SCRIPTURE LANGUAGE REPORT 1996

"In regard to the Great Book, I have to say that it is the best gift God has given to man. All the Good Savior gave to the world was communicated through the Book," said Abraham Lincoln.

For many people, having the Bible available is taken for granted. For others, the Bible is still a closed book in their mother tongue. At the present rate of translation (up to 39 languages having at least a Portion of Scriptures per year) it will take more than 100 years to make parts of the Bible available in all the languages of the earth.

Bible Societies around the world, together with other Bible translation organisations, are committed to making the Bible available to all people. In 1996, Scripture publications in an additional 39 languages that have never previously had the Scriptures were registered at the United Bible Societies (UBS) libraries in New York, USA and Cambridge, England, according to the UBS 1996 Scripture Language Report for 1996. This brings the total of languages that have access to parts of the Scriptures to 2,167 worldwide.

The UBS or national Bible Societies were responsible for publishing each of these new Bibles. Hiri Motu is a lingua franca or trade language spoken by 250,000 people in Papua New Guinea. The Bibles had been long awaited and the churches finally received this important tool for worship and nurture.

On the other side of the world complete Bibles were celebrated in Paraguay – Lengua: Norte and in Guatemala – Quiche: Central; while in Africa, three new Bibles were made available for the first time: the Edo Bible in Nigeria, the Giphende Bible for the Phende people of Zaïre, and the Nyakyusa Bible in Tanzania.
 

In Thailand, the Bible Society published the first Northern Khmer New Testament in 1994, but it was registered at the library in 1996. On certain occasions it can take some time before a Scripture is received and recorded by the library. That Scripture is then included in the latest set of figures. The translators on the Northern Khmer project have now made much progress with the Old Testament.

The International Bible Society published seven of the New Testaments and The Bible League produced a further 11.

The three New Testaments which are first-time Scriptures in these languages are: Dai Chin, Myanmar (UBS); Ejagham, Cameroon (Bible Society of Cameroon) and Trique: San Martin Itunyoso, Mexico (The Bible League).

First-time Portions recorded ranged from Chagga: Vunjo, a language spoken on the southern slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to Lithuanian Romani; from North Karelian and Khakas in Russia (produced by a UBS partner organisation, the Institute for Bible Translation) to Eastern Cree in Canada (Bible Society). Most of the books translated are Gospels, usually Mark or Luke, but two languages have started with the Book of Ruth from the Old Testament, and for another it is the Book of Acts (Pasaale in, Ghana) while Owininga in Papua New Guinea now has a Selection of the Apostle Paul's letters.

Also included in the report are revised Bibles or Common Language Translations, usually done where the original translation has become dated and hard to understand. The Ilokano Bible in the Philippines, the Miso and Oriya Bibles in India, the Ngala Bible in Zaïre, the Shona: Standard Bible in Zimbabwe, the Xhosa Bible in South Africa and the Sinhala Bible in Sri Lanka are all examples of this.

Translating the Bible brings dignity to a language and culture; it also offers hope and comfort in times of sorrow or loss, and it tells individuals that God loves them and wants to save them. The UBS participates in 681 translation projects worldwide.

In Taiwan, the Revised Taiwanese Bible was made available, and a major revision of the Spanish standard Reina Valera Bible was predicted to have a marked effect upon Spanish-speaking countries.

Sometimes major new Bibles have come too late to be included in the Report; one example of this is the new Kiswahili common language Bible, Habari Njema (Good News) which was launched in mid-1996 with great excitement among the churches.

Today's translation procedures are improving all the time upon methods used when Bible translation first started. Old translations are being updated and revised, and if necessary, new ones are begun: language is always changing, and often, a new translation can invigorate the churches almost as much as having the Bible for the first time. Thanks to computers the work has been made easier and quicker, but the average length of time for a complete Bible is still between 12-15 years.

The Bible Societies also produce Scriptures in Braille, which is a separate language within a language, and record the Scriptures onto audio cassettes for those who cannot read. There is also work being done to develop the Bible for video-cassette and for interactive media.

The figures given below are based upon Scriptures received at either of the UBS libraries during the course of 1996.