Taiwan Church News
3412 Edition
July 17 – 23, 2017
Headline News
Drekay Bible Is Launched After Three Decades Of Bible Translation Ministries
Reported by Lin Wang-ting
Under a joint-effort by Korean Young Nak Presbyterian Church and the Bible Society in Taiwan(BST), Drekay Bible is finally published after 30 years of Bible translation ministries. On July 11, over 300 people covened together at Kucapungane Presbyterian Church of Drekay Presbytery to hold a thanks-giving service for the launch of this first ever Drekay Bible.
Initiated in 1987, Drekay churches contacted BST to start a Bible translation project. In 1988, Rev Han Der-seng of Korean Young Nak Presbyterian Church gave his passionate support for this Drekay Bible translation ministry, only because he got acquainted with some Drekay people. After Rev Han Der-seng died in 2006, his son Rev Han Young-ling was inspired to carry on this Bible translation ministry until his untimely death. But, God’s committed love to Drekay people did not extinguish, Mrs Han Jen-ai, the wife of Rev Hang Der-seng, continued to cooperated with Rev Chao Bing-lai to engage in this Bible translation ministry till its final publication.
After the translation of New Testament of Drekay Bible was released in 2001, Drekay Presbytery decided to carry on the translation of the Old Testament which was listed as one of BST’s publication projects in 2002. Noteworthy is that the publication of Drekay Bible in 2017 is greatly facilitated by a recruitment of Rev Dr Paul McLean as translation consultant and a financial offering from PCT’s Mother Tongue Promotion Committee, both in 2012.
The first print of Drekay Bible, adopting the dialects of Kucapungane and Vudai tribes, delivers 3,000 copies in a price of NT$ 300 per unit. As a matter of fact, the text of Drekay Bible is bilingual, both Drekay language and Chinese are listed in parallel, in order to facilitate contemporary readers’ reading and reference.
For the translators and editors of the Drekay Bible, this final result of their decades of ministry is not only a copy of holy scripture speaking about God, but also a cultural and historical document written through the language of Drekay aborigines. Because, during the process of translation, except lots of linguistic research have to be done in advance, a re-interpretation of the Bible is also required to accommodate the biblical messages into the Drekay culture and history.
According to Rev Parli, General Secretary of Drekay Presbytery, the early days of the Drekay Bible translation ministry was a very difficult job. Everything had to rely on hand-written manuscripts, because word-processing and communication was not so efficient as nowadays, Rev Parli said, adding that, during the translation of New Testament of Drekay Bible, there were three translators and over ten editors. When Old Testament of Drekay Bible was under translation, there were two translators and twenty editors, Rev Parli said.
Especially, Rev Adriu, who devoted four decades of his ministries to deliver a Drekay Bible and acted as the pineering Rukai Bible translator, unfortunately had a stroke in 2014 and later died in 2015, deserves us to pay him a high tribute, Rev Parli said.
Rev Tanubake, chairman of the translation team of Drekay Bible, encouraged the audience to lead the Drekay people and the Drekay community starting to read this precious gift from God – the Drekay Bible. “Translation is done, let Bible reading begins!”, Rev Tanubake said.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
