Bible Translation Work at the Heart of Distribution

Bible Translation Work at the Heart of Distribution Much of the following is extracted from a report by Dr Loren F Bliese, a UBS Translation Consultant based in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Bible translation has developed fast here since the nation turned its back on communism in 1991 and opened the way for freedom of religious expression. Christianity is once more blossoming in a land with close historic ties to the New Testament. (The first Ethiopian convert is mentioned in Acts chapter 8 when a court official is baptised by Jesus’s disciple, Philip.)

Following the re-establishment of democracy in Ethiopia, the Bible Societies and other Bible-distributing organisations provided 350,000 Bibles in 1993-95 to assuage a great thirst for the Word of God. However, so many more people are now in need of the Bible that the Bible Society of Ethiopia (BSE) can scarcely keep up with demand.

New Reader Portions are ideal for introducing both young and older people to the Bible in modern language.

In his report on translation work in Ethiopia over the last year, Dr Loren Bliese, UBS Translation Consultant, says that there has been significant progress in 12 out of the 14 current projects and work has begun in seven more projects planned for the future.

Revision

Of the other two current projects, the Oromo-South Ethiopic script New Testament has arrived in the area where this language is spoken, and distribution is being prepared by the South Synod of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church – Mekane Yesu. This publication is a revision of the New Testament that was lost in shipment during the communist government in 1988.

The church leadership is planning workshops to demonstrate to congregations and particularly to church leaders how to transfer their reading from Amharic to Oromo. There will no doubt be some confusion and discussion regarding languages – which is the best and which people are more familiar or comfortable with, and many people still have to be encouraged to further their reading skills. Added to this, today, children are being taught using the Roman script.

The church leadership wants to ensure that the distribution will be systematic and of greatest benefit to its members. This text is a revision of the Kenyan Boran New Testament; the Kenyan Boran Bible was launched in March 1995 (see World Report 297/10, May 1995). It is hoped to be able to start work on the Old Testament translation in 1998. There are estimated to be three million speakers of Oromo-South.

Full Bible

The Oromo-Western Roman-script Bible is currently in production. The New Testament and Psalms in Roman script was published in 1995 and the full Bible in Oromo-Western Ethiopic script was published in 1994. This Bible will be of considerable help to those who are used to reading the Roman script. There are 16 million speakers of Oromo-Western.

In January this year, the Bible Society was still awaiting the arrival of the Aari New Testament, published by The Bible League but translated under the auspices of the BSE. There are 140,000 speakers of Aari, and work is now proceeding with the translation of the Old Testament, with five books drafted and work started on another two.

Transcribed

The Sidaama, Hadiyya and Kambaata New Testaments have proved very successful, the latter two being dedicated in February 1994 and the Sidaama in 1990. The Sidaama New Testament in Roman script has been transcribed and is now ready for publication, a necessary step because primary schools in the area have been using the Roman script for the last three years.

It is planned to start the translation of the Sidaama Old Testament this year: two translators have been assigned to the project and a coordinator from the Summer Institute of Linguistics. The BSE will put up half the budget for the translators and help in supplying a computer. There are more than one million speakers of Sidaama.

Discussions are under way to begin the Old Testament translation in both Hadiyya and Kambaata, possibly in 1999. There are more than one million speakers of Hadiyya and half a million speakers of Kambaata. The Anuak translation suffered a setback last year in July when the main translator, Paul Othow, died. His loss was a severe blow to translation work on the Old Testament which he was doing when he became ill.

Several workshops and courses have been held to encourage and train Bible translators. In a New Reader Portion Workshop, held at the beginning of 1997, the Old Testament Portion ‘How the World Began’ was discussed and translated, with illustrations being chosen and the whole book formatted during the course.

Clear message

Thirteen participants came from seven translation projects, and went away with a clear message: it is extremely important to produce simple reading materials to prepare the way for the New Testament and eventually the Bible in a language, and New Reader Portions are ideal for introducing both young and older people to the Bible in modern language.

Ten participants from five translation projects attended a workshop studying how to grapple with the problems in the Book of Nahum, during April 1997; and in November last year another successful translation introductory course was held at the BSE with 11 Ethiopian participants representing seven translation projects and two advisors.

On target

Altogether, the work of Bible translation in Ethiopia is on target, aiming to meet the demand for Scriptures in the many local languages. Although there is still much work to be done before everyone has access to the Bible in a language they can truly understand, without the work done by the translators, the Bible Society would only be able to reach a limited segment of the Christian and non-Christian population. Once again it is obvious that a good Scripture translation is at the heart of Bible distribution. (WR 330/19 - 4.98) [PHOTOS]

This page was last updated on Wednesday, 8th April 1998.