Magandang Balita Biblia

As there are but a very few translations of the Holy Scriptures in Tagalog, the 'Magandang Balita Biblia' has easily become a very popular version in the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora. Its version of the Psalms was used as the official text of the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours in Tagalog. It is also widely used by those of other denominations in church services and Bible Studies.

According to the Philippine Bible Society, the translators used the Masoretic Text, particularly the third edition of Biblia Hebraica edited by Rudolf Kittel (published in 1937), as the main basis of their Old Testament. However, when there was no satisfactory text that could be used as a basis, the PBS opted to use any of the oldest versions available. These versions are those written in Greek, Syriac or Latin. However, when there still was no other version available, the committee opted to use a modern translation that they deemed suitable.[1]

For the Deuterocanonical Books, the translators used the Septuagint, particularly the edition of Alfred Rahlfs (published in 1949). However, for comparative purposes, the PBS used the first critical edition of the Biblia Sacra prepared by Robert Weber (published in 1969).[1]

When it comes to the New Testament, the translators used the third edition of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (UBS3, published in 1975), save for some parts that were based on a variant reading supported by one or more Greek manuscripts.[1]

The Magandang Balita Biblia is the first Tagalog Bible to use the dynamic equivalence technique. Its aim was to give more emphasis to meaning than to form. Unlike the earlier Ang Biblia, this translation of the Bible used weights and measures that were more familiar to Filipino readers.

Since there was a trend towards Filipinisation during the Marcos Era (the time when the Biblia was published), it was just expected that there was a tension regarding the use of borrowed words. This was, however, changed in the 2005 Edition of the Biblia when the translators chose words like "bag" instead of the more traditional "sisidlán" ("[small] container").

The translators used the more ecumenical "Yahweh" for the tetragrammaton YHWH. This is because Filipinos associated the name "Jehovah" with Protestant leanings (specifically because of the Bible published by Jehovah's Witnesses). Another reason for doing this is to eliminate the confusion on instances where the term "YHWH Elohim" is used; this is translated as "Panginoong Yahweh".

As is the practice in all the Bible translations in the Philippine languages, place names and personal names followed their Spanish counterparts.

The new revision as of 2005, changed some proper names such as Nabucadnosor and Esdras to the semi-anglicised and more recognisable Nebucadnezar and Ezra, respectively. Likewise, the new revision has its footnotes added and had also interspersed the deuterocanonical books in its Catholic versions.

The target of the new revision of 2005 is to modernize the usage of the vocabulary, replacing the classical Tagalog words. Likewise, some words found in the 1980 edition, such as patutot (prostitute), pakakak (trumpet), saserdote (priest), and lebadura (yeast) were considered archaic and 'deep' (with some of Spanish origin) and changed to the more contemporary babaeng nagbebenta ng aliw ("woman selling amusement", a euphemism), trumpeta, pari (originally used for Christian priests), and pampaalsa ("that which causes rising").

Being an ecumenical translation, the liturgical usage of the first edition was upheld by the Catholic Church in the Philippines. This is also the recognised text of most denominations that use Tagalog in the Liturgy, such as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.

• Bible translations into the languages of the Philippines

• Philippine Bible Society
• Magandang Balita Biblia (2012 edition) at Bible Gateway (also available with Deuterocanonicals)