AVB — Illuminating Hearts and Unifying Peoples

The AVB began with a burden for a high quality translation of the Bible in proper Malay and an accurate rendering of the original texts. Besides the tight control on its linguitic accuracy, painstaking attention to the beauty of the Malay language have helped contributed to a highly readable AVB in fluent Malay, even becoming the most popular Bible for a new generation to enjoy God's Word. 

Historical Moments

The AVB was historically significant — in 2016, it became as the first formal-equivalent translation of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia. 

A few years later, the AVB reached an ecumenical milestone with the translation of the Deuterocanonical Books as a companion to the AVB. The launch of the  AVB Edisi Katolik by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia in Januari 2024 is a high-water mark for Church unity and ecumenism. 

In another equally historical moment, AVB is finalised as the official Bahasa Malaysia liturgical text for the Catholic regions of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei (Ref: https://www.rvasia.org/church-asia/alkitab-versi-borneo-be-used-official-liturgical-text-malaysia-singapore-and-brunei ). 

The ground-breaking move by the prelates of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (CBCMSB) is not surprising. Bahasa Melayu is the singular unifying language of the Malay archipelago, which consequently qualified it to be promoted as the medium of communication by both the Dutch and British colonial governments, in contrast with with the adoption of a colonial language in some colonised nations (Ref: https://www.abim.org.my/bahasa-melayu-bahasa-persatuan-di-rantau-nusantara/ ).

Bahasa Melayu is the language of many people groups across the region and not the preserve of nationalists of a particular nation. And the AVB, as the Bible in the common standard language in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, is rightfully elevated as a unifying liturgical text region-wide. 

The AVB — God’s Word in the Language of the Region