Krašovec, Jože

Rojen 20. aprila 1944 v Sodni vasi, dr. bibličnih znanosti, dr. filozofije, dr. zgodovine religij-religijske antropologije in dr. teologije. Je redni profesor za biblične študije na Teološki fakulteti UL. Od 1987 dalje je predstojnik katedre za Sveto pismo in judovstvo.

Študiral je teologijo na Teološki fakulteti v Ljubljani (1963–1970), specializacijo iz bibličnih ved je opravil na Papeškem bibličnem inštitutu v Rimu in v Jeruzalemu (1970–1976) in dosegel doktorat bibličnih znanosti 1976; potem je predaval na Teološki fakulteti: od 1976 do 1978 kot honorarni predavatelj, od 1978 do 1988 kot docent, od 1988 do 1992 kot izredni profesor, od 1992 kot redni profesor za biblični študij Stare zaveze. V letih 1979–1980 in 1981–1982 je študiral na Hebrejski univerzi v Jeruzalemu in tam dosegel doktorat iz filozofije 1982. 1986 je v Parizu dosegel kombiniran doktorat: iz zgodovine religij-religijske antropologije (za Sorbono) in teologije (za Katoliški inštitut).

Dne 30. maja 1991 je bil izvoljen za dopisnega člana SAZU, 27. junija. 1993 za člana Evropske akademije znanosti in umetnosti, 6. junija 1995 za rednega člana SAZU. Julija 1995 je bil v Cambridgeu na kongresu IOSOT (The International Organazation for the Study of the Old Testament) izvoljen za člana posvetovalnega sveta znanstvenega glasila Vetus Testamentum, ki je glavna mednarodna revija za raziskovanje Stare zaveze. Od 1980 je strokovno vodil pripravo novega slovenskega prevoda Svetega pisma, ki je izšel jeseni leta 1996: Sveto pismo stare in nove zaveze: Slovenski standardni prevod iz izvirnih jezikov (Ljubljana 1996, 1997, 2001). V letu 1996 je organiziral Mednarodni simpozij o interpretaciji Svetega pisma, ki je od 17. do 20. septembra 1996 potekal v Cankarjevem domu v Ljubljani. Na simpoziju je z referati sodelovalo 90 strokovnjakov, večina iz tujine. V jeseni 1996 imenovan v Akademski forum Združenih bibličnih družb za prevajanje Svetega pisma v Evropi in na Bližnjem vzhodu. Od 1997 do 1998 je za tisk pripravil obsežen zbornik predavanj pod naslovom Interpretation of the Bible / Interpretacija Svetega pisma (Ljubljana: SAZU; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press), 1909 strani. Dne 7. avgusta 2004 je bil na sklepni skupščini 18. kongresa IOSOT v Leidnu, Nizozemska, izvoljen za predsednika tega združenja za tri leta (2004–2007) in je s tem prejel mandat, da za leto 2007 v Ljubljani organizira 19. svetovni kongres IOSOT; svetovni kongres je potekal od 12. do 20. julija 2007. Zbornik glavnih predavanj je 2010 izšel pri založbi E. J. Brill (Leiden / Boston); poleg tega je izšlo še nekaj drugih zbornikov. Leta 2003 je dal pobudo, da se najstarejši slovenski prevodi Svetega pisma vključijo v mednarodno zbirko Biblia Slavica, ki izhaja pri založbi Ferdinand Schöningh v Nemčiji. V souredništvu z glavnim urednikom zbirke, akad. prof. dr. Hansom Rothejem (Bonn), in izr. prof. dr. Majdo Merše (ZRC SAZU) je v treh letih organiziral pripravo in tisk monumentalnega dela faksimilov najstarejših slovenskih prevodov Svetega pisma skupaj z znanstvenim komentarjem v tej zbirki. Obe knjigi sta izšli v letu 2006. Od 2006 vodi projekt jeruzalemske izdaje komentiranega prevoda Svetega pisma. Je član glavnih strokovnih združenj. Težišče njegovega raziskovanja je tekstna kritika, semantika, stilistika, literarna teorija in onomastika na področju kultur starega Bližnjega vzhoda in Evrope. Predaval je v Zagrebu, Atenah, Dunaju, Cambridgeu (večkrat), Frankfurtu, Varšavi, Helsinkih (dvakrat), Jeruzalemu (večkrat), Leuvenu, Madridu, Oslu, Parizu, Regensburgu (večkrat), Gradcu, Cape Townu, Baslu, Göttingenu, Leidnu, Singapurju, Splitu.

