Ethiopia OT Cluster of Ethiopia

Good progress is being made in all three languages of the Ethiopian OT Cluster.

Stop acting so proud and haughty! Don’t speak with such arrogance! The LORD is a God who knows your deeds; and he will judge you for what you have done. (1 Samuel 2:3, NLT)

There are over a million speakers of three languages — Gamo, Gofa and Dawro — who are united by their desire for the Bible in their heart languages. God is using a unique partnership between The Seed Company and Word for the World. The churches are committed to seeing the entire Bible translated so it can be useful to preach and teach God’s Word to the people. The Old Testament will provide the foundation needed for them to understand New Testament concepts and teachings. This project also includes training two Ethiopian Bible translation consultants. A complete Bible has recently been published in the closely related language Wolaytta. Now, the three translation teams in Gamo, Gofa and Dawro are using the computer program called “Adapt It” to generate a first draft each of their three languages, using the Wolaytta translation as the source.

  • The Dawro translators recently did community testing of 2 Chronicles. But what’s more exciting is that they’ve also done a final spelling check and manuscript preparation for the first seven Old Testament books. In addition, the local reviewers’ committee has done the read-through step for Genesis through Judges. Testing of Lamentations and the Song of Solomon lies ahead. Give God praise for the Dawro team’s good progress!
  • Local pastors, evangelists and others continue to use the Gamo Scripture portions on Sundays. The team has done manuscript preparation for a number of books: Numbers, Ezra, Nehemiah, Joel, Obadiah and Jonah. On the horizon are a team check of Deuteronomy and a back translation of Daniel and the rest of Psalms. Thank Him for the Gamo team’s progress on Old Testament books. Praise God the Gamo churches are supportive of the work.
  • Reading translated Gofa Scripture passages during testing, de¬votions and sermons is continuing and this is touching the lives of people. The Gofa translators have completed their team check of the Psalms and 1 and 2 King, and back translated 2 Chronicles. A reviewers’ check of Genesis, Leviticus and Hosea is underway as well. Give God praise for the good progress of the Gofa team. Pray that the Scriptures will make a powerful impact on the Ethiopia OT Cluster languages.

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