"God spoke in Ilokano to us 100 years ago"

God spoke in Ilokano to us 100 years ago, says Bible translator
Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
December 29, 2009

(Note: For this blog, I restored some paragraphs towards the end, which the Inquirer cut when it published it last 29 December 2009.)


IMAGINE Jesus Christ as an Ilocano preaching in the language commonly used in northern Luzon.

This was one advice Protestant Bishop Juan Marigza had to bear in mind when he and other members of an interchurch team were assigned in 1967 to translate the Bible’s New Testament into popular Ilokano (Iluko).

Jesus Christ had communicated effectively the “kingdom of God” through parables and analogies, which could be easily understood by the common folk during his time, said Marigza of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

“The challenge, therefore, for us was how to effectively translate what the Lord Jesus communicated 2,000 years ago through a more popular Ilokano language that could be better understood even by non-Ilocano who speak Ilokano as a second language,” he said.

Marigza, 79, was among the translators recognized during an Ilokano Bible centennial celebration early this month at the Teachers’ Camp in Baguio City.

The Philippine Bible Society, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches organized the activity to celebrate “100 years of Solidarity for the Word” in Ilokano.

Marigza was part of an 11-member editorial committee, which was convened by the Philippine Bible Society in 1967 to translate the New Testament. The committee launched its work on Nov. 4, 1973.

Previous translations were written in original Ilokano, many words of which were difficult to understand in areas where Ilokano is a borrowed language, said Marigza.

Extra care

But while aiming for a simpler, more popular language, the team took extra care in ensuring that nothing would be lost in the process.

With Dr. Noel Osborn, an American Presbyterian Bible scholar who once served at the Union Christian College in La Union, as consultant, the team had to first study the context, significance and truth of every biblical text.

Former Inquirer correspondent Peter La. Julian, another translator, said Osborn patiently taught Greek and Hebrew—two of three original languages of the Bible—to members of the team to help in their work.

“We strove for both accuracy and simplicity in our work, always bearing in mind what Osborn advised us: ‘If Jesus were an Ilocano, how would he have delivered his message in the local language?’” said Marigza.

Popularizing God’s Word

The first full Ilokano Bible, called “Ti Santa Biblia (The Holy Bible),” which was the work of American Protestant missionaries, was published 1909 by the American Bible Society.

But the desire to translate the Bible, which the colonizers brought along with their swords and guns, dates back more than 100 years ago.

A pioneer in translating the Gospels was an Ilocano revolutionary, Don Isabelo de los Reyes, who was among those who revolted against Spain and later against the Americans.

De los Reyes founded the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church). While he was jailed at the Montijuich in 1897, De los Reyes translated the Gospels of Luke and John and the Book of Acts using Spanish Bibles as references.

The British and Foreign Bible Society published the two translated Gospels in 1899 and the Book of Acts in 1900.

De los Reyes later joined a seven-member team, which translated the New Testament. The American Bible Society published the team’s work in 1904.

Taking off from the work of De los Reyes and his team, another translation team was organized and finally came out with “Ti Santa Biblia” in 1909. This was the second Bible to be published in any Philippine language, after the Tagalog Bible, which was published in 1905.

The 1909 Ilokano Bible has since been revised several times—in 1927, 1933, 1954, 1973, 1983 and 1996.

Evangelization, ecumenism

Immediately after American naval commander George Dewey took over the Spanish fleet in 1898, eight teams of missionaries from the United States were sent to the Philippines.

The Congregationalists chose the Visayas and Mindanao and the Baptists and the Presbyterians, Methodists, United Brethren and Disciples of Christ went to northern Luzon. The Anglicans were sent to what was then referred to as the “non-Christian tribes” of the Cordillera and Mindanao.

These Protestant groups had a common tradition inherited from Martin Luther of the Protestant Reformation era—the passionate study of the Bible as a way to strengthen one’s Christian faith.

So for the Protestant missionaries, the best way to evangelize people was to have the Bible translated in a language they could understand.

Marigza said the Ilokano Bible had helped “win souls for Christ” in northern Luzon, including remote areas where worship services and Bible studies are now done in Ilokano or in local dialects.

Until the early 1960s, Roman Catholics did not emphasize so much on the study of the Bible. But this changed after the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

Pope Pius XII, through his Papal Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, did not only encourage Catholics to study the Bible as aggressively as the Protestants do.

The Pope also encouraged a version of the Holy Scriptures to be jointly translated by Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars, thus giving rise to what they call the Common Bible. This edition is the most used, as it was approved liturgically not only by the Roman Catholic Church but by many of the other churches as well.

Filipino Protestants welcomed this new development. Since the late 1960s, Roman Catholic Bible scholars have begun working with Protestants in coming out with a Common Bible in Ilokano and in the other Filipino languages.

The birth of Ti Baro a Naimbag a Damag Biblia (The New Good News Bible), which the Philippine Bible Society published in 1996, was the joint labor of love of Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars.

Both Roman Catholics and Protestants now acknowledge that the challenge of translating the Bible into Ilokano and other local languages helped establish the seed of ecumenical or inter-church cooperation.

This cooperation, they say, continues to help transform the nation, despite its failings and other unaddressed challenges.

“Before, the Bible was a point of division. Not anymore. Now it’s a point of unity, which is helping transform our nation,” says Monsignor Andres Cosalan Jr., vicar-general of the Baguio diocese.

“As it is being translated in languages people understand, the Bible continues to help transform individuals, institutions and cultures,” also says Methodist Bishop Nathanael Lazaro, president of the Philippine Bible Society.

For northern Philippines, that seed of Christian unity and transformation began when “God spoke to us in Ilokano 100 years ago,” says Marigza.