{"id":2710,"date":"2014-12-23T11:10:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T16:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2014-12-23T11:25:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T16:25:48","slug":"32nd-translation-of-the-bible-completed-in-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2014\/12\/32nd-translation-of-the-bible-completed-in-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"32nd translation of the Bible completed in Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each of the past two Sundays I was privileged to attend the dedications of Mbandja Bible, first at Yakamba SW of Gemena near \"Mbandja<\/a>Budjala and the most recent at Gbado-Gboketsa NE of Gemena.\u00a0 The Mbandja Bible translation is the 32nd<\/sup> completed translation in DR Congo which has 215 different languages.\u00a0 Both were wonderful celebrations that honored the Lord, reminded people of the history of the translation and challenged the denominations and local churches to put this new tool to work.<\/p>\n

The Mbandja Bible translation project started 32 years ago when Larry and Cami Robbins arrived at Kala and began linguistic analysis of the language.\u00a0During their three years in Congo they completed the Gospel of Mark.\u00a0 The full New Testament translation project did not start until 1989 when Jim Fultz returned and a Mbandja translation team of Congolese translators was trained.\u00a0 Rev Goma Mabele, Rev. Abulu and M. Kosema were the first translation team.\u00a0 These men each came from a different denomination, Evangelical Covenant (CEUM), Evangelical Free (CECU) and Catholic, and thus each the main denominations in the area where the Mbandja people lived has a part in the translation.\u00a0 The NT was completed and dedicated in 2001 and the OT completed in 2010 with the dedication just this month. There are two versions of the entire Bible, a Protestant and a Catholic one including the Apocrypha.<\/p>\n