Abstract
The Old Czech Bible translation (1360-1500) consists of four translation redactions which represent different types of arrangements for solving translation issues. Previous research showed that in order to create more understandable translations, the translators used accessible medieval Bible commentaries or explanatory dictionaries.
The 4th Old Czech Bible translation redaction comprises translations redacted by the Czech Utraquist auxiliary bishop and theologian Martin Lupáč (cca 1450) and the Prague Bible (incunabulum, 1488). The ideological aspects of the 4th redaction have not been studied yet.
The aim of this study was to explore how the authors of the 4th redaction created an explanatory nonliteral translation of New Testament to make its content accessible to general population. We compared the text of the New Testament in its four redactions, and focused on detection of translation innovations in the 4th redaction.
The translators of the 4th redaction integrated their explanatory notes directly to the translation text which allowed us to identify ideological patterns specific for each of the translators. Our results showed that the translation of Martin Lupáč is focused on theological or ecclesiological terms.
He tried to translate some terms of church hierarchy and religious community to the context of Utraquist theology by using a special functional translation method. For example, he translated "anima" as "život" (life), not as "duše" (soul); "caro" translated as "tělo" (body) in the context of human physical body and as "člověk" (human) in the context of salvation; and "ecclesia" in the sense of church community translated as "křesťané" (Christians).
The most specific pattern of Martin Lupáč's translation is his functional and explanatory translation of the term "episcopus" in the text of the Epistles. He did not translate it as "biskup" (bishop) as it was translated in the Prague Bible and other redactions, but as "kněz" (priest) or "správce" (administrator) of the Christian community.
He used term "biskup" only with regard to Jesus - the bishop of the Christian church as was used before in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We confirmed that Prague Bible is based on the text of M.
Lupáč's New Nestament, but the Prague Bible refused some of his translations proposals and some translation methods were developed further, e.g. the translation of the word "sinus" as "věčnost" (eternity) in Jn 1:18. In addition, our research uncovered the use of several translation handbooks for the 4th Old Czech Bible redaction, e.g.
Glossa ordinaria, Nicholas of Lyra's Commentary, Vocabularius praedicantium, Vocabularius breviloquus or Vocabularius ex quo. In conclusion, the 4th Old Czech Bible redaction is more explanatory than the previous redactions, and contains traces of ideological, or even theologican attitudes of its authors.