Twenty books, and what comes next

The second phase of the Kom Old Testament project ran from March 2023 to February 2026, and it is now complete. Thirteen books were translated in that time: Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther, Amos, Obadiah and Micah. Each one went the whole way through exegesis and first draft, team check, community testing, back translation and quality assurance.

Taken together with the seven books of the first phase, twenty books of the Old Testament are now translated into Kom. All four Gospels have been revised as well, so that the Old and New Testaments read consistently, with the same names and the same terms throughout.

Printing every translated book is not always possible, so the project publishes its work on this website instead. Checked and unchecked drafts alike are available for the community to read and respond to. That is deliberate: reading is how the translation gets tested.

This site has been rebuilt around that. Every translated chapter can now be read directly, in the Kom orthography, on a phone, without downloading anything first.

Joseph Merrick Baptist Church in Fundong and many Roman Catholic churches use Kom Scripture for Sunday readings. Older people who do not read have shown a particular love for hearing Scripture in Kom. On social media, people quote the Kom text to make a point or to express strong feeling.

Kimbi Paul, a Bible translation consultant of Kom origin, regularly records devotionals in Kom, which are valued by Kom people in the diaspora. Pastor Nkain Evarate, a former translator now studying in the United States, has brought Kom Scripture to many Kom people living there.

The team themselves use the drafts each morning for devotions. Passages are chosen by Rev Jam Chahbih Patrich, who gives the devotional in English while the Old Testament passages are read from the Kom drafts.

Nearly all the narrative books of the Old Testament have now been translated. A third phase has been proposed, and is under review. It would turn the team's attention to the major prophets and to some of the wisdom books. Work on Daniel has already begun.

Alongside the translation itself, the project continues to train literacy and Sunday school teachers, run literacy classes both in Kom land and in the towns where Kom people live, and carry memory verses in the Kom cultural diary, which has been published every year since 2020.