Complete Bible brings benefits for Mbyá Guaraní community

BARUERI, Brazil — In Brazil some 370,000 people, comprising around 220 ethnic groups, speak a language other than Portuguese. Yet few of these Brazilians have access to the Bible in their ‘heart’ language. The situation is changing, however. Thanks to the dedication of professionals and organisations, parts of the Bible have now been translated into some 35 different Indian tongues.

Most Indian languages are essentially oral in nature. This means the teams involved in translating the Bible have to live for years among the people in order to learn the language and document its rules, its grammar and so on as a prelude to undertaking the translation.

Immersion

It is really only by deep immersion in the culture that translators can seek, within the language, ways of explaining the concepts contained in the Scriptures. Phrases such as “the one who made us”, “he who has existed forever”, and “our real father” are some of the ways they have found to convey the biblical concept of ‘God’ to different Indian peoples, to help them understand his true nature in the terms of their own language.

In the case of the Mbyá Guaraní, from start to finish the task of translating the complete Bible has taken 46 years. And the new production has the distinction of being the first Bible to be fully translated, published and printed all in Brazil. Thanks to the efforts and investment of the International Linguistic Society, the Decided Christian Mission and the Brazilian Bible Society (BBS), the 8,000 or so speakers, concentrated in the south and south east of the country, now have access to the Holy Scriptures in their entirety.

Appropriately, April 19 – the Day of the Indian – was the day the BBS chose to launch the Mbyá Guaraní Bible at its headquarters in Barueri, north west of the great city of São Paulo. At the same time it unveiled Mais que umasó língua (‘More than just one language’), a description of the work of translation into Indian languages done so far, with notes on the 35 aboriginal peoples who have benefited, sample biblical texts, and a CD of Bible readings. In addition, an exhibition entitled A Bíblia Para Os Povos Indígenas (‘The Bible for Indigenous Peoples’) opened, displaying biblical Portions, photographs and the handicrafts typical of various Indian groups.

Robert Dooley, ILS consultant and co-ordinator of the Mbyá Guaraní translation team, has devoted almost 30 years of his life to the task. “We sought the best expressions the language has to tell about the most important things in life,” he says.

If he is looking for a reward, it can be found in the responses of the Mbyá Guaraní people to his work.

“This cannot be compared with our way of thinking and living – it’s much better!” said an elder of the Canela tribe, on hearing the Sermon on the Mount in his own tongue. “The Word of God has brought us peace and has shone into our lives,” said Francisco Luiz.

Learn to read

But the spiritual growth of the people is not the sole benefit brought by a Bible translation into an ethnic language. Silvia Virginia Ale has been a teacher among the Mbyá Guaraní-speaking community for 25 years. “Having the Bible available in your own language arouses the desire to learn to read, even among the elderly,” she declares.

Sebastião Poty Verissimo, the Mbyá Guaraní village chief in Rio das Cobras, in the southern state of Paraná, and a member of the translation team for 20 years, agrees emphatically that the new translation has helped to educate his people and to preserve and add value to his language.