Intercession Gained in Translation

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I gingerly experimented with extracts from Pilgrim’s Progress. It seemed to be a success. So I added a short story of the first pygmy to shine as a light for Christ, called “Apollo of the Pygmy Forest.” That came out okay, also. Now I plunged. Why not a full Bangala New Testament?

It was an intercession in all simplicity and unpreparedness. Bangala was the lingua franca, the common market language among the tribes. It had been reduced to a working language largely by my loved brother-in-law, Alfred Buxton, who first accompanied C.T to the Congo and was now at home. C.T., in his inimitable fashion, had called the two of them “Balaam’s ass and Noah’s dove” when they had gone out to evangelize the heart of Africa. Alfred then had been pressed to some simple translation of parts of the New Testament, besides a primer of about
1200 words. Meanwhile, we had begun the teaching of reading among the tribes.

What I then began translating took me a good part of the next five years. Being in lingua franca, five missions used it: the AIM, ourselves, the
Swedish Baptists, the Mid-Missions and the Assemblies of God. The work of these missions was scattered over the vast Ubangi forest area of
northeast Congo. It meant that what I translated had to pass through the critical hands of language experts of the five missions. I used my knowledge of classical Greek and the King James Version of the Bible.

The project was of enormous help to me in getting to know the Scriptures. I had to be as sure as I could of the meaning of each New
Testament phrase, besides finding the right Bangala words and sometimes inventing some! At last it was passed by the missions and
submitted to the Bible Society of London, who also accepted it. A friend, Frank Fremlin of Maidstone, Kent, helped much in the financing of it.

The Secretary of the Bible Society inscribed for me a special author’s copy of the Bangala New Testament, in which he wrote: “To Norman P. Grubb, who is mainly responsible for the preparation and proofreading of this, the first New Testament, in the language, the Bible Society sends this, the first copy, with its congratulations and gratitude and prayers.—R. Kilgour, Editorial Superintendent, The Bible House, London, 4 October, 1928.”

But there is a final reason why I greatly rejoice in that guidance and “plunge of faith” with no training in translation to attempt this translation
of the New Testament into Bangala. At that, time, it was rather a despised market language and considered unworthy of spending time on, compared to the more difficult tribal languages. (In this respect it was like the common Greek of Paul’s day, which was considered less worthy than the pure classical Greek.) But further revisings of the Bangala New Testament took place, and the Old Testament was completed. By now,
tens of thousands of Africans can read. And with the independence of the Congo under its new name of Zaire, the government chose our northern Bangala as the official language of the whole country! Called Lingala, it is now read and used by millions.

So it turned out to be a “gained intercession” such as we never dreamed possible. Once again, death worked in us, but life in these tens of
thousands.