Cheyenne Bible dedicated
This last weekend my wife and I were on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana for the dedication of the new Cheyenne Bible translation.
Louise Fisher (one of the translators), Elva Killsontop, and Elena (my wife)
Verda King read Cheyenne Scripture
I shared how God had used Cheyennes during a church service several years ago to minister to deep needs in my heart. Through that experience my wife and I became one with the Cheyennes, each understanding better how God comforts us. The people to whom we had come to minister ministered to us. And from that the Word of God became more powerful to all of us.I ended by reading 2 Cor. 1:4 from the new Bible:
Ôxhótoanávetanótsee'êstse néohkevéstâhémaene Ma'heo'o
naa hápó'e tóoneeto nétaohkenêheševéstâhémôsanémáne.
(God helps us all in our sufferings, so that
we can help people who are suffering that way.)
It was the most I had ever spoken in public in Cheyenne and I sensed that God was really helping me.
the new Bibles and audio recordings of them
the prayer of dedication for the new BiblesSeveral Cheyennes told how they understand the Bible better through the new translation.
Each who had worked on the translation was individually honored.
Many Bibles and Bible recordings were distributed.
KULR TV from Billings had a crew there to film the dedication. You can read their report here, and watch the video by clicking on the link at the beginning of the report. (If you watch the video, please note that the TV announcer was mistaken about what the Cheyenne Bible was translated from. The Cheyenne Bible was not translated from any English Bible, but I guess many in the public may assume that the first Bible was the King James Versions.)
There was also a newspaper article about the Cheyenne Bible featured the preceding Friday. The comments on the article are interesting. I posted twice under the name Youngman which is the English translation of my Cheyenne name, Kovaahe.
The service lasted nearly four hours. The entire dedication was so meaningful to us. It was emphasized that the translation work was the result of a partnership, between Cheyenne translators and non-Cheyenne linguists.
That's the way every Bible needs to be translated, including those in English. There needs to be a partnership between biblical scholars and those who can speak and write English as their mother tongue.
posted by Wayne Leman at 3:56 PM
12 Comments:
Congrats, Wayne! That's a significant accomplishment!
Thank you for sharing this heartwarming news, Wayne.
Oh, man, I'd like to see that video but I couldn't get it to work. Is there an error on the page, or did I click on the wrong place?
Cheryl wrote:
Oh, man, I'd like to see that video but I couldn't get it to work. Is there an error on the page, or did I click on the wrong place?
Now, Cheryl, is that exclamation, "Oh, man" gender-inclusive or not?! :-)
I should have check to video link before I included it in my blog post. It is the correct url but for some reason it doesn't work from the blog post. So I have revised the post. Now if you click on the first link as if you are going to read the news report, then click on the video link at the beginning of the report, you should be able to view the video. If not, some program has to be installed to view it. But I don't know what it would be since the video comes up just fine on my computer.
Wayne,
My “oh, man” was definitely gender inclusive! You know me – I wouldn’t have it any other way! Thanks for the video link. What a special moment that must have been for you and Elena.
Hooray! I have finally conquered New Blogger!
What a thrill that must have been!
Joe wrote:
Hooray! I have finally conquered New Blogger!
What a thrill that must have been!
Was it a thrill to conquer New Blogger?
:-)
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
Wayne, my heartfelt congratulations to you and all the dedicated Cheyenne Bible people. I might have my differences with you (e.g., I love the ESV), but you have done a great good for the Lord's cause. May He bless you and your loved ones, and THANKS!!! for enabling more people to be reached by God's Word.
God bless his word to the Cheyenne - this kind of news makes me want to leap for joy! May all your labours be blessed.
Praise God! I love your irenic spirit and passion to translate God's Word. Amen. And may these believers grow in leaps and bounds, and be even more established, by this new translation, in their very heart language.
AWESOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing this, Wayne.
I'm Manx (a native of the Isle of Man*). I don’t speak Manx Gaelic (not that I consider myself any less Manx for that), and my "heart language" is English. That, of course, means that I have easy access to a huge variety of Bible translations in a language I can understand. Consequently, it's difficult to imagine what it is like for people for whom that is not the case, so I applaud and thank God for everyone involved in projects such as this. (Out of interest, what proportion has now been translated? Just a rough estimate would be fine!)
I made the mistake of not only reading the newspaper report, but also the comments on it. How negative: all those people who *can* read the Bible in their own language (but choose not to) complaining about an initiative that allows other people (who *do* want to) to do so!
*[Note: Many prefer the spelling "Mann" as it's got nothing to do with the English word, whether gender-inclusive or not.]
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