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La Bible: Notes Intégrales – Traduction Œcuménique Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 88/1 (2012) 179-230. doi: 10.2143/ETL.88.1.2164176 © 2012 by Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. All rights reserved. BOOK REVIEWS La Bible: Notes intégrales – Traduction œcuménique. 11e édition (La Traduc- tion Œcuménique de la Bible). Paris, Cerf; Villiers-le-Bel, Bibli’O – Société biblique française, 2010. (25≈17,5), 2757 p. ISBN 2-204-09382- 8. /65.00. Gérard BILLON – Bernard COYAULT – Sophie SCHLUMBERGER – Andrée THOMAS (eds.). L’aventure de la TOB: Cinquante ans de traduction œcuménique de la Bible (La Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible). Paris, Cerf, 2010. (18≈12), 156 p. ISBN 978-2-204-09267-8. /8.00. La publication de la T.O.B. (en 1972 pour le Nouveau Testament et en 1975 pour l’Ancien) a représenté un véritable événement: c’était la première fois au monde que des Églises de traditions différentes parvenaient à traduire, annoter et éditer une Bible commune. L’idée n’était pas neuve. Au XVIIe siècle déjà l’oratorien Richard Simon avait conçu un tel projet. Mais la révocation de l’Édit de Nantes a mis fin à ce bel espoir. Une nouvelle tentative, à la fin du XIXe siècle, a connu l’échec elle aussi. Ce n’est qu’au début des années 1960 que l’idée a pu reprendre corps et, après quelques tâtonnements, déboucher sur un commencement de réalisation. Les pre- miers travaux ont débuté en 1965, encouragés du côté catholique par la récente promulgation de la Constitution dogmatique Dei Verbum de Vatican II. Il convenait d’effectuer d’abord un galop d’essai. Partant du principe «Qui peut le plus peut le moins», on décida de s’attaquer au texte sur lequel protestants et catholiques s’étaient le plus durement affrontés au siècle de la Réforme: l’épître aux Romains. Une équipe d’une demi-douzaine de spécialistes du Nouveau Testament, protestants et catholiques à parts égales, se mit au travail dès 1965. Un peu plus d’une année plus tard le pari était gagné: le premier fascicule paraissait, contenant introduction, traduction et annotation communes de cette grande lettre de l’apôtre Paul. Une fois le test de l’épître aux Romains réussi, le travail pouvait commencer. Plus d’une centaine de spécialistes, tant de l’Ancien que du Nouveau Testament, furent recrutés pour former des équipes paritaires chargées de tel ou tel livre biblique. Deux équipes de coordinateurs, elles aussi paritaires, organisaient et contrôlaient les travaux. La première version des textes a été soumise pour contrôle à des vérificateurs venus de divers horizons: deux biblistes orthodoxes, puis l’ensemble des traducteurs de la T.O.B., de nombreux lecteurs et réviseurs littéraires ou liturgiques, des théologiens d’Europe et d’Outremer, les responsables de l’Alliance Biblique Universelle et ceux du Secrétariat français pour l’Unité des Chrétiens, en tout une bonne centaine de critiques. Dans de telles conditions d’élaboration et de contrôle, il est évident que la T.O.B. ne pouvait se permettre trop d’originalité ou d’options nouvelles de traduc- tion qui font l’intérêt des autres versions. En revanche, le contrôle impitoyable exercé sur le travail à différents niveaux offre un gage de fiabilité pour la traduction et l’annotation. Cette Bible qui se veut œcuménique se devait d’inclure les deutéro- canoniques (regroupés à la suite des livres canoniques de l’Ancien Testament). Elle parut en deux versions: l’une «à notes intégrales», l’autre «à notes essentielles». 995533_ETL_2012-1_10_Book5533_ETL_2012-1_10_Book rreviews.inddeviews.indd 117979 110/08/120/08/12 114:074:07 180 BOOK REVIEWS Une première révision eut lieu en 1988, destinée notamment à harmoniser les passages parallèles. En 2003, parut en fascicule séparé une édition révisée du Pentateuque, qui fut intégrée l’année suivante dans la T.O.B. à notes intégrales; la révision portait essentiellement sur l’introduction et l’annotation, de manière à intégrer les progrès de la recherche, qui rendait obsolète la théorie documentaire dans sa forme traditionnelle. La nouvelle édition de 2010 a été l’occasion d’apporter des retouches ponctuelles à la traduction (par exemple, la «cithare» a été remplacée par la «lyre» en Gn 4,21 pour éviter l’anachronisme) et de retouches systématiques (notamment en ce qui concerne les noms divins: «le Seigneur, le tout-puissant» est devenu «Le Seigneur de l’univers»; le titre pantokrátwr est uniformément rendu par «Le Souverain»; la «guerre sainte» est devenu la «guerre de Dieu» pour des raisons évidentes; la «jalousie» de Dieu est devenue son «zèle» ou son «ardeur»; on ne parle plus du Dieu jaloux, mais du Dieu exigeant). Les passages de Jn où le mot ˆIouda⁄oi appa- raît ont été passés en revue, de manière à préciser s’il désigne les Juifs (4,9; etc.), les habitants de la Judée (11,19) ou les autorités juives (1,19 et très souvent). Mais la principale innovation consiste