19 replies to this topic

[User from Japan]

Hello! Greetings from Japan! We are loving the wonderful blessings Accordance has for us over here. We have been hoping for some time that the version of the Japanese Bible that we use, called the Kougo or Colloquial Version, could be added to the Bibles offered. If there is any way we can help in converting this Bible for use in Accordance, we'd be delighted to do so. We use the Kougo Bible everyday, so it would be a tremendous help to us. Can anyone help us? Thanks!

[Leanne I.]

Yes! I am also working in Japan, and would greatly appreciate the addition of the Kougo Version of the Bible. For us, it would make your already great
software that much more useful.

[Ken Simpson]

Welcome to our Japanese brothers and sisters! It's great to have you with us.

Usually the first thing we need to know is if and where an e-text is available. Is it in current publication? Do you know who the copyright holder is?

Again, welcome!

[User from Japan]

Thank you for your welcome and your help!

We contacted the Japan Bible Society this morning to ask about e-text for the Kougo Version of the Japanese Bible. They answered initially that when the Kougo Version of the Japanese Bible was published in 1955, there were no digital files, so there is no perfect e-text available at this time. This is understandable. We mentioned then that several companies have added the Kougo Bible to their Apps for iOS devices, so there must be digital files available somewhere. They kindly offered to check it out and let us know. We'll get back to you as soon as we can with further information.

It is a thrill to us to think of having our version available in Accordance one of these days! Thank you for your kindness!

[Ken Simpson]

Hi again,
thanks for doing the research. Getting a particular Bible into an Accordance module is not a straightforward task even when a good etext is available. (I have found some pdf's here http://bible.salterrae.net/kougo/pdf/). I am only a demonstrator, and I'm in Australia, and I don't speak for Accordance the company. I know the developers are extremely busy at the moment with some amazing stuff that we hope to release and announce soon, plus developing a foreign language text requires someone to have a good knowledge of that language. I don't know if we have any Japanese readers at the moment.

Alternatively, if you can find a good etext, you can make your own user bible of your etext (though I don't know how hard that is with a non-European script). The procedure for making your own user bible is in the help files.

file:///Applications/Accordance.app/Contents/Resources/Accordance%20Help/Default.htm

[User from Japan]

Wow! Thank you so much for the information you shared. It’s terrific! Do you speak Japanese? Those PDF files you sent the link to are completely in Japanese! We've read through the information you sent, and are excited about the possibilities. There shouldn't be a worry about Japanese readers to work with this. We will be happy to read the Japanese files.

This afternoon we heard back from the Japan Bible Society. They said they are checking on it and will get back to us next week with further word on the e-text files for the Kougo Bible. After we hear back from them, we can decide how to proceed with our project.

We're very pleased and eager about the future for us to enjoy the Kougo Bible in Accordance! I enjoy having the English and Japanese Bibles side by side as I study – which I can do on my iOS device. Being a native English speaker, I enjoy the English KJV personally for my studies. But everything that we share is spoken in Japanese, so we love being able to work with both languages together. Those in our ministry who are native Japanese speakers are not yet able to taste the joys of Accordance Bible Software, because of course their foremost need is the Japanese Kougo Version of the Bible. We’re eager for them to enjoy User Notes, the Atlas, Timeline, Dictionaries and many other special things that Accordance does so well. Syncing everything with our iOS devices is marvelous, too. It’s such a help when we travel – which we do a lot.

Many thanks for your continued help and encouragement! We are deeply grateful for all!

[Ken Simpson]

Sadly my language skill is limited to Greek, Hebrew, a little Aramaic, some French and a smattering of German. I do know konichiwa!

Any real discussion about development has to be done with Helen and Rick, and I know they are very busy just at the moment. I do want to encourage you to get to work on making your own Bible as a starter. If it becomes something that is useful, maybe it could be distributed more widely.

Anyway, as I said, I am not a developer, or part of the management, but I think it would be fantastic to have a good Japanese Bible in Accordance! (of course keying it for original languages if that was wanted, would be a huge work!)

Can I also suggest you edit your user profile so we can get a name and a photo?

Look forward to hearing more from you.

[Rick Bennett]

Do let us know what you hear back on the e-text, and we can go from there. We also like to gauge interest here, so if others would like this translation please chime in.

Note also that we have about finished development of the Shinkyodoyaku. I imagine sometime in the coming weeks it will be ready. That isn't the exact translation you requested, but thought I would mention it.

Regarding reading Japanese, it may not be that necessary; I was able to do most of the work on the other one with Google Translate, and had some help from a friend for more difficult parts.

Thanks for the feedback.

[User from Japan]

Hello everyone!

