Distribution underpinned by busy translation program

n Dr Loren Bliese, UBS Translation Consultant, who works with Eshetu Abete, an Ethiopian Translation Consultant, from the offices of the Bible Society of Ethiopia to oversee translation work in a country with 81 languages and multiple Christian traditions, each with their own version of the biblical canon. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (ETH02T-96)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Success in distributing the Bible would not be possible without an ambitious program to translate God’s Word into as many of Ethiopia’s languages as possible. Dr Loren Bliese is the Translation Consultant who oversees this effort. He has worked in Ethiopia since 1960, and before beginning translation work in 1976 served with the Protestant Mekane Yesus Church in the fields of evangelism and literacy.

“There are 24 translation projects under way in Ethiopia right now and a number of new ones are being put in hand by various organisations,” he reports. If the UBS can find the finances, most of these hope to have UBS as the publisher.

Collaborating

He also reports that the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), the sister organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and Word for the World, with both of whom UBS is collaborating, provide exegete-coordinators and financial support for many of the projects. Others are sponsored by local churches and missions. The Ethiopian Catholic Church also participates with translators in several projects.

“With two translators per project — and sometimes three or four — we have quite a few people involved,” he says.

In Ethiopia, the decisions to be made about translations include the debate about which script to use for new written languages.

Decision

“With many languages in Ethiopia there is a decision to be made about whether to use Latin or Ethiopic script,” he explains. “The government favours the Latin script, with 26 characters, for all non-Semitic languages over the Ethiopic which has 231 characters!”

Since older people learned Ethiopic script, and children are now learning the Latin, some publications have been made in both scripts.

He also talks enthusiastically of a translation of the Septuagint – one of the first for UBS. Dr Ammanuel Mikre-Sellassie, who retired last year from full-time work as a translation consultant in Kenya, is supervising it, and the project has also offered a new opportunity in work with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Although one third of the Bible Society of Ethiopia board members are from the Orthodox Church, in the past the Church has only been represented unofficially in translation projects.

One of the translators for the recent national-language Amharic Bible was Orthodox, and the revision team that just finished had an Orthodox leader, but the church was not officially involved.

Breakthrough

“Phil Noss [the UBS Translation Services Coordinator] gave the ‘green light’ on UBS participation in the Septuagint project sponsored by the Orthodox Church,” says Dr Bliese. “Now Dr Mikre-Sellassie, who is an Orthodox scholar, and other scholars of the Church are working on this new translation.