Post by JEM on Oct 20, 2007 13:44:25 GMT
An audience of people from most of the town churches met in the New Hall of the United Reformed Church for the Annual Bible Society Rally. They listened spell bound to a talk by Dorothy Taylor, an educational advisor about what the Bible is doing around the world to change lives and communities.
She explained some of the difficulties in translating the Bible into modern languages and getting copies to the people who do not have them.
There is a tribe in Azerbaijan which became Christian in the 5th century but until the 1990's never had a written language
Work began then in translating the Bible into their language and the first editions should reach them in 2014.
Amongst the Inuits there are 6 words meaning snow, but in the South Pacific where people have never seen snow a verse in the prophet Isaiah that speaks of our sins being made as white as snow has been changed to refer to the white feathers of the egret. In Mali snakes are a great food treat so in a reference in St Matthew's gospel where Jesus said "If your son asks you for a fish you would not give him a snake"the word for snake has been translated using toad instead.The people there love snakes but loathe toads.
Jesus taught those who believed him "to ask and receive, to seek and find, to knock and the door will be opened to you", but in Tanzania no one opens a door they call out instead, so in their Bible the words "call out" are used for "knock".
Such attention to detail is essential when reproducing the Bible into many languages. That is part of the task ogf the Bible Society who tell us there are still over 4,500 dialects on Earth into which the Bible has not yet been translated, and that is the task they are trying to solve with the gifts of thousands of Christians,
She explained some of the difficulties in translating the Bible into modern languages and getting copies to the people who do not have them.
There is a tribe in Azerbaijan which became Christian in the 5th century but until the 1990's never had a written language
Work began then in translating the Bible into their language and the first editions should reach them in 2014.
Amongst the Inuits there are 6 words meaning snow, but in the South Pacific where people have never seen snow a verse in the prophet Isaiah that speaks of our sins being made as white as snow has been changed to refer to the white feathers of the egret. In Mali snakes are a great food treat so in a reference in St Matthew's gospel where Jesus said "If your son asks you for a fish you would not give him a snake"the word for snake has been translated using toad instead.The people there love snakes but loathe toads.
Jesus taught those who believed him "to ask and receive, to seek and find, to knock and the door will be opened to you", but in Tanzania no one opens a door they call out instead, so in their Bible the words "call out" are used for "knock".
Such attention to detail is essential when reproducing the Bible into many languages. That is part of the task ogf the Bible Society who tell us there are still over 4,500 dialects on Earth into which the Bible has not yet been translated, and that is the task they are trying to solve with the gifts of thousands of Christians,