July 16, 2024
The Scottish Bible Society (SBS) has worked in partnership with the Church of Scotland – the largest faith tradition in Scotland – to produce and distribute the Gaelic Children’s Bible for a new generation.
There hasn’t been a Gaelic Children’s Bible published since 1992. So SBS worked with Lion Hudson – the UK’s largest publisher of children’s Christian books – to take an existing English language early-years Bible, and create a Gaelic translation from this child-friendly format.
SBS has produced approximately 1,500 copies of the Gaelic Children’s Bible – free for anyone who requests it. This print run has already been almost exhausted, following requests from all over Scotland, as well as Canada and Spain.
Growth in Gaelic
The Scottish Gaelic language has a special place in the heart of Scottish Christians as a language preserved by church communities and long kept alive through its use in church life.
Gaelic speakers within Scotland number approximately 54,000 – with a further 30,000 people who have comprehension of the language.
There is a renewed vigour within Scottish society surrounding the Gaelic language in recent times – partly due to the passage of the Gaelic Language Act 2005. In 1985, Gaelic Medium Education (GME) began – an education program enabling children to learn through their native language in an immersive format, however this was only in Primary School ages. The Gaelic Language Act 2005 expanded this initiative to allow students to continue GME into secondary education (in certain regions), in addition to taking all their formal exams in Gaelic.
Màiri Morrison, the Scottish Bible Society’s Gaelic Coordinator, is excited about the potential impact of the project through education:
“There’s an entire generation of Gaelic speakers who have gone through GME learning their language through total immersion in school yet their life through faith was not necessarily a part of that. They are now creating the next generation and the opportunity to engage their own children with the Gaelic bible could well be missed. This new Children’s Bible fills us with hope that the language will continue within our Christian faith as healthy habits that are established in children are more likely to influence their adult lives.”
The Gaelic Children’s Bible will be an ideal resource to make the most of this new Gaelic focus in Scottish education.
Gaelic resources available
SBS has taken the opportunity, as part of this societal focus on the Gaelic language, to expand the resources currently available for Gaelic speakers.
Despite Gaelic Scriptures being published for over 150 years, there is currently no edition of the full Gaelic Bible in print. The Scottish Gaelic New Testament was first translated by Rev. James Stuart – published in 1767. Rev. Stuart’s son John – a minister himself – took up the mantle of Bible translation and was the main translator of the Old Testament, completed in 1801.
However, with any text translated more than 200 hundred years ago, a gap formed between the modern Gaelic speakers and the traditional texts.
SBS published a modern Gaelic New Testament in 2017 – currently in the process of being reprinted, with release expected soon. Through the revision, the team sought to combine faithfulness to the original Greek with a contemporary vocabulary.
SBS are currently in the process of reprinting the 1992 Gaelic Bible, and this is expected to be complete this year. As part of this reprinting, the SBS team is also proofing the text for typographical errors or missing words – a slow but important process.
Launched in February 2023, SBS has also created a Gaelic New Testament Audio Bible in conjunction with ‘Faith Comes By Hearing’ – a recording of the modern Gaelic New Testament. More information on the Audio Bible is available via UBS Community here.
With the increase in the variety of mediums for Gaelic scripture, Màiri Morrison shares what she hopes is the generational impact of this growth: “This Children’s Bible is to encourage grandparents, parents and friends to use their language skills to read to their children. The associated audio recording can also aid those learning the language, by giving them confidence through short stories to learn the new vocabulary needed to use religious language in their lives. The Gaelic language is ever-evolving and each generation has a duty to cultivate its development and preserve its use for the generations to come… This new bible gives our Gaelic speakers the opportunity to build on a new pathway forward, with Gaelic at the forefront of the Christian lives.”
Future plans for Gaelic scripture resources include translation of ‘Religious and moral education’ (RME) resources for use in schools for Easter, following Gaelic Christmas resources – including PowerPoints and videos – which were developed for Christmas 2023.
The Scottish Bible Society’s public website can be accessed here.
