Huli people to get Bible
in their own language

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — This year more than 100,000 Huli people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea will be among the first people in the highlands to have a full Bible in their own language when the Huli Old Testament is published for the first time.

Several Bible translations already exist for lowland language groups and there is also the Bible in Tok Pisin, which is generally regarded as the national language.The Huli Old Testament has taken approximately 13 years to translate.

It will not be not the first Scripture the Huli people have had, however. The New Testament was published by the Bible Society in New Zealand in 1983 and the new Huli Bible will include a revision of it.

The translation work has been performed by the Huli people themselves, with project co-ordination from New Zealand missionary couple Alan and Val Sinclair. The Bible Society, too, has been part of the project, making available its translation resources and personnel, including Dr Norm Mundhenk and Dr Stephen Pattemore.

The Society was also responsible for putting on a translators’ workshop at the beginning of the project. From that, a team of Huli people was selected to work through the Old Testament translation. The team represented five strands of the Church – Roman Catholic, Brethren, Evangelical, United and Wesleyan Methodist.