What Is Her.meneutics?

The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women. We cover news stories and books related to international justice and evangelism, pregnancy and sexual ethics, marriage, parenting, and celibacy, pop culture, health and body image, raising girls, and women in the church and parachurch.

Her.meneutics is edited by associate editor Katelyn Beaty and online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

Free Newsletters

books we're reading



« Breast-feed, If You Can Afford To | Main | The Secret Life of Beekeepers »

April 14, 2009

Bible Translated into LOLcat

Elrena Evans

LOLCat.jpg

We've probably all seen them floating around the Internet: those cat pictures, the ones ranging from morbidly obese felines to noxiously cute kittens, captioned with phrases like "Iz mah house!" and "I can has cheezburger?" They're LOLcats, an Internet meme that's become something of a phenomenon.

And apparently, now they have their own translation of the Bible.

The LOLcat Bible Translation Project, begun in July 2007, is nearing completion according to the website. It's a user-edited site — much like Wikipedia — so anyone can contribute translations. There's even a link to learn LOLcat, for those of us not in the know.

The LOLcat Bible is the latest to join the ranks of interesting Bible translations available online, oddly reminiscent of the first few pages of a Gideon Bible, where John 3:16 is printed in several different languages. Online, we can now read John 3:16

* in Klingon: vaD joH'a' vaj loved the qo', vetlh ghaH nobta' Daj wa' je neH puqloD, vetlh 'Iv HartaH Daq ghaH should ghobe' chIlqu', 'ach ghaj eternal yIn

* in Pig Latin: Or-fay Od-gay o-say oved-lay e-thay orld-way, at-thay e-hay ave-gay is-hay only-ay egotten-bay On-say, at-thay osoever-whay elieveth-bay in-ay im-hay ould-shay ot-nay erish-pay, ut-bay ave-hay everlasting-ay ife-lay

* in Quenya: An Eru si' mellero i ambar, i antan' Yondorya nostaina, si' aiquen i s'ver quetierya 'mer qual', mal haryaner cuil' oia

* and, of course, in LOLcat: So liek teh Ceiling Kitteh lieks teh ppl lots and he sez 'Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u purrz wit him u wont evr diez no moar, k?'

Fun as the novelty may be of quoting verses in Tolkien's ancient elvish language, at the same time that folks are working on translating the Bible into LOLcat, millions of people around the world still have no access to Scripture in their own tongue.

According to Wycliffe Bible Translators, some 200 million people worldwide have never seen a Bible in their own language. Wycliffe's ongoing mission is to bring Bibles to these people, Bibles translated into their native languages. Vision 2025, an initiative launched by Wycliffe U.K. to begin a translation program for every language that needs one by the year 2025, states that over 2,000 languages are waiting for this Bible translation work to begin. And launching translation programs is just the beginning of the process. Considering that translation of the New Testament alone can take up to 20 years, bringing God's Word to "every tribe and language and people and nation" is quite the daunting project.

And it kind of makes you rethink the humor value of the LOLcat Bible.

Share |

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on April 14, 2009 1:42 PM

Comments

Wow. This like the point at which "Snakes on a Plane" was released into theatres and it was no longer the wacky In-Joke of the internet. It was just poor quality media. Lol Cats have officially died in what's been a very slow death.

Credit to the author of this article to tie into a legitimate issue - translations of the Bible that are needed to spread the word of God.

Posted By: S. Scott | April 14, 2009 4:19 PM

But did you know it's been expressed in Lego blocks? http://www.thebricktestament.com/ Not everyone will like all the depictions. There's probably a Peeps version too.

There's a Dutch word, spelled sputen I think, that roughly means making flippant reference to something sacred. I really enjoy all sorts of translations like these, but sometimes it feels like a guilty pleasure.

Posted By: Robert | April 15, 2009 6:00 PM

Wow, flippant is right. This ranks right down there with Chris Rice's Cartoons!

Posted By: Vince | April 16, 2009 9:08 AM

You may want to know that Wycliffe are currently involved in about 1,500 translation projects, even before work has begun on the other 2,200(ish) languages that have no scripture.

You may also be interested to know that despite the linguistic nature of what we do (I'm based with Wycliffe in the UK) some of the biggest staffing needs are for good managers, accountants and IT professionals to help run projects.

More information can be obtained through the website of your local Wycliffe office. You can find this through the Wycliffe International website http://www.wycliffe.net

Posted By: Phil | April 16, 2009 12:47 PM

I hadn't done much reading of the bible in years, despite starting a theology MA program this year, until I heard about the Lolcat Standard Version of the bible. Suddenly, I got a look at the bible from a very different viewpoint--a nonhuman one (to some extent); talk about theology from below! And yes, there are funny bits and appalling bits, but that just makes me want to read more. The most interesting thing about it is that the man who started the project is a self-described atheist.

Posted By: Susan | April 18, 2009 4:17 PM

Great talent has been wasted on such a silly endeavour. Let's translate the Bible into real languages for real people. There are no cats in Heaven.

Posted By: Fr. Ian Yorston | April 22, 2009 3:49 PM

Post a comment:





Verification (needed to reduce spam):

tags

February 2012
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29