Hiram Bingham realized early in his life that God -- must like everyone does -- must have have a name and when he learned it and started a Bible translation for the natives of the Gilbert Islands in 1857 he made sure he used it.
This was no easy task. First of all he had to learn the Gilbertse language. He did this making pointing at things and asking their names, gradually making up a list he could use in his translation.
He was hindered in all of this by bowel and throat problems as well as weak eyesight which prevented him from reading more than two or three hour at a time, but he persevered.
And by 1865 when he had to leave the islands because of poor health he had not only given the natives a printed language but also had succeeded in translation the Bible books of Matthew and John into Gilbertese.
This he followed up by translating the the entire New Testament into that native language by the time he returned to the islands in 1873. And by 1890 he had translated the entire Bible in that language -- featuring God's name lehova in Gilbertese (Jehovah in English) thousands of times in the Old and New Testament, sometimes called the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures today.
His is one of the few -- but not the only Bible translator who respected and used God's personal name in his translation.
Later this week we'll look at a few more who followed his example.
-----------------------------
If you have ever wondered just how big those blocks of stone were in the Jerusalem Temple. Take a look below.
No comments:
Post a Comment