New book delves into Bible translation in Southern Africa

A new book from the Bible Society of South Africa (BSSA) documents the significant history of the Bible Society’s translation projects in numerous indigenous languages.

Lighting the Lamp on the Pathway of Life was written by Dr Eric Hermanson, who retired as the BSSA’s Assistant General Secretary of Translation and Text Processing in 2005.

The book looks at the Bible translation project in 23 Bantu, Khoi and San languages in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Southwest Africa (Namibia), in which the BSSA had regional offices before those countries became independent. The regional offices became autonomous Bible Societies.

The book also documents various versions of the Bible in Afrikaans, published between 1983 and 2020.

The 320-page book includes 120 photographs of the translators, many members of various review committees and ample footnotes. It is written for anyone interested in knowing how the Bible originated in the languages of Southern Africa. It will also be of great value to those who want to know where to find more information about Bible translation in their home language.

Professor Bernard Combrink, Emeritus New Testament Professor at Stellenbosch University offers his review on the book:

“It is a real pleasure to give a review on Lighting the Lamp on the Pathway of Life by Dr Eric Hermanson, prepared by him on request of the Bible Society of South Africa.

I must admit that I was amazed at the amount of information and detail that he managed to bring to light concerning the period of 50 years following the publication of God Made it Grow – History of the Bible Society Movement in Southern Africa 1820-1970, that was published in 1970 to record the history of the of the Bible Society Movement in Southern Africa on its 150th Anniversary. The first section entitled A Lamp to my Feet tells the story of Bible translation in the nine official Bantu languages of the Republic of South Africa and Afrikaans. The second section, A Light for my Path tells the story of Bible translation done over that period in the Bantu, Khoi and San languages spoken in Botswana and South West Africa, now Namibia, before the Bible Society in those two countries became autonomous.

The publication is enhanced by a great number of photographs and copious footnotes carefully documenting the momentous amount of work done by the BSSA during this half century. This is truly a monumental piece of work, indispensable to document the labour of so many translators, consultants, review committees and many others involved in the lighting of the lamp by the Bible Society in so many languages of South and Southern Africa.”

The proposed publication date for the printed book is 1 April 2024, but is available online in digital format from Amazon (Kindle) and Kobo (Epub).

If you would like a printed copy of the book and to assist with its printing costs, you are invited to order and pay for it online for the special pre-publication price of R199 (regular price of R299) before 1 April 2024.

UPDATE: Please note this book is currently sold out.