Suchergebnisse

There is hardly anyone in the whole island, with the exception of some political orator, who ignores the existence of a Maltese Bible. And yet that Bible exists and has begun to exist since the year 1929 attaining its full growth in the year 1959, 4 years ago. And during all this time the Maltese Bible has been read and studied by hundreds and thousands of our countrymen who have found in it rich nourishment for their spiritual life and literary equipment. ; N/A

The Maltese translation of the Bible is the product of literary and religious factors and, to a certain extent, private enterprise. For many long centuries, i.e. until the dosing years of the eighteenth century, the Maltese language was never used for literary purposes, the languages of education being Latin and Italian. The earlier Maltese writers found an enormous difficulty to reduce to some sort of Latin script a Semitic language which had many sounds that were absent in Romance languages. Moreover up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the education of the population was very poor. In the year 1836 there were only three Government Elementary schools: one in Valletta, the capital, another in Senglea and the third, very poorly attended, in Gozo, the sister Island, in all of which the instruction was of a meagre and wretched character. As there were very few who could write and read Maltese, the need of a Maltese translation of the Bible was not yet felt. ; N/A