Ulfilas
Ulfilas Gothic | |
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Title | Apostle of the Goths[1] Confessor of the Faith |
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Ulfilas (Greek: Ουλφίλας; c. 311 – 383),[a] known also as Wulfila(s) or Urphilas,[5] was a 4th century Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent. He was the apostle to the Gothic people.[5]
Ulfila served as a bishop and missionary, participated in the Arian controversy, and is credited with converting the Goths to Christianity[6] as well as translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. For the purpose of the translation he developed the Gothic alphabet, largely based on the Greek alphabet, as well as Latin and Runic characters.[7] Although the translation of the text into Gothic has traditionally been ascribed to Ulfila, analysis of the text of the Gothic Bible indicates the involvement of a team of translators, possibly under his supervision.[8][9]
Life
Ulfila is mentioned by the orthodox Catholics
Around the year 311,
No sources exist concerning Ulfila's education.
Bishop
Ulfila would master both
For 33 years Ulfila continued to serve as bishop and attended church councils.
Ulfila was present at the
Translation of the Bible
The traditional date for Ulfila's completion of religious texts for the Goths of Moesia is around 369.[35] Cassiodorus attests that he "invented the Gothic letters and translated the divine scriptures into that language".[35] Walafrid Strabo wrote that "(a team of) scholars translated the sacred books".[35] There is no primary evidence to support the traditional assumption that Ulfila translated the Bible into Gothic; the brief mentions of Ulfila as a translator in the works of ancient historians count only as circumstantial evidence.[8] Authoritative scholarly opinion, based on rigorous analysis of the linguistic properties of the Gothic text, holds that the Gothic Bible was authored by a group of translators.[9] This does not rule out the possibility that, while overseeing the translation of the Bible, Ulfila was one of several translators.[8]
Creed of Ulfila
The Creed of Ulfila concludes a letter praising him written by his foster son and pupil Auxentius of Durostorum. It distinguishes God the Father ("unbegotten") from God the Son ("only-begotten"), who was begotten before time and created the world, and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son:
I, Ulfila, bishop and confessor, have always so believed, and in this, the one true faith, I make the journey to my Lord; I believe in one God the Father, the only unbegotten and invisible, and in his only-begotten son, our Lord and God, the designer and maker of all creation, having none other like him (so that one alone among all beings is God the Father, who is also the God of our God); and in one Holy Spirit, the illuminating and sanctifying power, as
Acts 1:8); being neither God (the Father) nor our God (Christ), but the minister of Christ... subject and obedient in all things to the Son; and the Son, subject and obedient in all things to God who is his Father... (whom) he ordained in the Holy Spirit through his Christ.[36]
Maximinus, a 5th-century Arian theologian, copied Auxentius's letter, among other works, into the margins of one copy of Ambrose's De Fide; there are some gaps in the surviving text.[37]
Honours
- Wulfila Glacier on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Bishop Ulfila.
- Part of the Walhalla (memorial) in Bavaria, Germany.
Notes
- ^ Also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf".[2][3] There is no consensus among scholars as to what can be considered the correct form of Ulfila's name.[4]
- ^ Romanist Hagith Sivan of the University of Kansas alternatively puts Ulfila's birth c. 310.[11]
- ^ Historian Herwig Wolfram places the date of his ancestors' capture by Danubian Goths in 257.[14]
- ^ According to German theologian Knut Schäferdiek , it is unsure whether Ulfila's mother was definitively from Cappadocia.[17]
- Gutthiuda, above all by the Romans".[20]
- ^ Most scholars associate Ulfila's consecration with the council at Antioch in 341. According to classicist Timothy Barnes, "[they] have explained Philostorgius' dating as due either to confusion of the names of Constantine and Constantius (in itself a very frequent phenomenon) or to a mistaken retrojection of later events".[22]
- ^ Herwig Wolfram speculates that the persecution took place "most likely after a war with the Romans".[25] Evidence from Libanius and Cyril of Jerusalem suggested a crisis of Roman–Gothic relations.[17] Academic Maurice Wiles writes that "to the Goths Ulfila's missionary activity is likely to have appeared as a form of Roman infiltration".[21]
See also
- Mardonius
- Gothic Bible
- Gothic Christianity
- Germanic Christianity
Notes and references
- ^ Parvis, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 49.
