Sebat Bet Gurage 1982 Edition

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Sebat Bet Gurage 1982 Edition (SGWBSE)

Overview

The 1982 Sebat Bet Gurage New Testament is the first publication of the New Testament in this Semitic language of southwestern Ethiopia. “Sebat Bet” means “Seven Houses,” referring to a cluster of seven closely related Gurage dialect groups. [1] The translation was carried out by a translator named Deggefu, working with SIL linguist Carolyn Ford, and was completed and approved by the Bible Society consultant in November 1979 after approximately two and a half years of work. [1] Typesetting took another two and a half years using manual metal type. [1] Because permission to publish in Ethiopia could not be obtained under the Derg regime, the New Testament was sent to Korea for printing in 1982. [1] In July 1983, 10,000 copies arrived at an Ethiopian port and were seized by authorities; the remaining 3,000 copies shipped in late 1986 cleared customs on December 24, 1986, and the seized 10,000 copies were finally released in January 1988. [1] An Old Testament translation was subsequently completed and published in 2010. [1]

Language and People

Sebat Bet Gurage (ISO 639-3: sgw) is spoken by approximately 2,710,000 people in Southwestern Ethiopia. [Glottolog: seba1251]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible Society of Ethiopia.

References