "This Book is a part of the historical records of The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches." Publication information on the verso of the title page indicates that it is a Canton Bible, Shangti, Ed. 119, China Bible House B. & F. B. S., A.B. S. Copyright 1939.
Choctaw
From the Choctaw Vision web site, The Choctaw nation is one of the Muskhogean tribes that originated in the Southern United states. The Muskhogeans include Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Apalachi. When this Bible was published in 1867, the move from Mississippi to Oklahoma, known then as Indian Territory, or The Nation, had taken place. The Civil War had recently ended and according to the chronology, schools had just recently been re-opened after a treaty was agreed upon with the Northern states only the previous year.
This Bible's title page reads: "The Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, translated into the Choctaw Language. Chenesis, Eksotus, Lefitikus, Numbas, Micha Tutelonomi Holisso. Aiena Kut Toshowut. Chata Anupa Toba Hoke. New York: American Bible Society, 1867."
Coptic Arabic
"The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect otherwise called Memphitic and Bhoariric with Introduction, critical apparatus, and literal English translation." The representation below is from "Volume I, The Gospels of S. Matthew and Saint Mark, Edited from Ms. Huntington 17 in the Bodeleian Library, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1898."
The book's layout has the Coptic on the left page, English on the right and notes in shorthand below each section. Clearly, due to the arrangement and that it was published in Oxford indicates that this translation was made for English (speaking) scholars.
Esperanto
Created in 1887 by Dr. Ludovic Lazar Zamenhof (1859-1917) to be the universal language, Esperanto is based on 16 basic grammatical rules. "The majority of Esperanto roots are based on Latin, though some vocabulary is taken from modern Romance languages, and from English, German, Polish and Russian." (Source : Omniglot.com) The Esperanto movement is not dead, but it has yet to gain a strong enough foot-hold to live up to Zamenhof's vision as the world's second language.
This New Testament dates to 1912 and was published in London by "La Brita Kaj Eksterlanda Biblia Societo."
Gothic
"Clarendon Press Series, The Gospel of Saint Mark in Gothic, According to the Translation made by Wulfila in the Fourth Century. Edited with a grammatical introduction and glossarial index by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A., Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1882."
Gothic was originally written with a Runic alphabet about which little is known. One theory of the origins of Runes is that they were invented by the Goths, but this is impossible to prove as very few inscriptions of writing in Gothic runes survive.
Known best as the northern tribes who raided the Roman territories, "[t]he Goths were divided into two main tribes: the Ostrogothi or Greutungi (dune-dwellers) and the Visigothi or Tervingi (steppe-dwellers). Related tribes included the Burgundians and the Vandals.
"The Gothic alphabet [of the now extinct language] was invented around middle the 4th century AD by Bishop Wulfila (311-383 AD), the religious leader of the Visigoths, to provide his people with a written language and a means of reading his translation of the Bible. It is based on the Greek alphabet, with some extra letters from the Latin and Runic alphabets. (Source : Omniglot.com)
Stay tuned for the next installment, which will include but not be limited to Hindustani and Greek. Patrons are welcome to contact us with questions about other Bibles in our collection or our circulating policy.