Pole New Testament — GODENA EPE ANGELE (1993, revised 2023)

Overview

GODENA EPE ANGELE ("God's Good Word") is the New Testament in Pole (South Kewa), first published in 1993 by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea and released in a revised edition on YouVersion/Bible.com in 2023 (ID 3701). The translation is the product of over three decades of SIL work in the Erave area of Southern Highlands Province.

Translation work began around 1959 when SIL missionaries Grace and Ian Collingwood made first contact with the South Kewa community in the Erave area, followed by Gwen Priestly who continued the work through the 1970s. Robyn and Frank Hawkes, who had previously worked at Erave, returned in 1983 specifically to complete the NT. The primary translator was Kewai Kero, a graduate of the Christian Leaders Training College (CLTC), who completed the first full draft in 1988. Bible portions had been circulating from as early as 1982 — a print run of 500 copies including John, Mark, Acts, and a Christmas passage from Luke preceded the complete NT.

The foundational Kewa linguistic scholarship underpinning all three dialect translations was the work of Karl J. Franklin (SIL), whose grammar, dictionaries, and dialect survey of the 1960s–70s shaped the entire program. Franklin's own primary translation was the West Kewa NT (published 1973 by the Bible Society of Australia, with Joice Franklin and Yapua Kirapeasi); he later adapted it into the East Kewa dialect (revised edition dedicated 2005 at Kagua). The South Kewa/Pole NT built on this linguistic infrastructure.

The title GODENA EPE ANGELE is a Pole-dialect rendering of "The Gospel": godena = "God's" (genitive of gode, the Kewa word for God), epe = "good," angele = "word/speech." The subtitle Pena la wi angele functions as the revised-edition descriptor. The 2023 revision follows the Bible Society of PNG's programme of updating older translations for orthographic standardization, natural language, and digital distribution. No complete Bible exists in Pole; the NT remains the only Scripture.

Language and People

Pole (ISO 639-3: kjy; also called Erave, South Kewa, Kewa South) is one of three dialects of the Kewa language, a member of the Engan language family within the Trans-New Guinea phylum. The three dialects — West Kewa, East Kewa, and South Kewa/Pole — form a continuum along the Kewa plateau of Southern Highlands Province. Pole is the smallest of the three, with approximately 20,000 speakers (Joshua Project; the 1990 SIL census placed it at ~6,000, reflecting a lower historical estimate). The language is spoken in the Kagua-Erave District, Southern Highlands Province, centred on Erave township (~1,300 m elevation) and the surrounding high-rainfall plateau. East and South Kewa are more closely related to each other than either is to West Kewa.

The Kewa are subsistence horticulturalists growing sweet potato as the staple crop, supplemented by pig husbandry. Pigs carry central ceremonial importance across Kewa society. Traditional beliefs include a sky deity (Yakili) and a world deeply structured by ancestral spirits and sorcery; these beliefs have persisted alongside Christianity. By 1990, the Evangelical Church of Papua had 32 churches in the South Kewa area with literacy programs in most villages. Today approximately 99% of the South Kewa identify as Christian (Joshua Project), with Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical Church of Papua, and several other denominations represented. Joshua Project classifies the group at Progress Level 5 (fully reached).

Publishing and Organizations

Published by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, translated by SIL/Wycliffe missionaries and Kewai Kero. The Bible Society of PNG has been the primary publisher of PNG minority-language Scriptures since the 1960s and has undertaken ongoing revision of older NTs in the 2010s–2020s. The 2023 revised edition is distributed via YouVersion/Bible.com.

References