a)Catholic Bible
From the inception of the Bible Commission in 1972 the main service was to maker available the Tamil version of the Bible to the Tamil speaking prople of South,Malaysia and Srilanka.
Thus, by 1986:
Full Bible : 45,000 copies in two prints
New Testament : 1,65,000 copies in five reprints
NT with Psalms : 65,000 copies in three reprints.After 1986 the thirst for the Word of God increased very much among the people because of the dedicated biblical apostolate by the Tamilnadu Bible Commission in Tamilnadu. So the Printing and distribution of the Bible increased in a great measure. Between 1986 to 1994Full Bible: 1,52,000 copies in 9 reprints.New Testament with Psalms : 1,00,000 copies in 3 reprints.
b) The Ecumenical Tamil Bible
The Vatican and the United Bible Socities (Germany) released a combined document on the principles of Ecumenical Translation of the Bible in 1996.Basing on this document there camp up many Ecumenical translations of the Bible all over the world. The Catholic Bishops of Tamilnadu along with the Bible Society of India (BSI) came together in 1972 itself to find out the possibilities to bring out the Tamil Ecumenical Translation of the Bible. The dialogue was headed by Archbishop R. Arulappa and Rev.Fr. L. Legrand and Fr. S. Amalorpavadass were on the Catholic side while on the BSI side there were Bishop Newbigin, Dr. Inbanathan and Dr.Arangadam. As a result of this dialogue they decided, first to translate the Old Testament. On the Catholic side Rev. Fr. Dr. S. Michael Irudayam, S.J., and on the BSI side Dr.Jones Muthunayagam were appointed as coordinators.However the work really started only in 1984 when Archbishop M.Arokiasamy was the Chairman and Fr.V.Mariadasan the then Secretary of the Tamilnadu Bible Commission (Catholic).
The books were allotted to different scholars and the translations work was speeded up so much so that the Catholic Bishops and the BSI again met in 1988 and made a decision to go ahead with translating the New Testament also. Rev.Fr.C.Hieronymus on the Catholic side and Rev.Jayakumar on the BSI side became the coordinators for this work. Meanwhile, as the BSI was not interested to have the Deutrocanonial books translated, the Catholic bishops took a decision to translate these books separately for the Catholic use. Fr.J.Susaimanickam was appointed as the Coordinator for this work.
The translation work of all sections were done by scholars with much dedication and interest . As and when the translation of individual books were over they were printed as model copies and circulated among the Catholics and the Protestant Churches. The corrections and views were incorporated in the final edition of the Bible. Thus the work of the Ecumenical Tamil Bible was over in the end of 1995 and the first edition of the Bible was released in Madurai (South India) on 26th November 1995 by Bishops of both the Catholics and the Protestant Churches. The copy right of this new Bible is shared by the Tamilnadu Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical center (TNBCLC), Tindivanam and the United Bible Society (UBS), Hong Kong.c)Dissemination of the copies of the Bible
During the course of last six years since the release of the New Tamil Bible (Ecumenical Version) a lot of interest fot the Word of God is seen among the people in this area. As a result they wish to have copies of the Bible not only in each house but even for every one. I am glad to inform you that we have brought out the 11th edition of the New Tamil Bible with another 30,00,000 copies of the full Bible and 2,35,000 copies of the New Testament with the Psalms. We have also printed 40,000 copies of the Gospels individually and 2,00,000 copies of the Children’s Bibl at the rate of Rs. 2/- per copy as we were able to get some financial help from Kirche in Not (Germay).
In January 2002 the Commission brought out, for the first time, the pocket edition of the New Testament with Psalms. So far 60,000 copies were printed and distributed.With regard to the rate and subsidy:
The Tamilnadu Bible Association of the Tamlnadu Bishops Council is trying to get some financial help from people both from abroad and from India and so the Commission was supplying the copies with some reduction:
The print cost:
Full Bible: Rs.100/- Reduced rate: Rs.80/-
Deluxe Edition of full Bible: Rs.120/- Reduced rate: Rs.100/-
New Testament : Rs.55/- Reduced rate: Rs.45/-
Pocket edition of the NT: Rs. 45/- Reduced rate: Rs. 35/-However each Catholic Diocese is also distributing the copies in their own dioceses with some more reduction from the above rate. |
