Working with a National Language
By Troy Manning

Four typhoons stormed through the region around the Philippines in late July and early August. This was also the time in which BI consultants Sana Singh and I began translator training for the revision of the Tagalog New Testament. The nationals said that we brought the storms with us. Though we couldn’t actually claim such a manipulation of the weather, we were pleased with the cooler temperatures that the storms brought. And we were also thankful to the Lord that, though the heavy rains brought school cancellations, it didn’t cause our training to miss a beat.

The Philippines government chose Tagalog to be the basis for the national language of the country in 1937, since it is one of the main languages of the Philippine islands and since it is spoken in the central area of Manila. Tagalog boasts of around 24 million speakers. In 1959 the government chose the name “Philipino” for this new Tagalog-based language and then changed the name to “Filipino” in 1971. The intention was for others among the 171 indigenous languages to add their own contributions to the language, making it a truly national language. English, Spanish, Chinese, and other imported languages would also be drawn from so that it would have a “universalist” character. The present situation, however, is that Filipino is still very predominantly Tagalog. The translation team that we trained estimates that 75% of Filipino is Tagalog. Filipino is taught in the schools and can be found in the newspapers and other literature. The current president, Benigno Aquino III, recently broke tradition by using Filipino, not English, for a presidential address. Thus, this language has clear potential for the Scriptures because of this widespread use.

Bibles International produced its first edition of the New Testament in 1998. Ang Biblia, the translation produced by the Philippine Bible Society, had already been at the time (it was completed in 1905), but the BI New Testament had a distinctive character being a New Testament based on the same Greek text as the King James Version. Many churches continue to desire a New Testament with that text basis, and BI is willing to help such churches. One of our key traits is the support of local churches, and this type of New Testament would provide crucial support. But rather than simply reprinting more New Testaments with the 1998 text, we decided that we would rather revise the first edition. Not long after the publishing of the first edition, it became apparent that the translation needed revision. Until now, the difficult logistics never permitted the revision to occur. During our training sessions, we compiled the areas needing attention in the revision process: typographical errors, linguistic weaknesses (e.g., natural-sounding sentences), and exegetical issues (e.g., the translation of function words). Thankfully, however, the weaknesses of the first edition are neither extensive nor deep, such that the revision work could be completed in around 3 years.

The major factor leading us to believe that this revision work will not proceed slowly is the well-qualified, passionate team that the Lord has assembled to do the translation work. Five men and one woman came to the training. Though she didn’t sign up for the training in advance, Fe Malacao pleasantly surprised us with her presence on the first day. Mrs. Malacao was one of the main translators for the first edition, so her perspective is valuable for the work. She came with intense passion to get the revision completed quickly. In fact, her church fuels her passion. They have numerous outreach ministries, and their people presently have to share New Testaments. In some cases three believers are using one New Testament. She just about couldn’t contain herself when she saw that I had brought six New Testaments to use during the training workshop. She knew that her people would make good use of them! There is such excitement at her church that Mrs. Malacao knows she will be bombarded with one question: “Where is the revised New Testament?” We suggested that she get a T-shirt printed that says something like “No Questions Please, Just Pray.” Inevitably, though, she will have to explain numerous times that the revision will take more than two weeks!

Pastor Jason Malacao, Mrs. Malacao’s son, also attended the training. It eventually became evident to all that Pastor Jason should be the translation coordinator of the revision project. His humble and godly spirit, Bible college training, ability to bring people together, and knowledge of computers made him a good choice. So, Pastor Jason will be the translator coordinator for the revision of the translation that his mother helped produce. What an interesting arrangement of circumstances!

Pastor Jason is called the “translation coordinator,” because he is not the only member of the team. In fact, his mother will assist him as one pair. The four other workshop participants (all four being pastors) will form two other pairs. Each pair will work on different books and then circulate them to the other pairs for review. They will also meet with other Tagalog speakers to get valuable input on their work. One pair on the translation team will begin with the Gospel of John, another with the Gospel of Luke, and the third with the Gospel of Mark. Based on the excitement and readiness of this team, I have the feeling that we consultants will have a hard time keeping up with the revision work. We will definitely need your prayers!

We thank the Lord for how He answered prayers during the training session. We normally spend three weeks teaching translation philosophy and methodology, but we had a little less than two weeks this time because of various scheduling issues. Because of the team’s readiness and willingness to learn, however, we finished the training manual in eight days. That gave us two days at the end to help them apply the principles and do a dry run of the revision process. Having so many working on the revision, it is important to make that each member follows a standardized process of revision. The team is now well prepared for such a process!

We have set as our goal the completion of this revision by 2014. During this year the fundamentalist churches will celebrate the 25^th anniversary of their annual Bible conference. Such an event is a perfect occasion to unveil a new edition of the Tagalog New Testament. Please pray for the Lord to enable us to accomplish this goal.