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In Lithuania the Bible hardly made its way. The first texts of the Holy Scriptures in the Lithuanian language appeared in the middle of the 16th century following the spread of the Reformation. "The Catechism" by Martynas Mazvydas contained ten commandments of God, two psalms, extracts from the Gospels and the epistles of apostles. A translation of selected Bible extracts "Gospels and Epistles" by Baltramiejus Vilentas was published in 1579. In 1579-1580 Jonas Bretkunas completed translation of the Bible. However, it was not published. Attempts to publish the translation of the Bible by Boguslav Chilenski in London in 1660-1662 failed as well. Prepared by a great number of Protestant translators (Jonas Berentas, Petras Gotlybas Milkus, Pilypas Ruigys, Adomas Fridrichas Simelpenigis and others), the Lithuanian Bible was first published in 1735 in Karaliaucius. It should be noted that up to the beginning of the 19th century the Catholic Church in Lithuania had no much interest in translating and publishing the Holy Scriptures. During 500 years of its official existence in Lithuania the Catholic Church initiated only the publication of "Polish and Lithuanian Gospels" by Jesuit Academy (1637) and some biblical extracts and free retelling of biblical events in "Postile" by Mikalojus Dauksa (1599), "Punktai sakymu" by Konstantinas Sirvydas (1629-1644) and in some other editions of various character. Only in 1816 in Vilnius there appeared the translation of the New Testament by bishop Juozapas Arnulpas Giedraitis. In the same year the Bible edited by the doctor of theology, Protestant Liudvikas Reza was published in Karaliaucius. This text of the Scriptures corrected by Fridrichas Kursaitis and later by Adomas Einaras and Jonas Pipiras was published by the British Bible Society, the Central Bible Society of Prusija and Bible Societies of foreign countries. The translation of the Bible by archbishop Juozapas Skvireckas was published in 1911-1937 (in 1990-1991 the Old Testament was included into the series of the World Library Books). In 1972 there appeared the New Testament translated by priest Ceslovas Kavaliauskas. A number of Lithuanian Christians are familiar with the translations by Lithuanian emigrants: "New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" by Algirdas Jurenas and "The Bible is Holy Scriptures of Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha" by Alfredas Velius. Thus, although Lithuania seems not to lack the translations of the Holy Scriptures, the results for today are not satisfactory. Up till now there was no the Bible published in one book in modern Lithuanian language. The Word Of Faith Bible Center in 1996 published a new Lithuanian translation of the Bible. This was our attempt to fill the existing gap and to add a new translation to the list of the Lithuanian translations of the Holy Scriptures. This translation was prepared by Methodist pastor Kostas Burbulys who ministered in the pre-war Lithuania and who now lives in the United States. The Word Of Faith Bible Centre received permission to edit and publish his translation. In preparation of the publication we tried not to divert from both the original texts of the Bible (especially the New Testament) and the modern norms of the Lithuanian language. We made use of the following competent resources: The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. - Nashville, 1990; Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible.- Grand Rapids, 1991; The Complete Word Study Dictionary compiled and edited by Spiros Zodhiates. - Chattanooga, 1992; Vine's Amplified and Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. - Iowa Falls, 1991. The text of the New Testament was co-ordinated with the older Greek copies of the Textus Receptus Manuscript Group which was the basis for the King James Version and Russian Synodic Translation. We believe that this Bible will greatly bless children of God in Lithuania and the glorious Gospel will spread in our nation even with more power, proclaiming the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ - the only way of Salvation. |
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There is no book in the world,
which has attracted so much attention as the Bible. Many times it has
been rewritten by hand, burned and hidden, disregarded and remembered
again. It has many enemies, but there have always been those who read
and appreciate it and are concerned with its spread among people.