Birds In The Bible And Malayali Imagination

Abstract

The Bible is not a single book. It is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred mainly in Judaism and Christianity. The word 'Bible' comes from bíblia in Latin and bíblos in Greek. The name 'Bible' was adopted by translator and theologian John Wycliffe, and came gradually into use in English and other languages. 

According to Wycliffe Global Alliance, the Bible has been translated into 3,589 languages all over the world. A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological approaches to translation has been used in the Bible. The Bible translations are commonly categorized into three. They are: Dynamic equivalence translation, Formal equivalence translation (similar to literal translation) and Idiomatic or Paraphrastic translation. As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, like all languages, have some idioms and concepts not easily translated, there is in some cases an ongoing critical tension about whether it is better to give a word for word translation or to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language. In addition to linguistic concerns, theological issues also drive Bible translations.

The first attempt to translate the Bible into Malayalam was made by Pulikkottil Joseph Ittooppu and Kayamkulam Philippose Ramban, with the support of the Rev. Claudius Buchanan and Colin McCauley. In 1817, the Church Missionary Society of India (CMS) provided Benjamin Bailey to translate the Bible into Malayalam. He completed his translation of the New Testament in 1829 and the Old Testament in 1841. Thus, Malayali became familiar with Bible in their local language.