ULFILAS

Ulfilas (Gothic Wulfila) was born about the year 311 A.D., but where his birthplace was in the wide tract of country then inhabited by the Goths is not known. Although Ulfilas was born and grew up among the Goths, he was of Cappadocian descent. According to the testimony of the historian Philostorgius, the parents, or perhaps rather the grandparents, of Ulfilas were natives of Sadagolthina, near the town of Parnassus in Cappadocia, who had been carried off as captives by the Goths, during an irruption made by this people into the northern parts of Asia Minor in the year 267.

In the year 332 he accompanied an embassy to Constantinople, where he remained until 341. In the latter year he was consecrated bishop of the Goths dwelling North of the Danube. For seven years (341–8) he laboured zealously among the Goths in Dacia, and won over a great multitude of them to the Christian faith. But the persecution and oppression, which Ulfilas and his converts suffered through Athanaric, became so great that he applied to Constantinus in 348 for permission to lead his converts into Roman territory. Constantinus readily granted the request, and Ulfilas accordingly led a great number of his people across the Danube, and settled near Nicopolis in Moesia, at the foot of the Balkan mountains, where he preached and laboured until his death, which took place in 383 while on a visit to Constantinople.

By far the most important source of our knowledge of the life and work of Ulfilas is found in the account of him given by Auxentius, from which we extract the following passage (for the full account the reader must be referred to the work: ‘Über das Leben und die Lehre des Ulfila,’ by G. Waitz, Hannover, 1840).

‘Eo ita praedicante et per Cristum cum dilectione deo patri gratias agente haec et his similia exsequente, quadraginta annis 196in episcopatu gloriose florens, apostolica gratia grecam et latinam et goticam linguam sine intermissione in una et sola eclesia Cristi predicavit, quia et una est eclesia dei vivi, columna et firmamentum veritatis, et unum esse gregem Cristi domini et dei nostri, unam culturam et unum aedificium, unam virginem et unam sponsam, unam reginam et unam vineam, unam domum, unum templum, unum conventum esse Cristianorum, cetera vero omnia conventicula non esse eclesias dei, sed synagogas esse satanae adserebat et contestabatur. Et haec omnia de divinis scribturis eum dixisse et nos describsisse qui legit intelligat. Qui et ipsis tribus linguis plures tractatus et multas interpretationes volentibus ad utilitatem et ad aedificationem, sibi ad aeternam memoriam et mercedem post se dereliquid. Quem condigne laudare non sufficio et penitus tacere non audeo; cui plus omnium ego sum debitor, quantum et amplius in me laborabit, qui me a prima etate mea a parentibus meis discipilum suscepit et sacras litteras docuit et veritatem manifestavit et per misericordiam dei et gratiam Cristi et carnaliter et spiritaliter ut filium suum in fide educavit.’

Sokrates expressly mentions that Ulfilas invented the Gothic alphabet, and that he translated the whole of the Scriptures into Gothic, with the exception of the four books of Kings, which he is said to have omitted so as not to excite the warlike spirit of his people. The latter remark was no doubt a pure invention on the part of Sokrates, because the books of Joshua and Judges would have even been more likely to stimulate the Gothic passion for fighting than the books of Kings. The probability is, as Bradley points out, that Ulfilas did not live to finish his translation, and that he intended to leave to the last the books which he thought least important for his great purpose of making good Christians.

The Manuscripts, containing the fragments of the biblical translation which have come down to us, are not contemporary with Ulfilas; but were written in Italy about the year 500. The fragments of the New Testament all point to one and the same translator, but the two small fragments of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah differ so much in style from those of the New Testament, that scholars now regard them as being the work of a later translator. It is also highly improbable that Ulfilas was the author of the fragments of a commentary on the Gospel of St. John, first published by Massmann under the title: ‘Skeireins aíwaggēljōns þaírh Jōhannēn,’ Munich, 1834. See 197also: Die Bruchstücke der Skeireins herausgegeben und erläutert von E. Dietrich, Strassburg, 1903.

The Manuscripts, containing the fragments of Gothic which have come down to us, are the following:—

I. Codex argenteus in the University library of Upsala. The codex contained originally on 330 leaves the four Gospels in the order Matthew, John, Luke, Mark; of which 177 leaves are still preserved.

II. Codex Carolinus, a codex rescriptus, in the library of Wolfenbüttel. This, consisting of four leaves, contains about forty-two verses of Chapters xi–xv of the Epistle to the Romans.

III. Codices Ambrosiani, five fragments (codices rescripti), in the Ambrosian library at Milan.

Codex A contains on ninety-five leaves fragments of the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; and a small fragment of a Gothic Calendar.

Codex B contains on seventy-seven leaves the second Epistle to the Corinthians complete, and fragments of the Epistles to the Corinthians (first Epistle), Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, to Timothy, and to Titus.

Codex C, consisting of two leaves, and containing fragments of Chapters xxv–xxvii of St. Matthew.

