Drawing from the experiences of another continent and other eras, the author of this comprehensive study of different Afrikaans translations of the Bible gives a clear picture of the interaction between the production of significant cultural texts and their immediate social and cultural environment. The detailed contrastive analysis of specific lines of the Bible in successive translations, in one case to justify apartheid and in another to enhance a new social consciousness of racial and gender inequality, is one of the best illustrations of how translations and their cultural environment shape and are shaped by each other.