“Malaysia Today” (http://www.malaysia-today.net)
History of Malay Bible translation
by Raja Petra, 10 January 2008
(Sin Chew) - Not too many people realise that long before Bible translations in Chinese, Tamil or Tagalog became available, Matthew’s Gospel had already been translated into Malay by a Dutch tradesman named Albert Cornelisz Ruyl. The text was completed in 1612, only a year after the English King James Version was released, and was printed in 1629. It is fascinating that this Matthew’s Gospel in Malay is the very first non-European translation of a Bible portion. An original copy of this Malay translation of Matthew’s Gospel entitled: Iang Testamentum Baharu: Evangelium Mulkadus Bersuratnja Kepada Mattheum is now found at the Public Library of Stuttgart, Germany.
Ruyl continued his Malay translation with the assistance of Jan van Hasel and Justus Heurnius and their edition of the Four Gospels and Acts was printed in 1651. This was followed a year later by the printing of the Psalms in Malay, prepared by the latter two authors. After the translation of Genesis, printed in 1662, the Rev. Daniel Brouwerious went on to produce the first complete Malay translation of the New Testament in 1668; unfortunately this translation suffers from the excessive use of Portuguese loan words.
Melchior Leijdecker, a Dutch medical doctor with theological training, gave us the very first complete Bible in Malay in 1733. He translated the New Testament (printed 1731) and then the whole Bible while based in Batavia (now Jakarta) with the assistance of a review committee consisting of: Pieter van der Vorm, George Henric Werndly, Engelbertus Cornelius Ninaber and Arnoldus Brants. The publication entitled: Elkitab, Ija itu segala Surat Perdjandjian Lama dan Baharuw wasprinted in Amsterdam in Roman script. Twenty-five years later a 5-volume Malay Bible in Jawi script was published in 1758.
This is an extract from an article published in the Bible Society of Malaysia’s current newsletter. The article was originally published in 1998 by Dr Daud Soesilo, translations coordinator for Asia Pacific region with the United Bibles Societies.
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