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.