We came from Feliple, “place of the mango”

For the next week, I am posting a brief history of the Goiniri Onnele people of Papua New Guinea as reported to me last week by Goiniri Bible translator Dominic Pusai.

The Goiniri Onnele people speak a dialect of Northern One, a Papuan language, and live several miles inland from the northern coast of Papua New Guinea along the western range of the Torricelli Mountains. The ancestors of the Goiniri people originated on the site of a tall mountain. From that mountain they could look out over the whole region to the east and west of Aitape between the Austronesian-speaking coastal villages of Matabau, Arop, Sissano and Serra. The local name of this mountain is Feliple, which means “place of the mango.” This is the area that God gave to their ancestors.

Oops! They were not tired of God.

When the Onnele translators were checking over their translation of Acts 2:5 in September, they had to think twice about what the word “numne” meant in this context. Why? Well, because I asked them to.

I know that “numne” can be used with different senses, and sometimes the context doesn’t make it clear. It can mean “to fear” or “to respect,” which is what we were hoping for in this verse. The NASB reads here:

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

It was the translation of the meaning for the word “devout” that we were checking here. The idea of “fear” or “respect” has been used in some translations to express the sense here. The NIV reads:

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

So at first glance it seemed that the Onnele Goiniri use of “numne” in their translation was alright:

Empo taim namo, nu Juda fai numne God sa nainene taunwamo Jerusalem. Nu uma namo, empo noloni kantri wongkwongkeni.
At this time, Jews who feared God were staying in the city of Jerusalem. These people came from all different countries.

But when I asked the translators what this verse meant in their language — does this refer to Jews who feared God or were tired of him? — they paused, smiled, and simply said, “yes.” It could mean either one, and it really wasn’t clear. It was so unclear that they had to ask me, “Which one is it supposed to mean here?”

So after they compared different English and Pidgin versions, they adjusted their translation so that it reads:

Empo taim namo, nu Juda fai nosinanene God sa nainene Jerusalem. Nu uma namo, empo noloni kantri wongkwongkeni.
At this time, Jews who gave worship to God were staying in Jerusalem. These people came from all different countries.

Okay, now it was clear.

Please pray for the translators of the Aitape West Translation Project. They are meeting again this month to revise their translations of Acts and prepare them for consultant checking next year. Jonathan and Dominic (left and middle pictured above) are the only Onnele translators to arrive for this first week of the workshop.

We only know why Joel is absent: his brother Andrew is deathly sick in town with both malaria and a very bad strain of TB. Please pray for Andrew.

We have no way of knowing why other translators have not arrived yet. Pray that they will continue to numne God, and I don’t mean that they would be tired of him. No, that they would nosinanene him and continue to translate God’s Word so that many others may give worship to him in Spirit and in truth, and in their own language.

“Today, Jesus is an Onnele Man!” Part 1

 If you have been on our e-mail list, you will know that we left for the village at the beginning of September. We were uncertain if the airstrip would be cut and how it would go for Josiah in a children’s home for 1 week without us. In short, the grass was being cut as we were landing and Josiah had a great time in the hostel. I will try to fill in some of the other details later, but I thought I’d start with one of the highlights of this village stay. One of the languages we work with, Wolwale Onnele, didn’t have a Luke dedication yet. Our teammates Jessie and Beth attended six other dedications in June, while Ben was here in Ukarumpa helping teach a translator’s software (Paratext) course. We spent last weekend celebrating this milestone for the Wolwale people. A Ramu translator, Vincent, spoke the words, “Today, Jesus is an Onnele Man!” during his speech–I thought it was very fitting for this post, as the book of Luke is the first large Scripture portion that they have ever had in their language.

When our car pulled up, people were waiting for us to join the celebration.

The first item on the agenda was to decorate all the visitors. Ben is pictured here with Jacob on his back.

The dancers led us to a grandstand, where the digitaries would give speeches. My feet didn't work as well as these ladies but they didn't mind me trying to learn the steps!

Special people were chosen to perform a traditional sing sing.

It was emotionally moving when the dancers came in carrying the book of Luke and my literacy materials.

The local level government leader gave one of the first speeches.Two of my literacy teachers, Gibson and Linda, led a time of worship.

Our five kids were good sports during the four hour ceremony. Eventually we took the twins away from the grandstand because they were too distracting.

Not waiting to see Jesus, I hope

This blog post title can be read in two completely different ways.

1. You could read it with a hopeless and disparaging tone, and perhaps that will get me some blog readers who are curious and ready to bring me into line. As such, the part before the comma has focus and the “I hope” really has the commonly used sense of “I doubt, but for your sake it would be good if you wise up”
2. If you want to get my real meaning, you should read it as a statement with the part before the comma only providing an adverbial restriction to the focus of the statement, “I hope.” This is true wisdom that only comes from above.

Obviously, language can sometimes be really ambiguous. And in Bible translation, often times we need to look closely at the words we use and make sure we’re conveying the right meaning and not some other meaning that can creep in either because of the way that words have multiple senses or because of some lack of understanding on our part about what the original text means.

We have an example of this with the word “hope” in 1 Timothy 1:1. Read on to get an idea of the kind of translation note I am writing these days for my teammates.