Nemeshegyi Péter SJ mint a Szentírás magyarázója

Abstract

Péter Nemeshegyi SJ Interpreter of the Scripture

The one hundredth birthday of Péter Nemeshegyi SJ was celebrated with a conference by members of the Hungarian Jesuit order on 25 March 2023. On this occasion, I was asked to appraise this excellent theologian as the interpreter of the Bible. One of Father Nemeshegyi’s most important foreign mission assignments during the decades he spent in Japan was his work in the Japanese ecumenical Bible translation. His experience and impressions during this work provide encouragement and guidance to those involved in a similar enterprise in Hungary. Péter Nemeshegyi was a true Catholic interpreter of the Bible, who believed that the Biblical tradition of the church brings parts of the Holy Scriptures that seem contradictory or difficult to a higher level of synthesis. His favourite hermeneutical starting point was the assumption of God’s goodness in every interpretation of the Scriptures, as well as the Christological principle, which he may have adopted from St Augustine. He taught about the Bible very effectively and creatively in various cultural environments (such as Japan or other East Asian countries) because he always found the fitting inculturation aspects of the Gospel and used them in both his teaching and application.