Disonanțe etnonimice într-o traducere neotestamentară din prima jumătate a secolului al XVII-lea
Ethnonymic Dissonances in a 17th Century Romanian Version of the Apostolos

Summary/Abstract: Early Romanian translations of the biblical texts were sometimes accompanied by a Slavonic version intended to augment the authority of the text while also reassuring the public (clergy and laypeople alike) that the new version avoided all suspicion of Protestant taint and remained true to the Eastern Orthodox faith.Ms. 85, a bilingual manuscript of the Apostolos dating from 1646, raises many questions, foremost among them being the precise source of the Romanian translation. Since the parallel Slavonic text does not match the translation made by the scribes belonging to the Agapia monastery, a collation of the Romanian text with previous version could be illuminating. A relevant case study is a text sequence from the first part of the manuscript. The ethnic names listed as having convened in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost (Serbians, Czechs, Germans, Spanish, Franks, Albanians) are striking: not only are they anachronic in relation to the Greek text, but they do not come up in the Slavonic Vorlage, either. The comparison between the Ms. 85 and the pre-1646 Romanian translations of the Apostolos yields no similarities. In all likelihood, the authors of A1646 used Varlaam’s homiliary (Carte cu învățătură) as a source, inaugurating a tradition which was followed by the New Testament translators working in the subsequent decades. Substituting contemporary ethnonyms for ancient ones was probably motivated by the desire to “domesticate” the Biblical text and render it meaningful for readers unfamiliar with arcane details about the original context. Thus, the accuracy of the text was sacrificed in order to minimize its strangeness and facilitate its understanding along contemporary lines.

• Details
• Contents