Into the Living Languages of Mankind

Surviving centuries of recopying was challenging enough, but the Bible faced another obstacle-translation into contemporary languages.  The Bible must  speak in the language of the people in order to speak to their hearts.  However, translating the Bible-with its more than 1,100 chapters and 31,000 verses-is not easy task.  Yet, over the centuries devoted translators gladly took on the challenge, facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles at times.

Consider, for example, how the Bible came to be translated into the languages of Africa.  In the year 1800, there were only about  a dozen written languages in all of Africa.  Hundreds of other spoken languages had no writing system.  This was the challenge facing Bible translator Robert Moffat.  In 1821, at the age of 25, Moffat set up a mission among the Tswana-speaking people.  Moffat persevered and, without the aid of primers and dictionaries, eventually mastered  the language, developed a written form of  it, and taught some Tswana to read that script.  In 1829, after working among the Tswana for eight years, he finished translating the Gospel of Luke.  He later said:  "I have known individuals to come hundreds of miles to obtain copies of St. Luke. . . .I have seem them receive and grasp  them to their bosoms, and shed tears of thankfulness, till I have said to more than one, 'You will spoil your books with your tears.' "  Moffat also told of an African man who saw a number of people reading the Gospel of Luke and asked them what they had in their possession.  "It is the Word of God,"  they replied.  "Does  it speak?" The man asked.  "Yes,  it speaks  to the heart."

Devoted translators like Moffat gave many Africans their first opportunity to communicate in writing.  But the translators gave the African people an even more precious gift-the Bible in their own tongue.  Moreover, Moffat introduced the divine name to the Tswana, and he used that name throughout his translation."  Thus, the Tswana referred to the Bible as "the mouth of Jehovah." -Psalm 83:18.

Other translators in various part of the world faced similar obstacles.  Some even risked their lives to translate the Bible.  Think about this:  "If the Bible had remained only in ancient Hebrew and Greek, it might have "died" long ago, for those languages were in time virtually forgotten by the masses and were never known in many parts of the earth.  Yet, the Bible is very much alive because, unlike any other book, it can "speak" to people the world over in their own language. As a result, it message  remains "at work in [its] believers."  (1 Thessalonians 2:13) The Jerusalem Bible renders these words:  "It is still a living power among you who believe it."


Next time: Worthy of Trust

Watchtower, 1998