Dumitru Cornilescu

Dumitru Cornilescu (4 April 1891 – 1975) was a Romanian archdeacon who wrote a popular translation of the Bible into Romanian, published in 1921. He became a Romanian Orthodox, then a Protestant priest. Cornilescu's translation is the most popular version of the Bible among Romanian Protestants.

Cornilescu was born in Slașoma, Mehedinți County, the son of a teacher. Both his grandfathers were Orthodox priests. He studied at the Central Seminary from 1904, quickly becoming noted for his scholarly diligence. He felt that existing Romanian versions of the Bible, notably the Bucharest Bible of 1688, were written in an archaic form of the language and that a modern version was badly needed. In 1913 he became a Romanian language tutor to Rev. John Howard Adeney who was the Anglican priest in Bucharest, and also agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), and in this way Cornilescu started a relationship with the Bible Society. In 1914 Cornilescu became a monk so that he could concentrate on translating. His work was supported financially by the Princess Ralu Callimachi, a Moldavian noblewoman, who was also a supporter of the Bible Society. His version of the Psalms appeared in 1920, followed by the New Testament in 1921, and, later in the same year, the full Bible. The printing was paid for through Bible Society friends in Switzerland and England.

From 1923 to 1924 Cornilescu lived at 2 Rutland Park Gardens, Willesden, London NW2 in England where he worked on the revision of the Bible with the Bible Society. The revised edition was published in 1924. Cornilescu gave his text to the Bible Society, and the text was adopted as the official BFBS Bible text for Romania, and this is basically the main Cornilescu Bible which is used in Romania today.

Initially the Bible was widely circulated, but by 1924 a number of objections had been raised by Orthodox priests and theologians. For example the Greek word "presbyteroi" was translated literally as „prezbiteri” ("elders") and not „preoți” ("priests"), a decision that was seen as a threat to the Orthodox belief in apostolic succession. Cornilescu's translation was not approved by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. By the early 1930s, its huge success led the Orthodox religious authorities to try to stop its dissemination in rural areas. To this end, they appealed to Gheorghe Mironescu, the Minister of the Interior, who in 1933 prohibited the Bible's distribution in Romanian villages. However the translation had the support of many people, including King Carol II.

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