Who is the Bible for? Who are the intended readers of a Bible translation? To use a more technical term, who is the "audience" in translation? For centuries, it was generally believed that one translation was sufficient for the entire church and, by extension, an entire Christian nation. Yet today, we have hundreds of translations of the Scriptures in …
Bible Translation
10 Affirmations About Bible Translation
The field of Bible translation is filled with theories, principles, frames, and frameworks. Yet when it comes to the relevance of the Scriptures themselves for the task of translation, little is heard beyond references to the Great Commission. What follows are ten affirmations about Bible translation drawn in large part from the Scriptures with the …
What Happens to Christians Without a Bible?
High in the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea, Luke Ketenu wrote a letter requesting a wokman ‘worker’ to come to his community, referring to a missionary who could translate God's Word and teach his people. Luke wrote his letter on May 28, 2004. He had written before, and he will no doubt continue writing. Far too often people groups receive …
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 …
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 …