"What translators rather dryly refer to as looking for key terms is in fact an exciting theological reflection on God’s revelation to us. Things which are unclear or opaque in one language or culture become crystal clear when expressed in another." —Eddie Arthur
Bible Translation
"Language is more than just a string of words; it is a cumulative articulated coordinate of ideas. With nothing behind it or before it, language evaporates." —Lamin Sanneh
Just two years ago, we were completing a round of research and on-the-ground investigation on two fronts and wondering what steps to take next.
In Colombia, the brothers had heaps of data about dozens of language groups, all with real needs. Anabaptist churches willing to get involved...
The Word of God is precious in any language. With spiritual poverty evident all around the world, how do All-Nations teams decide where to focus their efforts?
No Scripture
Several hundred thousand people in Indonesia speak Sungai,* but...
I stood up to stretch my back and mop the sweat off my face. Stooping and bending to work in the millet field with a sleepy toddler on my back was tiring. I certainly didn’t have the stamina of my neighbors who could work all morning in the blazing sun with only an early morning cup of gruel...
In an exercise at Camp Week 2020, Adam Boyd gave participants the opportunity to translate the Lord's Prayer in 15 minutes. Not from Greek. Just from the English we know into English without theological key terms. Now that's an exercise that would probably be good for you too!
Adam shared...
"The Bible addresses issues that missionaries don’t. People in different situations see things in the Bible that others miss. Missionaries come with a whole load of cultural baggage and they will never be able to see the Bible in the way that people from a very different culture will. By making...
"One of the great blessings of being involved in Bible translation is that you get to wrestle with expressing God’s word in other languages and as you do, you begin to see things clearly that were, up till that point, somewhat opaque." —Eddie Arthur
If you use electronics much, you have probably at some point come across a translation program. These are computer programs that take text (or voice) from one language and translate it into another. This is quite handy for someone who is traveling in a foreign country and can’t read the road...
"The Christian approach to translatability strikes at the heart of such Gnostic tendencies, first by contending that the greatest and most profound religious truths are compatible with everyday language, and second, by targeting ordinary men and women as worthy bearers of the religious message...