The New Revised Akuapem Twi Bible has been launched by the Bible Society of Ghana(BSG).
The revision was single-handedly done by the late Rev. Felicia Adu-Kumi, a Minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
It was in line with the Bible Society of Ghana’s objective to revise all three Akan language Bibles looking out for general issues such as language, grammar, and syntax, review colloquialisms, and correct typos and punctuation marks.
The features of the New Revised Akuapem Twi Bible include; New Second titles to the first five Books of Moses.
For instance, “Mose Nhoma a edi kan anaa Genesis” has been revised as “Gyenesis anaase Mfitiase.”
“Mose Nhoma a Etia Abien anaa Exodus ” has been revised to “Eksodↄs anaas3 Otukↄ”
The revision also changed certain key terms, expressions, and passages, for example, the Divine name of God which was written in smaller letters in the old bible as “Awurade” is now capitalized “AWURADE.”
The revised main title of the book of Judges in the previous edition was referred to as “Atemmufo Nhoma “but in the new revised Bible it is “Atemmufo Nhoma anaas3 Akannifo Nhoma”
The other new features of the revised Akuapem Twi Bible include an introduction and table of contents, weight, and measurement objects in the Bible revised to give a dynamic equivalent to our local settings. Font sizes have been enhanced, words and statements attributed to Jesus are in red letters, and it has cross-references, parallel references, footnotes, illustrations, and maps, among others.
Launching the New Bible at the Grace Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Akropong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region on Sunday, October 9, 2022, Rev. Prof. John David Ekem, Translation Consultant, Bible Society of Ghana, said about 6 million cedis was spent on the revised Akuapem Twi Bible project.
He underscored the importance of the revision to meet the understanding of the new generation.
“Communication is very important and you will be able to communicate to the understanding of the other person when the person really gets the message in the language that he understands most importantly when it is the mother tongue. So I believe that with this new translation and taking into consideration the dynamism of language, the modern person will appreciate it more because the language is such that they will be able to understand. It is straight forward and it is going to impact positively upon whatever understanding they get out of it through their faithful journey, so I strongly believe that it is timely and it’s appropriate.”
Rev. Prof. John David Ekem said the translation did not change the content of the message in the Bible.
He stated that an electronic version of the Revised Akuapem Twi Bible will be developed to meet the technological needs of the youth.
The Guest Speaker at the ceremony Rev. Christian Amankwah Kwafo, District Minister, Christ Church, who is also Chairperson of the Local Council of Churches, said the revised Akuapem Twi Bible is timely and appropriate for contemporary times.
“God speaks all languages, He is the creator of languages and it is a great privilege for a community to be provided with scriptures in the language that they can understand and so the revision has come at the right time and the Akuapem community has been blessed and I pray that it will transform their fortunes positively to the glory of God,” Rev. Christian Amankwah Kwafo said.
He said, “there were some Colloquial expressions that will not be understood by the current generation so we had to use a more current language that is a modern language that can easily be understood by our younger generation, example is what we heard from Isaiah 1:18 and Colossians 1:15, these were older expressions but we have brought them down to the level of our people so that they can understand it”.
Late Rev. Felicia Adu-Kumi, a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana was honored posthumously for single-handedly revising the Akuapem Twi Bible.
Source : Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Kojo Ansah
