In 1535, John Calvin was hiding in Basel, Switzerland, yet he was very aware that his fellow reformers were suffering for the gospel in France. The young, 25-year-old John Calvin had fled to Basel after fully embracing the Reformation and committing his life to Christ. While there, he wrote a preface for the French New Testament, a translation of his …
Toward a Theology of Translation, Part 3
In this series on a theology of Bible translation, we are setting forth foundational propositions about God, the Scriptures, and the languages of the world. In the first and second blog posts, we discussed four propositions derived from Scripture. We will briefly summarize these propositions below and then turn to the fifth and final proposition. As we …
The Tower of Babel, Part 3: Noah
Noah is remembered for building the ark and surviving the flood with his family (Genesis 6-8). After the flood, God blessed Noah and his family, and then they left the ark in search of a new life. In the last recorded event of Noah’s life, he got upset with his son Ham and placed a curse on Ham’s son Canaan (Genesis 9:24). Yet we read in Genesis 9:28 that …
Toward a Theology of Translation, Part 2
In this brief series on a theology of Bible translation, we are stepping away from the most common questions about translation. In their place, we are exploring the foundational questions about God and His Word in the language of the nations. In the first blog post, we considered two propositions derived from the Scriptures. First, God reigns. Second, God …
An Open Letter on Behalf of the Bibleless
For several years I lived in northern Cameroon. In this region, I knew people from various ethnic groups and of various religious backgrounds. However, these diverse peoples had in common the fact that they were all, in one degree or another, Bibleless. Most of my neighbors did not have Scriptures in their language. A few had heard that portions or a New …