How We De Make the Book Wey Important Pass Other Books

“I don de wait for-am for 19 years!” Wetin our brother de wait for? Na the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures for e own language, Bengali. Na so plenty people de feel when they don get the New World Translation Bible for their language. But you don ever think of wetin they need to do to translate and make this Bibles?

The first thing na to choose the people wey go translate the Bible, and na the Writing Committee of the Governing Body de direct this one. How much time e go take for this translators to translate the Bible? One brother wey de work for Translation Services for Warwick, New York, wey e name na Nicholas Ahladis talk say: “Many things dey to check like, how many people dey wey go fit translate this work, how the language hard reach, whether people for the language really know how life be for Bible time, and whether the way them de talk the language dey different for different places. Normally, e de take from one to three years for the translators to translate just the Christian Greek Scriptures and four or more years to translate the whole Bible. E de even take more time for sign language.”

No be only the translators go work to translate the Bible. We still need people from different place, sometimes even different countries to check wetin they don translate. This people no de collect any money to do the work. Anything wey they talk go help the translators to make Bible wey dey correct, wey make sense, and wey people fit understand. And e just be like wetin one brother wey de train people to translate Bible for South Africa talk, e say “the people wey de translate really want do their best because they see-am say Jehovah and the people wey go read the Bible trust them to translate-am well.”

After they don translate the Bible finish, they go print and bind-am. To fit do this one, the printeries de use at least, ten different things to bind the whole Bible together: paper, ink, the cover wey they go use for the outside of the Bible, gum, the material wey they go put inside the cover, silver color, ribbons, band to hold the book together (headband), material to make the place wey the book join together dey strong (spine stiffener), and another material wey they go put for back of the cover. For 2019, e pass 20 million dollars (U.S.) wey they spend to buy materials to make Bible. The brothers and sisters for Printery department work pass 300,000 hours that year to make Bible and send-am to different-different countries.

Why them de use plenty time and money to do all this things? As Joel Blue wey de work for International Printing Department talk, “Na Bible be the book wey dey important pass all the other books wey we de produce. So we really want make the Bible fine so that e go bring praise to the God wey we de worship and the message wey we de preach.”

Apart from the normal design wey we de use for the New World Translation, we still de produce special designs for people wey no fit read the normal one. For example, one design of New World Translation wey them de do for blind people, dey for ten languages. Them de call-am braille. One complete braille Bible fit reach eight hours to make. You go need plenty space to keep the braille Bible, at least 7.5 ft of space for shelf, because the whole Bible no fit enter one book, so them de share-am for plenty parts. We still de make another design of Bible for people wey dey prison, where them de only allow book wey they use paper cover the back.

New World Translation de touch the lives of people wey read-am. Think about one congregation wey them de speak Kiluba language. E dey for one place wey them de call Tombe for Democratic Republic of Congo. From Kinshasa wey be the capital of the country to Tombe pass 1,700km (e fit reach almost one full day to travel reach the place with motor.) Na only one Bible Jehovah Witness them for there get, and the Bible dey for the old Kiluba language. Na only that one Bible all the brothers and sisters de share to prepare their part for meeting. But since August 2018, everybody for the congregation don get the complete New World Translation for the new Kiluba language wey people de talk now.

When one sister wey de speak German language de talk about the new New World Translation for e language, e talk say: “Now, I no de talk say I need to read Bible. Instead, I de ask myself say, ‘Which time I go read more?’ ” One man wey dey for prison talk say: “They give me one New World Translation Bible, and e don de change my life. I never understand Bible reach the way I de understand-am now, since I start to read this translation. I go like to know more about Jehovah Witness people and how I fit be one of them.”

All the people wey de read the New World Translation de really happy for the contributions wey de help the organization to fit produce the Bible. People de follow the different ways wey dey for donate.jw.org, to make their contributions to support the work wey we de do for the whole world. We thank wuna as wuna de open wuna hand to give.