Story number 2 for 14 Dec 1999

Next, it’s a county of nearly 61 million people, however they don’t have a Bible in their own language. That’s the word from International Bible Society’s Steve Johnson talking about the country of Ethiopia. Johnson says they’re now translating the scripture into the language of Amharic (am-HAHR-ihk). “The scripture that most Ethiopians use today is an Amharic translation, translated from ancient Geez, which is virtually not understandable to a common every day Ethiopian. The closest analogy in our context would be a person trying to read the word of God in Chaucerian English.” According to Johnson the project is nearing completion. “We’re hoping to have the translation complete late this year. We hope to have the type setting and ready to go to press some time in March of the year 2,000. And, right now the hope is to be able to generate sufficient funding and resources so that the folks in Ethiopia can print and do major distribution of this resource.”