As 2020 draws to a close, we thank God for two portions of the Bible that were published in Taiwan this past year.

Revised ‘Amis Bible Celebration Service, Fata’an PC, Taiwan, March 3, 2020

On Tuesday March 3, I attended a celebration worship service in the ‘Amis village of Fata’an situated in the beautiful east coast rift valley. Together with around 50 ‘Amis pastors from the PCT’s three ‘Amis Presbyteries, plus 50 lay people who had the day off work, we praised and thanked “Tapang a Kawas” (the Lord God) for the newly Revised ‘Amis New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs. Seven ‘Amis pastors and I worked over six years on this partial revision of the first complete ‘Amis Bible which was published in 1997. I remember helping the team translate in the 1990s, when we had to type hand-written draft translations onto floppy discs to save the text in an IBM-286 computer.

‘Amis Pastors Choir

Technology has changed a lot since then. For this revision, we used the newest generation of computer assisted text-processing tools and Paratext, the United Bible Societies’ professional Bible translation software. We made various revisions to the 1997 ‘Amis translation. For example, we corrected small spelling mistakes; we standardized Biblical terms used for beings, plants, animals, objects and customs; we adjusted parallel passages like the sayings of Jesus (i.e., use the same ‘Amis words where the Greek source text is the same); we simplified some complicated ‘Amis sentences so younger generations can understand their ancestral language better; and we added some more footnotes to clarify the text.

Revised ‘Amis – TCV(2019)
Matt 22:34-40

The Bible Society in Taiwan (BSTWN) with help from the Korean Bible Society printed 11,600 copies for distribution to the 130 ‘Amis churches within the PCT, plus ‘Amis congregations in the Roman Catholic Church, True Jesus Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Unlike the 1997 ‘Amis Bible, which only printed the ‘Amis translation in its Roman script, this edition prints the revised ‘Amis version in parallel columns with the recently revised Mandarin version called Today’s Chinese Version (2019). We pray this combined ‘Amis-Chinese Bible will be especially helpful for younger ‘Amis readers as a means to preserve, promote and proclaim the Good News in the language of their ancestors. The ‘Amis team and I hope to resume revising the rest of the ‘Amis Old Testament in early 2021.

A portion of Proverbs 1, Hakka Han Version (2019). Note the Roman phonetics and extra footnotes.

In November 2020, the BSTWN published a new Hakka edition of the book of Proverbs. Ever since the complete Hakka Bible was printed in 2012, with Hakka Han character text and its equivalent Hakka Roman phonetic text in two parallel columns, we have wanted to produce another edition with just the Han character text using a bigger font size. This new edition of Proverbs is a trial edition in that direction. The main text is predominantly Hakka Han characters. For rarer words or expressions we have added the phonetic text in brackets. We have also increased the number of footnotes by adding ones which explain the meaning of select Hakka words or phrases in Mandarin. This will help younger Hakka readers whose schooling has been in Mandarin-Chinese rather than in their ancestral language.

The Hakka revision team and I, who have been Bible translation coworkers since 1984, took this opportunity to make some small revisions to our 2012 translation. Most of these can be classified as spelling adjustments: adding hyphens or adjusting tone marks in the phonetic text, or correcting the radical in a Han character when necessary. Based on feedback from Hakka readers, the team also decided to simplify some of the traditional Hakka Han characters in accord with ones now being taught during Hakka classes in Taiwan schools. One of our goals has always been readability, so the challenge is how to balance the rich tradition behind Hakka Han characters with ease of understanding, while at the same time presenting the reader with a clear accurate translation of the original meaning in Hebrew.

Hakka Revision Team

Beyond the book of Proverbs, the Hakka team and I have already begun preparing a minor revision of the complete Bible which will be published in this new format, hopefully in 2022.

Again, we praise and thank God for the publication of these revised portions of the Bible in ‘Amis and Hakka. Thanks for your prayers for the ‘Amis and Hakka teams as they continue preparing revisions of their complete Bibles for the next generation of readers.