The first Gospel that unites eighteen Christian churches in Italy. The first Italian ecumenical translation conducted with literary adherence criteria to the original text. The ecumenical literary translation of the New Testament was presented in Rome. A long and complex work, which lasted years, which involved about 50 experts – translators and auditors of different churches – coordinated by the biblical society in Italy (SBI) and approved by the universal biblical alliance. A message of union, peace and fraternity launched by a crowded Valdese church of Piazza Cavour, to whom Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, and in their interventions the Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, former president of the CEI, the bishop Dionysios Papavasileiou of the Sacra Arcidiocese Orthodox of Italy (Ecumenical Patriarchate) were associated with a video message. Alessandra Trotta, moderatora of the Valdese table, and Dr. Lénart de Cick, a universal biblical alliance. A single shared text, naturally maintaining freedom and therefore diversity of interpretations to allow a non -confessional dissemination in an Italy where the Bible permeates art, culture and daily experience but still represents a little read and known book.
“This translation represents a milestone in the history of the Bible in Italy – said Mario Cignoni of the Valdese Faculty of Theology and General Secretary of the SBI, coordinator of the works – It is a new translation, in step with our times that faithfully reflects the original text in Greek, paying attention to the verbal forms, to a coherent translation, to the shades that the terms had at the time to make them more understandable to the reader today. A non -previous confessional version that unites Christian churches to make known the Gospel in the school, among ordinary people, and again in the Church. The hope – he concluded – is that its diffusion can support the longest and most difficult ecumenical translation work of the Old Testament to complete the work “.
“A choral translation work, which has given dignity and space to all confessions and individual sensitivity, in true fraternity between the churches – said Don Luca Mazzinghi of the Pontifical Gregorian University, president of the SBI – a translation as a common foundation under fruitful tension with mutual differences. The invitation is that the written word is now put into practice even in one’s daily life “.
The presentation ended with the appointment of Professor Mario Cignoni as honorary president of Biblical Society in Italy.
Biblical society in Italy (SBI) is a Christian organization that deals with the spread of the Bible in Italy. Since the time of the Risorgimento, the biblical society aims to make the Bible accessible to everyone, promoting its translation and diffusion and direct knowledge, collaborating with Christian churches and institutions.
The biblical society in Italy is the Italian branch of a wider international movement represented by the universal biblical alliance (Abu), present in over 200 countries. Founded in 1946, the Abu coordinates and supports the activities of the various national biblical companies. Abu collaborates with churches, missionary organizations and educational institutions to encourage knowledge of the Bible on a global scale.
