An Orkney native has translated five books of the Old Testament from Biblical Hebrew into Scots, believed to be the first time anyone has done so since 1871.
Hugh Pyper is Emeritus Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Sheffield University and has translated a number of poems from their source material into Scots.
He took the Old Testament books and translated them, names included: The Sang o Sangs, Ruth, Lamentatiouns, Qoheleth and Esther.
The Scots language is recognised as indigenous and vulnerable by Unesco, with about 1.5 million people in Scotland able to speak it, according to the Scottish census in 2011. This compares with 57,000 for Gaelic.
Distinct dialects of Scots include Doric, spoken in the northeast, Orcadian, Shetlandic and Border Scots. The summary of responses to the government consultation on the proposed Scottish Languages Bill, published in June, said that Scots had suffered from a “form of linguistic colonisation that has so far denigrated the language in the social and legal sphere”.
Publishers Handsel Press say the translation of great works of world literature into Scots is a crucial part of demonstrating its continuing vitality as a literary language.
This is believed to be the first translation of biblical texts from the original Hebrew into Scots to be published since Hately Waddell's Psalms in 1871.
Dr Pyper said: “These books, besides being important Jewish scriptures and part of the Christian Old Testament, are fascinating and still relevant examples of ancient literature for those of any religion or none”.
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John Barton – Emeritus Oriel and Lang Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford said: “Few would-be translators have enough fluency in both Hebrew and Scots languages, but Hugh Pyper has it in spades.
"Hugh Pyper's version of the five scrolls is a joint celebration of the beauty both of these texts in Biblical Hebrew, and of his own native tongue.”
David Fergusson, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge said: "Although we now have the benefit of several Scots translations of the New Testament, the Old Testament by comparison has received too little attention. But in rendering The Five Scrolls into Scots, Professor Hugh Pyper has placed us greatly in his debt.
"A distinguished scholar of the Hebrew Bible and a native Scot, he has shed fresh light on these ancient texts. His accomplished translation also attests the resonance and power of the Scots language – it deserves to be widely read both in private and in public."
The Five Scrolls will be published on 1 November 2023 (£10)
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