Romana

In 1971, a team of specialists in the School of Theology at the University of Navarre began preparing a new edition of the Bible. The work has progressed since then at a steady pace and has recently been concluded. The result comes to 6,500 pages, in five volumes. The Spanish text is based on the oldest known existing texts in Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin. The commentaries include 3,000 quotations from saints, Fathers of the Church, and ecclesiastical documents.

On Thursday, May 5, the complete Navarre Bible was presented in the auditorium of the ONCE Foundation of Toledo. Presiding at the ceremony was Archbishop Antonio Cañizares of Toledo, the Primate of Spain. Also taking part were Francisco Varo, a member of the publishing committee, Ignacio Garcia Pinilla, Vice-Dean of the School of Humanities of Castilla-La Mancha, and Pilar Hernández, commercial director of EUNSA (Ediciones Universidad de Navarra).

The Archbishop of Toledo said that the notes accompanying the sacred text are a great help for the reader in placing himself “before a text that is not the word of man, but the word of God, always living and timely.” On his part, Francisco Varo pointed out that the criterion guiding the work of translation had been the effort to be “faithful to the original, including the forms of expression of the Hebrew or Greek languages,” while at the same time trying to provide a Spanish translation that was fluent, simple and clear to the reader.