Editorial: Using Mama’s language to read Abba’s words

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3067 Edition

December 6~12, 2010

Editorial



Editorial: Using Mama’s language to read Abba’s words



Translated by Lydia Ma



In the past few centuries, whenever missionaries were sent to 
proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to people from different cultures 
and languages, the most important task was usually translating the 
Bible so that God’s words could be read and engrained in people’s 
hearts.

With this in mind, a Bible Society was established in 1804 in London 
to facilitate the work of translating the Bible in several languages. 

It was also around that time that missionaries began sharing the 
gospel in Thailand. After many twists and turns, they were finally 
able to find a Thai Buddhist monk and high official who’d studied at 
Cambridge University and was well versed in Thai history and classics 
to translate the Bible for them.

It’s not surprising that such an arrangement soon led to many 
problems – until the day when this monk stumbled upon Luke 23 and 
read Jesus’ words as he was hanging from the cross.

That moment changed his life because he realized that he was a sinner 
in need of God’s forgiveness. Because of this monk and his story, the 
most widely-used Bible version in Thailand today is the “Monk 
Version”.

In Taiwan, Thomas Barclay arrived at the end of the 19th century and 
popularized the use of Romanized Taiwanese for people who found 
Chinese characters too difficult to learn.

In the first issue of Taiwan Church News, Barclay emphasized that as 
long as people could read Romanized Taiwanese, they could read the 
Bible too. He also worked hard translating the whole Bible into 
Romanized Taiwanese so that people could read God’s words in their 
own mother language – Taiwanese.

The Bible was written to be understood and it was written for people 
to grasp the grace of God. It was never intended to be merely a piece 
of literature – albeit a great one.

Today, we rejoice that every Sunday, PCT churches across Taiwan use 
18 different languages to worship God. We rejoice that several 
Aborigine language Bibles have been translated through Taiwan Bible 
Society.

As we approach Bible Sunday on December 2, we must remember once 
again that the Bible is the cornerstone of the church and the proof 
of the gospel we preach. It’s no small feat to be able to read and 
enjoy our Abba’s words in our mother languages.