Wulfila Bible

The Wulfila Bible (or Gothic Bible) is a translation of parts of the Bible into the Gothic language. It was done by a Christian Bishop, called Wulfila, in the 3rd century. It contains mainly a translation of the New Testament. The basis for the translation was a Greek version of the Bible. Up till then, the Goths had used runes to write. This was impractical, though. For this reason Wulfila also invented the Gothic alphabet. The Gothic alphabet is based on the Greek one.

Many copies of parts of the text still exist today. Most of them are from the 6th to 8th century. The Wulfila bible is the oldest written text of a Germanic language. It is very important for research.

Text of The Lord's Prayer in the Wulfilabible

þ is pronounced like the English th in the.

atta unsar þu ïn himina

weihnai namo þein

qimai þiudi nassus þeins

wairþai wilja þeins

swe ïn himina jah ana airþai

hlaif unsarana þana sin teinan gif uns himma daga

jah aflet uns þatei skulans sijai ma

swaswe jah weis afletam þai skulam unsaraim

jah ni brig gais uns ïn fraistubnjai

ak lau sei uns af þamma ubilin

unte þeina ïst þiudangardi

jah mahs jah wulþus ïn aiwins

amen

Other websites

Full text of the Wulfilabible Archived 2016-08-01 at the Wayback Machine
Smaller gothic fragments

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