Translation Landscape
Translation Landscape
History of Bible translation into Santali
Santali has a genuine, century-and-a-half-old Bible translation history, unlike some languages in this pipeline with no prior Scripture translation at all. The foundational work was done by the Norwegian Santal Mission (founded 1867, part of the wider Nordic/British/American “Santal Mission of the Northern Churches” and affiliated with the Lutheran Church of Norway), chiefly through two missionaries: Lars Olsen Skrefsrud (Norwegian) and Hans Peter Børresen (Danish). Skrefsrud and Børresen produced the first substantial Santali grammar and Scripture translation, publishing the Gospel of Matthew in 1868 and completing a full Santali Old and New Testament by 1929, printed chiefly in Roman and Bengali script and circulated through the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society and its successor, the Bible Society of India (BSI). This translation predates Ol Chiki entirely: Raghunath Murmu did not invent the Ol Chiki script until 1925, and it did not gain wide official or educational recognition until decades later (India’s University Grants Commission recognized it for higher education only in 2013), so no Ol Chiki-script edition of this founding translation tradition exists. The Bible Society of India has since undertaken an active revision of this historic translation (led, at time of research, by Rev. Dr. Jonadob Nathaniel, BSI’s Director of Translations, working with Santali translators consulted in Pakur, Jharkhand), explicitly aimed at improving readability and accuracy; this revision was reported as still in progress and had not yet been published as of available research.
Alongside the BSI lineage, the Bangladesh Bible Society has produced more recent Santali Scripture editions in Bengali script, and The Word for the World South Asia has an active New Testament translation project rendered in Devanagari-transliterated Santali. As a result, published Santali Scripture today exists, or is in progress, across at least four scripts (Roman, Bengali, Devanagari-transliteration, and Ol Chiki), with no single script yet functioning as the universal reference edition the way, for example, a single well-established script and edition anchors many other South Asian languages in this pipeline.
Bible translations available in Santali, by popularity
Ordered by evident current usage and completeness (most-used and most-complete first). Source text and translation-style details not independently confirmed for a given edition are marked “(inferred).”
| Translation full name | Denomination / publisher | Source texts | Translation style | YouVersion available | Age / revision | Key risks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| সান্তালী বাইবেল (Santali Bible), Bengali script, full Bible (SBT) | Bangladesh Bible Society | Not independently confirmed; standard modern Bible society practice is translation from Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek critical texts (inferred) | Not independently confirmed; likely a modern, readability-oriented rendering consistent with recent Bible society output (inferred) | Yes: https://www.bible.com/bible/3292/JHN.3.16.SBT | Published 2021; the most recent full-Bible edition identified | Newest full Bible, Bengali script only; not yet cross-checked against BSI’s historic translation tradition or against this Language Package’s doctrinal vocabulary |
| Santali Common Language New Testament (SCLNT) | Bangladesh Bible Society | Not independently confirmed (inferred, Greek critical text per standard practice) | Common-language/dynamic-equivalence style, per its name | Yes: https://www.bible.com/bible/1538/JHN.3.16.SCLNT | Published 2014; New Testament only | Common-language translations prioritize readability over doctrinal-term precision, so compound theological vocabulary (justification, imputed righteousness) may be simplified in ways this Language Package’s requirements need to supplement |
| Norwegian Santal Mission translation (Skrefsrud and Børresen), full Bible | Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society / Bible Society of India | Not independently confirmed for the 19th-century edition specifically; standard 19th-century Protestant mission practice (inferred) | Formal/literal, consistent with 19th-century mission translation norms (inferred) | Not on YouVersion; digitized copy at https://archive.org/details/SATCLV_DBS_HS | Gospel of Matthew 1868; complete Bible 1929; predates Ol Chiki (1925 invention, later standardization) entirely | No Ol Chiki edition exists; 100-year-old translation now the subject of an active but unpublished BSI revision; doctrinal-study vocabulary (as opposed to narrative/devotional text) is not well developed in this tradition |
| Santali Old Version, Bible Society of India revision (in progress) | Bible Society of India | Presumed continuity with the historic Skrefsrud/Børresen source-text tradition, under active revision (inferred) | Revision aimed at improved readability and accuracy per BSI’s own stated goal | Not yet on YouVersion (unpublished as of available research) | Revision in progress; not yet complete | Timeline and final script/scope not yet public; cannot currently anchor this Language Package’s vocabulary decisions until published |
| इसोराक् दुला़ड़ आड़ाङ (New Testament in Santali, Devanagari-transliteration script, NTSPT26) | The Word for the World South Asia | Not independently confirmed (inferred) | Not independently confirmed (inferred) | Partial, https://www.bible.com/bible/4495/LUK.1.1.NTSPT26 (John not yet published as of available research) | New Testament in progress, recent/ongoing project | Incomplete; Devanagari-transliteration format is a genuine access point for some readers but is not the officially preferred Ol Chiki script, and doctrinal vocabulary choices have not been independently reviewed |
No completed Ol Chiki-script Bible translation, full or partial, was identified in available research; this is the single largest gap in the current Santali translation landscape relative to the script India’s government and Jharkhand/West Bengal officially prefer. No evidence of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation or other doctrinally fringe editions in Santali was found on YouVersion at time of research, but this should be periodically re-checked as with other languages in this pipeline.
Readiness assessment
Santali’s translation-tradition readiness sits between languages with no prior Scripture translation at all and languages with a single, long-settled reference edition: real, historic missionary translation work exists and remains in active use and revision, but no edition yet combines (a) doctrinal-study-grade vocabulary (as opposed to narrative/devotional register), (b) the officially preferred Ol Chiki script, and (c) completed, published status, all at once. Compound theological terms needed for study material (justification, imputed righteousness, sanctification, and similar vocabulary) do not have crystallized, widely-recognized Santali renderings in any of the editions above. Nearly every compound doctrinal term in this Language Package’s translation_memory.json should be treated as provisional pending confirmation by a Santali-speaking theologian and, separately, by a native Ol Chiki-literate reviewer, since script literacy and doctrinal-register literacy are not guaranteed to overlap in the same reviewer.
Recommended default for hyperlinks
SCLNT (YouVersion ID 1538, Santali Common Language New Testament, Bangladesh Bible Society) is the recommended default for this Language Package’s own verse hyperlinks. It is the most complete, most widely distributed Santali New Testament currently on YouVersion, published specifically for broad readability, and carries no identified doctrinal-bias or fringe-sect risk. The alternative full-Bible edition (SBT) is newer and covers the whole canon, but SCLNT’s dedicated common-language translation philosophy and longer track record make it the safer default until the Bible Society of India’s own revision is published. Neither is available in Ol Chiki script; publishers distributing this Language Package’s material to Ol Chiki-literate audiences should note that gap explicitly rather than assume SCLNT is fully accessible to every reader.
Worked example, John 3:16 in SCLNT: https://www.bible.com/bible/1538/JHN.3.16.SCLNT