The Italian Bible of the Reformation is a new translation.
The Protestant Bibles in Italian are all revisions of that masterpiece that was the translation of Giovanni Diodati of 1607. After 400 years, as the British and Foreign Bible Society and as the Bible Society in Italy we thought Italian Protestantism was mature enough to propose to the country a new version translated from the original texts.
The work of translation is carried out by a committee that represents the churches that have joined in the project and it discusses the proposals of the translators. Once a translation is approved by the committee it is sent back to the experts chosen by the churches who in turn make their observations.
What characterizes this translation is the attention given into putting the original text into modern Italian. For this reason there are some differences found in comparison to versions already in use. As much as possible ecclesiastical language is avoided, bring to the original meaning some words that, instead, for tradition, are usually used differently, even if this is a little “hard” in Italian. Inside this work the desire to maintain the biblical author’s style is also noticeable. One of the basic principles is, when possible, to always translate some key words in the same way, to let the reader go back to the fundamental concepts expressed in the original language more easily.
