Translation Landscape

Existing Romanian Bible translations

Two translation traditions dominate: the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Synodal Bible (Biblia Sinodală), the liturgical and doctrinal standard for the Orthodox majority, and the Cornilescu translation (Dumitru Cornilescu, 1921, revised periodically), which is the standard Bible for Romanian Evangelicals and Protestants and is also widely read and respected outside confessional Evangelical circles for its clarity and readability. This Language Package follows Synodal Bible convention for proper names and Orthodox-inflected vocabulary (Iisus, sfințire, mântuire) given the curriculum’s Orthodox-majority likely audience, while flagging Cornilescu-tradition equivalents (Isus) in translator notes.

Where existing translations fall short for this curriculum

• Shared vocabulary, divergent theological framework: both traditions use “har,” “mântuire,” and “îndreptățire,” but neither Bible translation itself explains that these words carry substantially different theological content depending on the reader’s Orthodox or Protestant formation (theosis/synergy vs. forensic declaration). A Bible study curriculum has to make this explicit in a way a Bible translation does not.
• No native category for some Reformed systematic terms: “imputed righteousness” as a discrete forensic category has no settled Orthodox theological equivalent, since Orthodox theology folds justification into the larger process of theosis; this Language Package must construct and explain the compound phrase “dreptate imputată” rather than assume it is already familiar.
• No settled glossary bridging Orthodox and Evangelical vocabulary for doctrinal instruction: this Language Package’s translation_memory.json fills that specific gap for this curriculum.

Readiness assessment

Romanian is lexically rich and well-positioned for this curriculum, with over a millennium of Orthodox theological reflection behind its core vocabulary. The translation task is disciplined cross-tradition doctrinal disambiguation between Orthodox theosis categories and the Western Protestant forensic categories Romans’ argument itself employs, not vocabulary invention.