Milleks piibel ja kuidas seda lugeda? Pietistlikud eessõnad ja lugemisjuhised Eesti- ja Liivimaa piiblites

Estonian Bible research has predominantly focused on the development of biblical and literary language, with little attention given to paratextual elements such as prefaces and reading aids, despite their considerable presence and volume in early modern Bibles. The Pietistic renewal, initiated by Spener’s Pia desideria (1675), placed the Bible at the very centre of Christian life. Independent engagement with the Bible became soteriologically indispensable for everyone. Spener’s associate Johann Fischer, who had arrived in Livonia in 1673, began organizing a school network and Bible publication in four local languages, parallel to Spener’s work in Frankfurt. The first, a German Bible (Riga, 1677), is considered the earliest Pietistic Bible, featuring a Lutheran text augmented with Pietistic supplementary materials. The first Latvian and South Estonian biblical books followed soon (between 1685 and 1694). Despite the Swedish state, committed to Lutheran orthodoxy, banning Pietism and putting pressure on Fischer, the “Pietistic Bible project” continued after his departure (1699) and the end of the Great Northern War (1710 in Estonia and Livonia). Now under Russian rule, the task of disseminating the Bible and basic literacy in Estonia and Livonia was enthusiastically taken up by men who had absorbed Pietistic views and methods during Pietism’s heyday, directly under Francke in Halle or at other German universities. Despite economic constraints, Bible translations appeared both in Estonian and Latvian. The period culminated with the North Estonian New Testament (2nd ed., 1729), the complete North Estonian Bible, and the complete Latvian Bible (2nd ed., both 1739). All three were, to varying degrees, equipped with Pietistic supplementary materials. This article argues that Bible publishing for the local populations in Estonia and Livonia was a major Pietistic undertaking, unfolding in exact temporal alignment with historical Pietism (1675–c.1740).