wfn.org | Hakkanese Bible Translation Work Continues in Taiwan

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Taiwan Church News 2734, 19-25 July 2004
Reported by Dong Hong-jiun .Translated and Rewritten by David Alexander

Initially drawn to Taiwan by divine calling more than 20 years ago, the Rev.
Paul MacLean from the Presbyterian Church in Canada has returned after an
absence of more than ten years to complete the work in which he initially was
engaged, translation of the entire Bible into Hakkanese.  He hopes that when
the entire volume is in the Hakka vernacular it will become the common Bible
of Hakka churches and be a tool for bringing more of these distinctive people
to faith in Christ.

When MacLean finished his initial theological studies in Toronto in 1982 he
was inspired by Canadian missionary Clare McGill to apply for mission service
in Taiwan.  He was assigned to Hakka evangelistic work and arrived in Taiwan
in 1983. That led to a 12 year sojourn among the Hakka people in Miao-li,
Hsin-chu and Taichung. Large portions of existing Hakka Bible translations
were revised and new portions produced during that time.  But the work wasn't
finished when he and his family departed in 1995, so he has returned to see it
to completion. "The Hakka people take their mother tongue very seriously," he
says. "This is one reason why the spread of the gospel in Hakka areas is so
difficult. Only with a Hakka Bible, one that belongs to the Hakka people
themselves, can the roots of Christianity go deeply into the Hakka towns and
villages."

Under his leadership from 1985 to 1993 the Hakka New Testament was completed.