ABOUT WULFILA AND THE GOTHIC BIBLE
St. Wulfila (Ulfilas, c. 310-383) was a Gothic-born pastor whose parents were enslaved by the Goths from their home in Asia Minor. Wulfila was an Arian Christian who converted many Goths to that form of Christianity, setting the stage for religious as well as political strife in the Western Mediterranean. Perhaps Wulfila's greatest accomplishment was a nearly complete translation of the Bible into Gothic, an early Germanic language with primitive connections to Anglo-Saxon and German. It is the earliest known translation of the Bible into any Germanic language. Wulfila translated the entire Bible into Gothic except 1-2 Kings (he is reputed to have feared that the Goths would have gotten too many unpleasant ideas from the bloody accounts of the kings).
GOTHIC "GHOSTS"
Of his work, only the New Testament and a portion of Nehemiah remain intact, through several manuscripts. However, the New Testament contains many quotations of Old Testament texts. Some are paraphrases but many are outright quotations. Since Wulfila did his work alone, I believe it should be acceptable to conclude that these Old Testament quotations in the New Testament would accurately reflect Wulfila's understanding of the Old Testament text in his translation. I call such passages “Gothic Ghosts,” remnant quotations of Scripture in the Gothic Language from the missing pages of Wulfila’s translation. For the purposes of Old Testament textual criticism they should be permitted to stand,after careful analysis, as as representations of the text of the Old Testament known to Wulfila in the fourth century AD.
Mere allusions to texts will be noted, but only the actual quotations should be allowed as Old Testament passages, although in some cases it would appear that portions of an alluded text might be useful for critical Old Testament evaluation, since the idea of a text would be present.
Fourteen Old Testament passages are quoted in ten verses of Galatians (some OT phrases occur more than once—the NT quote of one of them validly covers all if no variations occur in most or all manuscripts of the OT passages). Of these 14, nine would be useful in the applications of Lower Textual Criticism based on manuscript evidence. However, because of the condition of the Gothic manuscripts, only four of these are actually available. [*] But three of the four would be useful in OT criticism due to variants to the Hebrew text.
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[*] Galatians 3:8 (which touches Gen. 12:3; 18:18 and 22:18) is not extant in Gothic, but no variants are present in BHS in those verses. Neither is 3:10 (= Deut. 27:26), 3:11 (Heb. 2:4), 3:12 (Lev. 18:5), 3:13 (Deuteronomy 21:23), or, unfortunately, 3:16 (Gen. 12:7, 13:15 and 27:4).
Two Gothic codices are useful here:
Goth A Codex Ambrosianus A
Goth B Codex Ambrosianus B
The text is generally from Streitberg's 1919 Gothic Bible.
1. GENESIS 15:6 (Galatians 3:6) (No variant in BHS)
וְהֶאֱמִן בַּיהוָה וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ לּוֹ צְדָקָה
Galatians 3:6 καθὼς ᾽Αβραὰμ ἐπίστευσεν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην.
(1 Clement 10:6, ἐπίστευσεν δὲ Ἀβραὰμ τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην.)
Goth[a] swaswe jah Abraham galaubida guda….
This phrase, “Abraham believed God” is consistent in both the Greek of Galatians and the Gothic (1 Clement is presented here for future reference to the application of the Apostolic Fathers in textual criticism). Swaswe is the adverb “just as, even as,” and so is not part of the quotation. Jah is “and.” Galabida is the preterite indicative 3rd singular of galaubjan, “believe.”
PRETERITE (Past tense)
Indicative Subjunctive Indic. Subjunctive
singular singular plural plural
1st galabida galabidedjau galabidedum galabidedeima
2nd galabides galabidedeis galabideduþ galabideideiþ
3rd galabida galabidedi galabidedun galabidedeina
2. GENESIS 21:10 (Galatians 4:30) (Variant in BHS)
וַתֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָהָם גָּרֵשׁ הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת־בְּנָהּ כִּי לֹא יִירַשׁ בֶּן־הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת עִם־בְּנִי עִם־יִצְחָק׃
Gen. 21:10 (and she said to Abraham) ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’”
Galatians 4:30
30 ἀλλὰ τί λέγει ἡ γραϕή; ῎Εκβαλε τὴν παιδίσκην καὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς, οὐ γὰρ μὴ κληρονομήσει ὁ υἱὸς τῆς παιδίσκης μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἐλευθέρας.
