A Very Brief History of Translation - Ordentop

Translation plays an important role in our modern, globalized world.
We know that around 2500 B.C. the translation of symbols from Sumerian to Eblaic was done on clay tablets.

In the Western world, we know that a collection of texts from the Hebrew Bible and secondary canonical books were translated into early Koine Greek between the third and first centuries B.C.

Another extremely important discovery in the history of translation is the Rosetta Stone. Discovered in 1799 by Napoleon’s French army, the stone dates from 196 B.C. It was probably originally displayed in the temple, with a decree issued by King Ptolemy V Epiphanies inscribed on it.
Religious texts have been at the centre of attention since the beginning of translation. St. Jerome, the patron saint of translation, was the Christian priest whose translation of the Bible into Latin gave us the Vulgate, the version of the Bible used by the Catholic Church.
Previous Latin translations of the Bible (known collectively as Vetus Latina) were based solely on the ancient Greek Septuagint. His translation was made between 383 and 404 AD.

The translation played a key role in the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia (a process that covered much of the first millennium AD). The translations of the Buddhist monk Kumarajiva played a key role in this.
In the fourth century AD, he translated a wide range of religious texts from Sanskrit into Chinese.

The Tangut Empire, in particular, activated the translation of Buddhist texts, using block printing as part of the translation development process.

 

A Very Brief History of Translation

A Very Brief History of Translation