Rome (NEV), May 2, 2021 – A new Board of Directors for the Biblical Society in Italy (SBI). Last Sunday’s ordinary Assembly elected three new members: Alberto Annarilli, Andrea de Girolamo, Antonella Varcasia.
Following the end of the mandate of the outgoing president, pastor Eric Noffke, the new Board appointed Luca Mazzinghi, a presbyter of Bivigliano, a parish of the Catholic diocese of Florence and professor of the Old Testament at the Pontifical Gregorian University, as the new president.
Former vice president of the Board of Directors of the Biblical Society, Mazzinghi has worked extensively with the outgoing president Noffke, with Valdo Bertalot, with the operators of Mediterranean Hope (the refugee and migrant program of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy – FCEI – ed). The commitment with the Italian Biblical Association, which deals with studies and scientific research, now moves, for the new president, to a wider scope of dissemination, even for “non-professionals”.
“We have two major projects – explains Luca Mazzinghi -. The first, now almost in place, is the Italian Reformation Bible (BIR) with a new translation of the Old Testament. The other, of an ecumenical nature, is the Greek New Testament with the critical text of the Nestle-Aland edition, accompanied by a double translation on two parallel columns. On the one hand the BIR and on the other the text of the CEI 2008. This project is carried out in close collaboration with the Italian Bishops’ Conference and its president, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti “.
To date, three Catholics sit on the Board of Directors of the Biblical Society. Mazzinghi comments: “It is a movement of reciprocal openness that can bear fruit, even in the future”, and concludes: “I wish to extend my greetings and my thanks to the outgoing president and friend, Eric Noffke”. Who, on his part, addressed his best wishes for a good job to the new board.
To support this historic organization, it is possible to become a member and contribute to the dissemination of its activities. More information on the website www.italiabiblica.it/sostienici/
SBI has its roots in the history of the British and Foreign Biblical Society (SBBF), which saw the light in 1804 in London. The SBI, as stated on the website, “with ecumenical openness and concrete commitment, works with the ancient and ever new purpose of spreading the Bible and making it known”. It is a story of people, believers, colporteurs, pastors and disseminators. Among these, also traders and diplomats. A history of churches, covenants, translations, which have spanned two hundred years and led to the spread of millions of Bibles. In favorable and unfavorable contexts, between two wars and two centuries, these Bibles arrived in the hands of prisoners, soldiers at the front, survivors of the Mediterranean, men, women and children. They crossed physical and metaphorical boundaries, bringing through the printed word the value of a translated Word, understandable and accessible to anyone.
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