MEXICO, February 13, 2007 — A three-hour open air service with a 110-strong choir and guests including civic and Bible Society dignitaries was the way the latest translation of the Bible into a local indigenous language was welcomed in November.
On November 25 the town of Ocosingo, in the state of Chiapas, south east Mexico, witnessed the launch of the Bible in Tzeltal:Bachajón. There are almost 400,000 Tzeltal in Mexico and approximately half speak Tzeltal:Bachajón. The new Bible displays the Tzeltal translation alongside the Scripture in Spanish.
PHOTO: Bible Society of Honduras
The 100-strong choir from Tzeltal churches singing hymns in their own language at the launch of the Bible.
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More than 4,000 people gathered in the open air at the Instituto Alfa y Omega, a local Presbyterian seminary, to praise God for giving them his Word in their first language.
Speaking later, the Translation Coordinator, Jim Heneveld, a missionary with the Reformed Church in America and teacher at the Bible school in Ocosingo, said that the project had encountered “the usual obstacles”, such as the struggle to express certain ideas in the language and a battle against time. Two of the translators, he explained, had continued with their responsibilities as church pastors while they were engaged on the translation and he himself, as well as being the Translation Coordinator, had also continued his teaching responsibilities. The translation is the fruit of eleven years’ hard work by the translation team and Tzeltal churches. The New Testament in Tzeltal:Bachajón was published in 1963.
Although the main stakeholder in the project was the Bible Society of Mexico, in addition, the Chiapas Mayan Synod supported two of the three translators and the Reformed Church in America gave the publication financial support.
At the launch ceremony the Rev Abner López, General Secretary of the Bible Society, publicly expressed his pleasure at the achievement of the task and pledged to continue the same work for the country’s other languages. The Society launched the Bible in Tzotzil: Chamula four years previously to the day.
PHOTO: Bible Society of Honduras
Local men examine the text of the Bible in Tzeltal – Bachajón on the occasion of the launch of the translation.
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Luis Enrique Pérez, Director of Religious Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, said that it was a great achievement for the local churches and a landmark for the culture and history of the people of the Chiapas as well.
General Secretaries of a number of national Bible Societies attended, along with representatives of the American Bible Society, the Christian Reformed Church, the Assemblies of God and the Presbyterian Church who all expressed their pleasure at the occasion.
The service was full of emotions, expressions of thanks and songs of praise from the congregation, the choir who, in traditional costume, sang hymns in Tzotzil: Chamula, and an evangelical mariachi.
Afterwards, church pastors were delighted to take away boxloads of the precious Bibles that would be put to use immediately.
The pleasure of those present was reflected in a beautiful truth which was voiced more than once: “Now God speaks Tzeltal:Bachajón as well.”
Some days before, the Rev Cornelio Midence, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Guatemala, had launched the translation of the Bible in the Quechí language.
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