Thailand (MNN)–Five years after the release of the World Bible Translation Center’s Thai Easy-to-Read New Testament, the group is nearing a new goal.
The Center’s Tanapon Saowartarnpong (sour-watern-pong) explains. “We haven’t finished the Old Testament yet, but we plan to have it finished by the end of this year. So, right now, what I’m mainly doing is editing it, the Old Testament to make it easy-to-read for the Thai people.”
The translation�s lower reading level also makes it the easiest to understand of the existing Thai translations. It is being distributed among churches and ministries in Bangkok, the predominantly Buddhist nation’s capitol city and other major cities like Chiang Mai and Khonkaen.
While the Thai were slow at adjust to WBTC’s New Testament, once they accepted it, they found it a useful tool toward Bible study.
The old version of the Bible was written in a language style similar to King James. That made it hard for new believers to identify with.
Saowartarnpong speaks out of his own experience, adding that his scenario isn’t unusual. “Like me, I’m Christian, but I look at it, I read it, I feel like I need to go to NIV (New International Version). That’s funny, that I’m Thai people, but when I read my Thai Bible, I had to go to NIV version before, to my easy-to-read English to see what this means.”
Pon says they need funding for the printing. If you want to help, go to: http://www.wbtc.com.
