Ondřej Maria Petrů and His Translation of the New Testament

Among the modern translations of the New Testament into Czech, the translation of Ondřej M. Petrů (1915-1970) occupies a very important place. Petrů was not a biblical scholar, but he took part in the preparation of the translation of the New Testament into Czech by P. Škrabal (1948) as a linguistic expert. During his stay in Rome, Petrů then reissued (in corrected form) the Gospels of Škrabal's translation (1951) and published his own translation of the remaining books of the New Testament (in two volumes: in 1954 and 1955). He further worked at improving his translation and published the whole New Testament in one volume in 1969. Although it appeared in Rome (3rd edition in 1976), its divulgement in the former Czechoslovakia was relatively high. After Petrů's death a somewhat corrected edition was published in Vienna in Austria. However, numerous formulations of Petrů's original translation of the New Testament live on in the Czech translation of the New Testament for the liturgy. Even though the translation of the New Testament into Czech by O. M. Petrů contains idiosyncratic features, it cannot be neglected by future translators and it can serve them as a source of inspiration.

Keywords: New Testament; Translation; Petrů; Ondřej Maria (1915-1970)