Free Malaysia Today (http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com)
New Malay Bible shows up in Sabah interior, 31 July 2011
by Michael Kaung
KOTA KINABALU: The new Malay-language New Testament Bible sans the word ‘Allah’ is now in the Sabah market and costs RM100 per copy.
The “Wasiat Baru,” is published by the Living Stream Ministry, Anahiem, California and has been in the local market for sometime.
Local engineer, Michael Samuel, said he bought the Alkitab for RM100 a soft cover copy. The born-again Christian said he secured the copy at the Keningau Tamu.
This Malay version of the Bible preserves the Arabic names of the Biblical characters like Daud, Musa, Yusof, Yaakob and others.
However the term ‘Allah’ is nowhere to be found in it. Instead of ‘Allah’, the publishers have replaced it with ‘Yahweh’, the Hebrew word for God.
“I am happy because ‘Yahweh’ is the proper or specific name of the Judeo-Christian deity,” he said.
In January last year, the Catholic church won the right to use the name ‘Allah’ but the government has appealed the ruling.
The government also announced that the term could be used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak but not in the Peninsular, a decision which has been criticised for creating a double standard for a religious group in the country.
Unlike many others in Sabah, Samuel is opposed to the Indonesian Alkitab use of the ‘Allah’ name for God.
“The name is simply not the name of the Judeo-Christian God. No Jewish or Christian Arabs between the era of the Jewish patriarch Abraham and the era of Jesus Christ and His apostles ever referred to Yahweh as ‘Allah’.
“He has many names, including Elohim, El-Shaddai, Jehovah, but the commonly accepted name is Yahweh,” he argued.
“I believe it is also important for Christians to understand that there is little purpose in pursuing the right to use the name ‘Allah’ for the simple reason that it is not the name of our God,” he said.
“It is similarly wrong to call God ‘Kinoingan’, a name which should belong solely to the Kadazandusun traditional god,” he added.
(End)
