Society develops E-Bible for Filipino languages

8/25/2006
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

MANILA, Philippines (Catholic Online) � Leaders of the Philippine Christian churches are reaching out to a new means of communications to help them reach people with the scriptures in a language they can understand.

The E-Bible, a creation of the Philippine Bible Society, a non-profit and inter-confessional Christian organization, allows the reading of translations of all eight major Philippine languages: Tagalog, Cebuano, Bicol, Pangasinan, Pampango, Samarenyo and Hiligaynon.

The first Filipino electronic bible, which requires computer software installation, includes search capabilities and provides a concordance, a mini-dictionary, a Bible reading plan for the whole year and a notepad for typing down notes when doing research or preparing a homily.

Users can view four electronic English translations � the King James Translation, the English Standard Version, the Contemporary English Version and the Today's English Version or The Good News Translation.

The bible society is chaired by Bishop Efraim Tendero of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate (CBCP-ECBA) head Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes serving as the vice chairman.

The bible society said the initiative aims "to make God's word more accessible, and to give our people the best options possible for scripture distribution," noting that they are faced with the challenge of spreading the scriptures in a manner that keeps them up with the ever-changing and dynamic society.

"The world is becoming smaller and smaller like all the gadgets that are coming out in the market. We are running fast towards a complete digital and multimedia world, and it doesn't seem like we are going to be content with just that," said the bible society in a statement.

"We cannot allow the holy word to be left behind in these modern times. If we are truly to engage our present society in the word of God, we have to do it through all positive media that reach them, and one of these is, of course, the computer," he said.

Catholic bishops� biblical commission executive secretary Father Oscar Alunday said that with the new project they are trying to integrate themselves into the new systems of making things available because of the new technology.

"It's a Bible made easy," he said. "It's really an attempt to make it very available and to have many versions of the Bible in one setting."

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

eva lacanlale
2 years ago
I am looking for Tagalog Bible Online , both Old and New Testament.
Jo Salvana
3 years ago
How wonderful it is that the Philippine Bible Society has come up with translations of the Bible in Filipino and major dialects (languages) of our people. I am working on the translation of a Rosary Guide which I have written. Nefore each Mystery, Ithe Guide providess a few words from the scene in the life of Jesus and Mother Mary related to that particular Mystery. It is the "dream"of our parish priest at UP Diliman that we be able to have the Rosary Guide in Filipino pluys at least four major dialects in our country. It would help the process greatly if we could have acess to the translations which the PBS has of the lines froms Scripture included in the Guide. I would like to request your halp on this. If if will be possible for you to help me, by providing me English translations othese twenty or so lines from the New Testament, I would be happy to email to you the lines in English that I would like to have translations of. Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing from you. God bless.

JO ATIENZA-SALVANA
Children's Rosary Foundation
Honza
3 years ago
It would be great if the mentioned Filipino translations would be available at www.bible-online.cz. It is an international online web tool for Bible study providing several translations including english, hebrew and greek. User interface is being translated to Filipino and will be available soon.
joshua
3 years ago
the article says the program is available, but does not tell us where we might acquire it...
philxprez
4 years ago
i pray that the Aklanon bible translation of the New Testament may also be made available on line here. we will appreciate it very much if the Philippine Bible Society may consider it, because in Aklan, the Aklanon bible is not only scarce but more costly than the English, Tagalog and Hiligaynon translations. thank you and GodLove to all.
jd
4 years ago
finally, we can bring the Bible anywhere! with the influx of technology, it's a good thing we are able to maximize its advantages to increase and practice our faith through it...

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