by Hal Olsen
Committee working on a commentary for the book of Ruth. Photos by David Homberger.
P erhaps no other foreign mission work is more exacting, more painstakingly slow, or more re warding than that of the mission ary translator. One missionary translator gave an example to explain the patience required to render the Bible into a tribal language: “ If we work half a day and decide a comma is needed in a passage to clarify meaning, and then we work the rest of the day and find decisively that the comma really should not be there; that has been a profitable day.” This is an extreme example, but it does reveal how translators have to go down unknown alleys and back out again to emerge with the intended meaning of Biblical passages. Translators have been produc
whole Bible in both Kikamba and the Kikuyu languages has been in the hands of the people for many years. More recently a Bible in the Nande language has been trans lated. There is also a New Testa ment for the Masai tribe and vari ous other Kenya languages. The Suk and Kalenjin tribes have at least Scripture portions in their other tongue. In Tanzania, A.I.M. mi s s i o n aries worked for many years trans lating the Kisukuma Bible. In that country there is also a Kijita New Testament and Scripture portions in Kizinza and Kikawere. The mission’s Congo field has the whole Bible in Alur, Bangala, and Congo Swahili. New Testaments in the region are in Kinande, Pa- zande, Ki ngwana , and Kiletha.
tive, however, and their work down through the history of the world has resulted in Bibles and Scrip ture portions in well over one thousand different languages. During the seventy-year history of the Africa Inland Mission in East and Central Africa, transla tion of the Bible and Christian lit erature has always been one of the mission’s most important minis tries. In very few cases has the missionary translator been able to devote full time to his arduous task. The burden of other mission ary work and the lack of sufficient workers has forced many to be part-time translators. The record of these “ interpreters on paper” has been truly remarkable, how ever. In A.I.M.’s Kenya field, the
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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