Symon Budny

Symon Budny (Belarusian: Сымон Будны, Polish: Szymon Budny, Russian: Симеон Будный) (c.1530, Budne – 13 January 1593, Wiszniów) was a Belarusian and Polish humanist, educator, hebraist, Bible translator, Church reformator, philosopher, sociologist and historian.

Contents

Christology

Symon Budny was an early figure in the party in the Radical Reformation which utterly denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Budny, along with the Greek Unitarian Jacobus Palaeologus, and the Hungarian Ferenc David, denied not just the pre-existence of Christ, which is what distinguished "Socinian" from "Arian" belief, but Budny, Paleologus and David went further and also denied invocation of Christ. Among these three Budny also denied the virgin birth.[1] According to Wilbur (1947) it was his strong stance against the worship of and prayer to Christ that brought a separation with those like Marcin Czechowic who considered the views of Budny, Paleologus, and David as a revival of the Ebionite position and a form of Judaizing, and resulted in Budny's excommunication from the Minor Reformed Church of Poland.[2], though subsequent Eastern European historians consider that in Budny's case it may have been on account of his note in the Byelorussian New Testament stating that Jesus was Joseph's son, as much as the better known in the West letter to Fausto Sozzini (1581) to which Fausto Sozzini's answer is preserved in Volume II of the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum printed by Sozzini's grandson in Amsterdam, 1668.[3]

Budney and rabbinical commentary

For all that Budny was accused of "Judaizing" by Czechowic and Sozzini, and excommunicated from the Polish-Lithuanian-Byelorussian Unitarian community, Budny was still regarded as a Christian adversary in the polemical work Chizzuk Emunah (“Strengthened Faith”) of Isaac Troky,[4] who made counter-use of Budny's historical-critical biblical exegesis.[5]

Political views

Budny supported the limited educated monarchy concept of the state (with Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski), which would enable the development of the Sejm.

Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin (Gregorius Paulus) and Palaeologus had been involved in a long heated exchange over the role of the Christian in the state since 1572, which had been kept unpublished. Though Marcin Czechowic in Dialogue XII of his Christian Colloquies, took Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin's non-violent position. In 1580 Budny, then the leading minister among the socially conservative Lithuanian Brethren, published the whole correspondence, including Palaeologus' taunts of the pacifist position of the Ecclesia Minor Polish Brethren in his Defensio. The Polish brethren then asked Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin to write a reply but he excused himself on the grounds of ill health, and the task fell to the then 41 year old Fausto Sozzini, which he did and published a defence of conscientious objection and separation from the state in 1581.[6]

Belarusian language

Budny was one of the first ideologists of the development the Belarusian culture in its native language, and had notable influence on the development of Belarusian national consciousness. In his "Cathechesis" (printed in 1562, Niasvizh, in Belarusian) Budny follows Francysk Skaryna in using native Belarusian speech to explain Christianity.

"So that his Ducal Highness should not only enjoy foreign languages, but also would fall in love with the ancient Slavic language and enjoy it too... And so that all others would follow this good example and the Fatherland and its native language would have future and hope".[7][8]

[9]

Polish language

However subsequently Budny surrendered and started to write in Polish. He tried to justify it by saying:

"Głupstwo to jest mówa jednej krainy gardzić, a drugej słówka pod niebiosa wynosić". - "It is folly to scorn the language of one country, and praise the tongue of another up to the heavens".

He translated the Bible into Polish, known in Poland today as the Biblia Nieświeska (Nesvizh Bible), since it was translated 1568-1572 at Nesvizh (pol. Nieśwież). As changes were introduced in the printing a second edition of New Testament appeared in 1574. His former colleague Marcin Czechowic produced his own Polish New Testament in Lublin in 1577.

Works

Note: proper names and places’ names are rendered in BGN/PCGN.

See also

References

  1. ^ The Jews in old Poland, 1000-1795 ed. Antony Polonsky, Jakub Basista, Andrzej Link-Lenczowski - 1993 "Budny rejected the eternality of Christ and, in the notes to his translation of the New Testament, denied the Virgin birth, assenting that Jesus was Joseph's son. Even among heretical leaders Szymon Budny was considered a heretic and they would have nothing to do with him.
  2. ^ Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1947), p. 370. Verein für Reformationsgeschichte 1990.
  3. ^ 44 There has been no satisfactory explanation given for Szymon Budny's excommunication by the Unitarian community - whether it was simply on account of his notes to the translation of the New Testament, on some of which he later changed his mind, or his 41 Bibliotheca Fratrum II, pp"
  4. ^ R. Dan, "Isaac Troky and his 'Antitrinitarian' Sources," in Occident and Orient: a tribute to the memory of Alexander Scheiber p76 Sándor Scheiber, Róbert Dán - 1988 "Nor can we doubt that for Troky Budny was one of his Christian adversaries as he himself had announced in a discussion"
  5. ^ The suffering servant: Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian sources Bernd Janowski, Peter Stuhlmacher - 2004 "The historical-critical biblical exegesis of Szymon Budny, one of the best Christian Hebraists of his time, ..."
  6. ^ Peter Brock Against the draft: essays on conscientious objection 2006 Page 21
  7. ^ Adapted, with stylistic correction from "(free translation A.A.)"
  8. ^ "Gistoryya belaruskaj (kryuskaj) knigi. Sproba payasnitel'naj knigopisi ad kanca X da pachatku XIX stagoddzya" [The History of Belarusian (Creeve) Book. An Attempt of Explanational Description From the End of X to the Beginning of XIX Century], Ed. V. Lastouski, Published by the Belarusian Center in Lithuania, Publishing House of Sakalouski and Lan, Kauno 1926. UC Berkeley Library PG 2834.2 A12H51926 Main
  9. ^ The XVIc prints of Budny and Cathehesis in this page are taken from: "Niasvizh" photoalbum in English, Polish and Belarusian - Ed.: Mikalaj Dzeliankouski, text by Valery Dranchuk, photos by Valiancin Zhdanovich, Publishing house "Belarus", 2000. ISBN 985-01-0346-9