History Of Bible In Maori: Background To Revision Committee’s Job

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 1, 25 November 1947, Page 4

History Of Bible In Maori: Background To Revision Committee’s Job

Language Was Always Rich Vehicle Of Thought Of great interest to the religious community primarily, but also to all scholars of language ami literature, is the development of the Maori Bible, a new revised version of which is in process of compilation by the Revision committee which concludes its current session at Ohope tomorrow.

Actually, it is pointed out in material given to a Beacon representative by the convenor of the committee, Very Rev.-J. G. Laughton, the reduction of the Maori language to a written form is synonymous with the work of early translators of Holy Writ into the vernacular, and emanated therefrom. Nor must it be supposed that the work of European grammarians and linguists developed the Maori tongue to its high level as a vehicle for human thought. It had evolved to that standard before the white man ever got . here. The language had poetry of rare beauty, and poetry ran through the common speech, embellishing it with metaphor, simile, and pictures of the mind. The aristocracy and priestly class of the Whare Wananga, or sacred school of learning, had developed religious concepts which were deeply abstract, and resembled in numerous aspects those of the Hebrews in whose speech two-thirds of the Scriptures were first transcribed. Therefore the Maori language was fully adequate to the formulation and expression of those ideas. Kendall’s Early Work Thomas Kendall, one of EvTarsoon’s earliest band of missionaries, has the credit for the first great service of reducing the Maori language to a written form. His book printed in Sydney in 1815 was of great assistance to Professor Samuel Lee in compiling the first Maori grammar and vocabulary. Then the missionaries got busy on the immense task of translation. First Scriptures in Maori came off the Sydney presses in 1827, covering portions of Genesis, Exodus, Matthew and John, with the Lord’s Prayer and seven hymns. In 1830 another book, wider in its scope, was printed in Sydney and in 1833 William Yate of the Church Missionary Society superintended the printing of 1,800 copies of the first and fourth Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles to the Romans, the first Epistle to the Corinthians and eight chapters of Genesis.

First Press In N.Z.

In 1835 a printing press was landed at Paihia and .William Colenso undertook printing Maori Scriptures in New Zealand. He had no paper, and other parts of the equipment had to be improvised, but he managed to print, on writing paper supplied by missionaries’ wives, two thousand copies of the first books ever produced in this country—Epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians.

Two years later a complete Maori edition of the New Testament was issued by the Paihia ■'Church Mission, representing seven years’ work by the entire Mission community. This translation was chiefly due to the remarkable linguistic capacity of William Williams, and later Robert Maunsell did similar work with the Old- Testament. Both were translated direct from the Greek and Hebrew. First Complete Bible Though all the missionaries played their part in early translations, special honour was earned by Williams and Maunsell, of the Church of England, John Hobbs, Thomas Buddie and Alexander Reid of the Wesleyan Mission. The old Testament, chiefly Robert Maunsell’s work, was first issued in three separate volumes, but, in 1856 a Board of. revision started work and, by 1859, prepared for an issue of the whole Bible in one volume. However, it was not until 1862 that a fully revised copy was sent to London, and it was 1868 before the first complete Maori Bible left the press. Revision of the text by Archdeacon Maunsell and Archdeacon W. L. Williams resulted in the issue of a second edition in 1887, which remained the standard version right up to 1924, when a further revision by Bishop Herbert-Williams was completed and published. That edition is now out of print, and the present committee, working under the supervision of the British and Foreign Bible Society is preparing still a further revision.

Details of its work were published in the Beacon last Friday.