30 Goth[b] akei hva qiþiþ þata gamelido? uswairp þizai þiujai jah þamma sunau izos; unte ni nimiþ arbi sunus þiujos miþ sunau frijaizos.
Gal. 4:30 “But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’”
The underlined jah in the Gothic text appears to agree with Paul’s Greek of Galatians 4:30, and also with the MT of Genesis 21:10 over against the variant of the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Targum Jonathan, which omit the waw (‘and’) from the passage.
3. LEVITICUS 19:18 (Galatians 5:14)
לֹא־תִקֹּם וְלֹא־תִטֹּר אֶת־בְּנֵי עַמֶּךָ וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה׃
LXX Lev. 19:18 καὶ οὐκ ἐκδικᾶταί σου ἡ χείρ, καὶ οὐ μηνιεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ λαοῦ σου καὶ ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν˙ ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος.
Galatians 5:14 ὁ γὰρ πᾶς νόμος ἐν ἑνὶ λόγῳ πεπλήρωται, ἐν τῷ ᾽Αγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν.
Didache 1:2 (δεύτερον τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν), 2:7 (οὓς δὲ ἀγαπήσεις ὑπὲρ τὴν ψυχήν σου.).
Goth[b] unte all witoþ in izwis in ainamma waurda usfulljada, in þamma: frijos nehvundjan þeinana swe þuk silban.
BHS presents three variants to Leviticus 19:18. Galatians 5:14 only quotes “Love your neighbor as yourself” (᾽Αγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν). This portion of the quotation does not make contact with any of the three variants mentioned in BHS for the verse (all of them pertain to “Do not seek revenge…”). However, the Gothic joins the NT and other versions in agreement with the MT, which is a valuable and notable observation.
4. ISAIAH 54:1 (Galatians 4:27) (Variant in BHS)
רָנִּי עֲקָרָה לֹא יָלָדָה פִּצְחִי רִנָּה וְצַהֲלִי לֹא־חָלָה כִּי־רַבִּים בְּנֵי־שׁוֹמֵמָה מִבְּנֵי בְעוּלָה אָמַר יְהוָה׃
LXX: 54:1 Εὐφράνθητι, στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα, ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον, ἡ οὐκ ὠδίνουσα, ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα, εἶπεν γὰρ κύριος.
Sing, O Barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.
Gal. 4:27 γέγραπται γάρ, Εὐϕράνθητι, στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα· ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον, ἡ οὐκ ὠδίνουσα· ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα.
2 Clement 2:1 (Εὐφράνθητι, στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα, ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον, ἡ οὐκ ὠδίνουσα, ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα.)
The Septuagint has a variant reading here: following βόησον, L adds καὶ τέρπου, “and be merry,” pres mid imv from τέρπω (not in NT).
Goth[b] gameliþ ist auk: sifai stairo so unbairandei, tarmei jah hropei so ni fitandei, un(t)e managa barna þizos auþjons mais þau þizos aigandeins aban.
A brief analysis of this passage:
gameliþ (Pret. indic 3rd sg, gameljan “Written”) ist auk: sifai (“rejoice” sifan) stairo (‘sterile woman’) so unbairandei (present participle) tarmei (“break through, burst”) jah hropei (“crys out,” hropjan) so ni (‘she who,’ demonstrative; fem nom sg + not) fitandei (‘were-- in labor,’ fitan), un(t)e (conj. for, because) managa (more) barna (children; barn, cp. Gaelic bairn) þizos (“than she,” demonstr. pron: fem. gen. sg.: so, þizos, þizai, þo) auþjons (‘desert, barren,’ auþs) mais (“than,” adverb of comparison) þau (“better,” conj. after comparison) þizos (“than she”) aigandeins (“who has” aih) aban (“a husband”).
The presence of tarmei jah hropei in the Gothic text supports the MT reading of Isaiah 54:1 (burst into song and shout for joy) over against the LXX, which drops the first phrase.
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