Imagine Life Without His Words: Why We Translate the Bible

Ten years in the past, my spouse and I moved from the United States to France (to research French), and then to Cameroon, Central Africa, as not too long ago minted members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Our hearts had been gripped by Paul’s logic in Romans 10:14–17: despatched types are desired to proclaim the word of Christ, but quite a few do not even have obtain to a word of Scripture that can be so proclaimed. And we had been deeply impacted to discover that the optimum concentration of languages needing Bible translation to commence is in Asia and Africa. We sensed God foremost us to relocate to Africa.

In Cameroon, we before long discovered ourselves location up house with a newborn in a village in purchase to give exegetical aid in an energetic Previous Testomony translation project, amid the Funom men and women (pseudonym utilised to protect the work). A charismatic, visionary chief and ardent follower of Jesus named Kimal was serving as the president of their language committee. Irrespective of it being a stormy day for the duration of rainy year, he and other Funom brothers greeted us on arrival with big smiles and heat hearts, and we joined them in the translation perform. There is no doubt about it: these brothers who are dedicating their extremely life to the translation endeavor are the Wycliffes, Tyndales, and Luthers of the Funom people. What an honor it was to serve with them! My spouse and I experienced a great missions honeymoon. For a month.

Fact speedily established in. My wife, pregnant at the time with our next child, contracted malaria. We have been physically and psychologically stretched to the max as we set up our residence even though studying the language, assisting in the translation, and adapting to the tradition and customs all over us. Individuals almost everywhere had seemingly insurmountable demands — actual physical, non secular, and a lot more. And phone calls to prayer from the region’s the greater part religion sounded out five occasions a working day, from predawn right up until sunset. We promptly selected to change these phone calls into reminders to earnestly pray that God would refresh us with the gospel, go folks to submit to his kingship, and bring about his word to “speed ahead and be honored” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Even in the midst of all these worries, it was a pleasure to be with the Funom.

“We had to evacuate owing to security fears. But the translated Scriptures would remain.”

A little above a yr later, our business experienced us evacuate due to security worries. We experienced to go away, but the translated Scriptures would keep. And the Funom continue carrying out the Great Fee with the formerly translated New Testament in hand when doing work on the Previous Testament translation. We do not at present reside in Cameroon, but now we’re investing in quite a few language groups throughout Africa and Asia as I serve as a translation marketing consultant. We praise God for the privilege of assisting eighteen language teams so far have access to much more Scripture.

Paradox of Translation Now

The task and worth of Bible translation can effortlessly be misplaced on us as English speakers. With far more than 500 Bible translations in English by yourself, it is quick to take them for granted and to fail to remember the prosperous record of Bible translation. Above a thousand many years ago, students like Bede and Aldhelm (seventh and eighth generations), Wycliffe (fourteenth century), and Tyndale (sixteenth century) translated the Bible (or parts) into English. The English Bible is section of a robust custom of Bible translation for a community that would in any other case not recognize effectively (or at all) the Scriptures: Greek (Septuagint, Outdated Testomony), Aramaic (Targums, Aged Testament), Latin (Vulgate), Syriac (Peshitta), Coptic, and far more.

Whilst speakers of languages with this sort of translations get pleasure from this prosperous custom, that is not the circumstance for around 2,000 of the 7,352 regarded dwelling languages, which do not have a one phrase of Scripture. Such is the paradox we live in these days: an extravagant banquet of Bible translations accessible in languages of broader communication (like English) but Bible poverty between practically a 3rd of the world’s language groups.

Why Translate the Bible?

Bible translation is not just a person missions system. It is essential to all missions endeavours, for the reason that obeying the Good Commission assumes the activity of Bible translation: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19–20). However the earliest textual content of these verses is in Greek, the point that we can study, preach, examine, and memorize these verses today in English is a testomony to Bible translation.

“God gave us a whole E-book, not just the closing chapters. People are craving for the full Bible.”

