Investigations into Romanian and European Biblical Traditions (14th Edition), Iaşi, Romania, June 5–7, 2025

The 14th Annual Symposium on Biblical Studies organised by the Romanian Association of Philology and Biblical Hermeneutics and the Centre for Biblical and Philological Studies “Monumenta linguae Dacoromanorum” (ICI-DSU, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi) will be held June 5-7, 2025. It aims to encourage multi- and interdisciplinary debates on the issues raised by the publication, translation, interpretation, dissemination and reception of sacred texts into Romanian and other ancient and modern languages.

Thematic Strands

1. Philological Challenges

• Publication of the biblical texts. Textual criticism and palaeography. Sacred texts computerization and digitization.
• The biblical text as a reference point in the diachronic study of language. Lexicology and biblical semantics. Biblical phraseology. Biblical onomastics.
• Lesser known, partial translations of the Bible: books and book fragments kept in old manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries, and their textual relationship with popular Romanian versions.
• Stylistic interference and demarcation: biblical, liturgical and theological-sapiential varieties of clerical styles. The role of the Bucharest Bible (1688) in the creation of the Romanian clerical style in the 18th and 19th centuries.

2. Translation Challenges

• Typology of biblical translations. Literal and free translation. Translation theory and sacred texts.
• Unique source vs. multiple source. The “original texts” of the Bible – different textual traditions reflected in the Romanian translations.
• Relationships among successive biblical versions: the Sibiu Gospels (1551-1553) and the Coresi Gospels; the Coresi Gospels and Epistles and the Bălgrad New Testament (1648); the Bucharest Bible (1688) and the Blaj Bible (1795); the Blaj Bible and the Şaguna, Filotei editions and the 1914 Bible, the Cornilescu versions etc.
• Reference works for all time Bible translations: lexicons, dictionaries, concordances, critical editions, auxiliary versions, etc.

3. Biblical Hermeneutics

• Confessional and theological choices and conditioning (dogmatic, canonical, clerical, worship-related etc.). Theological censorship, political censorship.
• Patristic tradition — reference points and criteria for sacred texts’ interpretation.
• The Bible and the literary clerical system: relationships and determinations between the sacred text and clerical hymnography, worship-related literature, iconography, exegetic and homiletic literature.

4. Sacred Texts’ Historical Reception

• Integration, dynamics and stylization of biblical quotations in Romanian and other literatures.
• Dissemination of Romanian Bible versions. Historical references and main Romanian biblical versions criticism (the Bucharest Bible, the Blaj Bible etc.). Textual relationships (borrowing, “corrections”, adaptations etc.) between different biblical versions.
• Romanian culture and the Bible. Biblical motifs, symbols, structures and characters.
• Cultural interferences and mentalities impacting the reception of sacred texts: anthropological, sociological, political or philosophical aspects.

The official languages of the Symposium will be Romanian, English and French.