Skip to main content

Scripture Engagement

Welcome to this new Scripture Engagement blog! What is Scripture Engagement, you ask? We in SE encourage people to access the scriptures in whatever language and media is most appropriate. It also relates to other areas of Bible translation such as planning, local ownership, and bilingualism. It is therefore very practical and not at all ivory tower.



  • Planning and local ownership: local churches and the believers in them are often the best people to decide the way forward in terms of planning for SE, as they know what will work and what won't work. 
  • Bilingualism: if someone speaks one language at home and another in the market or at work, in what language should we give them a Bible? The answer is not straight-forward and may relate to their education level. For instance they may have been educated in the lingua franca of the region but would rather speak access the Bible in their mother tongue, in which case videos and audio versions of the Bible might be most appropriate.

Another whole area is orality and oral storying. Many cultures prefer oral communication to written, and we need to take that into account. Literacy used to be seen as the main way forward, but in practice it may be better to begin telling stories and recording audio versions of the scriptures.

So what is the purpose of this blog? It is to talk about some of these issues, one by one. The primary audience is those involved as linguists, translators, and so on in Bible translation. Others such as missiologists may also be interested. 

Comments

  1. Stairwell Theology221 January 2015 at 00:49

    Your ivory tower looks more like stone than ivory! Re planning and local ownership: if the Scriptures are for the whole community (and not just the believers) what role should non-believers and non-church-goers have in deciding the way forward?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dawut19 March 2015 at 08:44

    The best strategy is to find the person of peace (Luk 10) to get things started amongst the community. They might become your first SE worker!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Reasons to Make Scripture Impact a Priority

This is a response to some recent posts about the importance of Bible translation in fulfilling the Great Commission. Yes, there is much truth in that, but more is needed. It really helps to have Scripture impact (or 'engagement') the top priority, the 'car' as it were, with translation the engine that sits beneath the bonnet. Not all drivers need to know all the details of the engine, but they need to be able to control the vehicle. The most important thing is to be able to get from A to B (see point 2), rather than knowing how the engine works. These are the ten reasons to make Scripture impact a priority: To help people flourish in their communities. There are all kinds of needs that need to be met for people to flourish. One is clean water. Another is good sanitation. Peace (lack of war), and freedom of religion. Access to education etc. etc. For a community to truly flourish they also need access to the Scriptures in a language (or languages) that they understand a...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Flow Chart for Bible Translation (a Relevance Theory Approach)

One of the current theories behind modern translation work is Relevance Theory. [1] Here is a flow chart that explains the process often used to produce a draft when using such an approach: *Make sure your translation committee makes the decision as to what kind of translation they want. A domesticated translation is one that submits to dominant values in the target language [2] whereas a foreignized translation is one that is happy to import foreign terms and ideas from Hebrew, Greek, or the language of wider communication such as the Greek term baptizo . The chart looks something like this: Text                                   Communicated Ideas                  Context A sower went out to sow  A farmer went out to sow grain   People scattered/threw seed etc. The text has very little information, but behind i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asking the Right Questions in Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement Planning

If you want to get useful answers you have to ask the right questions. Do you agree? Yes, of course you do. In the Bible translation world we often ask a very narrow question when planning for the next stage of work: 'What would you like to see translated next?' Now, if you simply want to translate, and that's it, that question is fine, but what if you want to see some kind of result from your translation work? What if, for instance, you want to see transformation occur? Then a more powerful question to ask the community and positive stakeholders in the project would be: 'What kingdom goals would you like to see reached?' These kingdom goals should meet felt needs of the community - they should solve problems that are apparent to most or all in the community. See below on how those can be met. If that's too abstract, then try, 'What kinds of things, in your extended family, do you tend to worry about?' This will help establish some felt needs, from which...
7 comments
Read more