Dedication and Thanksgiving Worship Service

Thanking God for Proverbs in 8 languages

Eight versions of the book of Proverbs were dedicated on April 9, 2015 during a multilingual worship service at the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan’s General Assembly meeting at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. Each version represents the culmination of months of teamwork by devoted pastors and elders working in these languages: Taiwanese, Cou, Sediq, Hakka, Amis, Bunun, Drekay and Paiwan.

Indigenous representatives and PCT leaders. Rev Kho Sing-doh (front right), Rev Lyim Hong-tiong (front 3rd from right), Rev ‘Eleng Tjaljimaraw (front centre)

During the thanksgiving service the 300 members of Assembly joined in a responsive reading from Proverbs 8:22-36. Clothed in traditional attire a representative from each language group read a verse in their mother-tongue to which the Assembly replied reading the next verse in Taiwanese or Mandarin. Chair of the Board of the Bible Society in Taiwan (BST), Rev Kho Sing-doh (許承道牧師), explained the background behind this special publication of Proverbs and thanked the PCT for its ongoing support for all the projects under the BST. General Secretary of the PCT, Rev Lyim Hong-tiong (林芳仲牧師), thanked the BST for answering the needs of the PCT’s 1250 churches and accepted a copy of Proverbs in each language. He also acknowledged representatives from each ethnic group, as well as the General Secretary of the BST, Presbyterian minister, Rev Daniel Cheng Cheng-jen (鄭正人牧師). The joyful celebration was conducted by a Paiwan friend, PCT Associate General Secretary for Indigenous Mission, Rev ‘Eleng Tjaljimaraw (高天惠牧師). She also chairs the PCT’s Committees for Indigenous Bible Translation and for Promoting Indigenous Languages.

Shared Team Effort by the Bible Society in Taiwan, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Presbyterian Church in Canada

(L-R) BST reps: Rev Kho Sing-doh, Rev Daniel Cheng Cheng-jen, Paul, Rev Dr Liang Wang-huei, Jessie Hsu and Rev ‘Eleng Tjaljimaraw

The BST provides training in translation technique, computer-assisted text processing and file management, plus quality control for these eight projects through two of its Translation Advisers, Rev Dr Liang Wang-huei (梁望惠牧師) who works with the Taiwanese, Cou and Sediq projects and myself (麥煜道牧師). I worked on the Hakka Bible (published in 2012) and now serve on the Amis, Bunun, Drekay and Paiwan projects. Most churches which use these eight versions are Presbyterian, consequently the PCT is the BST’s major financial supporter and provides most of the translation team members. In addition to two or three thousand copies of each version requested by PCT churches, the BST published copies for other denominations and for public schools. Many PCT pastors teach their mother-tongue in local schools where they can now add Proverbs as an excellent resource for language learning. We pray that students will also grow in wisdom and the knowledge of God (Pro 9:10).

Reading Proverbs in These Eight Languages

Pro 9:10-18 in parallel Hakka-Han and Hakka-Roman scripts

The Taiwanese and Hakka versions of Proverbs each use Han character and Roman-phonetic scripts in two parallel columns. Most people read the text in the Han column. The phonetic column, which reproduces the sounds of the Han characters, can help younger readers pronounce the common language of their parents and grandparents more accurately. Someone like myself from a different language group can learn to speak Hakka or Taiwanese using the phonetic script, then gradually learn how to read the Han characters with their richer meanings. On the other hand, Taiwan’s indigenous languages belong to the Austronesian family of languages—they are totally different from Han-Chinese languages. The six indigenous versions of Proverbs each use their own respective Roman scripts

Pro 9:10 ff. in Paiwan and Mandarin-Chinese (TCV)

(adopted by Taiwan’s National Ministry of Education) in parallel with Mandarin-Chinese Han characters from either Today’s Chinese Version (1979, 1995) or the more classical Chinese Union Version (1919, 1989). Indigenous people read their own language according to the translation in the column with the Roman script. If they come across a word they don’t understand, they can refer to the Mandarin-Chinese column to see what it means. Each of the eight versions is accompanied by a set of audio CDs with the entire book of Proverbs read by members of the translation teams. The CDs are an aid for both comprehension and language learning. The BST thanks Wycliffe Bible Translators for their help in producing the audio sets.

