415th anniversary of the first Hungarian-language Bible, news reports said. It comes at a time when politicians and church leaders in the former Communist nation promote more Christian education and culture in the new European Union country.
Gergely Vizaknai Sipos, pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the north-eastern town of Vizsoly told Hungarian News Agency MTI that "five hundred visitors" were expected this weekend to attend the ‘Gaspar Karolyi Days’ named after the famous Bible translator.
Since the collapse of Communism in 1989, a Christian university in Budapest was also named after him. The first full Hungarian version of the Bible was printed in Vizsoly in 1589, historians say.
REFORMED PASTOR
Although parts of the Bible were translated in the 15th century, the comprehensive work came reportedly from Reformed pastor Gaspar Karoly (Karoli), who alone translated the New Testament from Latin and worked with three colleagues on the Old Testament.
Originally a total of 800 copies of the three volumes containing 2,412 pages were printed, of which 52 have survived, MTI said. One original copy is on display in the Hungarian Reformed Church of Vizsoly.
In 2002 Hungary also became the first country in the world to publish the complete Bible in the Gypsy (Lovari) language. That project was aimed at integrating the country’s often discriminated Gypsy, or Roma, community in the church and help them to understand the Bible better. There are up to 800,000 Roma people in Hungary, according to estimates.
