Thesis (DTh (Old and New Testament))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Recent developments in the field of translation studies have shown that a single translation of the Bible cannot be used for all the functions for which people may need a translation of the Bible. Unlike the case in the past when new versions of the Bible were viewed with suspicion, it is now increasingly acknowledged that different types of the Bible are necessary for different communicative functions. While many African communities have only a pioneer mother tongue translation of the Bible, Scripture use reports indicate that in some situations, the mother tongue translations have not been used as it was intended. The writer of this dissertation supports the view that some of the Christians in their respective target language communities do not use available mother tongue translations because they find them to be inappropriate for their needs. In the light of functionalist theories of translation, it is held in this dissertation that people who find existing translations to be unsuitable for their needs may need special alternative translations that are precisely designed to address their needs. The challenge, however, is how to identify the specific type of the alternative translation. Although the need for alternative versions of the Bible has been widely acknowledged, very few studies have been carried out on strategies for designing and producing functional and acceptable alternative translations that are also directly based on the biblical source texts. This study represents part of the necessary effort to identify theoretical strategies for designing and producing alternative translations with special functions.