SINGAPORE — Bible Societies in the UBS Asia-Pacific region have co-operated to produce a CD-ROM of the Bible in 11 indigenous languages of the region, in four English-language versions and in the original Hebrew and Greek. Called sWORD: Search the Word, the CD is designed as a Bible study tool for pastors, and it is hoped that its search facility and its ability to display parallel texts in synchronised windows will be useful to teachers and evangelists working in cross-cultural situations.
The project was started in 1998. Dr Bob Batzinger, the Singapore-based UBS Regional Computer Assisted Publishing Consultant, said it was part of an attempt to address the growing need to search national translations of the Bible electronically.
“With the growing number of migratory workers across the region,” he said, “national Bible Societies were finding increasing requests for materials that would allow for Scriptures in multiple Asian languages.”
The need for products of this kind was highlighted in meetings and discussions of the Asia-Pacific Computer-Assisted Publishing Technical Support Group,which set up a special working committee. Three years ago it invited national Bible Societies in the region to collaborate on the CD.
Seven Societies – those of Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Nepal and Bangladesh – decided to go ahead, and provided copies of their Scriptures and obtained the permissions required to allow other Societies to distribute the CD.
The project was co-ordinated by the UBS Asia-Pacific Translation Support Office for Computer-Assisted Publishing, which also provided considerable technical expertise. The CD also had to be able to handle multiple scripts and orthographies used in Asia.
The fruit of the project means, for example, that a Korean missionary in Bangladesh will be able to prepare studies in Bangla with parallel passages in Korean, and a Thai theology student in the Philippines can prepare his scholarly papers in English while referring to the Hebrew, Greek and Thai versions of Scripture.
Pirating of electronic products is rife in Asia and the CD is being sold for less than US$10.00 in the hope that this will prevent cheaper – but inferior – copies from becoming available. The Online Bible provided the search engine free and only two Bible Societies are being paid royalties for their contributions.
The Bible Society of Singapore Publishing Center will handle the bulk production of the CD and distribute it to member Bible Societies. A website to provide regional support for the product has been developed and is in the approval process. (WR 358/28 - 03.01)