Куліш-Пулюй (1905)

The Biblia Kulish-Pulyuy, published in 1903 and completed in its final form in 1905, is the first complete translation of the Scriptures into the modern Ukrainian language. It was the result of collaboration among three remarkable figures of nineteenth-century Ukrainian culture: the writer and activist Panteleymon Kulish, the physicist and theologian Ivan Pulyuy, and the author Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, who took up part of the work after Kulish's death in 1897.

The translation methodology proceeded from the Masoretic Hebrew and the Greek New Testament texts, reflecting the Protestant and text-critical commitment to the original sources. Kulish, a central figure of the Ukrainian literary revival, strove to develop a literary Ukrainian worthy of the sacred text, at a historical moment when the language was frequently suppressed by Russian imperial authorities. Pulyuy, trained in theology in Vienna in addition to being a scientist of international renown, contributed exegetical rigor and command of the biblical languages.

Publication took place under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Vienna, outside the jurisdiction of imperial Russia, which had restricted Ukrainian-language publications through decrees such as the Ems Ukaz of 1876. It became a fundamental landmark of Ukrainian national identity and a reference of religious literature in Ukrainian. Although modern translations such as that of Ivan Ohiyenko (1962) and that of Rafail Turkonyak have gained preferential use in various churches, the Kulish-Pulyuy remains an invaluable historical and linguistic monument.

The text is in the public domain worldwide, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, and studied. It remains available in digital and printed editions, and is especially valued by scholars of Ukrainian literary and religious history.