Fijian New Version: Bible Society Translation Published

It is late May 2013 and I have just returned from a two week visit to Fiji. Readers of this blog will have been following my interest in Bible translation. The original Fijian New Testament, translated by John Hunt, was released last year to commemmorate the bicentenary of his birth. Now the Methodist Church in Fiji has agreed to republish the original Old Testament translation, completed in 1853 by David Hazlewood and published by the Bible Society in 1864. 150 years after this date, in August 2014 (and with all planning proceeding as hoped), the Hazlewood Old Testament will be relaunched.
Meanwhile, to the Bible Society's great credit (and under the leadership of Rev. Solomoni Duru), the Fijian New Version[FNV] has been released. This is a translation which the Bible Society have been working on since the 1970s. It is a beautifully produced volume, printed in China on the thin paper well known to bible-users. The soft leather-look cover makes this a very appealing Bible and there are two colours - brown and blue. Somehow the Bible Society has managed to keep the cost very reasonable - F$35.00; it is doubtful that this price will be maintained for very long. An initial print run of 2,000 copies has almost sold out and a second printing is due towards the end of the year. Readers may purchase it at either the Methodist Bookshop or the Bible Society Bookshop in Nabua.
The language and expression are different from the existing Methodist Bible; one would expect that. Some talatalas I have spoken too are not sure about the new wording but all are prepared to work with the new Bible and place it alongside their other treasured versions. From my point of view, I am happy about two things: firstly that the FNV retains the word "kalougata" despite the saturation of the Ah Koy Bible (SDA) throughout the country due to its free distribution. With the FNV being used ecumenically (by Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists and other denominational groups), the Ah Koy Bible will lose any currency that it had, since the numbers of Bible Society copies will continue to grow. Secondly, in one very important case, the FNV has corrected a huge distortion. In Luke 1:15, the word "yaqona" has been struck out and replaced, quite correctly,

by "gunu kaukauwa". This refers to the inappropriate insertion of "yaqona" by James Calvert when he was revising the Hunt translation. Hunt. like the FNV, was more faithful to the Greek and had used the word "mateni" in Verse 15. This was also correct. But Calvert was quite mischievous in replacing "mateni" with  "yaqona". That has led to many improper uses of this verse, including to disparage a beverage central to Fijian culture and generally used in a moderate fashion.
So I trust that the Methodists will fully endorse the New Fijian Version and encourage its use in churches as the years go by. My deep wish is that all Methodist talatalas, lay preachers and scholars of the Bible (of which there are many around Fiji) will soon come to have at their side the original translations of the Scriptures (those of Hunt and Hazlewood), a copy of the later revised Methodist Bible (to which many will inevitably remain loyal) and the Bible Society's Fijian New Version which is the product of the work of many Fijian scholars down the years.

Fijian Biblical Manuscripts

One of my major interests over the past years has been the study of the original translations of the Bible in Fijian. In June 2012, working with Tauga Vulaono, Save Nacanaitaba and a committed group of Fijian commentators, we republished John Hunt's first translation of the New Testament, completed on Viwa in 1847. This was produced in time for the 200th commemmoration of the birth of John Hunt. While in Fiji for the occasion, I delivered a seminar at USP where I pointed out the inadequacies of the various revisions of Hunt's translations, noting particularly the considerable efforts of James Calvert, which I argued have not improved upon the initial work of the very first translation.
Work still needs to be done on a close comparison of Hunt's original translation with the later revisions. At least now we have ample copies of the 1847 New Testament in circulation, thanks largely to the ongoing commitment of Vulaono and Nacanaitaba to this project. The Methodist Church has yet to fully endorse the use of the 1847 translation but I am sure this will come with the passing of time. (At the same time I would be the first to support a modern Fijian translation of the New Testament, especially in the light of the woeful New Fijian translation [NFT] produced by Jim Ah Koy. This, it must be noted, was done by people unacquainted with Greek and - at Ah Koy's bidding -  with disrespect to the inner beauty and subtlety of the Fijian language).
My attention is now directed to the Fijian Old Testament. The missionary responsible for this was David Hazlewood, a Hebrew scholar. Three of the Old Testament books were published on Viwa in 1850 - Genesis, Exodus and Psalms. The Mitchell Library in Sydney holds copies of those. Hazlewood completed his work in NSW and died shortly after. His manuscript was taken to England by James Calvert and prepared for publication by the Bible Society. James Calvert, by his own admission, had no knowledge of the scriptural languages. He was assisted by a Bible Society scholar and together they worked on the Hazlewood manuscript, the first Fijian Old Testament being published in 1864.

Cambridge University Library

 On a recent trip to England, I visited the Bible Society archives in the Cambridge University Archives. I was looking for the original Hazlewood manuscript brought to England by Calvert. Much to my dismay I learnt that the Bible Society has lost hundreds of files, many holding original manuscripts, dated between 1857 and 1900. It is very possible that the complete Hazlewood translation may never be located.