29
Fri, Mar

Nuova Bibbia

This event marks a new moment for PAULUS, for the Church and for the Brazilian society.

The evening of Wednesady, 19 March, in the Faculty PAULUS de Tecnologia e Comunicação – FAPCOM –, in São Paulo, Brazil, was marked by the most important editorial launching of PAULUS in 2014: the Nova Bíblia Pastoral.

"The event is part of the celebrations of the Society of Saint Paul which on 20 August this year will celebrate its first centenary of foundation," according to the Pauline priest Tom Viana, in charge of Marketing of publisher PAULUS who guided the course of the session of presentation.  

Fr. Claudiano Avelino dos Santos, Editorial director of PAULUS, in his intervention stressed the joy of the Paulines for the launching of the new Bible and read the message of the Provincial Superior, Fr. Valdir de Castro, presently in Argentina, emphasizing the importance of editing the Word of God.

Through this launching, the night of Wednesday offered to the invited one of those singular experiences that mark the turning point toward a new stage, not only for PAULUS, but also for the Church and for Brazilian society.

During the opening of the event, Fr. Paulo Bazaglia, professor of Biblical Exegesis and coordinator of the équipe that has directed the new edition, briefly presented the five editions published by PAULUS in Brazil, starting 1943, and highlighted how the various biblical translations don't do anything except reveal the inexhaustible riches of the Word of God, the propelling center of the publications of PAULUS. "The new edition – said with force – required years of work by a big team of exegetes who labored keeping an eye on the Bible yet with their feet immersed in reality."
According to Fr. Bazaglia, although it follows the pastoral orientation of the preceding edition published in 1990, the present edition offers a new translation, new introductions and new notes, aimed at biblical animation of pastoral. The title, now expressed as Nova Bíblia Pastoral, intends to give honor to the way the Bíblia Sagrada – Edição Pastoral (1990) became very much known in Brazil.

By means of words easy to the understanding, with full respect to the original biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek), the Bible of the centenary of PAULUS intends to reach all by presenting a pastoral character even in the price which all social classes can afford. Thus Fr. Bazaglia concludes: "The Bible is our main publication, the soul of all our other publications, with the demand to offer the most contemporary that exists. More than everything else, it is in our DNA to work so that the Word of God may be offered in the best way possible."

José Ademar Kaefer, who collaborated in the new edition, doctor of Biblical Theology in the University of Münster in Germany and a specialist in the Sociology of Religion, compared the history of the poor peoples, the Amerindians and the Afro-descendants of Latin America and of the Caribbean, with the history of the peoples in the Bible, who in various epochs experienced similar situations. "To understand – he said – the history of the poor of Jahveh, the poor peoples of those times, teaches us to read the Bible in a different way. And this new way is present in the Nova Bíblia Pastoral."

Cláudio Pastro, plastic artist specializing in sacred art, in the cover of the Nova Bíblia Pastoral gives prominence to the Paschal Lamb, with the New Jerusalem in the background. Also his are the illustrations that open each of the biblical books. Pastro ended his intervention saying: "I thank PAULUS, which 20 years ago invited me to prepare the cover of the first edition. My work in sacred art is oriented toward the Spirit, and It creates the form and the lineaments of art. In these lineaments God and his Words are communicated."

Present at the event were also Fr. José Dias Goulart, literary reviser of the new edition, and Fr. Antonio Carlos Frizzo, who recounted the itinerary of his participation in the project, collaborating in the translation and in the preparation of the notes, and concluded: "I am happy to be part of this équipe. The translation of the Bible is difficult, it is not perfect, since He alone is perfect. This work was worth the pain."

Before ending the presentation, Fr. Paulo Bazaglia thanked everybody present and all those who for some reason were unable to be present. He stressed how the launching of the Nova Bíblia Pastoral constitutes a distinguishing sign for the Paulines in Brazil and he did not hide his emotion while affirming: "The noble mission of offering the 'Book of God' made actual in view of the pastoral of today makes us jump with joy." And he ended: "This is a festive day for us! The PAULUS publishing house dedicates itself year after year to the editing, the revision and the modernization of the biblical texts. And this work of offering to the Brazilian people in an accessible form the Word of God will continue according to that same dynamism which inspired our Father, the Apostle Paul!"

Furher information in: : www.paulus.com.br/nova-biblia

 

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