miércoles, 2 de octubre de 2013

HUNGARIAN MILITARY RANKS IN KAROLI

We're still discussing the translation of ranks and offices in Bibles.
And thus, we have come to the Magyar region of cyberspace, where I came across a peculiarity of Az apostolok cselekedetei. Id est, the Acts of the Apostles.
It translates Roman military ranks by Magyar ones that still are used in the Hungarian Army, ever since the Dark Ages.
Important facts here: Hungary is landlocked, it has been under Habsburg sway during the Early Modern period, lowlanders=Catholic and highlanders=Protestant (historically).
The rank "chiliarchos", commander of a thousand, rendered in English as "chief captain" and as "commander", is translated into Hungarian as "ezredes", "colonel" (literally "commander of a thousand" or "commander of a regiment", "ezredes" coming from "ezred"="regiment" coming from "ezer"="one thousand"). The Swedish translation uses "överste", while the German one uses "Oberst". Interestingly, all three are used as the rank of colonel in the respective present-day militaries.
Back with the Hungarian bible, The Second Book of Kings introduces the military rank of "sarchamishim", literally "leader of fifty (men)". It is Englished as "captain of fifty". And Károli gives "hadnagy", meaning "lieutenant" (literally "great military man"), another rank that has been left unchanged into our days. A lieutenant, traditionally, would lead a detachment of about fifty men (The Swedish and German versions say literally "sub-captain": "underhövitsman" and "Unterhauptmann").
This Károli Gáspár (read "Casper Charles", last name first, since Hungarians also use Eastern name order) studied at the University of Wittenberg, being a pupil of Luther himself.
An interesting fact is that military ranks, in the Bible, are said to be an invention of Jethro's. Remember Jethro, the High Priest of Midian? Well, like the Midianites, pre-Christian Hungarians were stateless and nomadic rider-archers who scoured the land without a fixed home. It makes sense that such societies would give rise to a fighting culture with glorification of battle and a military organization to rival any kingdom's or empire's. Perhaps this is why the names of Hungarian officers' ranks have been left unchanged for centuries, in spite of foreign influences.

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