- ^ Bennett, William H. An Introduction to the Gothic Language, 1980, p. 23.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 76; Wiles 1996, p. 41.
- ^ Ebbinghaus 1991, p. 236.
- ^ a b Thompson 2008, p. vi.
- ^ a b Ratkus 2009, p. 38.
- ISBN 978-3-11-033450-0.
- ^ .
- ^ a b Miller 2019, pp. 13–18.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xiii; Schäferdiek, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 45.
- ^ Sivan 1996, p. 373.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xiii-xiv; Wolfram 1988, p. 76.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 52.
- ^ a b c Wolfram 1988, p. 76.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xiv.
- ^ Schäferdiek, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 45.
- ^ a b c d e Schäferdiek, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 46.
- ^ Kaylor & Philips 2012, p. 9.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xiv; Schäferdiek, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 46.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 77.
- ^ a b Wiles 1996, p. 41.
- ^ Barnes 1990, p. 542.
- ^ Kaylor & Philips 2012, p. 9; Wolfram 1988, p. 76.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xviii.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 79.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xviii–xix.
- ^ a b Wolfram 1988, p. 80.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xix; Wolfram 1988, p. 80.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xix.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. 110–111.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 81.
- ^ Thompson 2008, p. xx–xxi; Ebbinghaus 1991, p. 237–238.
- ^ Schäferdiek, Berndt & Steinacher 2016, p. 47.
- ^ Wolfram 1988, p. 81; Thompson 2008, p. 116
- ^ a b c Miller 2019, p. 8.
- ^ Heather & Matthews 1991, p. 143.
- ^ Heather & Matthews 1991, pp. 135–137.
Bibliography
- H. C. von Gabelentz, J. Loebe, Ulfila: Veteris et Novi Testamenti Versionis Gothicae fragmenta quae supersunt, Leipzig, Libraria Schnuphasiana, 1843.
- Carla Falluomini, The Gothic Version of the Gospels and Pauline Epistles. Cultural Background, Transmission and Character, Berlino, Walter de Gruyter, 2015 (Capitolo 1: "Wulfila and his context", pp. 4–24.)
- Heather, Peter J.; Matthews, John (1991). The Goths in the Fourth Century. Liverpool University Press. Contains translations of selected texts: Chapter 5. The Life and Work of Ulfila, 124; 6. The Gothic Bible 145; 7. Selections from the Gothic Bible 163–185.
- Bennett, William Holmes (1980). An Introduction to the Gothic Language. ISBN 978-0-87352-295-3.
- Rubin, Zeev (1981). "The Conversion of the Visigoths to Christianity". JSTOR 24815706.
- Wolfram, Herwig (1988) [1979]. History of the Goths. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas J. (2nd ed.). Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
- JSTOR 23965598.
- Ebbinghaus, Ernst A. (1991). "Ulfila(s) or Wulfila?". JSTOR 40849028.
- Colette M., Van Kerckvoorde (1993). An Introduction to Middle Dutch. ISBN 3-11-013535-3.
- Sivan, Hagith (October 1996). "Ulfila's Own Conversion". JSTOR 1509923.
- OCLC 344023364.
- ISBN 978-0-7156-3700-5.
- Ratkus, Artūras (2009). "The Greek Sources of the Gothic Bible Translation" (PDF). Vertimo Studijos. 2. ISSN 2029-4050.
- Kaylor, Noel Harold; Philips, Philip Edward (2012). A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (1st ed.). ISBN 978-9004183544.
- ISBN 9781317178651.
- Schäferdiek, Knut (2016). "Ulfila and the so-called 'Gothic' Arianism". In Berndt, Guido M.; ISBN 9781317178651.
- Miller, D. Gary (June 17, 2019). The Oxford Gothic Grammar. ISBN 9780198813590.
External links
- Jim Marchand's translation on Auxentius' letter on Ulfila' career and beliefs, with Latin text
- Project Wulfila
- Gothic fonts after Ulfila
- Ulfila, the Apostle of the Goths by Charles A. Anderson Scott in BTM format
Alexander A. Vasiliev (1936). The Goths in Crimea. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mediaeval Academy of America. p. 37. |