An Exceptional Intercultural Initiative of the Greco-Catholic Scholar Samuil Micu: the Translation of the Bible from Blaj (1795)
This study focuses on two important Romanian Bible translators: Nicolae Milescu, the first translator of the Old Testament (17th century) and Samuil Micu, the reviser of Bucharest Bible (1688) and the translator of the Bible from Blaj (1795). These two exceptional translators accomplished an essential goal for every culture and especially for the Romanian speakers: the translation of the Bible into the national language. It is well known that the Greco-catholic Biblical tradition, as well as the Catholic one, is based on the translation of the Latin text of Vulgata. Although Samuil Micu is a Greco-Catholic monk and scholar, he decides to choose as source for his translation the old Greek text, Septuagint, the representative text for the Orthodox Church and not Vulgata in order to accomplish a Bible for all Romanians. This paper underlines from a philological point of view the fundamental role of these initiatives which determined the following Romanian translators, revisers and scholars to choose these texts as a reference source for their translations until the beginning of 20th century.
Keywords: Bible, translation, Samuil Micu, Nicolae Milescu, Romanian Bible tradition, Septuagint, Vulgata.