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Staff translators of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum have added appropriate revisions and proportionate abbreviation of notes in the Bible, to provide consistency of terminology and expressions of individual manuscripts including the Book of Jeremiah and the Gospel of Luke.
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This forty-sixth year of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, founded in 1956, is especially notable: for the publication of the Book of Jeremiah, thus completing the thirty-seventh individual volume of the annotated critical version of the entire Bible; for the publication also of the entirely new revision of the Gospel of Luke; and for the appointment of the new Director, Fr. Linus T. Odaka, O.F.M.
The first edition of the Gospel according to Luke was published thirty-four years ago in 1967. The revised edition appeared April 5, 2002 (251 pp.). It is the work of Fr. Yasuhiro Izumi, with the assistance of Ms. Sumiko Saito.
The Book of Jeremiah was published September 5, 2002 (432 pp.). It is the joint work of Frs. Augustine K. Egawa, Joseph K. Ishikawa, Francis K. Kumaki, Bernardin Schneider, and Paul Miki Wada, with the assistance of Mss. Anna K. Okayasu and Miki Suzuki.
The arduous work has now been begun of revising and coordinating the individual volumes in view of the publication of a one-volume edition of the whole Bible with shortened notes and introductions, to be completed in five years.
In addition to the staff translators of the Studium, other Catholic Scripture persons have been asked to see to the necessary or appropriate revision of the individual volumes and to the proportionate abbreviation of the notes. The individual revised manuscripts are to be ready in two years, after which the overall editing for consistency of terminology and expressions, including the printing and proof-reading, will require a further three years. At the present time, the revisors and the books agreed upon for the first two-year phase of the work are as follows:
To finance this prolonged, detailed, complicated project and appeal, with the endorsement of the President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, the Most Reverend Augustine Jun'ichi Nomura, Bishop of Nagoya, has been sent out to all the dioceses, parishes, religious institutions and houses in Japan for support in this work of bringing God's word clearly and meaningfully to all. The initial responses so far are very encouraging. Special appeals have also been made to the Franciscan Province of Japan and to the Province of Cincinnati in the United States, which has been a principal benefactor through the years along with the Catholic Biblical Association of America. Grants have also been received in the past from the Vatican through the Apostolic Nuncio to Japan and from the Archdiocese of Cologne through the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan. The Studium is very grateful to all who have helped so far, and to all who will continue to do so from now on.
Ever mindful of its benefactors and friends in daily prayer and in a special Mass each month, the Studium begs their remembrances in return.
Studium Biblicum Franciscanum
Tokyo, December 15, 2002
Copyright Catholic Biblical Association of America Jan 2003