The first complete

Bible translation The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. all of the Bible has been translated into 724 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,617 languages, and ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

was made in 1688, and called Biblia de la București (''The Bible from Bucharest''). The Old Testament was translated by Moldavian-born Nicolae Milescu in Constantinople. The translator used as his source a

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

published in Frankfurt in 1597. The manuscript was afterwards revised in

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...

and later brought to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, where it was again subject to revision by a team of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

n scholars (among whom were and his brother Șerban Greceanu) with the help of

Șerban Cantacuzino Șerban Cantacuzino (), (1634/1640 – 29 October 1688) was a Prince of Wallachia between 1678 and 1688. Life and career Cantacuzino took part in the Ottoman campaign which ended in their defeat at the Battle of Vienna. According to Gaster (19 ...

and

Constantin Brâncoveanu Constantin Brâncoveanu (; 1654 – August 15, 1714) was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714. Biography Ascension A descendant of the Craiovești boyar family and heir through his grandfather Preda of a considerable part of Matei Ba ...

Background

Before the publication of the Biblia de la București, other partial translations were published, such as the Slavic-Romanian Tetraevangelion (Gospel) (Sibiu, 1551),

Coresi Coresi (also known as diaconul coresi)d. 1583, Brașov) was a Romanian printer of the sixteenth century. He was the editor of some of the earliest printed books in the Romanian language. Biography Coresi first became active at Târgoviște, but th ...

's Tetraevangelion (Brașov, 1561), The Book of Psalms from Brașov (1570), the Palia de la Orăștie (Saxopolitan Old Testament) from 1581/1582 (the translators were

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

pastors from

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

), The New Testament of Alba Iulia (1648). They were later followed by the Bible of

Petru Pavel Aron Petru Pavel Aron (1709–1764) was Bishop of Făgăraş and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1752 to his death in 1764. He also translated the Biblia Vulgata into Romanian (1760–1761). Life Petru Pavel Aron was born Bis ...

(1760-1761), the

Samuil Micu Samuil Micu Klein (September 1745 – 13 May 1806) was a Romanian Greek-Catholic theologian, historian, philologist and philosopher, a member of the Enlightenment-era movement of Transylvanian School (Şcoala Ardeleană). He is the author of Elem ...

's Bible from Blaj (1795), and others.

20th century to present

In September 1911, the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) printed the Iași Old Testament (1874) with the Nitzulescu New Testament (1895), 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 but has not been issued since. Two main translations are currently used in Romanian. The

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Church uses the Synodal Version, the standard Romanian Orthodox Bible translation, published in 1988 with the blessings of

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

Teoctist Arăpașu Teoctist (, born Toader Arăpașu, 7 February 1915 – 30 July 2007) was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007. Teoctist served his first years as patriarch under the Romanian Communist regime, and was accused by som ...

. Most

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

denominations use the Bible Society translation made 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, 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.

List of Bible translators

Some notable translators are: *

– into

* Dumitru Cornilescu – Protestant, translated into Romanian *

Gala Galaction Gala Galaction (; the pen name of Grigore or Grigorie Pisculescu, (the quarter "Pantelimon" is presumed to preserve his memory) ; April 16, 1879—March 8, 1961) was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing a ...

– Romanian Orthodox, translated into Romanian * Radu and Șerban Greceanu – translated into Romanian

Comparison

False friends

The Orthodox Bibles in the Romanian language, including the Cornilescu translation, which was initially intended to be an Orthodox translation, use the term "Malachians" or "Malacians" (i.e. "those who masturbate") for those who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. 6: 9). According to Emanuel Conțac and Chrys C. Caragounis this translation is anachronistic (wrong), the word ''malakia'' changing its meaning in "masturbation" from the work of

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ...

(late 4th century AD). The New Translation into Romanian Language (NTLR, Baptist, 2006, copyright by

Biblica Biblica, formerly International Bible Society, was founded in 1809 and is the worldwide copyright holder of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), licensing commercial rights to Zondervan in the United States and to Hodder & Stoughton ...

) does not have this

false friend In linguistics, a false friend is either of two words in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. Examples include English ''embarrassed'' and Spanish ''embarazada'' 'pregnant'; English ''parents'' ...

References

External links

* {{Librivox author , id=10641 :(''interwiki'' :ro:Listă de traducători ai Bibliei)

Romanian literature