Africa leads with Bible translations

ACCORDING to a report recently released by the United Bible Societies, Africa is the front-runner regarding Bible translations.

This continent currently has more translations of the complete Bible than any other. By the end of 2012, the complete Bible was translated and published in 189 of the estimated 2 000 languages spoken in Africa.

Of the estimated 6 600 languages spoken across the world, the complete Bible is available in 484 of them. Apart from Africa, Asia is the continent with the most translations of the complete Bible, namely 146 languages.

The New Testament is now available in 1 257 languages and at least one Bible book is available in 810 languages. This means there is at least one Bible book available in 2 551 languages.

Last year the complete Bible in isiNdebele, one of South Africa’s official languages, was published for the very first time.

“This means that 155 years after the Setswana Bible appeared in 1857, there is now a complete Bible available in all 11 of our official languages,” said Rev Gerrit Kritzinger, chief executive officer of the Bible Society of South Africa.

“The day the isiNdebele Bible was launched, some 5 000 Bibles were sold within two hours. Smiling people with their Bibles could be seen everywhere.”

Such scenes of joy and gratitude are witnessed all across the world when people receive the Bible in their own language. Last year Bibles also appeared for the first time in, among others, Kiembu-Kimbeere, a language of Kenya; in Krio, a language of Sierra Leone; and in Shilluk which is spoken in South Sudan. In Taiwan, a Bible was published for the first time in Hakka and in Argentina, in Toba-Qom.

Since the beginning of the 21st century the Bible has appeared in 101 languages for the first time. The complete Bible was available in 484 languages at the end of 2012 compared to 383 languages in 2000.

However, the task of Bible societies to translate the Bible is far from complete. Millions upon millions of people still do not have access to the complete Bible in their mother tongue, while many others eagerly anticipate a new translation in their language so they do not have to struggle to understand a translation that was written decades or even centuries ago.

Bible societies are currently involved with more than 400 translation projects across the world. It is hoped that by 2015 close to 100 of these projects will have been completed. Of these translation projects, 45 are in languages in which there has never before been a Bible.