New Croatian catholic Bible translation presented in Zagreb
The new Croatian Catholic translation of the Bible, edited by priests Božo Lujić and Mato Zovkić, was presented at the Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb.
It was emphasised at the event that the new translation was produced through cooperation among Christian denominations and carries a strong ecumenical dimension, CE Report quotes HINA.
This is the first complete Catholic translation of the Holy Scripture rendered directly from the original languages -- Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek -- crafted to remain faithful to the source while being accessible to the modern reader.
The new translation was presented by the Archbishop of Sarajevo and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mons. Tomo Vukšić, while the message of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Mons. Dražen Kutleša, was read by the Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb, Mons. Marko Kovač.
The translation was also discussed by Mladen Horvat, biblical scholar and priest of the Diocese of Varaždin, and by Boris Beck of the Faculty of Political Science.
The Archbishop of Zagreb pointed out in his message that nearly 1,400 years of Croatian Christian history cannot be understood without the Bible. Translated and copied through the centuries, the Bible, he emphasised, has been the guardian of Croatia’s cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and identity heritage, and biblical translations have had a profound influence on the shaping of the Croatian literary language.
Many standardised expressions, metaphors, and ethical patterns, he added, have arisen directly from Holy Scripture, which is why it may rightly be said that the Bible is the mother of Croatian literacy and spiritual heritage.
Twenty-three translators worked on the translation. Božo Lujić edited the books translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, while Mato Zovkić edited those translated from Greek. The Hebrew language editor was Kotel Da-Don, and the Croatian linguistic styling was carried out by Marko Alerić and Boris Beck.
The new Bible translation was published by the Croatian Bible Society in Zagreb, the Split-based Verbum publishing house and the Tomislavgrad-based Naša ognjišta publishing house.
As reported by CE Report, Croatia's carnival joins UNESCO's Register of Good Safeguarding Practices
foto Dario Grzelj
