Bible kralická

The Bible kralická (Bible of Kralice), published in its final form in 1613, is the first complete translation of the Scriptures made by Czech Protestants from the original languages. It was the collective work of the Unity of the Brethren (Jednota bratrská), a Reformed community heir to the Hussite movement, and was secretly printed in the workshops of Kralice nad Oslavou in Moravia.

The project involved translators and theologians such as Jan Blahoslav, author of the New Testament translation (1564-1568), and a team that produced the Old Testament in six volumes (1579-1593), before the unified final edition of 1613. They worked directly from the Hebrew and Greek, with extensive critical apparatus and marginal notes. The scholarship employed was remarkable for its time, comparable to the best European Protestant works, and the Czech employed is considered a classical model of literary prose.

The Bible kralická became the standard Bible of Czech Protestants and shaped the religious and cultural identity of Reformed Bohemia and Moravia. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and the subsequent forced Counter-Reformation in the Czech lands, the Kralická was banned and burned, surviving in exile among Moravian communities in Saxony and Poland. It became a symbol of spiritual and cultural resistance, recovered after the religious tolerance of the nineteenth century. Its influence on modern Czech literature is incomparable; many regard it as the founder of literary Czech.

The text is in the public domain worldwide. It remains available in critical printed editions and in digital format, and is the subject of academic study and devotional use among contemporary Czech Protestants.