Malay Bible

Indonesian:

Also called Brahasa Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia, the most populated muslim country in the world. Indonesian is a standardized dialect of Malay, that was officially defined with the declaration of Indonesia`s independence in 1945 although in the 1928 Indonesian Youth Pledge it was already declared to be the official language. It is officially spoken in Indonesia, the 4<sup>th</sup> most populous nation in the world, and East Timor by about 230 million speakers. It is of the Austronesian language family, and it`s writing system is in the Latin alphabet.

  The Bibles from the 18^th and 19^th century are in Malay. Various forms of Malay are spoken in Brunei, Indonesia (where Indonesian is a variety of Malay), Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and southern Thailand (Malay is the official language of Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore), southern Myanmar, Cocos Island, Christmas Island, Sri Lanka and Suriname.

The Bibles we refer to are classified by missionary translators as “High Malay”.

The O.T., 1858 by the Dutch Bible Society is printed in roman character. It is a careful corrected reprint from 1731-1733 in Amsterdam. The complete Bible, without apocrypha, was originally translated by M.Leidekker and P.van der Vorm for part of the N.T., two Dutch ministers in Batavia, and revised by G.H.Werndly and others.

The N.T. by Melchior Leidekker is to be found on www.sabda.org, under “Alkitab Leydekker: a reprint in Haarlem of 1923.”

The O.T.of 1879 was published by the Dutch Bible Society, Amsterdam, and printed in Haarlem. This was translated by H.C.Klinkert, who started a fresh translation with Genesis in 1871. The text is in roman character.

The N.T. first edition is of 1870, the 3^rd of 1896 by the Dutch Bible Society, Amsterdam, and printed in Leiden. The text is in roman character, and it is translated as well by H.C.Klinkert, Dutch missionary in Java (his second edition was published in 1878).