Marian Wolniewicz
"Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego
Testamentu w przekładzie z języków
oryginalnych", Poznań-Warszawa
1971 : [recenzja]
Collectanea Theologica 47/Fasciculus specialis, 231-233
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La pratique de l'Eglise les précise et trace la v o ie à suivre.. C ette pratique a son origine dans la doctrine, mais e lle in flu en ce son développem ent ultérieur.
L’A uteur tient aussi com pte du résultat de la prem ière sessio n extraordinaire du Synode des év êq u es en 1969, con sacrée à l'an alyse des problèm es liés à la doctrine et la pratique de la c o llég ia lité dans l'Eglise, prise dans les dim ensions verticale et horizontale. Q uoiqu'il ne se serv e pas directem ent de la docum enta tion du Synode, néanm oins il s'appuie sur les oeu vres solid es publiées par Mgr W. W ó j c i k et St. N a g y. Il faut ajouter que St. N a g y, outre l'article cité par S z t a f r o w s k i , a écrit un autre sur la doctrine de ce Synode et l'a publié à côté de l'article du cardinal W o j t y ł a , consacré, lui aussi, à ce Synode, dans "Analecta C racoviensia", n ° 2, 1972, p. 157— 197.
Discutant des form es concrètes de l'action c o lle c tiv e des évêq u es, l'Auteur ne se contente pas de donner une caractéristique ex a cte de l'état juridique de ces form es à l'heure actu elle m ais il s'efforce de découvrir dans q u elle m esure elles constituent une réalisation du principe conciliaire de la co llég ia lité, c'est-à-dire à quel point elles sont une exp ression du pouvoir suprêm e et plein du co llèg e des év êq u es sur toute l'Eglise. Il conclut à ju ste raison que ces form es en dehors de l ’institution du con cile oecum énique ne sont pas une exp ression exacte de la collégialité, mais elles sont une forme de l'action c o llég ia le dans un sens plus large. Q uelques-unes, comm e le Synode des évêq u es, peuvent se transformer en co llég ia lité dans le sens strict du terme.
L'ouvrage de S z t a f r o w s k i traite à fond la problém atique de la c o llé g ia li té, particulièrem ent im portante pour la doctrine th éologiq u e de la constitution d e l'Eglise, pour l'activité juridique dans l'E glise, et pour l'approfondissem ent du sen s com m unautaire de tous les fid èles. Il présente un bon exem ple de syn th èse de la scien ce th éologiq u e et canonique et en seign e à considérer les problèm es de la constitution de l'Eglise abstraits en apparence, a vec les y e u x d'un pasteur d'âmes engagé. C'est pourquoi l'ouvrage devrait intéresser non seulem ent les th éologien s et les canonistes, mais aussi les prêtres et mêm e les laïcs plus en ga gés.
W ł a d y s ł a w Łydka^, K ie lce Pismo ś w ię t e Starego i N o w e g o T esta m entu w p r z e k ła d zie z j ę z y k ó w orygin ał- nych (Sacred Scriptures of the Old and N ew Testam ent translated from the lan guages of the original). Prepared by a team of Polish biblicists on the in itiative of the B enedictines friars of Tyniec. Second revised edition. Poznań-W arszaw a 1971, Pallottinum Publishers, pp. 1439.
To com m em orate the M illennium of C hristianity in Poland a new Polish translation of the Scriptures w as placed at the d isp osal of the C atholic readers b y the ''Pallotinum" publishing house of Poznań in 1965. The work, called the M illennium Bible, w as unparalleled in Poland. One reason w as the large number of the contributors. The pre-war Poznań Bible (without the last volum e w hich did not com e out), published by St. A dalbert’s Bookshop (K sięgarnia Sw. W o jcie cha) from 1926 to 1932, w as the work of on ly eight authors. N othing is know n about the number of th ose w ho w ere to co-operate in the translation of the Bible as planned by Polish Biblical scholars in 1937. H ow ever, it must h ave been considerable since there w ere ev en e lev e n sp ecialists in the C om m ittees them selv es, appointed to supervise the particular parts of the Bible. The M illennium Bible w as the work of m ore than forty translators besides the team of ph ilolo gical editors, literary revisers, and the editorial board both from T yniec and Poz nań.
