Biblia, Piibli, Paipera

[New Testament in Malagasy]. Ny Soratra Masina amy ny Testamenta Vaovao any Jesosy Kristy Mpamonjy Tompontsika … London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1889.

Malagasy is an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. The translation of the Bible into Malagasy was undertaken by London Missionary Society members who arrived on the island in the 1820s. A printing press was subsequently sent and the first New Testament in Malagasy was printed in 1830 at Antananarivo.

From 1872, a major revision was undertaken by representatives from numerous missionary societies, to translate the Bible into Malagasy from the original Hebrew and Greek. The revised New Testament was finally printed in London in 1888; the 1889 edition is displayed here.

[New Testament in Malagasy]. Ny Soratra Masina amy ny Testamenta Vaovao any Jesosy Kristy Mpamonjy Tompontsika … London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1889.
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[New Testament in Accra]. Wo Nyontso ke Yiwalaherelo Jesu Kristo Kpanmo he le ye ga wiemo le mli. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Basel: British Foreign and Bible Society, 1872.

Accra, or Ga is an indigenous language of West Africa, spoken in Ghana. The first Scriptures in Accra were printed in Copenhagen in 1826. The first New Testament in Accra, translated from the Greek, was printed in 1843. A subsequent revision, by Johannes Zimmermann (1825-1876) of the Basel Mission, appeared in 1854.

The 1872 New Testament on display contains the text of Zimmermann, who translated the entire Bible into Accra and whose version became the standard text until the end of the nineteenth century. He also published a grammar and a dictionary of the Accra language.

[New Testament in Accra]. Wo Nyontso ke Yiwalaherelo Jesu Kristo Kpanmo he le ye ga wiemo le mli. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Basel: British Foreign and Bible Society, 1872.
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[Aymara and Spanish Gospel of Luke]. El Evangelio de Jesu Christo segun San Lucas en Aymara y Español. Londres: J. Moyes, 1829.

The Gospel of Luke in Aymara, an indigenous language spoken chiefly in Bolivia, is the first edition of the scriptures in any native South American language. The Aymara text was translated from the Latin by Vicente Pazos-Kanki (1779-1851) whose mother spoke Aymara. The accompanying Spanish version by Phelipe Scio de San Miguel was also based on the Vulgate and first published independently in 1790.

[Aymara and Spanish Gospel of Luke]. El Evangelio de Jesu Christo segun San Lucas en Aymara y Español. Londres: J. Moyes, 1829.
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[New Testament in Guarani]. Tupa nandeyara nee nandeyara Jesu Cristo recocue ja reminboecue rejeguare umi Evangelio marangatu cuera ja umi Apostoles rembiapocue ja remimboecue rejeguare. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1913.

Guarani is an indigenous language of Paraguay. Although the Jesuits began a mission to the indigenous people of Paraguay as early as 1579 and Ruiz de Montoya rendered the language in written form, there is no known version of scriptures in Guarani earlier than 1888, when the British and Foreign Bible Society printed selected texts from Matthew as a diglot with Valera’s Spanish.

The first complete New Testament in Guarani was translated from the Greek by the Scottish medical missionary Dr John William Lindsay (1875-1946) and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1913.

[New Testament in Guarani]. Tupa nandeyara nee nandeyara Jesu Cristo recocue ja reminboecue rejeguare umi Evangelio marangatu cuera ja umi Apostoles rembiapocue ja remimboecue rejeguare. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1913.
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