Celebrating 150 Years of Mission History
The translation teams and the BST prepared Proverbs as a way to join the PCT in thanking God for His steadfast love and faithfulness as the PCT celebrates 150 years of mission among Taiwan’s diverse ethnic groups. One way to view this history of mission is to consider the way the Bible was translated into Taiwanese, Hakka and indigenous languages:

(1) When missionaries from England and Canada arrived on the island 150 years ago to share the gospel, they learned the majority language, commonly called “Taiwanese.” Rev Dr Thomas Barclay (巴克禮牧師) who served in southern Taiwan (1874-1935) was a key contributor to the first complete translation of the Bible into Taiwanese (published in 1933). Today, readers find it somewhat antiquated and not always easy to understand. The 2015 edition of Taiwanese-Proverbs is reprinted from the BST’s 2013 modern translation called Today’s Taiwanese Version.

Proverbs in Taiwanese, Hakka, Amis, Bunun, Cou, Drekay, Paiwan and Sediq

(2) Mission among Hakka people in the Church’s early years went slower than among the majority Taiwanese, in part, because very few missionaries tried to learn Hakka. Rev Hugh Ritchie (李庥牧師) arrived in southern Taiwan in 1867. After Taiwanese he learned some Hakka and started a Hakka congregation; unfortunately, he died of cholera in 1879. Most missionaries (even Rev Dr George Leslie Mackay 馬偕博士) and early Christians thought Hakka people would eventually assimilate, so there was little effort to translate the Bible into Hakka. I was part of the team that worked on the first translation of Proverbs into Hakka in 1993-1995. The 2015 edition is a reprint of the revised version of Proverbs which came out in 2012 when the BST published the complete Hakka Bible.

Paiwan translator Rev Ljegean, Paul, Mary Beth and Rev ‘Eleng Tjaljimaraw

(3) Mission and church growth among Taiwan’s indigenous peoples expanded rapidly between the late 1920s and the 1950s. Today there are over 500 indigenous congregations in the PCT! Indigenous Bible translation work began in the 1950s and continues to this day. The 2015 edition of Amis-Proverbs is a revision of Proverbs that was first published in the 1997 complete Amis Bible. The other five indigenous translations of Proverbs are all brand new. The indigenous teams are now pressing on with other books and hope to complete their whole Bibles over the next few years.

The PCT, the BST, and we in the PCC are deeply committed to preserving and promoting all of Taiwan’s non-Mandarin languages so that people can read, hear and share God’s life-giving Word in their own mother-tongues. Bible translation is a basic component of the Church’s mission which is also concerned with the interrelationship between gospel and culture.

Thanking our Partners at the Bible Society in Taiwan
One final note. The week before Proverbs was published, I took PCC Associate Secretary for International Ministries, Rev Dr Glynis Williams, and my wife Mary Beth to visit my friends and co-workers at the BST office in Taipei. We enjoyed good conversations with Rev Daniel Cheng (鄭正人牧師, General Secretary), Ms. Jessie Hsu (徐淑貞主任, Publishing Director and Deputy General Secretary), and Rev Dr Peng Kuo-wei (彭國瑋博士, General Editor of the BST’s Chinese Union Study Bible project). On behalf of the PCC, Glynis presented Rev Cheng with an example of indigenous Canadian art, an inukshuk, in grateful appreciation for the long-standing friendship and partnership we share in translating the Word of God into the mother-tongues of all the ethnic groups in Taiwan. Thank you for your prayers and continued support of this important mission work through Presbyterians Sharing.

Rev Dr Peng Kuo-wei, Rev Daniel Cheng, Jessie Hsu, Rev Dr Glynis Williams, Mary Beth and Paul at the BST office

Glynis presents Rev Daniel Cheng with an inukshuk