Tracing the journey of the Myanmar Bible

 

In John 20:31, the Apostle wrote, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

 

Up to the 15^th century, the world had only the Latin Bible. In 1611, the King James Version was published in English. From that time onwards, many more versions have been translated.

 

What about the Burmese (or Myanmar) Bible? God raised up an American Baptist missionary – Adoniram Judson – who at age 24, just married for seven days, set sail to India. Because they were rejected entry, they finally found an open door in Rangoon (known as Yangon today), Burma. It was here, Judson laboriously evangelized the natives. Through the process, he translated the whole Bible into the local language. He also initiated the Burmese dictionary.

 

In the land of Myanmar, there are more than 200 tribes. Today, only 23 tribes have both the Old and New Testament. During a visit to the Myanmar Bible Society, we were informed that there are various groups translating the Bible into the languages of the indigenous people. Due to lack of finances, this work has been a very slow process. Just recently, at the border of India and Myanmar, the authorities threaten to burn 20,000 Bibles. Do you see the forces pressing upon God’s people? How can Myanmar be evangelized if the people do not have God’s Word?

 

God’s Vision

We are privileged to know Levi Sap, wife of Pastor Daniel Lim. God revealed to her His plan to make the Bible available to the peoples of Myanmar. She attended training in software and asked for finances through prayer. God gave her the wisdom to translate into software the first language – Tidim, although she is from the Phalem tribe. Fighting her natural instincts, she now knows why the first translation has to be in Tidim. After this was done, she understood Tidim by placing the Phalem version beside it. As more languages were translated, the more Levi could understand other tribal languages. God sent people who volunteered to do the translation. There were many difficulties faced when doing the translations as some words were not accurate. For example in the Burmese (Judson) Bible, the word ‘eagle’ is wrongly translated. Levi had the agreement of the Myanmar Bible Society to change these inaccuracies. This is another process.

 

At the launch of the Myanmar Bible Software Version 1.0, more than 500 CDs were given away free to all who attended. In the past 100 years, the hard copy of the Myanmar Bible has been very slow in reaching the peoples. But today, this softcopy can be made available to anyone, even on the web. There is no copyright and so this software can go far and wide around the country and all over the world. Praise God for what He is doing for the Myanmar people. “And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matt.24:14 (NKJ)

By Patricia Toh