dans l’adjonction des livres deutérocano- niques qui sont reçus par les Églises orthodoxes (soit comme inclus dans leur canon des Écritures [Église grecque], soit comme recommandés à la lecture [Églises russe, bulgare, serbe et roumaine], cf. pp. 1646-1647): 3 et 4 Esdras, 3 et 4 Maccabées, la Prière de Manassé et le Psaume 151 (celui-ci était présent dans la T.O.B. dès la première édition, mais il fait l’objet d’une introduction détaillée et d’une nouvelle traduction), ce qui a entraîné une refonte de l’Introduction aux livres deutérocano- niques, refonte qui pose très clairement la question des canons – notez le pluriel – de l’Ancien Testament. Par là est renforcée la dimension œcuménique de la T.O.B. Pour marquer l’événement, un ouvrage intitulé L’aventure de la T.O.B. a été publié conjointement. Il décrit l’histoire de la concrétisation d’un rêve – celui d’une Bible commune aux différentes Églises chrétiennes – , rappelle comme celle-ci a été reçue en France et dans la francophonie, retrace l’évolution de la T.O.B. au fil des révisions, envisage les défis de la traduction biblique et revient longuement sur la question des «trois canons chrétiens». Un telle Bible «à canon variable» est une première à l’échelle de la francophonie, et sans doute même à l’échelle mondiale. La T.O.B. est également disponible dans une version «à notes essentielles» (avec des introductions générales et une introduction à chaque livre) à prix démocratiques (à partir de /16.50 – /8.00 pour le Nouveau Testament seul). J.-M. AUWERS Ernst VOGT. A Lexicon of Biblical Aramaic: Clarified by Ancient Documents. Translated and revised by J.A. FITZMYER (Subsidia Biblica, 42). Roma, Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2011. (21≈15), 349 p. ISBN 978-88-7653- 655-7. /25.00. Publié en fascicules à partir de 1947, le Lexicon hebraicum et aramaicum Veteris Testamenti de Franz Zorell est en fait exclusivement un dictionnaire hébreu. L’A. n’est pas arrivé au bout de son entreprise. L’édition de 1989 a d’ailleurs rectifié le titre de manière à correspondre à la réalité: Lexicon hebraicum Veteris Testa- menti. E. Vogt s’est employé à compléter le dictionnaire pour la partie araméenne, 995533_ETL_2012-1_10_Book5533_ETL_2012-1_10_Book rreviews.inddeviews.indd 118080 110/08/120/08/12 114:074:07 BOOK REVIEWS 181 en publiant un Lexicon aramaicum Veteris Testamenti (1971). Vu l’exiguïté du corpus araméen de l’AT, Vogt a pris le parti de rassembler, pour chaque mot, une masse de ses attestations en araméen pré-achéménide, achéménide et qumrânien (mais non en araméen targoumique). C’est ce qui a fait et fait encore le mérite de cet instrument de travail; des citations de phrases entières permettent de mieux saisir le sens du mot dans les dialectes considérés. Évidemment, depuis 1971, notre connaissance de l’araméen s’est enrichie, grâce notamment à la publication intégrale des documents du Désert de Juda: à l’époque, seuls étaient parus les cinq premiers volumes des Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (1955-1968), alors qu’à présent la collection est complète (40 volumes). Éditeur des inscriptions ara- méennes de Sefîre, de l’Apocryphe de la Genèse (1QapGen) et d’un Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts (1978; 21994), Joseph A. Fitzmyer a traduit le Lexicon en anglais en lui apportant les corrections qui s’imposaient. La Préface annonce aussi «quelques références complémentaires aux textes araméens de Qumrân» (p. 12), difficiles à repérer. J.-M. AUWERS Patrick ANDRIST (ed.). Le manuscrit B de la Bible (Vaticanus graecus 1209): Introduction au fac-similé Actes du Colloque de Genève (11 juin 2001). Contributions supplémentaires (Histoire du texte biblique: Studien zur Geschichte des biblischen Textes, 7). Lausanne, Éditions du Zèbre, 2009. (24≈16,5), 312 p. + 8 planches. ISBN 2-940351-05-8. /39.00. In 1999, the Vatican Library published a facsimile edition of the Vaticanus gr. 1209, known to biblical scholars as “codex Vaticanus” or just “B”. The edition is as beautiful as it is hard to find: Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209: Bibliorum Sacrorum Graecorum Codex Vaticanus B, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1999. It is a pity that only few libraries probably have the means to procure a copy of this expensive edition. As a consequence, not many readers will have the opportunity to enjoy this marvelous manuscript or be instructed by the three articles in the Prolegomena. P. CANART (Le Vaticanus graecus 1209: Notice paléographique et codicologique), P.-M. BOGAERT (Le Vaticanus graecus 1209 témoin du texte grec de l’Ancien Testament) and S. PISANO (The Vaticanus graecus 1209: A Witness to the Text of the New Testament) not only provide a useful overview of the state of the research on this manuscript but also take position in a debate that is inextricably bound up with B: the question of its origins (see below).
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