Codex D, consisting of three leaves, and containing fragments of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Codex E, consisting of eight leaves (three of which are in the Vatican at Rome), and containing a fragment of a commentary on St. John. See above.

IV. Codex Turinensis, in Turin, consisting of four damaged leaves, and containing the fragments of the Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians.

For other fragments of Gothic which have come down to us, see the article ‘Gotische Literatur’, by E. Sievers, in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, vol. ii. pp. 69, 70.

The following short list of books and articles will be useful to students wishing to pursue a further study of Gothic:—

(1) The history of the Goths and the life of Ulfilas. Über das Leben und die Lehre des Ulfila,by G. Waitz, Hannover, 1840. Über das Leben des Ulfilas und die Bekehrung der Gothen zum Christentum, by W. Bessel, Göttingen, 1860. Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths, by Ch. A. A. Scott, Cambridge, 1981885. The Goths, by H. Bradley, London, 1890. Die gotische Bibel, by W. Streitberg, pp. xiii–xxv, see (2).

(2) Editions. Ulfilas, by H. C. von der Gabelentz and J. Loebe, 2 vols., Altenburg und Leipzig, 1836–1846. Volume i, containing the text, Latin translation, and critical notes, is now antiquated. But vol. ii, containing the glossary and grammar, is very valuable, especially for the accidence and syntax. Ulfilas, by H. F. Massmann, Stuttgart, 1857, containing also a Latin and a Greek text, notes, glossary, grammar, and historical introduction. For a faithfully printed copy of the various Manuscripts all later editors of Ulfilas are especially indebted to the edition by A. Uppström, which appeared in parts, Upsala, 1854–1868 (Codex Argenteus, 1854; Decem codicis argentei rediviva folia, 1857; Fragmenta gothica selecta, 1861; Codices gotici ambrosiani, 1864–1868). Vulfila, oder die gotische Bibel, by E. Bernhardt, Halle, 1875, containing a most valuable introduction, Greek text, and commentary. The first Germanic Bible, translated from the Greek by the Gothic bishop, Wulfila, in the fourth century, and the other remains of the Gothic language. With an introduction, a syntax, and a glossary, by G. H. Balg, Milwaukee, Wis., 1891. Ulfilas, by M. Heyne, ninth edition, Paderborn, 1896, containing also a grammar and glossary. It is from this edition that our specimens have been taken. The eleventh edition appeared in 1908 under the title: Stamm-Heyne’s Ulfilas, oder die uns erhaltenen Denkmäler der gotischen Sprache: Text, Grammatik, Wörterbuch neu herausgegeben von Fried. Wrede. Die gotische Bibel herausgegeben von Wilhelm Streitberg, Erster Teil: Der gotische Text und seine griechische Vorlage mit Einleitung, Lesarten und Quellennachweisen sowie den kleinern Denkmälern als Anhang, Heidelberg, 1908.

For a fairly complete list of the various editions of Ulfilas, see the introduction to Bernhardt’s edition, pp. lxii–lxv.

(3) Glossaries. Gothisches Glossar, by E. Schulze, Magdeburg, 1847; this is the most complete Gothic glossary. Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, by L. Diefenbach, vols. 1, 2, Frankfort, 1851. A Moeso-Gothic Glossary, with an introduction, an outline of Moeso-Gothic grammar, and a list of Anglo-Saxon and Old and Modern English words etymologically connected with Moeso-Gothic, by W. W. Skeat, London, 1868. A Comparative glossary of the Gothic Language, by G. H. Balg, Mayville, 1887–1889. Kurzgefasstes etymologisches 199 Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, by C. C. Uhlenbeck, Amsterdam, 1896. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache mit Einschluss des sog. Krimgotischen, bearbeitet von S. Feist, Halle, 1909. Cp. also (2) above.

(4) Grammars, &c. Die gotische Sprache, by L. Meyer, Berlin, 1869. Altdeutsche Grammatik, by A. Holtzmann, Leipzig, 1870–1875, containing the phonology of the old Germanic languages. Gotische Grammatik, by W. Braune, seventh edition, Halle, 1909. Kurzgefasste gotische Grammatik, by E. Bernhardt, Halle, 1885. An Introduction, phonological, morphological, syntactic, to the Gothic of Ulfilas, by T. le Marchant Douse, London, 1886. Gotisches Elementarbuch, by W. Streitberg, Heidelberg, 1897, third edition, 1910. Einführung in das Gotische, von F. von der Leyen, München, 1908. See also (2) above. Die Aussprache des Gotischen zur Zeit des Ulfilas, by W. Weingärtner, Leipzig, 1858. Über die Aussprache des Gotischen, by F. Dietrich, Marburg, 1862. Geschichte der gotischen Sprache, by E. Sievers, in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, vol. i. pp. 407–16.

(5) For a list of other works and articles relating to Gothic, see K. Goedeke’s Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, second edition, Dresden, 1884, vol. i. pp. 7–11; Braune’s Gotische Grammatik, pp. 108–14; and the two articles by E. Sievers mentioned above.