New Bible resources have been produced for Scotland's Gaelic-speaking
community, including an updated translation of the New Testament.
The
translation project spanned 10 years and brought together
representatives from the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland
and the Roman Catholic Church.
New audio versions of the four
Gospels in Gaelic are in the process of being recorded on the Isle of
Skye, where there is a strong Gaelic-speaking tradition.
They are
due to be released in autumn as part of the effort to support Gaelic
speakers in their engagement with the Bible and their walk of faith.
Rev
James Stuart, minister of Killin, was the first to translate the New
Testament into Scottish Gaelic in 1767, just two decades after the
battle of Culloden.
Until now, Gaelic speakers have relied on
the 1801 edition that was produced by Rev Stuart's son, John, minister
of Luss, by Loch Lomond.
The new translation replaces the old Gaelic from over two centuries ago with the modern Gaelic more commonly spoken today.
The resources are the work of the Scottish Bible Society, the Gaelic Books Council and the Church of Scotland's Gaelic Group.
There
are around 54,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland but there have been
attempts by the Scottish Parliament to increase this number in recent
years.
The Church of Scotland has echoed this effort by
establishing the Gaelic Group and, more recently, employed a dedicated
Gaelic development officer to oversee the work of its Gaelic Language
Plan over the next year.
One aspect of the plan has been to
survey the current use of Gaelic in the entire Church of Scotland and
identify areas of potential growth for Gaelic-led ministry.
The new translations replace the old Gaelic of the 1801 edition with the modern Gaelic more commonly spoken today(Photo: Church of Scotland)Work
on the Bible translations was helped by funding from Bòrd na Gàidhlig,
an internal Church of Scotland grant, and from Action of Churches
Together in Scotland (ACTS).
Rev John Urquhart, a Church of
Scotland minister in the translation team, said: "It has been a decade
since the Scottish Bible Society brought the translation team together
to begin the New Testament project.
"Though we were drawn from
different places and different churches, we all shared the same aim:
that the Scriptures of the New Testament should be made available to
Gaelic speakers in modern Gaelic, faithfully translated.
"Throughout our work, we kept our focus on fidelity to the Greek and the clarity of the Gaelic.
"The
translators hope that putting the word of God into contemporary Gaelic
will enable every person who reads it to hear God's voice speaking to
them, and that through this they will come to know the peace and
salvation that are to be found only through Christ.
"Our desire is that all praise, and honour, and glory, be given to God and to God alone."
Elaine
Duncan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Bible Society, praised the
"gifted, committed and passionate" translators for their work on the
project.
"Their faithfulness, love of the Bible and handling of
the Greek and Gaelic languages have been essential to the success of
this project," she said.
"We are thankful for the partnership and
support of the Gaelic Books Council, and we pray that God's Word will
be appreciated and understood more through providing the New Testament
in the New Gaelic Translation."
Alison Lang, Director of the
Gaelic Books Council, added: "It is appropriate that this new
translation is being published in the UNESCO International Year of
Indigenous Languages, and we hope that churches, schools and individual
readers will enjoy this beautiful book."
The scholarship that has
gone into the new translation was recognised in a motion put forward in
the Scottish Parliament last month by Alasdair Allan, MSP for the
Scottish National Party.
He said: "The Parliament warmly welcomes
the new translation of the New Testament, and praises the huge amount
of work that has been put into this by Rev John Urquhart, Rev Ruairidh
MacLean, Rev John Lincoln and the late Canon John Angus MacDonald over
the course of ten years.
"The Parliament also considers that this
new publication represents one of the many ways in which the Gaelic
world will be celebrating the International Year of Indigenous Languages
in 2019." The Gaelic NT New Translation is available to buy now online through the Scottish Bible Society and the Gaelic Books Council, or by calling 0141 337 6211.
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