The first complete Bible translation to Romanian 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 Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

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

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

and later brought to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

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

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

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 List of rulers of Wallachia, Prince of Wallachia between 1678 and 1688. Biography Șerban Cantacuzino was a member of the Romanian branch of the Cantacuzino family, Cantacuzino noble ...

and Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Background

Before the publication of the Biblia de la București, other partial translations were published, such as the Slavic-Romanian

Tetraevangelion ''Tetraevangelion'' (, "Four Evangelia/ Gospel Books"; ka, ოთხთავი, ''ot'kht'avi''; Old Slavonic: благовѣствованиѥ; ; ) is a name used in Eastern Orthodox terminology for the Canonical gospels of the Four Evangelists ...

(Gospel) (Sibiu, 1551), Coresi'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 Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

pastors from

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

), The New Testament of Alba Iulia (1648). They were later followed by the Bible of Petru Pavel Aron (1760-1761), the Samuil Micu's Bible from Blaj (1795), and others.

20th century to present

In September 1911, the

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

(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 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 Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

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 Communist Romania, Romanian Communist regime, and ...

. Most

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

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: * Petru Pavel Aron * Constantin Brâncoveanu – into Romanian * Dumitru Cornilescu – Protestant, translated into Romanian * Gala Galaction – Romanian Orthodox, translated into Romanian * Radu and Șerban Greceanu – translated into Romanian * Eduard Patrașcu and Alois Bulai – Hebrew Masoretic (for OT) and Greek Septuagint (for deuterocaonicals/apocypha) and the Critical Greek text for the New Testament.

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 (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...

(late 4th century AD). The New Translation into Romanian Language (NTLR, Baptist, 2006, copyright by Biblica) does not have this

false friend In linguistics, a false friend is a word in a different language that looks or sounds similar to a word in a given language, but differs significantly in meaning. Examples of false friends include English ''embarrassed'' and Spanish ('pre ...

References

External links

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