A controversial project to translate the Bible from English to Jamaican patois will cost $60 million and take 12 years to complete, the organisers of the project said.

But the Kingston-based Bible Society of the West Indies (BSWI) was upbeat about the project, based on a commitment from its parent body, the United Bible Societies (UBS), to contribute a significant portion of the necessary funding.

The UBS’s general secretary, Rev Courtney Stewart, was unable to say how much money the parent body would put in, but said it would be in the millions of dollars.

Stewart said the Bible Society had already translated some 40 per cent of the New Testament into Jamaican patois, and a portion of that translation, the Gospel of Luke, was now being reviewed by language specialists at the University of the West Indies Language Unit.

He acknowledged, however, that translating the Bible into patois was proving an expensive venture, noting that it would cost his organisation at least $5 million per year to complete.

“We are hoping to complete the New Testament in the next five years, and the Old Testament in another seven years,” said Stewart. “In all, we’re hoping to take 12 years, and that’s being very ambitious.”

The project is not new, having started back in the 1990s. The society has already placed translated segments of the books of Genesis, Matthew and Mark on cassette and CD, which they released in the United Kingdom.

Stewart admitted that sales had been “constant but not earth shattering” and added that while Jamaicans were in favour of the idea, “people are not going to go out of their way to pick up a copy, so we’re revamping our website to make it easier for people to donate to the project”.

Critics of the project have charged that translating the Bible to patois would undermine the sanctity of the Holy Scriptures.

But Stewart dismissed the criticism. “They misunderstand what translating the scriptures into the heart language of a person is about,” he said. “The scriptures make the most profound impact on a people when they have those scriptures in their heart language. Until it’s communicated in this manner, a people cannot really be said to have the scriptures in their own language.”

Professor of Theology at the Mandeville-based Northern Caribbean University, Gosnell Yorke, who spent 10 years in Africa translating the Bible into various local creoles, said the arguments against translation were not unique to Jamaica.

“But we must also remember that Jesus used his mother tongue, Aramaic, and Jamaican patois is as eligible as any other to be a vehicle for the word of God,” he said.

He added that a number of countries in this region, including Haiti, Dominica, St Lucia, Suriname and the Dutch Antilles, had already translated some or all of the Bible into their local creoles.

Endorsing the project, Jamaica Council of Churches President Rev Carl Johnson described the move as “worthy and commendable”, but lashed critics who believed patois would diminish the Bible’s sacredness as “devaluing the gift (of language) that God has given to us”.

“If the aim is to continue to listen to what they consider beautiful language, then fine. But if the aim is to enhance understanding, then a patios translation is the way forward,” said Rev Johnson. “We need to understand that the way people speak has undergone myriad changes. and a patois version would not be replacing the traditional English version of the scriptures.”

And head of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, Rev Peter Garth, suggested that there could be a challenge reading the printed version of a patois Bible, he was convinced that it would generate far more interest in the scriptures. He said a recent patois version of the movie, Jesus, “was most effective and appreciated by all who saw it”.

“When people heard Jesus talking in patois, they could identify with it,” said Rev Garth. “But they walked past the English version, with much less interest. This translation of the Bible into patois is absolutely relevant to our reality.”