Biblia, Piibli, Paipera

[New Testament in Japanese]. New Testament. Fifth edition. Kobe, Japan: British & Foreign Bible Society and National Bible Society of Scotland, 1908.

Following more than two centuries of official suppression of Christianity and the Bible in Japan, a team of Protestant missionaries and Japanese translators led by the American Presbyterian James Curtis Hepburn (1815-1911) produced the “Standard Version” of the Japanese Bible at Yokohama in 1887. The exhibited Japanese New Testament contains the text of that version.

[New Testament in Japanese]. New Testament. Fifth edition. Kobe, Japan: British & Foreign Bible Society and National Bible Society of Scotland, 1908.
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[New Testament in Cantonese]. The New Testament: Cantonese and English. Shanghai: British & Foreign Bible Society, 1921.

Translations of Scriptures into Chinese languages were first made by Jesuit missionaries during the sixteenth century and circulated in manuscript form. However, no considerable portion of the Bible seems to have been printed in Chinese languages before the early nineteenth century. The earliest book of the Bible printed in Chinese by Protestant missionaries was a Gospel of St Matthew written in the classical literary dialect of High Wenli and printed at Serampore in 1810.

The Bible on display is a diglot version in Cantonese and English containing the text of a nineteenth century translation by the British & Foreign Bible Society.

[New Testament in Cantonese]. The New Testament: Cantonese and English. Shanghai: British & Foreign Bible Society, 1921.
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[Old Testament in Santali]. Mare Niam: dhorom sostorko: ibri ar arami Parsi khon hqr Parsite Torjomaakat'. Calcutta: British and Foreign Bible Society (Calcutta Auxiliary), 1914.

Santali is an indigenous language spoken in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. In the 1860s, Church Mission Society members converted the language to a written form and printed the first Scriptures in Santali. Most were printed in Roman character, but occasionally a Bengali script was utilised.

In the late nineteenth century, L.O. Skrefsrud (1840-1910) and P.O. Bodding (1865-1938) of the Danish Mission prepared a Santali translation of the complete Old Testament which was printed in instalments between 1904 and 1910. The 1914 edition displayed is the first edition of the Old Testament in Santali to be printed in a single volume.

[Old Testament in Santali]. Mare Niam: dhorom sostorko: ibri ar arami Parsi khon hqr Parsite Torjomaakat'. Calcutta: British and Foreign Bible Society (Calcutta Auxiliary), 1914.
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[Genesis and New Testament in Moronene]. Boku Haratiano apu alla: kadadia ronga Pedandi'a Tonia hai gau nto Moronene. Jakarta [Indonesia]: Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia, 2013.

The history of the translation of Holy Scriptures into Malay and Indonesian languages is closely tied to the evangelising efforts of Dutch missionaries. The first Scriptures in Malay languages were printed as early as the seventeenth century. From the early nineteenth century, Netherlands Bible Society missionaries were prominent in translating the Bible into numerous Indonesian languages, including Javanese, Sundanese, and Bugis.

Moronene is a minority language spoken by 37,000 people in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. On display is a Moronene translation of Genesis and the New Testament with hymns, the work of translators from Wycliffe Australia and local people.

[Genesis and New Testament in Moronene]. Boku Haratiano apu alla: kadadia ronga Pedandi'a Tonia hai gau nto Moronene. Jakarta [Indonesia]: Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia, 2013.
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