Znanstvenih in strokovnih člankov v domačih in tujih revijah, zbornikih in drugih publikacijah je več kot 200, doma in v tujini pa je objavil tudi več monografskih del. Vse tri disertacije so objavljene v tujini: 1. Der Merismus im Biblisch-Hebräischen und Nordwestsemitischen (Rim: Biblični inštitut 1977); 2. Antithetic Structure in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1984); 3. La justice (sdq) de Dieu dans la Bible hébraïque et l'interprétation juive et chrétienne (Freiburg, Švica: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1988). Jeseni 1998 je izšla slovenska verzija francoske disertacije: Pravičnost v Svetem pismu in evropski kulturi (Celje: Mohorjeva družba). Jeseni 1999 je izšlo monomentalno dvojezično delo: Reward, Punishment, and Forgiveness: The Thinking & Beliefs of Ancient Israel in the Light of Greek and Modern Views (Leiden / Boston / Köln: E. J. Brill), XXXVI + 959 strani; slovenska verzija: Nagrada, kazen in odpuščanje: Mišljenje in verovanje starega Izraela v luči grških in sodobnih pogledov (Ljubljana: SAZU 1999), 1037 strani + 58 likovnih prilog. Jeseni 2000 je izšlo monografsko delo: Med krivdo in spravo (Ljubljana: SAZU), 581 strani + 40 likovnih prilog. Jeseni 2001 je izšlo monografsko delo: Med izvirnikom in prevodi (Ljubljana: SAZU), 784 strani + 56 likovnih prilog.

Težišče njegovih sedanjih raziskav so oblike svetopisemskih lastnih imen v okviru biblijskih jezikov. 2007 je pri založbi SAZU izšla njegova dvojezična študija (v slovenščini in angleščini) z naslovom Fonetika, etimologija, prevajanje in transliteracija svetopisemskih lastnih imen. 2010 je pri založb T & T Clark International (New York / London) izšla monografija The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names. Isto leto je pri založniški dejavnosti Teološke fakultete UL in Družini je izšlo monumentalno delo: Sveto Pismo: Nova zaveza in Psalmi (980 strani), ki je nastala pod njegovim vodstvom in soavtorstvom.

Za svoje delo je 1996 prejel državno odlikovanje častni znak svobode Republike Slovenije, leta 1999 pa priznanje Ambasador Republike Slovenije v znanosti.

(december 2010)

