Empower Languages, Empower Faith

The Methodist Church has embraced the use of the Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment in our worship services. We commend its use to others as we look forward to purchasing and utilizing the latest publications. Be assured of our continued commitment, prayerful support and engagement as you move forward in making other books available.

The translation of the Bible into Jamaican creole is a vital tool for religious education, cultural preservation and person growth. It represents a step forward in making the teachings of the Bible accessible to all, regardless of language or cultural background and is a power tool for fostering pride and a better appreciation of our language and heritage. I am honoured to have played a role in bringing this to fruition and highly endorse the translations, while encouraging its widespread use and adoption.

This work challenges a classism that robs Caribbean people, long dominated by inherited, received, borrowed and imposed theological perspectives from elsewhere, of hearing the wonderful deeds of God in their own language. For the uprooted and imported people of the Caribbean, with this volume, the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is a foreign language no mo'.

I wholeheartedly endorse the translation of the scriptures of the Books of Jonah, Esther, and Ruth into Jamaican Patois. This effort brings the timeless message of these books to the doorstep of the Jamaican people in a language that is familiar, comfortable, and accessible to them.

The translation in the native tongue provides colour that cannot be expressed in English, and as such, allows for depth of understanding. The grammar of the Hebrew, in my opinion, has a closer affinity to our language.

Webster Memorial United Church frequently and gladly uses the Jamiekan Nyew Testiment in our worship experiences. To hear the Scriptures read in our people's heart language is both anchoring and liberating.

The Word of God in the mother tongue is a liberating catalyst for both mental and spiritual emancipation. That is exactly what God’s Word in the various creole languages is for our Caribbean peoples.

Given my involvement in the translation of the New Testament into Jamaican, it is with great delight that I receive the news of the ongoing work translating the Old Testament. Go de, Wycliffe Caribbean!

The translation of the Old Testament into the Jamaican language is a strategic initiative. It aligns with the model of Paul's delivery of the gospel to the Romans, ". . . so that people are without excuse" (Romans 1: 20).

Our fundamental need for understanding as human beings has two sides, comprehension and compassion - we desire that others get not only what we mean, but also how we feel. The Bible in our own language enables the crossing of both barriers, and therefore has a heightened capacity to be a transparency through which we can experience deepening connection and communion with God in our worship and our life... here we have nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit at the heart of this ongoing translation project.