Translation of the Bible into

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

began in 1806.The Manjummal translation is the first Catholic version of the Bible in Malayalam. This is the direct translation from Latin. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were translated by the inmates of the Manjummal Ashram, Fr. Aloysius, Fr. Michael and Fr. Polycarp. The Pancha Granthy came out from Mannanam under the leadership of Nidhirikkal Mani Kathanar in 1924. The New Testament was published in full in 1940. and has influenced development of the modern language.

History

The first attempt to translate the Bible into Malayalam was made by Manjummel Carmelites(OCD Fathers) Pulikkottil Joseph Ittoop and

Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban Kayamkulam Philipose Ramban, was a Syriac scholar belonging to the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church who made the translation of the Bible for the first time to the vernacular language Malayalam. He lived in Kayamkulam, in his family home, Man ...

, with the support of the Rev.

Claudius Buchanan Claudius Buchanan FRSE (12 March 1766 – 9 February 1815) was a Scottish theologian, an ordained minister of the Church of England, and an evangelical missionary for the Church Missionary Society. He served as Vice Provost of the College of ...

and

Colin Macaulay Colin Macaulay (13 April 1760 – 20 February 1836), was a Scottish general, biblical scholar and key activist in the campaign to abolish slavery. Early life Macaulay was a son of the Rev. John Macaulay (1720–1789), minister in the Church of ...

. Buchanan was Vice-Principal of the College of Calcutta and had a strong interest in linguistics. He visited Kerala in the early 19th century and persuaded church leaders to translate biblical manuscripts into Malayalam, with support from local scholars. Macaulay was British Resident of Travancore at that time. He actively supported Buchanan, attending meetings with senior church leaders as well as facilitating several audiences with the Rajah of Travancore to secure his approval as well. Macaulay also undertook the task of supervising the translators. At that time,

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages ...

was the liturgical language of Christians in Kerala. By 1807, Ittoop and Ramban—both Malankara Syrian Christian monks—had translated the four gospels from Syriac into Malayalam, assisted by Timapah Pillay. The venue to the translation of Bible into unified and standardized Malayalam vernacular was at ''Cottayam College" or the "Syrian Seminary" now called as "Old Seminary" or " Orthodox Theological Seminary", Chungom, Kottayam. The College was also privileged to offer the venue of the composition of Malayalam-English, English-Malayalam dictionaries. They then translated the Tamil version by

Johann Philipp Fabricius Johann Philipp Fabricius (22 January 1711 – 23 January 1791) was a German Christian missionary and a Tamil scholar in the later part of his life. He arrived in South India in 1740 to take charge of a small Tamil Lutheran congregation in Madras a ...

into Malayalam. The

Bible Society of India The Bible Society of India is a Christian body that is authorized to translate, produce, distribute and market the Bible and is a member of the United Bible Societies. The motto of the Society is to translate the word of God into languages, whi ...

(then an Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society) paid for 500 copies to be printed in Bombay in 1811. Timapah completed translation of the New Testament in 1813, but this edition was found to include vocabulary known only to the Syriac Christian community and not to the general Malayalee population. This translation is now known as the Ramban Bible. 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. Hermann Gundert updated Bailey's version and produced the first

- English dictionary in 1872. Phillipose Rampan (c. 1780-1850) also translated parts of the Bible into Malayalam.

Modern versions

Protestant and Marthoma

Sathyavedhapusthakam

The

Kerala Auxiliary (established in 1956) made minor revisions to the Malayalam Old Version in 1910 called Sathyavedhapushthakam (സത്യവേദപുസ്തകം), which became the standard version for Marthoma Church and Protestant denominations. This version translates the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah (യഹോവ) throughout the Old Testament. The complete Sathyavedhapusthakam in Unicode was published online in 2004 by Nishad Hussein Kaippally. Sathyavedhapusthakam was published online in 2014 in various digital formats. As pe
Bible Society of India (Kerala Auxiliary)
there are 2 versions of Sathayavedhapusthakam popularly used today. Old/Original version (OV) and Common/Contemporary language version (CL). OV is the Malayalam Sathya Veda Pusthakam that was published in 1910. It is the most widely used version among non-catholic denominations. There was a need to bring out a Bible in the contemporary Malayalam language, thus the CL version which was published in 2013.

New India Bible Version

Biblica Biblica, formerly International Bible Society, was founded in 1809 and is the worldwide copyright holder of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), licensing commercial rights to Zondervan in the United States and to Hodder & Stoughton ...

translated and published the New India Bible Version (NIBV) in Malayalam in 1997.

Easy To Read Version

The World Bible Translation Centre India provides the

Easy-to-Read Version The Holy Bible: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) is an English translation of the Bible compiled by the World Bible Translation Center. It was originally published as the English Version for the Deaf (EVD) by BakerBooks. History Some Deaf readers str ...

Catholic

POC Bible

In 1967, the Pastoral Orientation Center of the

Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council is a permanent association of the Catholic bishops in Kerala. Headquartered in Kochi, it is an association of three rites of the Catholic Church - the Roman / Latin, the Syro Malabar and the Syro Malankara. ...

began a new translation of the Bible; it was completed by 1981, and is known as the POC Bible. This version translates the Tetragrammaton as Lord (കർത്താവ്) in the main text and Yahweh (യാഹ്‌വെ) in various footnotes. It is available online in various digital formats.

Syriac Orthodox

The Syriac Orthodox Church uses the Peshitta version as its official Bible and hence all the translations that were done within the church where that of the Peshitta.

Syriac Orthodox Bible Society and Vishudha Grandham

The Syriac Orthodox Bible Society of India published the "Vishuddha Grandham" (വിശുദ്ധ ഗ്രന്ഥം), a translation of the Syriac Peshitta Bible into Malayalam. It was translated by famous

scholar Curien Kaniyamparambil Arch Cor-Episcopa. It is available online in various digital formats. Vishudha Grandham is also available i
IOS
an
Android
platform. Vishudha Grandham Audio bible is available i
Vishudha Grandham Youtube Channel.

Other Works

Vishudha Sathyavedapusthakom

The Vishudha Sathyavedapusthakom by Bro.Dr.Mathews Vergis in Malayalam was released in 2000. It includes various appendices providing commentary about biblical characters and events. It renders the Greek term ''kyrios'' (Lord) as Jehovah (യഹോവ) in the New Testament when quoting Old Testament verses containing the Tetragrammaton. The translator assumes that Tetragrammaton originally appeared in New Testament but was later replaced by Christian copyists with Lord (''Kyrios'' in Greek) following the Jewish tradition evident in later copies of Septuagint.

Free Bibles India

In collaboration with ''Church centric bible translation'', Free Bibles India has published a Malayalam translation online.

New World Translation

In 2009, Jehovah's Witnesses released the New Testament in Malayalam, and in 2016 the complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released. It is available online in various digital formats.Malayalam edition of the ''New World Translation''
/ref> This translation replaced the name of God(Tetragrammaton) wherever it was in old scriptures.

Usage of different versions in churches

Most churches in Kerala use Bibles in Malayalam. Saint Thomas Christians,

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...

and

Pentecostal Churches Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

use the

version.

Saint Thomas Christians

Saint Thomas Christians may have used the Peshitta Bible at church services until the sixteenth century conflict and church divisions; Saint Thomas Christian denominations now use various translations depending on their affiliation.