Shan Missions

သမ်ႇမႃႇၵျၢမ်းလိၵ်ႈတႆး (ၵုသိၼ်ႇ ဢၼ်မႂ်ႇ)

SHAN BIBLE

Rev. Nathan Brown started translating few Bible verses from Old Testament into Khamti Shan language in 1836 when he was in Assam, India. That was the first translation to Shan. In 1863 Rev. Bixby started a Theological class in Toungoo with ten students who were planning to become pastors and teachers. In addition to the Church and school work the missionaries translated four tracts into Shan and prepared a spelling book and vocabulary. New typewriter had to be designed for printing Shan script. In 1864 one manuscript, spelling book and one vocabulary were written in Shan, Shan-English and Burmese-Shan. Religious books and tracts such as “The Catechism and View”, “The Golden Balance”, “The Way to Heaven”, “The Investigator and Glad Tiding” were all translated into Shan in 1864. It was reported in 1869 that some tracts had been translated during the year. Two “Catechism” and the “Call” had been printed and a third “Catechism and View of the Christian Religion” was passing to the press. For the first time in Burma a tract had been printed in Shan language.

New Testament

In 1881 Rev. Cushing reported that he had translated the “Epistles” and book of “Revelation” and had thus completed the New Testament in Shan. He hoped, next year after revision, to see the Epistles printed and bound with the Gospels. The New Testament was completed in 1882 and passing to a second edition in 1887 and to a third edition in 1903.[1]

We don’t know when Rev. Cushing started doing Bible translation. However we’ve learned that it takes 11 years to get the New Testament printed after printing gospel of Matthew. According to Cushing’s report in 1893, the Gospel of Matthew and a Grammar of the Shan Language were published in November 1871.

Old Testament

The Old Testament translation first appeared in 1891.[2] In 1893, Dr. Kirkpatrick reported from HsiPaw, “We are very glad to get the Shan Bible. All of our Christian workers are eagerly studying the Old Testament. We give each of the preachers a copy for a Christmas present. One man who has been a Christian for many years and doing good work as an assistant preacher never owned even a New Testament until he came here a few months ago.”[3] This indicates that the whole Bible in Shan language was finished in 1891 and published in 1892. According to report by Ai Lun and Sowards in 1963, Shwe Wa from KengTung helped Rev. Cushing in Bible translation. Shwe Wa was baptized in 1882. He resigned from government job from which he earned 100 Kyat per month and came to help Cushing in Bible translation with 30 Kyat per month only. He was very good at Burmese as well as Shan. Ai Ku from Toungoo also helped Cushing in Bible translation. 

Rev. Cushing passed away on May 17, 1905 in United States. Mrs. Cushing came back to Burma and worked on editing the Bible with Mrs. Muldah Mix in Insein. Rev. R.B. Buker and Mrs. Henderson also helped in editing the Bible.

 We do not know the procedure in his Bible translation process at that time. I doubt that Rev. Cushing had Bible Translation Consultants, Translation Committee, and Reviewer Committee etc. like we have today. Cushing might have been working and translating the Bible alone with the help of Shwe Wa and Ai Ku in Shan language. Nevertheless there are very few mistakes in his translation except in Psalm 66:3, one word (q0fj) was (accidentally) left out and it gives the meaning “our deeds” ([0f;) instead of “your deeds” (q0fj[0f;)?

Spelling mistake in index (xrfbrMU7Mbqif0mif) instead of (xrfbrMU7Mbq0mif)/

Exodus 29:22 and 29:28 (=0frM) instead of (=0fcM) giving the meaning as “dog head” instead of “thigh”. It might be reprinting error.

Numbers 18:3, the NIV text says, “They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.” But Cushing translated as “They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent, but they and you must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.”

Deuteronomy 28:54&56, the NIV says, “gentle and sensitive men” “gentle and sensitive women”, but Cushing translated as “men who have young, soft and tender flesh” “women who have young, soft and tender flesh.”

Rewriting Cushing’s Shan Bible

           We have discovered at Bible Translation Workshop that Cushing’s translation is better and more accurate than our own translation. We all agreed to do new translation base on Cushing’ translation. But our new translator failed to follow. We have to remember that Rev. Cushing was the expert in Hebrew and Greek.

I have been preaching and producing Shan radio program every day since 1989 for Far East Broadcasting Company. I have to read Bible in Shan and preach in Shan. I find it quite difficult to read and understand Cushing’s Shan Bible because of old writing system. I have to read other Bible first to understand it and then translate to my own language when I do radio broadcasting. I really need good Shan Bible, which I can read well, understand well and preach well to Shan listeners so that they will also understand well. The New Shan Bible published by Myanmar Bible Society in 1994 is easy to read but there are problems in wording, term and theological meaning. I am very burdened not only for myself but also for all Shan Christians and non-Christian alike to have good Bible in Shan language.

