Skip to main content

Is Our Goal Translation of the Holy Scriptures?

I feel a rant coming on, so beware...

Is our goal the translation of the Holy Scriptures? Most of us would instinctively say, 'Yes!' But I have a question. If our actual goal is transformation of the lives of people in a community's through their engagement with Scripture a) how is it best to achieve that and b) what do we mean by Scripture?

How to Achieve the Goal

The best way of achieving the goal is for the community themselves to be in charge of their own transformation. Now, this means they are in charge of what format, what language, the scope of the work, and who carries it out. It might be that they need input from an external (from the same country, or region) consultant (or consultants), but the community can carry out their own work.

If they're in an area that isn't predominantly Christian, then there are some additional challenges. How can people best be reached? How are they going to be discipled into salvation? Who can the team work with i.e. who is going to be sympathetic to the goals of the team, to see the Kingdom of God established amongst that community?

Usually the best way to start is to study the culture and worldview of the community:

  • What are their art forms?
  • What are their beliefs and practices?
  • Do they believe in a high God, even if they are polytheists or pantheists i.e. is there an 'unknown God' that we can talk about?
  • What kind of technology and media do they use in both their local language and the LWC - the  language of wider communication (or lingua franca)?
  • What are the domains of use of these languages (local and LWC)?
  • How do people communicate? 
  • How are people trained and educated?
  • If there is a church, what languages are used for a) worship b) preaching c) notices d) small group fellowships?
  • etc.
Once we have some answers to these questions we can begin to think of a good way forward, in terms of achieving transformation.

What do we Mean by Scripture?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Scripture is defined as:

'1. The sacred writings of Christianity contained in the Bible.

1.1 The sacred writings of a religion other than Christianity.' (emphasis mine)

'Of course!' we all say. Yet often we talk about translation of Scripture before we talk about Scripture engagement. That means that we are talking about a print product before we even start! It might, therefore, to be better to talk about the message communicated in Scripture. God's plan of salvation. Missio Dei (the mission of God).

Since, of course, this means talking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and so on it's best to begin by telling stories based on Old Testament narrative. They need to know about the LORD, called 'Yahweh', who Israel worshipped. They also need to hear about the exile and partial restoration of the people of Judah to Jerusalem and it's surrounding region, and the expectation of a Messiah (anointed, chosen one) who will bring in the nations. Once people have grasped these stories, perhaps orally, they are ready to hear the message about Jesus the Messiah. So we tell them the evangel, the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once they have a good grasp of who Jesus is, and have, hopefully, come to faith and trust in him as Saviour, and made him their Lord, we would hope to see a church established, if there isn't one already. If there is a church, then the question would be how can people be discipled to maturity in Christ? What Scripture engagement needs to take place for this to happen, and in what language(s). How much local language Scripture do they need, and in what format? i.e. it still may not be print.

So, rant over, we can go back to our jobs. Or can we? If you're involved in Bible translation, take a minute to think and pray about how much of the above needs to happen where you are. Who do you need to talk to and partner with? The job is too huge for just one organisation to be involved in. We need multiple partners working together to achieve the end of transformation of communities, and the growth of God's Kingdom round the world. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asset Based Bible Translation (ABBT)

Many of you will have heard of asset-based community development (ABCD). How can Bible translation programmes be asset based, rather than deficit based? The best way to look at this is a comparison table: Deficit based Asset based Driven by outsiders Driven by the community Outside funding Community funded Done to meet a need Done to help the community grow Quality control done by a consultant Community checked and approved Control from outside-in Lead by stepping back Products not accepted? Products are accepted Little engagement Engagement with products Scientific Organic Not sustainable Sustainable Of course many translation programmes these days are neither one nor t'other, they are somewhere between these two extremes. Nevertheless, this illustrates a point, and shows that the current
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 it is the idea that seed was scatted by throwing it from a bag carried round the farmer's shoulder. This could be explained in the para-
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