The
Ostrog Bible was one of the earliest
East Slavic translations of the BibleThis article deals with the history of translations of the Bible into Slavic languages, which begins with the second half of the 9th century.-Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic:...
and the first complete printed edition of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
in
Old Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Slavic dialect of the Thessalonica region, employed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and...
, published in
OstrohOstroh is a historic city located in Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine, located on the Horyn River. Ostroh is the administrative center of the Ostroh Raion and is itself designated as a special administrative subordination within the oblast...
, in the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The new Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th-century Europe....
, by the Muscovy printer
Ivan FyodorovIvan Fedorov , was one of the fathers of Ruthenian printing. He was also a master cannon maker and the inventor of a multibarreled mortar....
in 1581 with the assistance of the Ukrainian Prince
Konstantin OstrogskiKonstanty Wasyl Ostrogski was a Lithuanian prince, starost of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, marshal of Volhynia and voivode of the Kiev Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He got married on January 1553 in Tarnów...
.
The
Ostrog Bible is unique among Church Slavonic Bibles in that the
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
was translated not from the (Hebrew)
Masoretic textThe Masoretic Text is a Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible . It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private study...
, but from the (Greek)
SeptuagintThe Septuagint , or simply "LXX", referred to in critical works by the abbreviation ...
. This translation, comprising seventy-six books of the Old and
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
s, was based on the
Gennadius Bible and a manuscript of the
Codex AlexandrinusThe Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible,
[The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early history of Christianity...]
. Some parts were based on
Francysk SkarynaFrancysk Skaryna was a Belarusian famous as one of the first publishers in Eastern Europe, laying groundwork for the development of Belarusian language....
's translations.
The Ostrog Bibles were printed on two dates: 12 July 1580, and 12 August 1581. The second version differs from the 1580 original in composition, ornamentation, and correction of misprints. In the printing of the Bible delays occurred, as it was necessary to remove mistakes, to search for correct textual resolutions of questions, and to produce a correct translation. The editing of the Bible detained printing. In the meantime, Fyodorov and his company printed other biblical books. The first were those which did not require correcting: the
PsalterPsalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Etymology:...
and the New Testament.
The
Ostrog Bible is a monumental publication of 1,256 pages, lavishly decorated with headpieces and initials, which were prepared especially for it. From the typographical point of view, the
Ostrog Bible is irreproachable. This is the first Bible printed in Cyrillic type. It served as the original and model for further Russian publications of the Bible.
The importance of the first printed Cyrillic Bible can hardly be overestimated. Prince Ostrogski sent copies to
Pope Gregory XIIIPope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585.-Youth:He was born in the city of Bologna, where he studied law and graduated
in 1530...
and
tsarTsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or Tzar in English, is a Slavic term with Bulgarian origins used to designate certain monarchs...
Ivan the TerribleIvan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet "Grozny" is associated with might, power and strictness, rather than poor performance, horror or cruelty...
, while the latter presented a copy to an English ambassador. When leaving Ostroh, Fyodorov took 400 books with him. Only 300 copies of the
Ostrog Bible are extant today.
The
Ostrog Bible was widely known in
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
, and also abroad. It is registered in the library of
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
; its copies were owned by King
Gustavus Adolphus of SwedenGustav II Adolf , widely known in English by the Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus and variously in historical writings sometimes as simply just Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolf the Great, , was founder of the Swedish...
, the cardinal
BarberiniThe Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII...
, many scientists and the public figures of that time. The
Ostrog Bible was reprinted in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
in 1663.
The significance of the
Ostrog Bible was enormous for Orthodox education, which had to resist strong
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
pressure in Ukraine and Belarus.
External links
Article at krotov.info About the modern publiction of the Ostrog Bible