History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Shan Bible, Hymnbook, Radio, Literature 163
CHAPTER FIVE
SHAN BIBLE
Rev. Nathan Brown started translating few Bible verses from Old Testament into Khamti Shan
language in 1836 when he was in Assam, India. That was the first translation to Shan. In 1863 Rev.
Bixby started a Theological class in Toungoo with ten students who were planning to become pastors
and teachers. In addition to the Church and school work the missionaries translated four tracts into Shan
and prepared a spelling book and vocabulary. New typewriter had to be designed for printing Shan
script. In 1864 one manuscript, spelling book and one vocabulary were written in Shan, Shan-English
and Burmese-Shan. Religious books and tracts such as “The Catechism and View”, “The Golden
Balance”, “The Way to Heaven”, “The Investigator and Glad Tiding” were all translated into Shan in
1864. It was reported in 1869 that some tracts had been translated during the year. Two “Catechism”
and the “Call” had been printed and a third “Catechism and View of the Christian Religion” was
passing to the press. For the first time in Burma a tract had been printed in Shan language.
New Testament
In 1881 Rev. Cushing reported that he had translated the “Epistles” and book of “Revelation” and had
thus completed the New Testament in Shan. He hoped, next year after revision, to see the Epistles
printed and bound with the Gospels. The New Testament was completed in 1882 and passing to a
second edition in 1887 and to a third edition in 1903. 1
We don’t know when Rev. Cushing started doing Bible translation. However we’ve learned that it takes
11 years to get the New Testament printed after printing gospel of Matthew. According to Cushing’s
report in 1893, the Gospel of Matthew and a Grammar of the Shan Language were published in
November 1871.
Old Testament
The Old Testament translation first appeared in 1891. 2 In 1893, Dr. Kirkpatrick reported from
HsiPaw, “We are very glad to get the Shan Bible. All of our Christian workers are eagerly studying the
Old Testament. We give each of the preachers a copy for a Christmas present. One man who has been a
Christian for many years and doing good work as an assistant preacher never owned even a New
Testament until he came here a few months ago.” 3 This indicates that the whole Bible in Shan language
was finished in 1891 and published in 1892. According to report by Ai Lun and Sowards in 1963, Shwe
Wa from KengTung helped Rev. Cushing in Bible translation. Shwe Wa was baptized in 1882. He
resigned from government job from which he earned 100 Kyat per month and came to help Cushing in
Bible translation with 30 Kyat per month only. He was very good at Burmese as well as Shan. Ai Ku
from Toungoo also helped Cushing in Bible translation.
Rev. Cushing passed away on May 17, 1905 in United States. Mrs. Cushing came back to Burma and
worked on editing the Bible with Mrs. Muldah Mix in Insein. Rev. R.B. Buker and Mrs. Henderson also
helped in editing the Bible.
We do not know the procedure in his Bible translation process at that time. I doubt that Rev.
Cushing had Bible Translation Consultants, Translation Committee, and Reviewer Committee etc. like
we have today. Cushing might have been working and translating the Bible alone with the help of Shwe
Wa and Ai Ku in Shan language. Nevertheless there are very few mistakes in his translation except in
Psalm 66:3, one word (q0fj) was (accidentally) left out and it gives the meaning “our deeds” ([0f;)
instead of “your deeds” (q0fj[0f;)?
1 Rev. Dr. Cushing, Josiah Nelson. D. D, Ph. D., By Henry Melville King, American Baptist Publication Society, 1907, p15
2 Ibid
3 79th Annual Report, 1893. American Baptist Missionary Union