Bible translations (Afrikaans)

Arnoldus Pannevis proposed an Afrikaans Bible translation in 1872 in a letter to a newspaper. At that time, Afrikaans was not regarded as a language separate from Dutch but as a simplified version of Dutch, and all white people were expected to be able to read and understand proper Dutch anyway, and therefore Pannevis' proposal was for a translation in the "simple" Dutch used by non-whites. Pannevis and C.P. Hoogenhout also wrote to the British and Foreign Bible Society to request such a translation, but the request was denied.

At around this time (1875) several magazines, small newspapers and other publications in Afrikaans (for speakers regardless of race) increasingly agreed with Pannevis. The publisher of several of these decided in 1878 that an Afrikaans Bible translation must be made, and in 1885 commissioned SJ du Toit to start the translations. These translations were completed: Genesis (1893), Gospel of Mathews (1895), Revelation (1898), and Psalms (1907). Before his death in 1911 Du Toit was working on a translation of the Gospel of Luke. In an Afrikaans magazine at the time, the following translations were also published: Song of Songs (1905), Acts of the Apostles (1908) and Gospel of Mark (1908).

Hoogenhout also completed a translation of the Gospel of Mark, in 1878, though this was never published.

By the 1920s opinion had changed towards Afrikaans as a language in its own right. In 1916, the Dutch Reformed Church created a commission to investigate the possibility of an Afrikaans Bible translation. It was originally thought that the translation should be a rewrite of the Dutch translation using Afrikaans words, and such a translation of the Gospels and Psalms (Vier Evangelië en Die Psalme) was published in 1922, but was not well received by the public. In 1929 the same publication was published, this time in real Afrikaans, and was well received. The translation of the full Bible was published in 1933.

The first official Bible translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was completed in 1933 by J. D. du Toit, E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and BB Keet. The Afrikaans Bible was introduced to Afrikaans-speaking Christian community during a Bible Festival in Bloemfontein, on 27 August 1933.

By the 20 year anniversary in 1953, the Afrikaans language had changed quite a bit (since the 1933 translation was translated deliberately in old-fashioned language that resembled the old Dutch Statenvertaling, to prevent it from being rejected by Christians who were used to using the Dutch translation). The 1953 edition contained a number of small changes and changes to the spelling of names. The 1953 edition also introduced copious cross-references that were present in all subsequent prints of that edition.

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