Biblia Gdańska

The Biblia Gdańska (Gdańsk Bible), published in 1632 in the port city of Gdańsk (Danzig), is the standard complete Protestant translation of the Scriptures in the Polish language. The project was led by Daniel Mikołajewski, a Reformed minister, with the collaboration of Jan Turnowski, and was sponsored by the Reformed and Lutheran synods of Poland.

The translation methodology proceeded directly from the original languages — Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament — in keeping with the Protestant Reformation's principle of returning to the sources (ad fontes). The translators also consulted the Vulgate, the Septuagint, and contemporary European Protestant translations such as the Geneva Bible and Luther's Bible. The Polish employed is elegant and dignified, designed for liturgical use and public reading in Reformed congregations.

For nearly four centuries, the Biblia Gdańska has served as the standard Bible of Polish Protestants, especially among Reformed, Baptists, and Pentecostals. Its cultural role in Protestant Poland is comparable to that of the King James Version in the Anglophone world or Luther's Bible among German Lutherans. It survived persecutions, the partitions of Poland, and hostile regimes, being continually reprinted and revised. It influenced Polish religious vocabulary and shaped the country's Reformed Christian identity.

The text is in the public domain worldwide due to its age. It remains widely available in printed and digital editions, and is the basis of many modern revisions used by Polish evangelical churches today.