Bible Translation in Madagascar: Ownership and Partnership that Builds Capacity

This paper explores how the churches in Madagascar have taken up the task to translate the Bible in the twelve remaining indigenous languages. The churches’ initial goal is to finish all the New Testaments (NTs) with some Old Testament portions by 2032. It further discusses how the church reached out to partnering organizations, like SIL, to assist with the capacity building needed to complete this task. In a timely manner with quality, the churches’ desire is to translate the whole Bible.

Around 2015, this missional work of Bible translation began with the influential church, Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), located near the University of Antananarivo. FJKM organized three groups of 20 to 80 people to work under the guidance of a head pastor to draft the whole Bible in the Analamanga, Betsileo, and Tsimihety languages (Razafinjatoniary 2017).

In 2017, the FJKM sent a twelve-member delegation to SIL Southern Africa (SOA) to discuss a partnership, as they needed technical expertise and initial consulting assistance. SOA provided initial training and encouraged the FJKM to partner with other national churches and organizations (Razafinjatoniary 2017; 2020). In 2020, the organizational partners joined together to work towards finishing NTs in four languages while training four translation consultants in four years (Razafinjatoniary 2020; WBT 2021). In January 2023 they launched a similar eight-year program to translate the NTs in the remaining eight languages. The presentation explores this national Bible translation movement, and the pivotal role partnerships are playing to produce quality translation with speed and develop local capacity for sustainability.