The Translation of Ίησοûς Хριστός [Iēsous Kristos] As Yezu Krista In The Kasem Mother-Tongue Translation of The New Testament

ISSUE: Vol.1  No.1  July 2019 Article 2  pp.14-22
AUTHOR: Alexander Akaninga & Kuwornu-Adjaottor J.E. T
DOI : 10.32051/07051902

DOWNLOAD PDF
552 Downloads

ABSTRACT

This paper contends that the Greek name Ίησοûς Хριστός [Iēsous Kristos] which is translated and spelt as Yezu Krista in the Kasem New Testament is inaccurately spelt because the /s/ and /o/ sounds exist in Kasem orthography. Also, the translation Yezu Krista does not match with any form of the Greek declining processes. Interestingly, most of the languages spoken in the geographical area have spelt it as Yesu Kristo. The major finding of the research is that the French missionaries who first entered the territory from neighboring Burkina Faso pronounced the name Jesus as [Ӡe.zy]. So the Kasena converts got used to that pronunciation and when the Bible was to be translated into the Kasem language, the translators resorted to how the people pronounced the name at that point in time without reference to the Greek text. The authors therefore seek to address this anomaly by proposing that the Bible translators should translate Ίησοûς Хριστός [Iēsous Kristos] as Yesu Kristo in the Kasem mother-tongue translation of the New Testament.

Keywords: Ίησοûς, Хριστός, Iēsous, Yezu, Yesu, Kristos, Krista, Kristo, Kirisito, Kasem orthography, Kasem mother-tongue translation of the New Testament.

 

ALEXANDER AKANINGA holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from the Department of Religious Studies, KwameNkrumah University of Science and Technology – Kumasi, Ghana. He is a Research Associate of the Department of Religious Studies, KNUST. This article is a summary of his Dissertation supervised by PROFESSOR JONATHAN EDWARD TETTEH KUWORNU-ADJAOTTOR (PhD), Associate Professor of New Testament and Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics, Department of Religious Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana.

Akaninga, Alexander., and Kuwornu-Adjattor, J. E. T. “The Translation of Ίησοûς Хριστός [Iēsous Kristos] as Yezu Krista in the Kasem Mother-Tongue Translation of the New Testament.” Journal of Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and Theology 1, no.1 (2019): 14-22. https://doi.org/10.32051/07051902

© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

JOURNAL HOME  

Articles in this Issue