1. Early endeavours

The Bible of the Afrikaans speaking community was the Dutch Authorised Version (State-Bybel), representing an overwhelming influence on the religious life of the Afrikaner. In 1872 concern was voiced over the fact that the meaning of the Dutch Bible was at that stage beyond the grasp of ordinary Afrikaners. The idea of translating the Bible into Afrikaans was the main object and incentive of the Society of True Afrikaners established with this purpose in mind. Their plea was flatly refused by both the British and Foreign Bible Society as well as the Dutch Reformed ministers. A few books of the Bible were nevertheless translated into Afrikaans, mainly by S. J. du Toit and his associates. His translations never became popular, because they reflect Cape Afrikaans, a variant not acceptable to the Afrikaans speakers in the interior. This period ended on the demise of S. J. du Toit in 1911 (Smit 1970: 225–229).

2. The first complete translation (1933) and its revision (1953)

Prof. B. B. Keet championed the cause of the Bible in Afrikaans in the course of a lecture delivered in 1914, which was followed up two years later by a resolution of the Free State Synod of the Dutch Reform Church to the effect that the Bible should be translated into Afrikaans. This resolution represents for all practical purposes the first positive decision emanating from the church authorities. A translation was made from the Dutch Authorised Version and checked against the Hebrew and Greek. This publication, in 1922, of the Four Gospels and the Psalms encountered fierce criticism (Smit 1970: 229–231).

Due to this criticism levelled at these efforts a return to the original texts and a source text oriented translation from the Greek and the Hebrew was resolved upon. This resulted in the 1929 translation of the Four Gospels and the Psalms in which various translators from the sorority of Afrikaans churches participated. The translation was finally brought to completion in 1933. In that very same year, the Bible was officially put into service by the three Afrikaans Churches (Nienaber 1935: 108–182).

A decision to revise was taken as early as 1933. Originally expected to take about three years to complete, a full twenty years elapsed before the revision made its début in 1953. The differences between the revised version and the original 1933 translation manifest themselves mainly on a linguistic level and can be divided into four categories namely punctuation, spelling, choice of words and the construction of sentences. The demand for a more fundamental revision was heard shortly after this publication. However, the revision process progressed at snail's pace and gradually the idea of a brand-new translation asserted itself (Smit 1970: 233–235).

However, the first translation and its revision had an impact on the development, enrichment and promotion of the Afrikaans language and its recognition as a national language.

3. The new translation (1983)

The development of Afrikaans; the advances made in the field of biblical science (archaeological discoveries casting light on the cultural and historical background of the Bible, the progress made in the field of textual research and the development of textual criticism as a science); and the emergence of translation science (under the influence of Eugene Nida) all contribute to the decision to translate the Bible into contemporary Afrikaans.

The Bible Society of South Africa arranged a large translator's seminar during July 1967. Eugene Nida, then secretary for translation of the American Bible Society, was one of those who conducted the seminar. When Nida suggested that a new translation would be received with much more enthusiasm than a revision, this novel idea was born (Wegener 1985: 228–238). The decision in favour of a new target text oriented translation was ratified by the Bible Society in 1968. The synods of the sorority of Afrikaans churches followed suit. Advisors in the field of philology and a final editorial committee consisting of philologists and theologians were appointed.

The first three books from the Old Testament and three from the New Testament were finished during 1971 and published. Die Blye Boodskap consisting of the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the first fifty Psalms, was published in 1975. Steady progress was made and the final manuscript of the New Testament and the Psalms was handed over to the Bible Society of South Africa in 1979. Four years later (1983) the complete Bible in its most recent translation was completed. This Bible was released fifty years subsequent to the publication of the first Bible in Afrikaans (Wegener 1985: 231–238).

The publication of the two complete official Afrikaans Bible translations coincided each with a transition stage in the history of the Republic of South Africa. The first translation (1933) and its revision (1953) saw the light of day simultaneously with nascent Afrikaner nationalism, while the second translation (1983) reached completion in an epoch best described as the twilight of Afrikaner nationalist supremacy and the advent of the first democratically elected government of the Republic of South Africa. In the next section the epistemological traditions within which the translations were done as well as the sanctioning and dismissal of apartheid are overviewed.

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