This is the first published translation of the New Testament in the distinctive and unique language of the Hutterites who live in North America today. There have indeed been much earlier translations into related ancestral tongues, such as the Gothic Bible of A.D. 380. That translation, however, while of interest to linguists, could hardly be read by a modern Hutterite.

        Then there was the translation of the New Testament by Peter Valdes (also called Peter Waldo in some sources) which was made in A.D. 1174 in the Provencal tongue of the widespread Visigoth language tree. Not its language, but the beliefs of the translator, connect it with the Hutterites of today.

        We might mention also the Zurich Bible, which was the text used by some Anabaptists, including the Moravian Brethren and the early Hutterites. This translation included the Apocrypha. The quotations from Scripture in the early sermons and doctrinal treatises and tracts of both Hutterian and Amish writers are from this source. But the general vocabulary is rather closer to Middle German than to that unique branch of ancestral Gothic used in the present translation.

        This language was spoken along the southern and eastern parts of the Alp Mountains long before Jacob Hutter was born. When these people were driven from their mountain homes in the 1300's, a few survivors of the great religious persecution by the official church landed in Flanders (now in Belgium). There the local people (who spoke with other Teutonic dialects) called them "Laller," because of the large number of words ending with la, and sometimes with lala. (This came from Latin influence, where la, as in Hutterian, is the common diminutive ending, often also showing affection.)

        Ultimately, two Laller missionaries landed in England, where the term was anglicized to Lollard. In time the followers of the English reform preacher John Wycliffe (circa 1320-1384) came to be known, derisively, as Lollards, not because of any linguistic connection, but because many of their biblically based beliefs had been held by the Laller from the Alp Mountains.

        John Wycliffe's translation into English in A.D. 1382, which is the basis of nearly all subsequent English translations, is not a linguistic precedent for our version, although it might surely be regarded as a historical precedent, a significant waymark.

        For by the strangest accident of history, Wycliffe's translation came to Bohemia, and later Moravia (modern Czech Republic). This happened when the king of Bohemia married an English princess, some of whose personal retainers were the despised "Lollards." Soon Wycliffe's teachings infiltrated the royal court and the University of Prague, where John Huss (1369-1415) took up the torch and brought Wycliffe's teachings to his students. Many of the Slavic people adopted the new faith. He himself was burned at the stake by the official church. The Hussites carried the new doctrines to Moravia. Eventually, the movement was driven underground, but the seeds of reform had been sown to provide asylum for the later Moravian Brethren.

        No place else in all of Europe would tolerate the Hutterites except Moravia, where the seeds indirectly planted by the Laller fugitives of the 1300's had prepared the soil. For a time in the late 1500's, the colonies grew and prospered there. Perhaps the coming of the English princess to that faraway Slavic land was not really an accident!

        So when we chose to call the present translation the "Laller Hutterian Version," it was not only with reference to those beautiful lilting lala's in the unique language of the high mountain people, but even more so to commemorate the ancestral faith of those much persecuted Laller who had for hundreds of years withstood the full fury of the official church. They were like those apostolic Christians of Pergamos described in Revelation 2:13, who dwelt "where Satan's seat is."

        Now as every student of Hutterite history knows, after the brethren had been dispersed to the area now known as Slovakia and Hungary, they had all but given up the communal faith.

        Then in A.D. 1756 a few families from Carinthia came to the dispirited remnant of Hutterites in Slovakia. At least some of them were descendants of the original Laller. These people are variously referred to in the history books as Albigenses [Latin for "the white ones"], and Waldenses [Voldner in Hutterian], as well as Vaudois [French for "forest dwellers."]

        As they mixed with their newly found brethren in the faith, their Carinthian dialect mixed with the predominantly Tyrolese dialect of the original Hutterites from Moravia to create what is the modern everyday language of the Hutterites in America. To this very day, elements of both tongues remain. And although most scholars have called it Tyrolese, the truly distinctive facets of this language came rather with the Carinthians.

        Before leaving their mountain homes, at least some of the new "Hutterites" had been Lutherans, and they brought with them Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into what is now most commonly known as High German. This translation had been made as early as A.D. 1530.

        When in A.D. 1770, seventy remaining souls finally reached Russia, where they were to remain for just over 100 years, all but a few of the new immigrants were Carinthians. As they to some extent restored the old communal ways, the old sermons based on the Zurich Version continued to be used. Even some of the Prairie People at Langham still had this version. But it fell into disfavor because it included the Apocrypha. To this day the old sermons and songs from Moravia are used in the colonies; but if a Hutterite reads his Bible at home, it is most likely going to be a Lutheran Bible; although Martin Luther himself was known as a mortal enemy of the Anabaptists.

        Of course, the Brandenburg dialect of the Lutheran Version is a far cry from the Carinthian dialect. The Middle German sounds and speech patterns have had a considerable impact upon the colony Hutterites in America, although among the prearilait this same version has had very little impact upon their language. Still, the Lutheran Version must be included with other previous versions in languages related to modern Hutterian.

        We have still to consider how this unique language came to be called hutrish (as the people who speak it call it). or Hutterish or Hutterian. The Moravian Brethren originally were mostly from the Teutonic peoples of the Holy Roman Empire; and eventually most of them were from the Austrian province of Tyrol, where active missionary work was done over a period of time. One of these Tyrolean converts was Jacob Hutter (1498-1536).

        His mother tongue is indeed closely related to the language spoken by Hutterites today; but it is not the same thing. Besides, the colonies were not called Hutterian while he lived. But he was a very dominant leader, and ultimately gave his life for the faith while he was on a missionary trip back to his native Tyrol.

        In the course of time the colonies came to be called Hutterite colonies. Then, two hundred years later, by one of those strange anamolies of history, the language of those Laller people who had for so long fought for the faith once delivered to the saints came to be called hutrish even though Jacob Hutter's mother tongue was a somewhat different (albeit closely related) branch of the widespread Gothic language tree.

        And that brings us to today. Everyone now has access to the Bible in English in a variety of translations. Still, it seems fitting that the Good Word should be preserved in a language that has withstood the test of time, and in the tradition of those mountain men who had for many centuries staunchly defended their biblically based faith.

        We hope that this translation will help to carry on that age-old tradition, and to preserve that beautiful language.