Latest News #275 – Indonesia
March 18, 2004

Golden Jubilee celebration presents ‘serious scholarship’

UBS Translation Services Coordinator Dr Phil Noss (right) giving the keynote address at the Indonesian Bible Society's Golden Jubilee celebrations in February 2004. Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: UBS/Phil Noss (INO04DJ-1.JPG)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian Bible Society celebrated its 50-year history with a Golden Jubilee last month consisting of a six-day academic seminar, a bookfair, a book launch and two celebration services.

The week of events began with a dinner on the evening of Sunday February 8 and a service of thanksgiving the following day.

The Bible seminar took as its theme One Bible, Many Versions. Overseas speakers included Dr Phil Noss, UBS Translation Services Coordinator, and Prof Lourens de Vries of Vrije University, in the Netherlands, each of whom gave a keynote address, Dr Tom Jacobs of Sanata Dharma University, in Yogyakarta, Java, Prof Olaf Schumann of Hamburg University and Dr Julian Sundersingh, UBS Media Consultant for the Asia-Pacific Region. Dr Noss spoke on Bible translation and the Involvement of Churches and Prof de Vries on The History of Bible Translation and its Use in Indonesia. The Rev Dr Daud Soesilo, UBS Regional Translation Coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Region, entitled his lecture Translating Religious Texts.

A talk by the Rev Dr Jusuf, Indonesian Bible Society Translation Consultant, took up the overall question of One Bible, Many Versions: Why?

"They were very serious pieces of scholarship," said Dr Noss, "and, with the exception of the keynote addresses, each lecture was followed by another from a 'respondent'.

In addition to the lectures on Bible translation, others explored the needs of different groups of Bible readers, such as Christian families who read together, women, young people and children. The diverse audience, between 300 and 400 strong, consisted of theologians, academics, church people from various denominations and students.

Dr Noss said that both aspects of the seminar were "extremely interesting" and that a lot of valuable research had clearly been done into the use made of Bibles by different audiences. He added that the seminar programme had served a dual purpose; it had informed the Bible Society's partners and supporters about various aspects of translation and it had also gathered research to inform and guide the Society's future work.

The lectures were all held in a large auditorium on the fifth floor of a shopping mall in central Jakarta which is home to a local church. A 'grand ballroom' on the floor below was the venue for a bookfair where some 20 Jakarta-based publishers, local Christian bookshops and denominational publishers were displaying their wares - books, CDs and cassettes tapes. A Bible Society exhibition included a history of Bible translation and a display of old Indonesian Scriptures. At the end of the week a two-and-a-half hour celebration service was held at an indoor tennis stadium. (432 words - INDONESIA.18.3.04).

Newly founded Society trebled distribution
in two years

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Launched during the Golden Jubilee, Sowing the Word in the Archipelago traces the history of Bible work in the country back to the foundation of various Bible Societies in the Netherlands as long ago as 1814. These quickly turned their attention to translations which would benefit the Dutch colonies. The same year also saw the foundation of a Java auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS).

Closer to the modern era, the Second World War made communication with the 'home' Bible Societies in Europe very difficult. In fact, the importing of Bibles from Europe stopped altogether and management of both Societies' agencies was made over to local Christians.

When the war was over, the growing movement for Indonesian independence brought with it wider opposition to associations with the colonial power and in 1950 a group of prominent Indonesian Christians met in Jakarta and agreed to found an independent Bible Society. The continuing scarcity of Bibles added weight to the idea of a wholly Indonesian foundation to oversee the translation, production and distribution of the Bible to an increasingly literate community.

Aided by the Netherlands Bible Society, BFBS and the National Bible Society of Scotland, the new Indonesian Bible Society was officially founded on Feb 9, 1954 – though its Constitution states that it had started functioning on January 1 of that year. In April United Bible Societies, itself only eight years old, welcomed it as its 27th full member. The effectiveness of the new Society was not in doubt for long: by the end of 1954, circulation of Scriptures rose to more than 200,000 nearly three times the number distributed in the same area just two years previously.