Mutual Publishing CONTACT: 1215 Center Street, Ste 210 Jane Gillespie, Mutual Publishing , Hawai‘i 96816 Ph: 808-732-1709 Ph: 808-732-1709 Fax: 808-734-4094 Fax: 808-734-4094 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] or Helen Kaowili www.mutualpublishing.com [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE Ka Baibala Hemolele Mutual Publishing in conjunction with Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) is honored to announce the release of the new edition of the Bible, Ka Baibala Hemolele. After ten-plus years, significant funding support from many foundations and individuals, and the work of dozens of scholars, teachers, and volunteers, Ka Baibala Hemolele (The Holy Bible) is available in the new orthography that uses complete diacritics. This marks the first time that the Hawaiian language Bible has been formatted and printed with kahakō and ‘okina. (More information on the development of the Hawaiian Bible is provided in an attachment to this press release.) The initial project by PIDF to electronically preserve the 1839, 1868, and 1994 printings of the Hawaiian Bible grew into a complete editing to embrace the new orthography. The original translation, completed in 1839, played a significant role in the development of the Hawaiian language as a written language, and continues as a major linguistic, cultural, and spiritual resource. This new edition, Ka Baibala Hemolele, enables a new generation of Hawaiian students to easily access, learn, and understand the Hawaiian language with the new orthography with which they are familiar. Ka Baibala Hemolele includes a foreword by Kahu William H. Kaina, Kahu James P. Merseberg, and Kahu David K. Kaupu, a preface by project director Helen Hooipoikamalanai Kaupu Kaowili, and Biblical maps. Besides the trade version, there is a special deluxe edition and a commemorative Kamehameha Schools 125th Anniversary edition. A review copy is available upon request.

Trade Edition: 6 x 9 inches, 1456 pp, flexibound with black bonded leather cover, presentation page, genealogy pages, six biblical maps, ribbon marker, suggested retail $45 Available wherever books are sold, including Logos Bookstore and Na¯ Mea Hawai‘i.

Special Limited Edition: Only 400 copies, hand-numbered, $75, black leather hardcover, bonded leather slipcase, gold corners, gilded edges. Available through Mutual Publishing (732-1709 or [email protected]), Logos Bookstore and Na Mea Hawai‘i.

Mutual Publishing, established in 1974, is Hawai‘i’s largest trade publishing house. It offers one of the largest selections of Hawaiian titles in the Islands, and a full range of private label services. For more information, visit www.mutualpublishing.com Mutual Publishing CONTACT: 1215 Center Street, Ste 210 Jane Gillespie, Mutual Publishing Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96816 Ph: 808-732-1709 Ph: 808-732-1709 Fax: 808-734-4094 Fax: 808-734-4094 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] or Helen Kaowili www.mutualpublishing.com [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE, CONT’D

Brief Account of the History of the Hawaiian Bible (Baibala)

Shortly after his arrival in 1820, the Reverend Hiram Bingham preached his first sermon in Honolulu. He would then labor for the next 19 years to translate the Holy Bible into Hawaiian with the Reverends William Richards, , Artemas Bishop, Jonathan Green, Lorrin Andrews, Ephraim Clark, and along with their Hawaiian counterparts John Papa Ii, , Kane, Kuakini, Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau, and other native Hawaiians. It was a priority for the missionaries that they present the Word of God to the Hawaiian people in their language. To do that they had to transform the oral Hawaiian language into a written language, translate the Scriptures, and teach Hawaiians to read and write in their own language. Their efforts resulted in the publication of the New Testament in 1837 and then in 1839 the first edition of the complete Bible in Hawaiian entitled Ka Palapala Hemolele (The Holy Scriptures). There was an 1843 revision, and in 1868 a major revision by a committee headed by the Reverend Ephraim Clark which produced Ka Baibala Hemolele (The Holy Bible)—the text that we are familiar with today. Because of the Bible’s reverence, its content had to be conveyed in words that were clear, culturally appropriate and respectful. The challenge in translating was to integrate two types of words: • nā ‘ōlelo makuahine—uniquely Hawaiian words that convey cultural values and tradition that define what it is to be Hawaiian. • nā ‘ōlelo pili pono—transliterated words derived from sounds (rather than cultural expressions or thoughts) that convey foreign ideas or concepts into a Hawaiian sense of understanding. The Baibala soon became a central part of the Hawaiian community. Daily morning and evening family reading, discussion, memorization, and prayer time, Pule ‘Ohana, became widely adopted— traditions still continued today in Hawaiian churches. Mutual Publishing CONTACT: 1215 Center Street, Ste 210 Jane Gillespie, Mutual Publishing Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96816 Ph: 808-732-1709 Ph: 808-732-1709 Fax: 808-734-4094 Fax: 808-734-4094 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] or Helen Kaowili www.mutualpublishing.com [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE, CONT’D

Literacy was actively promoted. The respect of Hawaiians for the written word led to a wide- spread interest in learning to read, and for many years the was considered the most literate nation on earth. There was also a strong outpouring of writing that preserved much of our knowledge about traditional Hawaiian culture. The original 1839 edition is now an authentic rare book while the original 1868 edition is extremely difficult and expensive to obtain. When the American Bible Society discontinued its 1994 printing of the 1868 edition, Hawaiian language Bibles became virtually unavailable. To remedy this, in 2002 Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) began the Hawaiian Bible Project aimed at presenting the Baibala in the modern Hawaiian orthography, with ‘okina and kahakō. This was important as the current generation of students were almost exclusively learning the Hawaiian language in its new orthography. PIDF’s first step was to digitize the original editions of the Baibala and make them accessible via the internet. Once this was done the new orthography could be integrated resulting in this new 2012 edition. For students of the Hawaiian language and culture, both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian, the Baibala is now easily available and understandable. This new Baibala is not a new translation but a new edition that respells the text of the original Hawaiian Bible using the modern Hawaiian orthography. As indicated, two additional characters have been added: the ‘okina (glottal stop)—a consonant that had been left out of the set of letters selected by the missionaries in 1826 when they created written Hawaiian; and kahakö—macrons used to mark elongated Hawaiian vowels. (The sounds represented by these characters were always present in the spoken language.) No words have been added or any omitted. Each word, phrase, sentence and passage was considered in its Biblical context and respelled using strict rules and guidelines. Words in the new edition that have fallen out of common use may be unfamiliar to today’s generation of readers. However, they never left the vocabulary of the faithful who congregated regularly in the Kalawina churches established almost two centuries ago. (Statewide there are over 50 Hawaiian churches in the United Church of Christ emanating from the missionary stations and churches of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association; two to three dozen independent Hawaiian Churches; and various churches of other denominations that hold services in Hawaiian.) The Hawaiian language has always been a part of the lives of the faithful who regularly worshipped. This new edition Ka Baibala Hemolele is an important resource to help Hawaiian families and communities to continue or recapture the important practice of gathering around Baibala and being strengthened by its message. ###