There will be a complete Bible available in all of South Africa's official languages by the end of the year.  The translators of the Bible in isiNdebele (Southern Ndebele) have finalised and handed over the Bible manuscript to the Bible Society of South Africa.  IsiNdebele is currently the only official language in South Africa in which a Bible is not available.

The need for a Bible in this language was identified many years ago and the Bible Society was approached to begin such a translation.

The Gospel of Mark, the first Scripture Portion ever in isiNdebele, was published 1977.  In 1986 the New Testament and part of the Psalms was published.  After this, work on this translation came to a standstill and only 11 years later, in 2000, the translation of the Old Testament and a thorough revision of the New Testament resumed.

Three translators, Pastor David Mahlangu, Rev Peter Mabena and Prof Andries Breytenbach, the source text expert and project leader, worked full-time on this task.  They were further assisted by a review committee which met regularly to monitor the text prepared by the translators and to make further recommendations.  "Bible translation is a long, time-consuming process, but it is so important.  It was our goal all along to finally place a text in people's hands that is faithful to the source texts of the Bible and in good isiNdebele," says Prof Breytenbach.

With the handing over of the text, a team at the Bible Society immediately began with the prepublication work which includes page layout, proofreading and the printing of the text.  This process will take approximately nine months and hard work is being done to ensure that the Bible will be available for isiNdebele speakers in their mother tongue before Christmas 2012.

~ 21 February 2012 ~