The purpose of this project is to produce an easily understandable, source text-orientated Afrikaans translation of the Bible which is suitable for public reading and use in church services, Sunday schools, Bible studies and privately.

Background

After years of thorough academic and market research, the Church Advisory Committee, who on behalf of all churches that use the Afrikaans Bible advises the Bible Society on issues that concern the Bible in Afrikaans, requested in 2004 that the Bible Society prepare a new translation in Afrikaans.

This request was approved by the then National Board of the Bible Society in February 2005 and the project started in 2006.

The translation brief makes it clear that the translation must be a faithful rendering of the meaning of the source texts, while the images, metaphors, style and structure of the source texts must as far as possible be retained. The translation must be of a high literary standard yet easily understandable.

The working title of this translation is Die Bybel in Afrikaans: 'n direkte vertaling (The Bible in Afrikaans: a direct translation). The term "direct" translation is a technical term which is taken from the idea of direct speech. When a speaker’s words are quotely directly it implies that these were the speaker’s exact words. A direct Bible translation strives to translate the sources texts of the Bible in such a manner as to quote the words of the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek speaker/author directly, but as if ordinary idiomatic and contemporary Afrikaans was spoken/written.

The project makes consistent progress and there are already a number of books available for commentary on www.nuwekerkbybel.co.za.

The Editorial Committee for the New Testament, comprising a source text expert, two exegetes (people who explain the text), two Afrikaans literary experts, one Afrikaans language expert, one translation expert and the project leader, expect to finalise the text of the New Testament by 2013.

Expected Impact

• This translation will address a very specific need within Afrikaans-speaking churches, namely for a Bible translation that is more strongly aligned to the source texts (that is to say the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts) than the existing translations.
• Many believers will thus be able to have a Bible that is as close to the source texts as possible, yet still easily understandable.

Budget
R3,2 million is needed in 2012 to ensure the project’s progress.

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