Children’s Bible marks ‘historic moment’

STUTTGART, Germany, and TAMBORÉ, Brazil — The German Bible Society and the Bible Society of Brazil witnessed an “historic moment” at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, according to Dr Hannelore Jahr, Chief Editor at the German Bible Society. Dr Jahr’s statement reflected the joy of both Societies at having been able to develop and launch a joint Children’s Bible despite cultural differences between their countries.

Rainbow

This Bible bears the title Unter Gottes weitem Himmel (‘Beneath God’s Broad Heaven’) in German and Bíblia Arco-Íris (‘Rainbow Bible’) in Portuguese. The selection of stories from the Old and New Testaments contained in the German edition were rewritten for children by Christiane Herrlinger, while the Portuguese edition is based on the text of the simplified Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje (‘New Common Language Translation’).

What unites the two editions is that they both use illustrations by German artist Dieter Konsek, who has already produced a series of Bible Story books for the German Bible Society. At the launch, Mr Konsek spoke of his efforts to find new ways of portraying familiar stories. He gave the example of avoiding showing Abraham on the point of killing Isaac, which would be frightening for children, and instead illustrating Isaac hugging his father after his life was spared.

Also present at the launch was United Bible Societies Publishing Consultant Sue Mills, who gave voice to the Bible Society of Brazil’s pleasure at such a successful collaboration. With demand for Bibles and Christian literature expanding in Brazil as the country’s population continues to grow, she said it is vital that the Bible Society is able to supply appropriate publications. In this case, the Bible Society of Brazil felt it was particularly important to include Psalms as well as stories and to ensure that the final product was affordable.
With its combination of colourful illustrations and text which is suitable both for adults to read aloud to children and for children to read alone, this joint Children’s Bible is set to appeal to children in two very different countries. (WR 383/19 - 1/2.04)