Petrus Canisius Dutch Bible (NLDPCB)
Overview
The NLDPCB is the Petrus Canisiusvertaling, a Dutch Roman Catholic Bible translation first published in 1939 by Het Spectrum in Utrecht and Brussels. It holds the distinction of being the first Dutch Catholic Bible translation made directly from the original Hebrew and Greek source texts; all prior Dutch Catholic translations had been based on the Latin Vulgate [1][2]. The translation was commissioned by the Apologetische Vereniging "Petrus Canisius" (Apologetical Society "Petrus Canisius"), named after Saint Peter Canisius (1521-1597), a Dutch Jesuit and Doctor of the Church. In 1906, the society produced an edition of the Gospels and Acts that became popularly known as the "Canisiusbijbeltje" (little Canisius Bible). This was followed in 1929 by a translation of the complete New Testament by the Nijmegen Dominican R.L. Jansen, and under Jansen's leadership a group of seven translators produced the Old Testament from 1936 onward, culminating in the first complete Canisius Bible in 1939 [3]. A notable feature of the translation is its rendering of the Tetragrammaton as "Jahweh" rather than the "Heer" (Lord) used in Protestant Dutch translations [3]. The Petrus Canisiusvertaling served as the standard Dutch Catholic Bible from 1939 until it was superseded by the Willibrordvertaling in 1975 [3]. The text is now in the public domain, with no objections raised by the copyright holders (the original publisher, the Katholieke Vereniging voor Oecumene, and the Katholieke Bijbelstichting) [2]. The language is somewhat archaic by modern standards but remains readily comprehensible to contemporary Dutch readers [2].
Language and People
Dutch (ISO 639-3: nld) is spoken by approximately 23,100,000 people in Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands. [Glottolog: dutc1256]
References
[1] eBible.org, "De Heilige Schrift, Petrus Canisiusvertaling, 1939," https://ebible.org/find/details.php?id=nld1939 [2] Bibles.org, "De Heilige Schrift, Petrus Canisiusvertaling, 1939," https://bibles.org/bible/ead7b4cc5007389c-01/info [3] Wikipedia (Dutch), "Petrus Canisiusvertaling," https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrus_Canisiusvertaling
- De Heilige Schrift, Petrus Canisiusvertaling, 1939 - Online text
- Bible For Developers - DBL archive entry, Digital Bible Library
- Rosetta Project: Dutch Genesis - Internet Archive / Rosetta Project. Genesis in Dutch.
- Global Bible Catalogue - Global Bible Catalogue entry.