Jože Krašovec was born into a farming family in Sodna vas, Slovenia, 20 April 1944, and educated at Podčetrtek Elementary School, Vipava High School, the Theological Faculty in Ljubljana (1963-1970), the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1970-1976), and the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem (1973-1974). His first major work was a dissertation entitled Der Merismus im Biblisch-Hebräischen und Nordwestsemitischen, with which I gained a Doctorate in Biblical Studies from Rome (1976) at the Pontifical Biblical Institue; the dissertation appeared 1977 at the same Institute. A teaching post at the Theological Faculty in Ljubljana / Maribor followed.
From 1979 to 1982 he continued his studies in stylistics, this time at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (he found a home at the Ecumenical Institute in 1979-1980 and 1981-1982), and became a Doctor of Philosophy (1982) on the strength of a dissertation entitled Antithetic Structure in Biblical Hebrew Poetry, a work published by the Brill Academic Publishers (Leiden 1984). In 1986, after a further year spent at the Sorbonne and Institut Catholique in Paris (and partly in London), he gained a combined Doctorate: in the History of Religion and Religious Anthropology (Sorbonne), and in Theological Studies (Institut Catholique). The dissertation entitled La justice (sdq) de Dieu dans la Bible hébraique et l'interprétation juive et chrétienne focused upon the concept of righteousness in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jewish-Christian interpretation. The work was published by the Universitätsverlag, Freiburg, Switzerland, and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen (1988). From March to July 1992 he was engaged in research in Jerusalem, at the Ratisbonne Institute and the Hebrew University.
Krašovec has always wanted to devote his energy to promoting biblical scholarship in his homeland. From 1976 to 1988 he was a Lecturer in Old Testament Studies at the Theological Faculty in Ljubljana / Maribor; since 1988 an Extraordinary (Associated) Professor; and since 1992 an Ordinary Professor. On 30 May 1991 he was elected an extraordinary, on 6 June 1995 an ordinary member to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. On 27 June 1993 he was elected an active member to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In summer 1995 he was elected a member to the Advisory Committee of Vetus Testamentum, a quarterly published by the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (during its Congress in Cambridge).
Apart from lecturing, the time of Prof. Krašovec is given almost entirely to research work, although in 1984 he was asked also to assume overall responsibility for a new translation of the Bible into Slovene, which was intended to have the character of an ecumenical version. The commented Bible translation has been completed and published in fall 1996 as the Slovene Standard Version. To mark this occasion in a special scholarly way he has organized a major International Symposium on the Interpretation of the Bible (held in Ljubljana from 17 to 20 September 1996). As result of this Symposium a monumental volume of Proceedings Interpretation of the Bible (90 contributors from all continents, 1909 pages) was published in Fall 1998 by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in cooperation with the Sheffield Academic Press, and I was acting as Editor-in-Chief.
In fall 1999 his study Reward, Punishment, and Forgiveness appeared in English and in Slovenian languages, published by Brill Academic Publishers and by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1010 pages in each language); in fall 2000 his monograph Between Guilt and Reconciliation was published by Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (720 pages); in fall 2001 his monograph entitled Between Original and Translations was published by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (784 pages). The book deals with the theory as presented in the history of Bible translation and with decisions made during the preparation of the new Slovenian translation of the Bible. During the seventeenth Book Fare in the Cankarjev dom Cultural and Congress Center in Ljubljana, the Professional Association of Publishers and Booksellers granted on 28 November 2001 to this book the award The Best Designed Slovenian Book of the year 2001 in the category Non-fictional Literature. Since 2001 he has been working systematically on the forms of biblical proper names in the Original and in European Bible translations. During the last few years several articles appeared on the forms of biblical proper names in various periodicals and monograph works, in the USA in the periodical Translation Review 67 (2004), 41-57.
On 6 August Krašovec has been elected – at in the framework of the 18th congress of the IOSOT at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands - President of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) and has organized in July 2007 the 19th IOSOT Congress and joint biblical congresses in Ljubljana: the International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS), the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS), the International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS), the International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS). (See the web sites: www.iosot2007.si ). The 19th IOSOT Congress and joint Congresses took place for the first time in a former communist and in a Slavic country. This event happened in the very mid-point of 2007, which Slovenia was celebrating as the Year of the Bible. With this celebration, Slovenia follows other European