Jamaican New Testament
More than 100 people gathered at the Jamaican High Commission in London on 9 October for the launch of the Jamaican New Testament. This year coincides with the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence. The celebration concluded a 20-year academic project.
The High Commissioner, Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, said the publication was ‘an important piece of work’. Rev. Courtney Stewart, General Secretary of the Bible Society of the West Indies, said, ‘There will be transformation in people’s lives. For the first time they will have an understanding of God’s Word’.
He revealed how controversial the translation had been, as critics claimed that Jamaican Patois was not a language in which the Bible could be written. But he said, ‘The time has come for Jamaican people to have the Word of God in their own language, in their mother tongue’.
Among the guests were Chaplain to the House of Commons Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, former England footballer Linvoy Primus and crossbench peer Lord Michael Hastings (www.biblesociety.org.uk).
