Origin from 2026
On 24 May 2026, at a special program in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, a member of the Indonesia Branch Committee released the complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Sundanese, in print and digital formats, with audio recordings of most Bible books following. In person attendance reached 1,813, with another 602 joining by videoconference. The translation took about six years, much of the work falling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and serves roughly forty million Sunda speaking people in Indonesia's West Java region. The organization's national spokesperson, Ario Sulistiono, told Indonesian press that the aim was a translation that is accurate, easy to understand and touches the heart, contrasting it with existing Sundanese Bible translations that use older wording many readers no longer relate to easily and that omit the personal name Jehovah. One attendee, identified as Irwan, said hearing the Bible read in Sundanese felt like God speaking directly to him.
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Dates
StatusEstablished marks a completed Bible translation newly reaching Sundanese speakers in their own language, not a claim about the size or growth of Jehovah's Witnesses in Indonesia as a whole, and not the first Indonesian language New World Translation, since Batak Karo, Batak Toba, Javanese and Nias were released separately in 2020. Cross-Tradition Connections
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Spread Event Of
Adds a fact not yet on the map: a completed vernacular Bible translation reaching roughly forty million Sunda speakers in Indonesia, a different kind of institutional reach than this timeline's existing legal ruling and headquarters purchase citations.
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