Ross Jones home page

Fetishism, Islam & Christianity

Borgu – History

Borgu - Ethnic groups

Coreference marking and logophoricity

Explaining Jesus to Muslims

Jesus bhakti marga

Hindu & Christian ideas of God

The kingdom of God



Dr. Ross Jones, Linguist and Bible translator Ross was born in Maffra, Victoria, Australia. After attending school there and at Scotch College in Melbourne he qualified as a pharmacist. He was born again of God's Spirit at the age of 22 and his life was totally transformed by Jesus Christ. After initial training at Murrumbeena Baptist church and OAC Ministries he attended Melbourne Bible Institute in 1966-67 where he received a Licentiate of Theology. While there he was convincingly called by God to be a Bible translator in Dahomey (now Benin) in West Africa. He has been a missionary with SIM International since 1968. He married Joy in 1972 and they have four sons. They worked in Benin until 1985, when they returned home to Melbourne for the education of their four sons. Since that time Ross has been returning to West Africa for 3 months each year. Bible translation in Benin While in Benin his main task was the translation of the Bible into the Boko language, of which there are over 100,000 speakers. He was also involved in running a medical clinic, evangelism, church planting, starting a Boko Bible school and literacy. The Boko people have been influenced by Islam for centuries, but we thank God that there are now churches in most of their villages. The Boko Bible was published in 1991. "The Kingdom that God Established" is a paper written by Ross which illustrates how difficult it can be to translate Biblical concepts in an accurate and meaningful way. "Explaining Jesus to Muslims" is a set of 20 tracts which present the truth about Jesus (Issa) to the Muslim mind. "Fetishism, Islam & Christianity" contrasts these religions of West Africa.
Bible translation in Nigeria In 1992 Ross did a survey over the border in Nigeria and found 100,000 people speaking Boko or two closely related languages, Bokobaru and Busa. Since that time he has adapted the Boko Bible to these related languages using a computer program designed for that purpose and has spent 3 months each year in Nigeria working with mother tongue speakers. The Bokobaru and Busa Scriptures are now undergoing final checking. Two papers on this relatively unknown area of Nigeria and Benin called Borgu are "History of Borgu" and "Ethnic groups of present day Borgu." In 1998 Ross was awarded Doctor of Philosophy in linguistics from Monash University. His thesis is entitled "The Boko/Busa language cluster" and is a description of the three languages. "Coreference marking in Boko - Logophoricity or not?" is one chapter that describes a complex linguistic phenomenon.
Befriending Indians in Melbourne In Melbourne Ross encourages Christian Indian students and conducts several weekly Bible studies with them. He also befriends Hindu and Muslim students in an effort to communicate the good news about Jesus with them. “Jesus bhakti marga” is designed to help people with a Hindu worldview to understand salvation through Jesus, while “Hindu & Christian concepts of God” compares Christian monotheism with Hindu pantheism.