Five Romanian Versions for the Holy Scripture in Greek-Catholic Blaj.
Filiation and Originality
A unique phenomenon within the history of Romanian culture arose at Blaj, a supporting centre of the enlightenment during the second half of the 18th century. It was a matter of five Romanian versions of The Bible carried out between 1760 and 1914. They were different from each another and four of them have lasted until nowadays in manuscripts. So far, the biblical text which marked the beginning of the already-mentioned cultural phenomenon remained the only translation of The Bible (according to The Vulgate) in the Romanian culture. It was a translation irrespective of the old biblical text printed at Bucharest in 1688. Chronologically, the second one was represented by a new translation of The Septuagint which explicitly revaluated the forerunners’ experience, one established by The Bible from 1688. Afterwards, a new translation followed, one whose author drew his inspiration from a Hebrew original. That time, it was a selective writing. The fourth Bible composed in Blaj was original, but from a different point of view. Its author’s wish was that of reconsidering The Bible from Bucharest (1688) in a new direction, that of re-Latinizing the language through the recovery of old Latin words from Romanian language. Those words had somehow been forgotten on account of certain reasons. At last, a new element of originality appears in the fifth Bible from Blaj. As far as this Bible is concerned, its author composed a true hermeneutical version, owing to the notes and commentaries he had annexed to the old biblical text which was translated after The Septuagint, at Blaj, in 1795.
Keywords: The Bible, Petru Pavel Aron, Samuil Micu, Teodor Pop, Timotei Cipariu, Victor Smigelschi.