wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Nurse leads Bible translation effort in Ethiopia

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Note #8618 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05041
January 24, 2005

Nurse leads Bible translation effort in Ethiopia

After more than 30 years, Anuak project nears completion

by Pat Cole
Associate for Communications
Worldwide Ministries Division
Reprinted from Highlights

LOUISVILLE- Marie "Breezy" Lusted was an unlikely candidate to guide a Bible
translation project in Ethiopia.

A registered nurse, Lusted had no linguistic training and no formal
theological education. Yet when nobody stepped forward to translate the Old
Testament into Anuak, Lusted volunteered for the job. Inspired by a love for
the church, languages and the Scripture, this recently retired PC(USA)
mission worker has spent more than two decades on the project.

An estimated 90,000 Anuak people will have a complete Bible in their native
tongue within two years thanks to Lusted and her colleagues. Lusted continues
working on the translation as a PC(USA)mission volunteer.

A New Testament in Anuak, one of about 80 languages spoken in Ethiopia, was
produced more than 40 years ago. It was Lusted's involvement in that project
that began her interest in Bible translation.

"I had studied the language, but I had learned a lot from just being around
the people," says Lusted. "I have always been interested in languages."

The Anuak New Testament was first produced in Sudan in 1962, but another
edition was published in Ethiopia in a different script in 1965. Lusted
helped proofread the text as it was being typeset.

"After some years, the church leaders began asking, 'Where is the rest of the
Bible?'" recalls Lusted. "'Who is going to translate that for us?' And there
wasn't anybody."

The mission worker who had led the New Testament translation had gone to
another assignment. "Being a naïve person, I said, 'Well, maybe I could do
that,' and that's how it all got started."

Lusted began the translation assignment while serving at a clinic in Pokwo in
the late 1960s. She took a linguistics class offered by Wycliffe Bible
Translators, but it was difficult to find time for this work and keep up with
the demands of the clinic. The project languished until political upheaval
prompted her move to Addis Abba in 1979.

After getting established in her new assignment as a school nurse, Lusted
resumed the project. By 1983 she was devoting significant time to it and
recruited native Anuak speakers to help.

"There are always challenges with idioms, the figures of speech," she says.
"If you translate an idiom literally, you can get entirely the wrong idea. We
do a lot of discussion back and forth about what it really means and how you
say it in Anuak, but thanks to the Lord's help, I'm sure, we have always
found some way to say it."

Their drafts are then submitted to a committee of reviewers who represent
each dialect of Anuak. Sometimes some words or concepts familiar to some
Anuak speakers will be unknown to another group.

For example, the Anuak who live near a major river can understand references
to crossing the fords of the Jordan. Yet those who live in the forests away
from major rivers have no word for ford.  In cases like these the translators
must come up with a word or phrase that has a common understanding or insert
a footnote.

Eventually the translation draft goes to consultants from the Bible Society
of Ethiopia, who also check it.

Lusted and her colleagues have translated the entire Old Testament, and the
Bible Society consultants have approved their work. Now the translators are
going over the text once more, making sure that they have been consistent.

The team is also talking to church leaders about portions of the New
Testament translation that need updates. The Bible Society estimates it will
be two years before the new Anuak Bible rolls off the presses.

Lusted says the translation project has given her a new perspective on the
Old Testament. "It really has been a spiritual experience for me, not just an
academic exercise."

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