Gothic Texts. Translations, Audiences, Readers

The essay proposes a socio-cultural approach to the translation of the Bible into Gothic. The translation was firstly conceived for liturgical purposes but in the following centuries it became more and more used for personal reading. This last approach was the unique form of its fruition during the Carolingian Age. The essay reflects on the transforming role played by the community of readers and audience throughout the centuries and places in relation to the creation of the Gothic translated version of the Bible. We know that saint John Chrysostom was in contact with Gothic-speaking communities in Constantinople, and the Archbishop was not contrary to the use of language other than Greek in liturgy. In the last decades of the fourth century, the Arian bishop Wulfila, together with a team of collaborators, translated the whole Bible (with the possible exception of the Books of Kings – as is asserted by contemporary sources). They translated from Greek into Visigothic, their own mother tongue. From a socio-cultural point of view, the first reason for translating the Bible into Gothic depended on liturgical needs and consequently the primary use of that translation was intended for oral fruition. The result was a text in part syntactically responding to its Greek model, but with large usage of autochthonous lexicon also in semantic fields which did not possessed any specific word for concepts which were not part of a Germanic, barbarian culture. In that case, the role of the audience was essential for the translation activity: the goal was the easy comprehension of complex ideas, for instance of theological terms like ‘sin’ or ‘contrition’. The relationship among translated text, audience and readers changed during the reign of the Ostrogoths in Italy (489-553 AD). When the Goths settled in Italy at the end of their migration, some Arian Gothic cultural centres developed in Ravenna, Verona and perhaps Brescia and Pavia. In those years the Holy Text was perused by Goths who took into consideration the previous translation and introduced some variants to the text. In Italy the Gothic translation became also an instrument for scholarship and private reading, a practice which is attested by some sources and survived till the Carolingian age.