CURAÇAO, Netherlands Antilles — On March 12, this year, the first common-language Papiamentu Bible was officially presented to Governor Jaime M Saleh, representing Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles. The launch was most significant for the inhabitants of the Leeward Islands – Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao – who now have access to the full Scriptures in their 'heart language', while the interconfessional nature of the project makes it one of the most significant ever undertaken by the local Bible Society since its formation in the late 1960s.
More recently, in the Netherlands, on Saturday May 3, in a church in Haarlem, where the Netherlands Bible Society (NBS) is located, the new Papiamentu Bible was presented to Dr Carel Pieter de Haseth, Minister Plenipotentary and Member of the Council of Ministers of the Realm for the Netherlands Antilles.
Background:
The Papiamentu translation project was first started
by a Roman Catholic priest in 1977. But it was soon found to be too demanding
a task for a single translator, and the Antillian
Bible Society got involved from 1982, assisted by volunteers. In 1985,
a professional translation team was set up consisting of four translators
and four theologians, under the supervision of Mr Robert A Scholma (now
NBS Director of Translation, Publishing and Distribution), until 1993,
and later Mr Geerhard Kloppenburg and UBS Translation Consultant Dr Kees
de Blois. Estimated number of speakers: 250,000 in the Caribbean, with
a further 70-80,000 in the Netherlands.