NEW GAELIC RESOURCES

The Scottish Bible Society, the Gaelic Books Council and the Church of Scotland’s Gaelic group have announced new resources to help Gaelic speakers engage with the Bible and practise their Christian faith.

The Scottish Bible Society and the Gaelic Books Council have released a modernised Gaelic version of the New Testament and Gaelic audio versions of the four Gospels.

The New Testament translation aims to put the Word of God into more contemporary Gaelic than previous versions. The ecumenical team of translators who worked on the project over a 10-year period included representatives from the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Rev John Urquhart, a Church of Scotland minister who is part of the team, said: “Though we were drawn from different places and different churches, we all shared the same aim: that the Scriptures of the New Testament should be made available to Gaelic speakers in modern Gaelic, faithfully translated.

“Throughout our work, we kept our focus on fidelity to the Greek and the clarity of the Gaelic.

“The translators hope that putting the word of God into contemporary Gaelic will enable every person who reads it to hear God’s voice speaking to them, and that through this they will come to know the peace and salvation that are to be found only through Christ.

“Our desire is that all praise, and honour, and glory, be given to God and to God alone.”

The Church of Scotland’s Gaelic Group has also published a Gaelic version of the Thy Kingdom Come prayer diary, and this year employed a Gaelic development officer to progress the work of the Church’s Gaelic Language Plan over the next year.