Paracletus : A Mester és tanítványa: Erasmus és Komjáti Benedek

Abstract

Benedek Komjáti's Hungarian translation of Sant Paul's epistles, published in 1533 (Epistolae Pauli lingva hungarica donatae), is a work of symbolic significance in the history of Hungarian culture as the first printed book written in Hungarian. The translator's basic source was Erasmus's Greek-Latin edition of the Bible. The choice of the work to translate was already an Erasmian gesture, as the epistles of Saint Paul essentially determine Erasmus's .gospel-centric ,theology. As Erasmus studied the original Greek text instead of the Vulgata, so did the Hungarian translator neglect the medieval Hungarian version of Saint Paul and turned to Erasmus. He fulfilled Erasmus's aim, who often expressed his desire to make the gospel available to ordinary people through translations to their mother tongue. The Hungarian translation of Saint Paul also conveyed Erasmus's theological message. Translation was an evangelical mission: passing redemption to cultures of national languages. The fact that the Apostle speaks Hungarian instead of Hebrew, Greek or Latin, has a deeper meaning. This message is not for pagans, but in a linguistic-cultural sense reaches Hungarians and lays down a foundation for their sense of chosenness. Komjáti was convinced that the Holy Spirit (Paracletus) spoke with particular effectiveness in Hungarian to the Hungarians.