Fr. Johann Straubinger was born in Esenhausen (Germany) on December 26, 1883. At the age of 16 he entered the Theological Seminary of Stuttgart and was ordained a priest in 1907. He received a doctorate in oriental languages and comparative history of religions. He was a teacher of Hebrew and also studied Arabic, “the most difficult language,” in his own words.
During his stay at the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai, he was able to have access to closely study the SyrSin Codex, the oldest known of the Syriac version of the Bible, and which was probably derived from some Greek codex dating back to the 2nd century. He also studied the Codex Palimpsest Sinaiticus, written in Syriac during the 4th century, and other ancient texts written in Syriac, Arabic and Greek. In 1933, he founded the Popular Catholic Bible Movement, for the dissemination and teaching of biblical writings. In 1937 he translated and published the German version of the Encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge…” (“With burning concern…”), published as a response to the Nazi regime’s attacks on the Catholic Church.
Thanks to the work of Monsignor Straubinger, the text of this Encyclical was read in German before all the faithful who attended Mass on Sunday, March 21, 1937. The reading of this first Encyclical Letter read in German caused the reaction of the German government Therefore, the Gestapo obtained the confession of a priest who revealed the identity of the author of the translation of the document. For this reason, the then Monsignor Straubinger began to be sought by the Nazi regime, but as he managed to be alerted, he was able to escape to safety, taking refuge in Switzerland where he was welcomed by the church.
In 1938, he was invited by Bishop Enrique Mühn, Bishop of San Salvador de Jujuy, in Argentina, to join the activities of his diocese. Mons. Straubinger accepted the proposal, and decided to travel to Argentina, where he lived for about 11 years. In this country he began his apologetic work by publishing a periodic Bible booklet. The following year, he decided to found a Bible Magazine. In 1940, he accepted the position of professor of Sacred Scripture at the San José de La Plata Seminary. In 1951 he decided to return to Germany and settled again in the city of Stuttgart where he carried out vigorous apostolic work for the dissemination of biblical writings. In recognition of his work in Argentina, the University of Münster awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology. Due to health problems, he was never able to return to Argentina. He died on March 23, 1956, at the age of 72, after a long and productive life of work.
Monsignor Straubinger alternated his teaching duties with his dedication to the task of a critical update of Mons. Félix Torres Amat’s translation of the Vulgata Latina into Spanish (the Bible of Petisco and Torres Amat). In 1941, Mons. Straubinger, then professor of Sacred Scripture at the San José de La Plata Seminary, managed to publish, from the workshops of the Guadalupe Bookstore and Printing Office, his own revised and annotated edition of the “New Testament.” This work had the peculiarity that the numerous marginal glosses in italics of the Torres edition were no longer found in the Straubinger edition, which was more faithful to the Vulgata.
The German clergyman continued working on a translation of the Vulgata that was freer of “pox,” as Fr. Leonardo Castellani used to amusingly call the glosses in cursive letters that fill the Torres Amat edition. In September 1944, he published his edition of the Gospels, illustrated with 186 woodcuts. The translation, according to the Greek, was commissioned from Straubinger on the occasion of the IV Argentine National Eucharistic Congress. It had a prologue by Cardinal Santiago L. Copello. The following year, the author had the Acts of the Apostles translated. In 1947, the [translation of the] Letters of Saint Paul came to light. A year later, after completing the translation of the New Testament, it was published in a complete edition.
Straubinger, then, took on the task of translating the Old Testament, which was completed in 1951. The translation of the text of the New and Old Testament shows a certain influence from the Vulgate Bible, which the author expressly claims to have followed in the writing of the text of the Old Testament books not found in the Masoretic text. The rest of the texts of the Old Testament were taken up literally from the Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic text.
Straubinger’s translation took into consideration numerous ancient and modern versions prior to his works, among which those by Nácar-Colunga (1944) and Bover-Cantera (1947) stand out. It is different from them, however, due to its greater fidelity to the Catholic theological tradition, its critical thoroughness, and, above all, its desire to offer a biblical text that would be valid for Catholic exegesis. Extremely important is the emphasis that Straubinger expressed in all the crevices of this document of his serious intention of being able to provide all his readers with a textbook equipped with exegesis and erudition that would allow all of them to fully approach the biblical writings, even in extreme circumstances of the absence of any guide or teacher, or of any group with which to gather to study the Bible.
This Bible is considered one of the best in Spanish, in terms of its literary quality, and its textual fidelity and literality, and due to the value and validity of its biblical exegesis and textual criticism. Straubinger’s translation has been continually republished by diocesan publishers in many places in Latin America, and even in ecumenical editions, among which the Chicago Edition, published in 1971, stands out.
Quod scripsi, scripsi 