Di Eerste Boek van Moses genoem Genesis (first edition of the first Bible book translated into the Afrikaans language, 1893)

viii + 136pp.

Book is clean with no inscriptions, white pages and in unread condition. Binding tight. Printed paper wraps with a minor chip at the top of the front panel.

Extremely scarce first edition of the very first Bible book translated into the Afrikaans language.

It is quite fitting, and not at all surprising, that the translators chose Genesis, the first book of the Bible, for this first publication.

In 1893 the members of the First Afrikaans Language Movement decided that an official translation of the first Bible book in Afrikaans should be published. The idea of an Afrikaans Bible was originally put forward by Arnoldus Pannevis twenty years earlier in 1872, but it would take another fifty years before the first complete Bible in the Afrikaans language was published. The first complete Afrikaans Bible is known as the 1933 Bible. This copy of Genesis predates it by 40 years and represents one of the earliest attempts towards the standardisation of the Afrikaans language.

A select group of members of the Afrikaans Movement would meet once a month in the house of Gideon Malherbe to discuss the text and compare their individual attempts at translation. The Rev. S. J. Du Toit chaired the meetings and had the final decision on all suggestions that were put forward. Thus it is not surprising that the bulk of the text betrays his own hand in the matter. What is most conspicuous is the Reverend's unique approach towards spelling - the text is pure Afrikaans yet, at times, somewhat phonetic. Indeed it was to be expected, as Rev. Du Toit believed as firmly in the slogan "We Write As We Speak" as he did in his own faith.

Only 3000 copies of this book were published in the Paarl in 1893 by the legendary firm of D.F. du Toit & Co., - the official publishing house of the First Afrikaans Language Movement.