„Probe einer ganz neuen Übersetzungsmanier“

Ein Perspektivenwechsel Zinzendorfs in 1746

Abstract

Among many draft translations that are preserved in manuscript in the Unity Archives in Herrnhut is a sketch of an ‘Experiment with a completely new manner of translating’. This is a new translation of the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Philippi. This article documents the place, time and circumstances in which this text was produced and also the fact that Zinzendorf was responsible for this translation. It came into being in the spring of 1746, when he had just finished revising his 1739 translation of the New Testament and was publishing it. In an added postscript Zinzendorf characterized these texts as ‘[17]39 vintage’, by which he meant that the criteria that he had then used for translating were ‘old wine’ and now superseded. If one compares this 1744-46 edition of the New Testament with the experimental translation of Philippians 1 that he produced shortly afterwards, the following development becomes apparent. In the spring of Zinzendorf finally left behind his previous understanding of translation. Until then, in translating the Scriptures for the 1739 New Testament and also for the revised edition of 1744-46, he had endeavoured to translate the Greek original as precisely as possible. Now he tried a new ‘manner of translating’. The elements of this new way of translating are worked out by close examination of the experimental translation of Philippians 1. In conclusion, the author describes how this manuscript of Philippians 1 already points to Zinzendorf ’s new goal of developing for the Moravian Church a selection of biblical texts as a ‘Bible’.