GOTHIC VERSION OF THE BIBLE. — V. Visigoths (v. GOTHS) In their many raids on Roman territory the Visigoths also took Catholic priests prisoner, from whom they learned about Christianity. By the 3rd century many Visigoths were already Christians, and a Gothic metropolitan signed the decrees of the Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325).
During one of their raids in Asia Minor the Visigoths also captured Cappadocian women, and from one of these, married to a Goth, descends the famous bishop Ulfilas, translator of the Bible into the Gothic language. Ulfilas, probably born into the Catholic faith, but consecrated bishop in 341 by Eusebius of Nicomedia, under his influence became an Arian and worked for the conversion of his people to Christianity in the form of Arianism. Soon he realized that a translation of the Bible into the Gothic language was necessary, and for this purpose he invented the Gothic alphabet, whose letters are reproduced in vol. 1 of the London Polyglot (1657), Prolegomena II, p. 13, n. 11.
Ulfilas translated the entire New Testament, except the Epistle to the Hebrews. Whether he translated the Old Testament as well remains uncertain. For of the latter only Neh. 5-7 exists, and it is not certain that these fragments were translated by Ulfilas, nor that from them one can conclude to a translation of the entire Old Testament.
The translation of the New Testament is made