countries which have celebrated the Year of the Bible in one of the past 12 years: Austria, Germany, and Ukraine. The Year of the Bible was a special occasion for raising awareness of the importance of the Bible for one’s personal life, for the country, and for the world as a whole. The great Meeting of biblical scholars of Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant denominations and traditions symbolizes the high point of our awareness that the effect of the Bible on private, public, and international life and activity is cumulatively important. In line with the ecumenical nature of the biblical congresses the programme of the Biblical Festival placed the greatest emphasis on exploring the different cultural phenomena of the unified spirit of the Bible. Representatives from various countries brought to expression Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. For the first time scholars representing the Orthodox hermeneutic traditions were invited to join the IOSOT Congress.
For the promotion of Slovenian culture in international circles there was the active cooperation with the editor in chief of the collection Biblia Slavica Professor Dr. Hans Roth from the University of Bonn (Patrische Kommission), which lasted five years. The programme leader, Jože Krašovec, organized, in cooperation with this editor and some other Slovenian, German and Austrian Slavists, the preparation of facsimiles of the oldest Slovenian translations of the Bible, together with the first academic commentary to the 16th century translation of the Bible. In 2006 the monumental work was published in Germanyy: Jože Krašovec, Majda Merše, und Hans Rothe, ed. Matthäus-Evangelium (1555); Paulus, Römerbrief (1560); Paulus-Briefe (1561, 1567); Psalter (1566); Neues Testament (1581-1582) übersetzt von Primož Trubar; Jesus Sirach (1575); Pentateuch (1578); Proverbia (1580) übersetzt von Jurij Dalmatin, Südslavische Bibeln, Band 3. Paderborn / München / Wien / Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1042 pages folio format; Kommentare, Südslavische Bibeln, Band 3,2. Paderborn / München / Wien / Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 397 pages in folio format. On 29 November 2008 he held an introductory lecture on Biblia Slavica and South Slavic Bibles at the festive presentation of the entire series Biblica Slavica at the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste in Düsseldorf.
In 2007 Jože Krašovec published a seminal work: Svetopisemska lastna imena: Fonetika, etimologija, prevajanje in transliteriranje = Biblical Proper Names: Phonetics, Etymology, Translation and Transliteration. Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Razred za filološke in literarne vede: = Academia scientiarum et artium Slovenica, Classis II. Philologia et litterae: Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, Založba ZRC, 2007, 263 pp. The English version of this study will be published by the Continuum International Publishing Group (New York / London). The monograph examines the phonetic relations among the main Bible languages in the original and in ancient translations: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc. During the next few years the author will prepare a philological dictionary of all biblical proper names in the relation between the original languages in terms of the accepted basic form and the many variations. No such dictionary of biblical proper names has been published in any language. For this reason Jože Krašovec, while preparing the new translation and revision of the Bible, set himself the task of examining the Hebrew, Greek and Latin variations in order to arrive at a definitive and truly substantiated standardization of Slovenian forms of biblical names and create a reference work that would facilitate the standardization of names elsewhere in the world. For ecumenical reasons, the preparation of a comparative dictionary of the forms of biblical names respects not only all the Protocanonical and Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, but also the books in the broader Orthodox canon, which are based on the broader canon of the Septuagint and the Vulgate.
The consistent standardization of proper names is in progress with consideration of comparative principles in the preparation of a comparative dictionary of forms of names in the four source languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The complex phonetic relations among Hebrew/Aramaic, Greek and Latin have, to date, not been systematically and comparatively dealt with on the basis of the main sources of all these languages in connection with biblical proper names. Experience to date shows that for a reliable standardization of names there is a veritable need for the compiling of a comparative dictionary of the forms of biblical proper names for all the Hebrew/Aramaic, Greek and Latin forms that are found in the Hebrew Bible, LXX and the Latin Vulgate. This means not only an accepted form in the majority of European standard translations of the Bible, but also all the variant forms that we find throughout these three Bibles. The greatest importance is the complete list of all forms of the same name found in all the existing places in the Bible in the newest critical editions of the Bible in these languages. This means that each biblical proper name must be physically checked and dissected in all the existing sections of the Bible in all three/four languages. An overview from the perspective of the entire form will very clearly show which form of an individual proper name we can call a family reading, which a folk reading, and which the majority reading. The variant spellings of a proper name from the modern translations will be raised as a fairly complete reflection of phonetic legitimacy.
