The Bible says the Gospel will be preached in the whole world…..one more people group just got added to the list!
The Bible is now available in the modern Yup’ik writing style. The translation to Yup’ik — spoken by an estimated 18,000 Alaska Natives — was produced after nearly half a century of work by fluent Yup’ik speakers and the American Bible Society.
Yup’ik is the second-most spoken language in Alaska, after English.
Moravian Pastor Jones Anaver says The first missionaries translated the New Testament into an early form of Yup’ik writing. But today, Yup’ik textbooks and dictionaries in the local schools use a newer and easier-to-read script developed by linguist Steven Jacobson in the 1980s.
The team rewrote the New Testament in Jacobson’s style and translated the Old Testament into Yup’ik using the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
Bethel elder Elsie Jimmie agreed that the earlier translations took more learning to read. She’s been part of the translation project for the past six years. Her father taught her to read the bible in Yup ik…she says the new translation is much easier to understand. She says her work on the translation has been fulfilling.
According to a letter Rev. Peter Greene wrote to the weekly newspaper Delta Discovery, the project started in 1971 with pastors Teddy Brink and Peter Andrews under the guidance of the American Bible Society.