What a delight! Today's mail brought word from the Japanese Bible Society, affirming that they DO have the e-text files of the Kougo Version of the Japanese Bible!

They wrote asking that we contact the Person in Charge at Accordance Bible Software, asking that Accordance would contact them directly, to inquire about the use of these files. We forwarded the letter to Helen Brown, with a translation of what was written.

If there is something more we can do to help, we are eager to do so!

Say! The new version of Accordance 10 is BEAUTIFUL! Thank you SO MUCH for ALL your work on that project! You did a great job! We are really enjoying it.

[User from Japan]

Thank you for your continued care and help. I’m sorry to have lapsed from the scene for a while. We were away for several weeks of wonderfully renewing services around Japan. Then I fell and broke my shoulder, which is now immobile and healing. Thankfully I have one good hand for work, so if possible I’d like to see about continuing on this delightful project. I have searched online for public files of the Kougo Version of the Bible, hoping to see if I could convert it using Accordance’s handy Import for User Bibles. Unfortunately, the best etext I could find was an epub version. I couldn’t get this to work. Might anyone have any more suggestions for us? Thanks a lot!

[Bob Kuo]

The EPUB format is actually just a bunch of HTML files that are zipped up. You can change the extension of the file to .zip and extract the HTML files and then edit them. Accordance will gladly import HTML files and turn them into user tools.

If that doesn't make any sense, I'd be happy to help - send me a direct message.

P.S. Some quick searching turned up this page - http://bible.salterr...t/en/index.html which appears to have Kougo already in HTML with Unicode. Would those files work?

[Bob Kuo]

After some work, User from Japan and I were able to get a text that import cleanly into Accordance as a Unicode User Bible.

Ken - I know that you are now head over the Accordance Exchange. Would it be OK for me to upload the finished product there?

[Ken Simpson]

Hi Bob,
you are welcome to upload it, since everything comes to me before posting for checking. When you do, could you please tell me the copyright status and how you determined it? Also, did you contact the e-text owner (if there is one) since e-texts are different to published texts.
Thanks for the great work Bob and "UFJ"!

[Bob Kuo]

Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier.

 

On the site it says:

 

 

Those texts are based on the Colloquial Japanese Bible Published in 1954/1955 ( whose copyright is expired at 1 Jan 2006 ). Note that the texts currently available from the publisher are slightly different from those published in 1954/1955 , and their copyrights may be still active.

 

I've sent an email asking for clarification if the e-text is still under copyright.  They also have a number of Japanese texts as well as Sword modules so I imagine they are all OK with this.  I'll post here if I hear anything back from them.

[Ken Simpson]

Thanks Bob, that's brilliant. Hope the reply is a positive one!

[Bob Kuo]

Just got an answer from the administrator:

 

 

No, those texts _in_our_site_ are all in the public domain.

( Some other variants of kougo-yaku ( e.g. the 1975 vesion/
 1984 version / 2002 version ) may still be under the copyright.
I think the differences are very small, and does not affect the
validity of the copyrights, but the publisher still claims the
copyrights of those texts except the 1954/1955 versions. )

 

So the e-text is public domain.

 

Ken,

 

I've uploaded the module to Accordance Exchange.

 

Bob

[User from Japan]

Hello, Bob!

 

Thank you so much for your wonderful help with the Japanese Kougo Bible.  We've been using it everyday since you set it up for us – and others of our ministry have begun using it as well. It's GREAT to have the version we use in our services!  I especially love being able to set up Accordance with the KJV, the Kougo Bible and my User Notes all on the screen while I study. It’s a tremendous help to us!  THANK YOU for making it possible!  

 

There have been quite a number of verses omitted in the Kougo version I made from the files we downloaded from the Internet, so I’m eager to see if the new version you made has all the verses!  How can we download your version?  I checked on the Accordance Exchange, under User Bibles, but didn’t find it.  Can you direct me to it, please? 

 

We also have another question.  Is there any way we can get our Accordance User notes to accept notes we write in Japanese?  So far all we get is funny symbols with no meaning when we type in Japanese.

 

Thanks so much for everything!

[bkMitchell]

Both, the Shinkyodoyaku Seisho and the Shinkaiyaku Seisho modules sold by Accordance are Mac OS X and iOS only.

So, I am wondering if the user created 口語訳聖書 (Kougo Bible) work in the Emulator?

 

[Helen Brown]

No, none of the Unicode Bibles are supported on the emulator, but they will be on the upcoming native Windows version.

[bkMitchell]

No, none of the Unicode Bibles are supported on the emulator, but they will be on the upcoming native Windows version.

 

Thanks! This is great news.