Monday, September 15, 2014

Crowdsourcing the Scriptures

CHALDEAN WATCH: 475 Families of Mar Aprem Church to Bring out Handwritten Bible (Shalet Jimmy, The New Indian Express).
KOCHI: After the Catholic Church, now it is the turn of the Chaldean Syrian Church, one of the four archbishoprics in the Assyrian Church of the East, to transcribe the Bible. The 475 families under the Mar Aprem Church, a parish of the Chaldean Syrian Church in Thrissur, are currently engrossed in transcribing the Bible.

It has been two months since they started the work. Once completed, the manuscript would be worthy of being added to the 100-odd ancient manuscripts - all written in Aramaic -stored at the Chaldean Metropolitan Palace in Thrissur. The transcription is being done as part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Mar Aprem Church.

Members of each of the families will write the chapters assigned to them. Thus, their combined effort will bring out a handwritten Holy Bible. They are transcribing the Bible published by the Bible Society of India, which is called the ‘Sathyaveda Pusthakam’ in Malayalam.

[...]
Evidently, both male and female amateur scribes will participate:
Riju A Mannukkadan, a parishioner, said that his whole family was involved in the project. “My children would read the assigned chapters aloud. Everyone in the family, except my little daughter, contributes,” he said. The Sacred Heart Church, Kumbalangi, and the Cruz Milagres Church, Vypeen, are the catholic churches that have transcribed the Bible earlier.