The Word of God in the Romanian language

This article traces the history of the translation of the Word of God into the Romanian language, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Bucharest Bible (1688) and the 340th anniversary of the New Testament of Alba Julia (1648). Written by three Romanian theologians from the Saint-Serge Institute in Paris, it adopts a historical and cultural approach. The central idea is that the introduction of Romanian into the liturgy and the Scriptures was accomplished peacefully, without a break with the Orthodox tradition, despite the profoundly innovative nature of the undertaking. The article shows how, after centuries of liturgical Slavonic, the Romanian Church gradually substituted the vernacular language, driven by figures such as the deacon Coresi and the metropolitan Simeon Stefan. On the theological level, this historical example refutes the myth of sacred languages and illustrates the compatibility between Orthodoxy, national identity, and the accessibility of the Word of God to the faithful people.