           In July 1996 when my family and I were on a visit to Burma, I met my old friend on the bus on our way back from Mandalay to Rangoon. He was a former chairman of Shan cultural and literary committee of all Universities. He kindly introduced me to the Shan literature experts in Rangoon for my plan of rewriting Cushing’s Bible into new Shan writing. I met with the leaders of Shan literature and cultural committee and asked them for their help to rewrite Cushing’s Shan Bible into ‘New Shan Writing System’ without changing a single original word or phrase from Cushing. They were willing to help. I happily paid them for their labor. By the help of Sai Myat the whole Cushing’s Shan Bible has been re-written into new Shan writing system without changing a single word or phrase from Cushing’s original Shan Bible. I then check, edit and restructure the grammar in new Shan writing system so that the people can read and understand more easily. Basically nothing has been changed from Cushing’s Shan Bible. We can call it ‘Revised Cushing Shan Bible in New Shan Writing.’

           After fourteen years of hard work my new ‘New Testament & Psalms’ in new Shan writing was finished and printed in Burma in the year 2000 by sponsorship of Asian Outreach and Bible League. So far I have not received a single negative comment from reader, any organization or any Church. However some leaders from Myanmar Bible Society and Shan Churches do not encourage Shan Churches to use this new translation by giving reason that it is not the product of Myanmar Bible Society. They only recommended Churches to use what Myanmar Bible Society produced. Nevertheless some Shan Churches in Burma, Thailand and individuals are using it. The paper and binding quality are not as good as foreign press. Editing and restructuring of Old Testament is under way.

Cushing New Shan Bible

Rewriting of Cushing Shan Bible into New Shan Writing System, Printing and Distribution are done in 2023 April.

မိူဝ်ႈပီႊမိူင်းသၢၵ်ႈၵရိၸ်ႉ AD 1893 ၼၼ်ႉ သြႃႇလူင်ၵျူဝ်ႇသၢႆးယႃးၼေႇသိၼ်ႇၵုသိၼ်ႇ ၶိုၼ်းပျၢၼ်ႇ လိၵ်ႈတႆးသေလႄႈ တႅမ်ႈဢွၵ်ႇမႃးဢေႃႈ။

လိၵ်ႈတႆးဢၼ် သြႃႇလူင်ၵျူဝ်ႇသၢႆးယႃးၼေႇသိၼ်ႇၵုသိၼ်ႇ သုင်းတိုဝ်းၶပ်ႉၶိုင်တႅမ်ႈဝႆႉၼၼ်ႉ ပဵၼ်လိၵ်ႈတႆး ပၢၼ်ၵဝ်ႇဢေႃႈ။ ၼင်ႇႁိုဝ် ထမ်ႇမႃႉၵျၢမ်းလိၵ်ႈတႆးၼႆႉ ပေႃးတေၶိုတ်းၵၢပ်ၶိုတ်းပၢၼ်လႄႈၽတ်းဢၢၼ်ႇပွင်ႇလႅင်းလႆႈလီလီငၢႆႈငၢႆႈၼၼ်ႉ ၸင်ႇၶိုၼ်းလႆႈဢဝ်လိၵ်ႈတႆးပၢၼ်မႂ်ႇသေလႄႈ တႅမ်ႈဢွၵ်ႇမႃးဢေႃႈ။

ၵုသိၼ်ႇသမ်ႇမႃႇၵျၢမ်းလိၵ်ႈတႆးဢၼ်မႂ်ႇ ဢၼ်ဢဝ်တင်းလိၵ်ႈတႆးပၢၼ်မႂ်ႇ ၶိုၼ်းတႅမ်ႈဢွၵ်ႇမႃးၼႆႉ ဢမ်ႇမီးတၢင်းဢၼ်ပႅၵ်ႇပိူင်ႈၵၼ်တင်း သမ်ႇမႃႇၵျၢမ်းလိၵ်ႈတႆး ဢၼ် သြႃႇလူင်ၵျူဝ်ႇသၢႆးယႃးၼေႇသိၼ်ႇၵုသိၼ်ႇ တႅမ်ႈဝႆႉၼၼ်ႉ။ ၼင်ႇႁိုဝ် ၽူႈၽတ်းဢၢၼ်ႇ သမ်ႇမႃႇၵျၢမ်းလိၵ်ႈ ပေႃးတေၽတ်းဢၢၼ်ႇလႆႈလီလီငၢႆႈငၢႆႈ တၵ်းႁူႉထွမ်ႇပွင်ႇလႅင်းလႆႈၸႅင်ႈၸႅင်ႈလႅင်းလႅင်းၼၼ်ႉ ၸင်ႇလႆႈၶိုၼ်းၶပ်ႉၶိုင်လႄႈတႅမ်ႈဢွၵ်ႇမႃးယူႇဢေႃႈ။

ယဝ်ႉတူဝ်မိူဝ်ႈ 2023 ပီႊၼၼ်ႉလႄႈ ဢိတ်ႇဢွၵ်ႇၽႄမႅင်ႇပၼ်မႃး လၢႆလၢႆ ဢမ်ႇဢဝ်ၵႃႈမၼ်း။

  [1] Rev. Dr. Cushing, Josiah Nelson. D. D, Ph. D., By Henry Melville King, American Baptist Publication Society, 1907, p15

[2] Ibid

[3] 79th Annual Report, 1893. American Baptist Missionary Union