French New Testament Thanksgiving Services

Recent thanksgiving services in France and Quebec, Canada marked the launch of the revised French New Testament published by the Trinitarian Bible Society. 

The New Testament was welcomed at a meeting in the historic city of Albi, France with a number of addresses as well as reading from the Scriptures. Several meetings across Quebec, Canada also addressed the question of why a new version is required. An informative address showed the doctrinal problems with the existing French translations drawn from the work of Louis Segond and why the new version was continuing the Reformation legacy in French.

The Scriptures were translated from the biblical Hebrew Masoretic and Greek Received Text into French for the first time in 1535 by Pierre Robert Olivétan. In the 19th century, a team in Switzerland led by Louis Gaussen made a revision of the Bible bringing it closer to the original language texts as the French language had evolved significantly since the original translation. Taking advantage of this Bible which has historically nourished the faith of Protestants for many generations, the Trinitarian Bible Society has chosen this version—known as the Lausanne—to prepare another revision of the Scriptures in French. Extensive changes have been made to bring French tenses and vocabulary into greater conformity with modern usage. 

Approximately 275 million people throughout the world speak French. All five continents have pockets of native French speakers, and it is the official language in 29 countries including France, Algeria, Belgium, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Switzerland.