Octavian Baban is a Romanian pastor and scholar. He has pastored in the Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Constanta, Romania (1991–97), and in the Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Bucharest (1998–present). In 1999 he earned a PhD in New Testament from Brunel University of London and has served since 1998 in Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest (Institutul Teologic Baptist din Bucureşti, ITBB), which is part of University of Bucharest. Dr. Baban maintains a keen academic eye in Biblical Studies and Theology as well as a finger on the pastoral pulse in Romania. The Journal of Global Christianity (JGC) recently interviewed Dr. Baban about an exciting new commentary project he co-chairs, which recently launched with the release of a commentary on Ephesians (pictured right).
JGC: When the average Romanian Christian reads the Bible, what Bible version or versions do they read? What would be the most common version used in a Romanian home?
Baban: Usually, evangelical Christians read the VDCR, Versiunea Dumitru Cornilescu Revizuită (the Dumitru Cornilescu Revised Version), from 1924. There is also a TLC, Traducere Literală Cornilescu (Cornilescu Literal Translation), from 1931. That literal version follows the Greek as close as possible, yet it is not used very much.
In the last decade or so, evangelicals also started to read the NTR, Noua Traducere Românească (New Romanian Translation), which was originally published in 2006 yet underwent several revisions since then. Now the EDCR, Ediţia Dumitru Cornilescu Revizuită (the Dumitru Cornilescu Revised Edition) has been made available in various progressive book collections. The final edition was published in 2024 (copyright 2022).
The Orthodox read the Synodal Version, which is the standard Romanian Orthodox Bible translation, published in 1988.
JGC: Since you read Hebrew and Greek, can you comment on the quality of the Romanian Bible translations?
Baban: The VDCR is very fluent and highly intuitive. The EDCR is a bit too scholarly. It often follows the VDCR and still does not reach the rhetoric qualities and the readability of VDCR. The NTR uses good contemporary Romanian, is sometimes too modern or too latinized (avoiding Slavic or Turkish words, when possible), and sometimes uses the wrong Romanian variants.
JGC: You are now co-editors with Dr. Drake Williams III on a new Bible commentary series, Seria Comentarii Exegetice Româneşti (SCER). How did this series begin? How did you get involved with it?
Baban: The work for this interesting series started in 2011–12 when some Romanian MA students at the Tyndale Seminary, Amsterdam, graduated with some dissertations on Romanian NT Translations and Romanian NT commentaries. I was one of the supervisors of these dissertations at the kind invitation of Dr. Williams, the acting academic dean.
JGC: Are there not Bible commentaries in Romania already? What is distinctive about this SCER commentary series?
Baban: There are some commentaries, some from German evangelical sources and some, on disparate books, from English evangelical sources. This series is important because it has adopted a particular approach, combining exegesis and application, with a particular focus on Romanian society and culture.
JGC: Is the series technical with lots of Greek and Hebrew words being referred to?
Baban: The SCER series includes much Greek discussion for the NT, yet focuses on essential terms. The Greek is quoted in transliterated format.
JGC: One unique aspect of this series is its interaction with Eastern and Western Church Fathers. Why is that important in the Romanian Christian context?
Baban: Usually, NT commentaries in the West focus on Latin Fathers. Romanians are more used to references to the Orthodox Greek Fathers. The series attempts to work with both, bringing them together, trying to provide both theological knowledge and a good balance of early church traditions and schools of thought.
JGC: Is SCER an academic series? Or do you feel that it will help pastors and laymen? Why?
Baban: SCER is aimed at helping pastors, students of theology, and laymen. It purposely provides an analysis of the text that is not cluttered with references to grammars, scholars, and famous authors, although it does not avoid them. A Romanian reader and a publishing house editor have characterized it as “semi-academic.” Though the content is presented quite academically, the delivery attempts to encourage, not discourage, the Romanian minister or lay reader.
JGC: What is the Research Center for Baptist Historical and Theological Research and Studies (Centrul pentru Cercetări şi Studii Istorice şi Teologice Baptiste) in Bucharest, Romania? How will the connection of this series with the Research Center help its purpose?
Baban: Centrul pentru Cercetări şi Studii Istorice şi Teologice Baptiste is the Research Center of the BTIB (Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest), so named to emphasize its two main directions: Baptist history and heritage in Romania, and the goal of theological reflection and interaction. Its connection with SCER is helping the series to define its evangelical identity and its perspectives on theological research.
JGC: What are some of the findings of the Ephesians commentary that would be helpful in the Romanian church?
Baban: One can find in the SCER: Efeseni commentary a good discussion of the argument of the epistle, with references to the Greek text, and a good number of relevant Romanian cultural applications. The quotations from Latin and Greek Fathers make it a good source of Christian communion across the centuries, and across the Western and Eastern Christian traditions. The commentary has important sections and features that would be attractive to evangelicals, Eastern-Orthodox, Roman-Catholic, and Greek-Catholic Christians.
JGC: You just mentioned “a good number of relevant Romanian cultural applications.” Can you give an example that would help readers see more concretely that culturally-specific practical benefit?
Baban: Here is one example. Ephesians 5:1–2 says: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” On page 218 we use a poem from Costache Ioanid, a well-known Christian poet in Romania, who used to say that brotherly love must spring from gratitude towards Christ and manifest itself through the profound realism of forgiveness:
I want to love my brothers,
with all I have most sacred in my chest.
I want to desire all heaven’s riches be in them,
yet to love them, yet to love them
just as they are, just as they are.
When my brothers have wounds that hurt,
may my arm be more gentle,
may I not press on their wound,
for it’s not I who heals, not I who heals,
but Christ, Jesus Christ.
We through Jesus have been forgiven,
so that we forgive—even us—anyone.
But if we do not love our brothers
we do not have in us, we do not have in us
His forgiveness, His forgiveness.
JGC: This commentary series is coordinated with a blog: www.seria-scer.com. Can you comment about the blog?
Baban: The blog is a good resource for presenting the SCER series and for getting people acquainted with its goals and methods.
JGC: What are the next volumes anticipated in the series? What do you think it will look like in the next five to ten years?
Baban: There are several volumes currently in the making: a volume on Romans, one on Luke, one on James/Jude, and one on 1–2 Peter.
JGC: How do you think that the SCER series will help with the propagation of the gospel message in Romania and beyond?
Baban: I pray and am confident that these volumes will be a good encouragement and help in studying and communicating God’s word to Romanian Christians, both ministers and lay readers, and an efficient evangelizing tool.
