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Publication and distribution of the Bible
The Bible (Word of god) is the basis of the Christian religion. The Bible contains the salvation history and the fulfilment of the divine promises. Salvation history describes the continuous attempts of God to lead his people - who have departed from His love by sin into His own boundless mercy. Each word of God brings to us God's infinite love and His living presence. It is through the words of God that we experience the love, tenderness, infinite mercy, boundless power and greatness of God.
The Christians in Kerala have one and half century's tradition as regards Bible translation. Parts of the Bible translations began to appear as early as 1811. In that year the New Testament in Malayalam was printed in Curier Press Bombay. It was a translation done under the leadership of Buchanan. The first complete Malayalam version of the Bible was published by the C.M.S in Kottayam in 1842. It was mainly circulated in
Travancore. Then Rev. Herman Gundert prepared a version using the dialect of the north region and it was published in 1881. The
"Satyavedapusthakam" a new complete version which is popular now was published by the Bible Society of India.
Pastoral Orientation Center of Kerala Catholic Bishop's Conference planned to publish a complete Bible translation in 1968. K.C.B.C approved the plan. The P O C Bible translation was completely under the responsibility of
KCBC. A translation committee was appointed in P O C, by
KCBC. In the first stage a translation of the New Testament was published. It was based source. Versions in modern languages such as consulted in the translation process. The December 1977. Cardinal Joseph Parekkattil released the translation by giving the first copy to Sri.. K. P.
KesavaMenon. The translation of the Old Testament was completed by December 1981.
Biblica Hebraica stutty artensia 9 Edi. By K Ellinger. W. Randalph) and septuagin with Apocrypha (by Sir lance lot C. L. Bunton) were used as authoritative bases for the translation And the versions in Latin, English, German, French and Italian were also consulted in the translation process.
Kerala Catholics were late in the translation attempt. The most popular Catholic version of the Bible was Manikkathanar's version of the New Testament. It was published in 1940 He translated also the Pentatheuch. A committee under Rev. Fr. Mathew Vadakkel translated the whole Testament and it was published from S. H. League in three volumes in the years 1930, 1934 and 1939. Rev. Fr. Thomas Moothedan translated the whole Bible basing Syriac Peshitta and Latin vulgata. It was published in 1963. There are two versions of New
Testament published recently. They are Bible translations,
published by the Carmelites from Mannanam in 1978 and by
Bible Society of India in 1980.
From P O C mainly 5 types of volumes are published:
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Complete Bible
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Youth Bible - New Testament.
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Gospels ( 4 Gospels alone)
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Acts of the Apostles, letters, and
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Apocalypse.
The third edition of P O C Bible.
This is a revised edition. It is more handy. The length and width are reduced by multiplying pages. Hence the page numbers are changed. The numbers of the verses were given in the margin in the former editions. Now will help to find out the beginnings of the verses exactly and easily. The structure of the sentences, as a rule, is not changed. As regards translation no change is made. But the printing mistakes of the former version are corrected. Certain linguistic problems are solved. The poetic portions are printed in the form of poetry. The whole version is prepared in D.T.P. The DTP is prepared under the authorship of the Bible Society which is the agency of the whole Kerala Catholic Church is propagating Bible. Sincere thanks are due to Mar George Punnakkottil, the chairman of KCBC Bible Commission under whose supervision this edition was prepared. Hearty thanks to all who helped in checking the language and is correcting the proof. Let us pray that the life giving word many produce good effects abundantly in everyone. |
