Dumitru Cornilescu

Initially the Bible was widely circulated, but by 1924 a number of objections had been raised by Orthodox priests and theologians.

For example the Greek word presbyteroi was translated literally as prezbiteri (elders) and not preoți (priests), a decision that was seen as a threat to the Orthodox belief in apostolic succession.

By the early 1930s, its huge success led the Orthodox religious authorities to try to stop its dissemination in rural areas.

To this end, they appealed to Gheorghe Mironescu, the Minister of the Interior, who in 1933 prohibited the Bible's distribution in Romanian villages.

The controversy prompted the creation of an approved Orthodox version, translated by Vasile Radu and Grigorie Pișculescu, published in 1938 (revised 1968 and 1975).

[4] In 1924 another controversy occurred when Scripture Gift Mission (SGM) reproduced the text without permission of Cornilescu nor the Bible Society, and Cornilescu made it clear that he wanted his text to be published only by the Bible Society.

All Cornilescu's letters and correspondence about his translation work for the Bible Society are preserved in the BFBS archives at Cambridge University.

The story of Cornilescu, the Bible Society and his translation was published as book by Emanuel Conțac in November 2014.

The pilot edition of the revision project, containing Genesis, Mark, John and Romans, was published in November 2016.