Biblia brzeska w świetle najnowszych badań
The Brest Bible in the light of the recent researches

Summary/Abstract: Thanks to German publishers the Brest Bible of 1563 has been reprinted in facsimile with commentaries by Irena Kwilecka and David A. Frick in 2001 as another volume of the great biblical series „Biblia Slavica”. This article discusses above all the philological commentary by Irena Kwilecka. The author has been investigating the problems connected with translation of the Brest Bible (its history, language) for many years. It was the first complete translation of Holy Scripture into Polish produced by Protestants (Calvinists). According to principles which had been taken by Protestants the Brest Bible was based on original texts. Irena Kwilecka devoted much attention to the authorities, both to the basic and to the lesser ones. Two sources must be mentioned here for the direct influence they exerted on the Brest Bible. There were the Latin Bible of 1557 and the French Bible of 1553, both edited by R. Stephanus (R. Estienne). Having widely presented the authorities, Irena Kwilecka pays attention to the method of translation; she discusses the problem of relation between Polish translation and its authorities. It has been shown, how the Brest translators tried to avoid Hebraisms in the Polish version and to replace them with more idiomatic constructions.

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