28 November 2013 | Zagreb, Croatia [Dragutin Matak, tedNEWS] On 26 October 2013, just a few days before the Protestant Reformation Day, a transliteration of the first Croatian New Testament was presented at a celebration ceremony at the University of Zagreb. The celebration marked the 450th anniversary of this landmark publication, which was completed in Urach, Germany, not far from Tübingen in 1562/63. There were about 200 visitors present at the celebration, many of whom were Old Slavic language specialists including a group of 28 Russian linguists. During the week that followed, presentations of this work were made in Osijek, Varaždin, Pula, Rijeka, Sisak, Belgrade and Mostar.
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Adriatic Union College in Maruševec, Croatia, led the way in the preparation of this publication. The joint publishers were the Old Slavic Language Department from the University of Zagreb and ‘Školska knjiga’, the leading publisher of educational books in Croatia.
Back in the 16th century, the New Testament was translated by Catholic monks, Anton Dalmatin and Stipan Konzul, who became Protestants later on. The work was printed in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet and was intended for missionary outreach. In the introduction of the translation, the translators stated that it is the Word of God for the Dalmatians, Croatians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Turks and others. Two more people were crucial for the publication: Primož Trubar, a Slovenian, who provided the vision, and Ivan Ungnad, a German military commander who served in Croatia, who donated all his belongings for this purpose and raised money from the German nobility, including the emperor Maximilian II.
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Now, in autumn of 2013, for the first time everyone can read this 450 year-old Croatian holy script transliterated into the Latin alphabet. By initiating this project, Adriatic Union College paid homage to this sacred Biblical text and made it available for further theological and linguistic considerations.
Dragutin Matak, editor of the transliterated New Testament, says, “It was a pleasure to work on this project with the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities who are leading authorities on Croatian language and literature, the University Centre for Croatian Studies, the Old Church Slavonic Institute, and ‘Školska knjiga’.
May this publication continue bringing attention to the everlasting Word of God. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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