Alphaeus Zobule takes God’s word to Luqa

by Dionisia Tabureguci

Dr Zobule on graduation 2008

IT IS OFTEN said that man may make his plans but God has the last word.  For Alphaeus Graham Zobule, bearer of God’s Word to his Luqa-speaking people in Solomon Islands, that was exactly what happened.   His ambition and initial path of education led him to the fields of science and engineering.  The Lord took him to Texas.

“I went to Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, to do a Masters in Biblical Studies and Linguistics (1994-1996), spending time also at Jerusalem University College (Israel) as well as Hebrew University (Israel) to learn more about the Hebrew language as well as the Bible land,” said Zobule from his home in Honiara.

“After translating the New Testament into my language, I did another Masters at Trinity Theological College in Singapore and then went to the USA to do a PhD in Biblical Studies which I have just recently completed.” 

Zobule, who in June this year was awarded Doctor of Philosophy at the Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in the US, is now the first Pacific Islander to be a Translation Consultant for United Bible Societies (UBS), an organization involved in the translation and distribution of Bibles worldwide.

UBS headquarters in the Pacific is in Fiji. 

Some time back, Dr Zobule had made an outstanding contribution to the work of Christianity in the region.  He translated the New Testament portion of the Bible into his mother tongue Luqa (pron: Lungga), becoming the first person ever to do that and to put the orally spoken language into a written form. His feat received national attention in the US and a story about his work featured in the Washington Post.

When we spoke with Zobule, he was back home in Solomon Islands working on several translation projects for United Bible Societies.

“I am from a small island of Ranonga in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands,” the soft-spoken man of God explained. “In the last century, the Methodist missionaries were active in that part of the country, and the predominant church in the area is United Church in Solomon Islands, a church that has its roots in Wesleyan Methodism."

"I grew up in a tiny village where the idea of going to school was very remote in the minds of the villagers.  There was no school around, and nobody seemed to know, much less cared, about sending their children to school. My parents, however, thought that education was such a good thing, so they decided to send my sisters and me to school.  That meant they had to send us to villages far away where we would be away for 4 to 5 months at a time, attending school.  As long as I can remember, my father would give me this daily sermon, encouragement, advice: ‘My son, go to school.’  I was tired of hearing those words, but my father was never tired of saying them.  Those words made an impact in my thinking,” Zobule added.

His father’s wisdom paid off. Zobule graduated to high school, moving on to Goldie College and King George VI School in Honiara and then to Fiji to attend the University of the South Pacific, where he studied science in 1987 and 1988.

“I must have done well enough to merit a scholarship, and so the US Embassy in Fiji offered me a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the US. I accepted it and so I went to University of Kansas, USA (1988-1991) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Mechanical Engineering.  I returned to the Solomon Islands in 1991 and after spending 1993 and part of 1994 as a Math lecturer at the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education, I decided it was time to focus my time in studying linguistics and Biblical studies and to devote my time to translating the Bible into my language.”

That change of career was a defining moment and the deeper Zobule delved into his Bible studies, the more he found himself drawn to translation work.

“Doing Bible studies was something I wanted to do for personal benefit because that was where my interest lay.  The idea of getting involved in translation work came later on,” said Zobule. 

So he set about studying the ‘Bible Languages’, or the languages in which manuscripts that contributed to today’s English Bible as we know it, were written in. These included Greek (New Testament), Hebrew and Aramaic (Old Testament).  A couple of ancient languages like Syriac also had to be learnt in order for one to delve the depths of those ancient scrolls.  In his first year at Bible Studies, Zobule began translating the New Testament from its source language (Greek) into his Luqa language and naturally, this work progressed to form the basis of his thesis.

But it was not an easy task. 

“Translating is a very difficult work,” explained Zobule. “Translating from a source language (Greek for NT, Hebrew and Aramaic for OT) into a target language (like Luqa) is always a challenge.  The two languages are different and how they conceptualise meanings are not necessarily the same.  This makes translation work a challenge."

Added to the challenge was that Luqa, until then, had no organised written form and Zobule had to start from scratch.  As a result, Zobule became the first person to organise the Luqa grammar and to actually put the language down into a written form.

“Luqa is a small language group, spoken by about 5,000 to 6,000 people,” he said.  “Before the New Testament I translated came out, there was nothing written in the language.  People wrote letters to other family members but there was not a consistent way of writing it nor was there any agreement of what a word or phrase was.  Everybody wrote as they felt fit! 

The work I have done has helped people to understand their language better.  Perhaps the biggest thing that I myself am amazed about is that when I started focusing on Luqa as a language and writing its grammar, the Luqa people themselves were so surprised that Luqa actually had a grammar. They could not believe it!  The work I have done therefore has done more to change the mentality of the people and their attitude towards their own language, Luqa.  They are now excited about learning to read it and write.  We have a language school now being run to teach people to read, study and write the language.”

An important result of this work is that the Luqa speaking people of Solomon Islands now have the Bible in their own language instead of having to deal with another language Roviana, which missionaries had used to deliver the Good News.

“When the missionaries first came to the Western Province in around 1900s, there were so many languages that they found it difficult to have to learn them all.  So what they did was teach their pastors the Roviana language, which was one of the bigger languages that most people spoke, and this was the language used to spread the Word.  But now, the Roviana language is no longer being used and younger people, my generation, no longer understand it so we have difficulties with it. But everyone speaks Luqa so it is a more relevant language to use."

There is also an inspiring, life altering result to this translation work and rediscovery of mother tongue for Zobule.

“People were so used to hearing and reading the Bible in English but when you start to read and hear the Good News in your own language, it brings in a totally new perspective.  Because language ties in with your identity, reading and hearing the Bible in your language makes a big impact and you begin to gain a deeper understanding of the Bible,” he said.

And for the Luqa speaking people back home in the village, hearing God’s Word in their own language brings a familiarity that they never knew before, as Zobule discovered.

“When the New Testament I translated came out, the people were so excited.  They say: ‘Now God speaks Luqa; God is no longer a foreign God.  He is our God.’ Such comments always inspire me.  I know that the people understand what is written in their own language,” Zobule said.

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NOTE: This is the full text of an article published in the Islands Business Magazine as: "From Science to Bible Translation"; p.43, September 2008 edition.