On the occasion of the biblical year, the Pontifical faculty of Theology at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) organized a conference, given by Prof. Jean-Marie Auwers from the Catholic University of Louvain, on the theme “Is there a Good Translation of The Bible?”.

This event was held on Thursday, May 10, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Music, USEK Main Campus.

Theme of the Conference:

In 2010, a new edition of the Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible was published, including books admitted solely by the Orthodox faith (such as the third and fourth books of the Maccabees). A few years later, other books appeared, one after another, like the surprising Bible des écrivains (Bayard editions), then the excellent Nouvelle version Segond révisée. In the near future, we expect the release of the integral edition of the Traduction Liturgique de la Bible, whose publication is always varied. The French-speaking public is really spoilt for choice, but they may also question the reasons underlying such translation “deluge” and the respective values of the various available Bibles.

In fact, each of these different Bibles – like their renowned cousin La Bible de Jérusalem – meets a specific purpose and is based on a uniquely different approach of translation. There is no perfect translation that would surpass all the others and render the others useless. Translations are always a compromise between various requirements and can only be judged in relation with the objectives they set for themselves. The relevant question is not then to know what translation of the Bible we should read, but to be aware of the followed purposes and the applied principles within the various editions. Moreover, the confrontation among several Bibles seems to be often instructive, since their differences shed light on the interpretative challenges of biblical texts.