Category:Polyglot Bibles (subject)

A Polyglot Bible is an edition of the Bible that contains side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages.

Origen's Hexapla (3rd century CE)

The first enterprise of this kind is the famous Hexapla, compiled by the theologian and scholar Origen of Alexandria]] sometime before the year 240 CE, in which the Hebrew Bible texts (the Old Testament, not including the OT Apocrypha) were written in six parallel columns, containing:

• (1) the Hebrew Bible;
• (2) a transliteration of the Hebrew Bible in Greek letters;
• (3) the Greek version by Aquila of Sinope;
• (4) the Greek version by Symmachus the Ebionite;
• (5) the Septuagint version as revised by Origen;
• (6) the Greek version by Theodotion.

The work in 15 volumes seems to have been stored in the library of the bishops of Caesarea for some centuries, but it was destroyed during the Muslim invasion of the year 638 at the latest. It survived only in fragments containing in partial copies.

The Four Major Polyglot Bibles of the 16th and 17th centuries

Complutensian Polyglot (1514-17)

The first printed Polyglot Bible was edited by Diego López de Zúñiga and published in six volumes in 1514-17 in Alcalá, Spain (its distribution, however was delayed until after 1520, with the sanction of Pope Leo X).

It included:

• (1) the Hebrew Bible;
• (2) the Greek New Testament;
• (3) the Latin Vulgate (Old and New Testament);
• (4) the Greek Septuagint, with an interlinear Latin translation;
• (5) the Aramaic Targum Onkelos, with a Latin translation.

Antwerp Polyglot (1568-73)

The second major Polyglot Bible was edited by Benito Arias Montano and published in Antwerp in 1568-73.

It added a new language to those of the Complutensian by including the Syriac New Testament; and, while the earlier polyglot had only the Targum Onkelos on the Pentateuch, the Antwerp Bible had also the Targum on the Prophets, and on Esther, Job, Psalms, and the Salomonic writings.

Paris Polyglot (1629-1645)

The third Polyglot Bible was edited by Guy Michel Le Jay and published in Paris in 9 volumes in 1629-45.

1. Hebraica -- 2. Samaritana -- 3. Chaldaica -- 4. Graeca -- 5. Syriaca -- 6. Latina -- 7. Arabica.

It added the first printed texts of the Syriac Old Testament (edited by Gabriel Sionita, a Maronite, but the Book of Ruth by Abraham Ecchellensis, also a Maronite) and of the Samaritan Pentateuch and version by Jean Morin (Morinus). It has also an Arabic version, or rather a series of various Arabic versions.

London Polyglot (1654-57)

The fourth and last great polyglot was edited by Brian Walton and published in six volumes in London in 1654-57.

It added, among other things, the Syriac of Esther and of several apocryphal books, Persian versions of the Pentateuch and Gospels, the Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, and the Psalms and New Testament in Ethiopic. All the texts not Latin are accompanied by Latin translations.

Other Notable Polyglot Bibles

Other Polyglots Bibles, less ambitious in scope and of lesser scholarly importance, have been published over the centuries.

Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum, et Chaldaicum (1516 Giustiniani), book

Agostino Giustinani planned to publish a Polyglot Bible, of which howver only the Book of Psalms was completed. Besides the Hebrew text, the Septuagint translation, the Chaldee paraphrase, and an Arabic version, Giustiniani's edition contains the Vulgate translation, a new Latin translation by the editor, a Latin translation of the Chaldee paraphrase, and a collection of scholia.

Bertram (Heidelberg, 1586-1616)

Wolder (Hamburg, 1596)

Biblia sacra (1599-1602 Hutter), book

The Bible was published in several languages by Elias Hutter (Nuremberg, 1599-1602),

Christianus Reineccius (Leipsic, 1713-51)

Biblia sacra polyglotta Bagsteriana (1831 Bagster), book

In Hebrew, Greek, English, Latin [i.e. Vulgate], German, Italian, French, Old Spanish, Samaritan, and Jacobean Syriac, with references in Arabic.

It included:

• (1) Biblia Hebraica (ed. Everardi Van der Hooght)
• (2) Novum Testamentum hebraicum (ed. Gulielmo Greenfield)
• (3) Septuagint
• (4) Greek New Testament
• (5) Vulgate
• (5b) Syriac New Testament
• (6) English translation
• (7) German translation (by Martin Luther)
• (8) French translation (by J.F. Ostervald)
• (9) Italian translation (by Giovanni Diodati)
• (10) Spanish translation (by P. Scio)

"Prolegomena in Biblia polyglotta -- Biblia Hebraica, ex editione Everardi Van der Hooght -- Novum Testamentum hebraicum a Gulielmo Greenfield -- Versionem graecam septuaginta seniorum, juxta exemplar Vaticanum, a Cardinali Carafa in lucem emissum -- Novum Testamentum graecum -- Biblia Sacra vulgatae editionis Sixti V et Clementis VIII -- Versionem anglicanam -- Versionem germanicam a M. Luthero -- Versionem gallican a J.F. Ostervald -- Versionem italianam a G. Diodati -- Versionem hispanicam a P. Scio -- Appendix: Syrorum Novi Testamenti versioni, quam Peschito nuncupant juxta exemplar Viennense a J.A. Widmanstadio, A.D. 1555 Pentateucham hebraeo-samaritan-um juxta Kennicotti editionum. Varias lectiones in versionem LXX. ex editione Grabii. Lectionis varietates in Novum Testamentum graecum, e notis Griesbachii ductas."

Bagster's "Biblia Sacra Polyglotta" (6 vols., London, 1831); and on a reduced version, "Polyglot Bible in eight languages" (2 vols., London, 2nd ed. 1874). The languages are Hebrew, Greek, English, Latin, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. It gives in appendix the Syriac New Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and many variants of the Greek text. This Bible is printed in very small type.

Polyglotten-Bibel zum praktischen Handgebrauch (1847-57 Stier, Theile), book

In four volumes (1847-57 / 2nd ed. 1854-56 / 5th ed., Bielefeld, 1890). This Polyglot contains the Hebrew Bible, the Greek (Septuagint), the Latin Vulgate, and the German translation by Martin Luther).

The Hexaglott Bible (1856 DeLevante), book

"Biblia Triglotta", 2 vols., being, with the omission of modern languages, a reissue of the "Biblia Hexaglotta", edited by de Levante (London, 1874-6). It contains the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts of the Old Testament, and the Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts of the New Testament. Published by Dickenson, London, 1890.

"La Sainte Bible Polyglotte" (1890-98 Vigoroux), book

F. Vigouroux, S.S., was the first secretary of the Biblical Commission. It is the only modern Polyglot which contains the deuterocanonical books, and the only one issued under Catholic auspices. Vigouroux has secured the correct printing, in convenient quarto volumes, of the ordinary Massoretic text, the Sixtine Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and a French translation of the Vulgate by Glaire. Each book of the Bible is preceded by a brief introduction; important variant readings, textual and exegetical notes, and illustrations are given at the foot of the pages.