Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Bible translations into Romanian

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Bible translations into Romanian

The first complete translation to Romanian was done in 1688 (called "Biblia de la Bucureşti"). The Old Testament was translated by Moldavian-born Nicolae Milescu in Constantinople. The translator used as his source a Septuagint published in Frankfurt in 1597. The manuscript was afterwards revised in Moldova and later brought to Bucharest, where it was again subject to revision by a team of Wallachian scholars (among whom were Radu and Şerban Greceanu) with the help of Şerban Cantacuzino and Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Before the publication of the Bucharest Bible (1688), other partial translations were published, like the Slavic-Romanian Gospel (1551), Coresi's Gospel (1561), The Braşov Psalm Book (1570), Palia from Orăştie (1582), The New Testament of Alba Iulia (1648) and others. In September 1911 the British and Foreign Bible Society printed the Iasi Old Testament with the Nitzulescu New Testament, revised by Professor Garboviceanu and checked by Prof Alexics. This was the official BFBS text before Cornilescu was adopted in 1924, but was more literal. This text was revised by Cornilescu from 1928 and printed by the Bible Society in 1931 and was not reprinted since.

Two main translations are currently used in Romanian. The Orthodox Church uses the Synodal Version, the standard Romanian Orthodox Bible translation, published in 1988 with the blessings of Patriarch Teoctist Arăpașu. The Protestant denominations mainly use the Bible Society translation translated by Dumitru Cornilescu. The New Testament was first published in 1921, and the whole Bible with references in 1924, produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1989 appeared an unofficial revision by German publishing house Gute Botschaft Verlag (GBV); it tried to get the existing translation closer to the original manuscripts, in a form grammatically corrected and adapted according to the evolution of the modern Romanian language.

The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), operating in Romania through the Interconfessional Bible Society of Romania (SBIR), brought out a special 90th anniversary definitive edition of the Cornilescu Bible in 2014, with many errors corrected.

  • Petru Pavel Aron
  • Constantin Brâncoveanu - into Romanian
  • Dumitru Cornilescu - Protestant, translated into Romanian
  • Gala Galaction - Romanian Orthodox, translated into Romanian
  • Radu and Şerban Greceanu - translated into Romanian
  • References

    Bible translations into Romanian Wikipedia