The full version of the Bible for the Deaf in American English is ready

After nearly forty years of work, a complete corpus of Bible texts in the American version of the English language with sign translation is ready, which will help more than seventy million deaf people in different countries perceive the word of the Lord God.

Missions from the United States, whose activities are related to serving the deaf and hard of hearing people (Deaf Missions), took up this colossal work in the early 80s of the last century - and now this work is completely completed. A number of other organizations also participated in the large-scale project - Wycliffe USA, American Bible Society, Deaf Bible Society, Deaf Harbor, DOOR International, Pioneer Bible Translators and Seed Company ... According to the Christian Post, work on the translation of the latter from the biblical books - Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel - was completed this fall. It is interesting to note that the translation was performed by deaf people who were proficient in the original languages of the Bible - Hebrew, Latin, and Greek of the Hellenistic era.
to convey information about events that have yet to happen in sign language 'src =' / upload / medialibrary / 89a / 89a7ef6c429cefc45406a86e28c6b707.jpg 'height =' 200 'title =' It is doubly difficult to convey information about events that have yet to happen in sign language ' align = 'left'> “Approximately 98% of the deaf living in the world have never come into contact with the true teachings of Jesus Christ, - says the official website of Deaf Missions. - What is the main problem deaf people face when it comes to knowing Jesus? to two words: communication barriers. '

But why is this happening? Deaf people can read. The problem is that most of them do not perceive the meaning of what they read. If for an ordinary person the study of the Holy Scriptures is a great work, for a deaf person it is almost beyond their strength. Indeed, deaf children are taught to read in special schools, but only a quarter of them can comprehend the meaning of what they have read and compare it with their usual sign language. Read by the deaf differently than we do: they perceive the word by movement and articulation - and retain its image in memory. For them, the word is something frozen, it is inseparable into syllables and letters. The first time they see him, they remember him just like that - and most often this image does not correspond to his description in the readable text. Which, of course, entails a misunderstanding of the reading.

Deaf people perceive up to ninety percent of incoming information visually. In comprehending the world around them, touch and movement come to their aid. Therefore, the language of communication of the deaf is sign language, with its characteristic only clear order of words in a sentence: first - the subject, then - the addition, after the predicate, and so on. A deaf person will say, 'I am reading the Bible.' However, such reading presents a colossal difficulty for them also because their vocabulary is a small part of the total corpus of their native language. For this reason, about 95% of the world's deaf people are functionally illiterate.
and facial expressions of the translator with images appearing on the screen 'src =' / upload / medialibrary / d27 / d27357967edb63dbe2b1d5f72204e9bb.jpg 'height =' 225 'title =' Each such video is a combination of gestures and facial expressions of the translator with images appearing on the screen 'align = 'left'> This is why the introduction of the complete Bible in sign language has sparked such excitement in the blind community in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Chad Entinger, President of Deaf Missions explains that transmission of Bible texts through sign language videos takes much longer However, thanks to generous donations, it was possible to hire more translators and finish the work ahead of schedule - in the fall of 2020. Whereas the original plan assumed its completion only in 2033.

Alternative ways are also being sought to convey the Word of God to the hearing-impaired. So, the already mentioned Wycliffe Associates in March of this year released a translation of the New Testament into a specially developed conceptual language called SUN (stands for Symbolic Universal Notation), in which words are represented in their symbolic expression. In addition, Deaf Missions is working with Jesus Film to raise funds for a film about the Savior's earthly life with actors with sign language skills. The project participants believe that, although the implementation of this idea requires an investment of millions of dollars, the characters of the future film will finally speak to deaf people in a language they understand - for the Word of God this is the shortest path to the heart of each of the people.

In several other countries around the world, work is also underway to translate the Bible into sign language. In the middle of the decade, the Russian Bible Society began to create a series of videos, each of which will include a translation of its text into Russian sign language, as well as the actual text of the synodal edition of the Bible, audio recording, supporting illustrations and tables. All this will allow not only deaf people to comprehend the Holy Scripture, but also the hearing impaired, and even the blind. The project was launched in Russia by the St. Petersburg Church of the Deaf “Kovcheg”. Already by In 2016, Siberian Catholic Newspaper reminds, thanks to the efforts of the people involved in the project, the Bible Dictionary of Signs and Russian-language versions of the sign language translation of the Gospels of the Apostles Mark and John - as well as a number of chapters of the Old Testament book of the Prophet Isaiah were prepared.