By Angella Semu
HARARE-(MaraviPost)-The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zimbabwe have released the first Bible book of Matthew in the new testament in sign language.
In a statement issued by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the book was released in Zimbabwean sign language to cater for the deaf in the country, as well as deaf members of their congregation.
According to Newsday, the Christian denomination embarked on the Bible translation project for the last 27 books of the Bible, beginning with the book of Matthew
The entire project of translating the book from Genesis through to Revelations was estimated to take about 10 years.
Among other adjustments made, the christian denomination revealed that the Zimbabwean sign language version of the book of Matthew has retained the name Jehovah which was removed in many translators, and this was done to glorify Jehovah, the author of the bible.
Statistics by the Zimbabwe National Association of the Deaf reveal that there are approximately 1,5 million deaf people in Zimbabwe.
Jehovah’s Witnesses alone revealed it has nearly 243 deaf members in 21 congregations and 86 hearing who associate with the deaf to assist them countrywide, making a total of 323.
However, the christian denomination revealed that one of the challenges experienced in translation to sign language included the differences in the signs used by deaf people in Zimbabwe as different schools taught different dialects.