But its chief n o v e lty w as that all the Scriptures (except the Psalter) w ere translated from the original languages. It must be admitted, how ever, that Fr. Se w eryn K o w a l s k i (W arsaw 1957) .and Fr. E ugeniusz D ą b r o w s k i (Poznań
1961) had translated the N ew Testam ent from the original, but only som e books of the Old Testam ent had been translated directly from Hebrew by Roman
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R E C E N SIO N Slic in Poland. Thus, Fr. W ilhelm M i c h a l s k i had translated H osea's and Amos'' prophecies (Lwów 1922), Fr Joseph K r u s z y ń s k i — as m any as tw en ty three- books, including am ong others the Pentateuch, Jerem iah's prophecy and th e Psalter (Lublin 1926— 1939); Fr. C zesław J a k u b i e c had translated the book o f G enesis (W arsaw 1957), and Fr. A le x y K l a w e k sev era l score Psalm s (published in the bi-m onthly "Ruch Biblijny i Liturgiczny", K raków 1948— 1955). The poet Roman B r a n d s t a e t t e r had made translations of excerpts from various books of the Old T estam ent including the Psalter (Poznań 1964). Some graduates of the' Biblical Studies at the Jagiellonian U n iversity had prepared translations of s e v e ral books of the Old Testam ent w ith com m entaries, w hich had not been publi shed.
The M illennium Bible, translated into present-day Polish, w hich brought the- original texts of the Bible closer to the reader, w as in general favourably accep ted. And y et, more accurate exam ination of the text, w hen read aloud in churches and chapels as part of the Liturgy of the W ord after V atican Council II, exp osed a number of faults and shortcom ings both in the language and in the cadence of sen ten ces. That w as nothing unexp ected for the translators, the editors and the publishers. The w h ole team carefully co llected all critical remarks w ith a v ie w to m aking u se of them in the future. It w as borne in mind that the idea of a new translation had caused con troversy am ong Polish biblicists. N ever and new er and for the part, better and better translations, w hich kept appearing after the W ar strengthened the con viction of som e of the b ib licists that a translation of all the Scriptures from the original languages w as feasible. In 1958, at a T h eological C ongress in Lublin, Fr. St. Ł a c h contended that, after the w ell-know n a c h ie v e m ents in the translations of the N ew T estam ent, it w as tim e to set about trans lating the books of the Old Testam ent. H ow ever, other b iblicists — and am ong them Fr. A le x y K l a w e k , ex cellen t expert in Sem itic p h ilology and translator of the Psalms, — did not share Fr. Ł a c h 's opinion. L ikew ise Fr. Eugeniusz D ą b r o w s k i thought that — in spite of the unquestionable developm ent of Bibli cal studies in Poland — the number of adequately prepared translators w as not sufficient to guarantee the su ccess of a translation of the Old Testam ent.
Even w hen the translation w as already in progress, som e people uttered their scep tical com m ents (although not printed). A fter the publication of the n ew translation som e critical v o ic e s w ere silen ced w h ile others becam e louder. Fr. A. K l a w e k — w ho ev id en tly had already b eliev ed that a translation of the O ld Testam ent from the original languages w as feasib le since — in 1960 — he had launched the idea of a joint w ork of preparing a n ew translation of the Bible in Poznań — considered the M illennium Bible a lon g step forward. A lso P rofessor Maria K o s s o w s k a , w ho has studied for m any years translations of the Bible- into Polish, pointed out the m erits of the n ew work, by no m eans overlook in g its dem erits (Novum , 1969, N os 1— 2, 63—74). She stressed the uniform ity of the lan gu age in the translation, w hich in a c o lle c tiv e w ork should be e sp ecia lly appreciated; she also n oticed the apt use of the e a sily com prehensible present- day lan gu age and exp ressed the opinion that the M illennium Bible made an epoch in the history of Polish translations of the Scriptures.
There w ere, of course, som e unfavourable opinions concerning in d ivid u al books or even som e fragm ents of them — as for exam ple the Lord's Prayer — and th ey provoked replies. A ltern ative translations of certain w ords, phrases and exp ression s w ere suggested. Fr. M ę d a l a (C ollectanea T heologica 37, 1967, No- 2, 82—96) observed that m any H ebrew exp ression s w ere m isunderstood or incor rectly translated, although th ey could have been elucidated w ith th e help o f C anaanite or U garitic texts. He also pointed out the inaccurate translation o f som e Greek exp ression s in the N ew Testam ent, the lack of precision in the- delim itation of synonym s and the like.