In addition, disciple-making consists of educating all nations “to notice all that I [Jesus] have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). This kind of teaching entails speaking phrases in an understandable language, in buy to connect Jesus’s commands. How significantly a lot more, then, is Bible translation important considering the fact that Jesus commanded us to instruct “all nations” (which means ethnolinguistic men and women teams), a lot of of whom do not nonetheless have just one word of the Bible translated. That Jesus requires his disciples to observe all that he commanded — not just some easy-to-have an understanding of principles in a overseas language — even further indicates the business and necessity of Bible translation.

The good missionary-dispatching paragraph of Romans 10:14–21 contains a related assumption. Romans 10:17 states, “Faith arrives from listening to, and listening to by way of the term of Christ.” The translated phrase is instrumental for people to really understand the concept of Christ in buy to belief in him. This verse also applies to far more than 400 deaf language teams without the need of Scripture, who do not hear with their physical ears but see as a further signer signals. Just as the authentic recipients of Paul’s letter to the Romans needed someone to browse (with their eyes) and connect it, so also right now all who would trust in the Lord — like the deaf — will need the translated Scriptures communicated to them.

What is at Stake

What is eventually at stake in Bible translation is the praise and glory of the slain Lamb. Revelation envisions a kingdom individuals from each and every tribe and folks and language (Revelation 5:9 7:9). Bible translation aims at our God and the Lamb getting far more and a lot more praise as the translated word impacts ethnolinguistic persons groups all all over the entire world.

Hence, for your monolingual English-speaking neighbor, the monolingual speaker of a language in a rural village, and lots of multilingual speakers who have God’s word in only their 2nd or 3rd language, Bible translation is crucial to subsequent Jesus’s fee. As multilingual speakers and signers (deaf) testify, it is simply not plenty of to teach them a language of wider communication with translated Scripture (whether English, French, Spanish, Burmese, or American Indication Language), considering the fact that that is not a language that speaks to their hearts.

Translate the Outdated Testament Way too

Bible translation usually starts with focused efforts on translating the New Testomony, and for very good purpose. For instance, the New Testament documents the new-covenant fulfillment of outdated-covenant anticipations, the function and words and phrases of Messiah Jesus as the apex of redemptive background (Hebrews 1:1–4), and crystal clear articulations of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1–11). We praise God that 1,550 language groups have the New Testomony accessible and 2,908 translation/language programs are at present energetic (by comparison, 696 language teams have comprehensive Bibles). Nonetheless, God gave us a total E book, not just the remaining chapters.

“Bible translation is not just a single missions tactic. It is essential to all missions attempts.”

Now, language teams on each and every continent are yearning for the full Bible, which include the very first three-fourths (which we connect with the Old Testomony). The first-covenant Scriptures were being not just for God’s 1st-covenant folks. The Outdated Testomony is for Christians, to receive “instruction,” “encouragement,” and “hope” (Romans 15:4). To have the opportunity to declare “the full counsel of God” (Functions 20:27). To know how Paul can declare “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Cannot Hold out for the Complete Bible

I’ll under no circumstances fail to remember the working day my spouse and I were being strolling in the fields in Cameroon with Kimal. The Funom had celebrated the publication of their New Testament five many years prior, but he passionately instructed us that the people today are eager for the complete Bible: “It took more than thirty years to translate the New Testament. We simply cannot wait around that long for the Previous Testament.”

Bible translation is for the Funom in Africa. It is for the church in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. And it is for the Ethiopian woman who celebrated every single church competition her whole everyday living, but wept upon listening to an audio recording of Jesus’s crucifixion in her possess language, indicating, “I didn’t know Christ died this way.”

Bible translation is not an optional missions technique it is critical. It is assumed, as we have witnessed, in central missions paragraphs of the New Testament, and quite a few language teams prolonged for not just aspect of God’s uncovered word but for the complete Bible — equally New and Aged Testaments. Oh, how important Bible translation is for the world church!