The Programme leader, Jože Krašovec, completed in 2006 his second mandate of membership in the permanent board for the humanities in the European Science Foundation. The centrifugal point was in the presentation of a list of journals in preparing the European Reference Index in the Humanities (ERIH). The ERIH project has been in preparation in the framework of ESF for a number of years. In 2006 Krašovec was, at the suggestion of the President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA), named President of the Scientific-Academic Council for the Humanities at the Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia. Krašovec had been, for two four-year mandates, a member of the Scientific Council of the Research Centre of the SASA; at the beginning of 2008 he was named to a third mandate. Krašovec had been for five years in the framework of the Slovenian world congress a member of the board for preparation of world conferences of Slovenian scientists and those involved in business from the world and Slovenia. Five years ago he promoted the motto for the conference: The paths of science to the unity of Slovenia. At the 4th world congress at Brdo by Kranj in 8 September 2005 he had the introductory lecture, entitled “Advantages and Counter-Effects in Human Development.” For seven years he has been a member of the Government board of the society Growing Book, which has annually since then organized an exhibit on Slovenian culture at home and abroad; the greatest achievement was the progressive realization of the new park in Ljubljana (Navje).
Twelve years after the publication of the new translation of the Bible there has been felt, in expert circles, the encouragement for a fundamental revision of the translation, introduction, notes, references and other additions with the aim, in the context of the rich tradition of our linguistic and literary culture and quickly-developing Biblical sciences, of establishing uniformity in the process of standardizing Biblical terminology in the broader contexts of the fundamental Biblical and theological concepts – while respecting the original sources and tradition. However, each attempt, in harmony with general practice in the world, to confirm systematically the accuracy of the translation in relation to the original, to critical variations which exist for the oldest translations of the Bible, and to the religious and cultural tradition as a whole, actually leads to a new translation. Especially important is the awareness of the harmony between the original and the translation in terms of style, the structure of literary forms and the textual tradition. Attention is particularly demanded in the comparison of literary forms of previous Slovenian Bible translations and the search for an adequate translation solution with consideration to the development of literary studies, history, and theology. The entirely new plan for a new commented translation of the Bible was the decision that for the first time in Slovenian history to translate and comment on a series of books which are contained in the Orthodox, but not in the Catholic and Protestant canons of the Bible:
The fundamental guide of faithfulness to Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek original of the Bible includes the most important aspect of faithfulness to the original: respecting the style of the original text. The method is literary-critical and comparatively linguistic. In the confronting of antique and modern languages in the framework of a holistic semantic field the basic biblical-theological concepts give rise to both minor and greater dilemmas. Translating is primarily a matter of three tasks: the process of uncovering the original meaning according to the principle of primary research; the invention of appropriate forms of expression in the target language; codification of vocabulary and other forms of expression in the given culture. The most crucial aspect in presenting the creation of European standard translations of the Bible is increasing the awareness that a translation must be most in harmony with the original in a linguistic and literary/stylistic regard. The fundamental task of our revision of the translation of the biblical text can be summed up in six points:
- greater accuracy of the translation in general;
- increased respecting of the biblical literary types, style and rhetoric;
- complete uniformity of set phrases and quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament;
- complete uniformity of vocabulary of a technical nature;
- relative uniformity of vocabulary of a theological nature;
- consistent standardization of proper names.

Krašovec has lectured in Athens, Cambridge, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Leuven, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Regensburg, Basle, Göttingen, Leiden, Singapore, Düsseldorf. On the whole, there are over 200 scholarly articles published in periodicals, proceedings, and monographs.
Since 1999 Krašovec received some recognitions in Slovenia. On 11 November 1996 the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Milan Kučan, edited the decree of the reward of the honorary mark of liberty of the Republic of Slovenia “for the merits in the field of biblical studies, especially for the merits in preparation of the new, commented translation of the Bible into Slovenian.” On 23 June 1999 he received the recognition of the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in sciences for the year 1999. On 4 December 2007 he received the recognition of the “Golden Plaque” from the University of Ljubljana.

(February 2012)