A n all-out attack w as m ade b y Fr. E. D ą b r o w s k i , w ho op en ly cam e out w ith sev ere and a g g ressiv e criticism first on the V atican Radio and then in a separate pam phlet published in Polish in London in 1967. Fr. D ą b r o w s k i arrived at his con clu sion s on reading selected books of the M illennium B ible
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•and esp ecia lly Isaiah and the Synoptic G ospels. He compared the N ew Testam ent w ith his own translation as the on ly authoritative and just criterion. In his opi nion the M illennium Bible w as bound to fall short of expectations and hopes b ecau se the enterprise w as beyond the abilities of the translators of the Old Testam ent. It lacked a theory of translation and depended too much on the Je rusalem Bible. Fr. D ą b r o w s k i ' s objections fell into several categories: lite rary, th eological and sacral, and his conclusion w as that the M illennium Bible w as an u n successful experim ent.
Some of Fr. D ą b r o w s k i ' s objections w ere answ ered by the editor of the w ork Fr. A ugustine J a n k o w s k i OSB (Tygodnik Pow szechny, 1970, N o 11), and Fr. Janusz F r a n k o w s k i en gaged in a thorough polem ic w ith the W arsaw professor (Ruch B iblijny i Liturgiczny 23,1970,76—87). He classified the objections and then g ave them a careful consideration and estim ation. He agreed w ith the censure of the lack of com petence of som e translators and som e members of the editorial staff and adm itted the pertinence of the remarks w hich su ggested n ew solutions or helped to reconsider som e p assages of the Scriptures. H ow ever, he e ss e n tia lly rejected Fr. D ą b r o w s k i ' s general opinion of the M illennium Bible as o n e s id e d and unavoidably false, resulting from o prejudice against the trans lation. A ccording to Fr. F r a n k o w s k i the M illennium Bible is one of the most im portant steps forward taken b y P olish biblicists after the War, and though this step is still a little u nsteady and staggering, n ev erth eless it permits to hope that subsequent steps w ill be more stead y and firm. It also does credit to the zeal and am bition of Polish biblicists and bears w itn ess to the birth of the spirit of team- -work, w hich opens w ide prospects before Polish Biblical studies.
The authors of the second edition of the M illennium Bible (Poznań 1971) a tten tiv ely follow ed all the polem ics and discussions and have taken into co n si deration all critical remarks. Both the Board of Editors, (enlarged and consisting of Fr. A ugustine J a n k o w s k i OSB, Fr. Lech S t a c h o w i a k and Fr. Casimir R o m a n i u k ) , and the team of Biblical scholars w ho h ave revised the text (it is to be regretted that their nam es h ave not been d isclosed by the publishers) h ave made use of all the availab le m aterials and have taken into account suggestions that came from various sources: the editor of the first edition Fr. Casimir D y - n a r s k i supplied the m aterials he had in his possession; the translators su g g e sted im provem ents in their ow n translations; m any people, w ho w ere not perso n a lly engaged in the work but w ho read or heard the n ew translation, exp ressed their reservations and remarks in letters to the publisher. Out of the su ggested em endations and alterations th ose introduced into the new edition are first of all ones w hich correct the errors of translation, its language and style, and those w hich serve to ach ieve a greater uniform ity of the language in the w h ole work. Fr. D ą b r o w s k i ' s relevant su ggestion s h ave also been follow ed.
Besides, sev era l n ew introductions to individual books h ave been w ritten. Others h ave been supplem ented and brought up to date by taking into considera tion recent results of B iblical studies, esp ecia lly in w hat concerns the literary character and peculiarities of each book. The same should be said about the com m entaries, w hich, w h ile preserving their alm ost telegraphic brevity, introduce a number of n ew com m ents, often relative to the literary peculiarities of the text com m ented upon and to its th eological meaning.
The books of Jeremiah, of D aniel and the Psalter h ave been translated anew b y translators other than th ose in the first edition. The first tw o have been trans lated by Fr. Lech S t a c h o w i a k , w ho together w ith Fr. A. J a n k o w s k i has also translated the book of Psalm s d irectly from H ebrew and not Latin as w as the case in the first edition.
The chronological table has been revised and the vocabulary of Biblical notions supplem ented though it is still too scanty for an edition m eant for g e n e ral use. O w ing to an advantageous change of the print and size, the n ew volum e is by 131 pages shorter than the first edition.
