Objections to Bible Translation

 I have heard many objections to the hard work of Bible translation over the years. Here are some of them:

1. Just teach everyone English and give them an English Bible to read (underlying assumption: most people in the world either speak English or want to learn it)
2. It's all been done already (this is just based on a lack of knowledge of how many languages there are)
3. Translate the ‘original’ King James (assumption: the King James is the first ever Bible)
4. Work only in cities (assumption: this is the strategy Paul adopted, and if it's good enough for Paul it's good enough for us)
5. Languages are dying out anyway (assumption: by the time you translate the Bible into a given language, there won't be any speakers of that language left)
6. It's all too much effort, the funds could better be spent improving people's lives (assumption: people don't need the Bible as much as they need sanitation etc.)
7. Ethnos in Revelation 7:9 refers to Gentiles, not people groups
8. We shouldn't be working where there are major religions (assumption: all religion leads to God)

Let's take these one-by-one:

1. Just teach everyone English and give them an English Bible to read - simply not true. Only about 15% of the world speak English fluently. Most people we have met while working overseas, unless they work in a certain limited number of jobs (tourism, university languages departments, hospitality) only speak the national language, their own language if they are from a minority group, and perhaps a language of wider communication such as Russian. I have met people who don't speak any Russian, even men, and definitely no English. Those that know English usually learn Russian first. (BTW, I once knew a Hebrew teacher who thought we should 'just' teach everyone Hebrew, and let them read the Bible in the language it was written in! It's a similar argument, though it only works for the Old Testament.)
2. It's all been done already - there are about 7000 languages in the world, and only 736 or so, that's just over 10%, have a complete Bible. You can read the full statistics here. I've put the graphic from that page below.
3. Translate the ‘original’ King James. The Bible was first translated into Greek in the 3rd century BC. Since then it has been translated into Aramaic, Latin, and many other languages. The King James version wasn't even the first English Bible. The first was by John Wycliffe (and team), then William Tyndale (and team). Tyndale's was the first to be translated from Greek and Hebrew, rather than Latin. You can read my history of Bible translation here.
4. Work only in cities  - this worked for Paul because he was only working in parts of the world that spoke Greek as a language of wider communication. Even so, he came across language problems at times (Acts 21:27-22:29 where Paul addresses the crowd in Aramaic). Nevertheless, it is useful to think of 'gateway languages' - the key languages that need to have resources about the Bible in them, so people who speak other languages, but know that gateway language, can access resources in a language that's familiar to them.
5. Languages are dying out anyway  - since I have joined SIL, the number of languages of the world has increased from about 6,700 to 7,000, but okay, they might one day start decreasing. We are very careful, these days, not to begin projects in languages which have already shifted to another language i.e. the young people no longer speak the same language as their parents or grandparents.
6. It's all too much effort, the funds could better be spent improving people's lives - we want people to flourish every area of their lives. In SIL we are concerned for issues of justice (for the poor), as well as issues of Bible engagement. Both are important.
7. Ethnos in Revelation 7:9 refers to Gentiles, not nations - except that it also mentions languages, and even tribes and peoples. The focus in this verse seems to be on people groups, though, as is often the case, the chapter starts by describing how many Jews will be there before the throne and before the Lamb, which might imply ethnos as referring to Gentiles - but then it is unpacked further as languages, tribes and peoples.
8. We shouldn't be working where there are major religions - obviously we show high respect to people's beliefs, and take them very much into consideration. Bible translation in areas where most people are Muslims, for instance, is often carried out in partnership with Muslim clerics and the translators themselves are often Muslims. Nevertheless, the average secularised Muslim is often a bit like a secularised Westerner - they hope that God might be somehow 'on their side' when it comes to the final judgement. This means a lot of ordinary people don't really have a developed faith in God, and don't really read their Scriptures (actually they memorise them, chant them, etc. without understanding them, unless they know classical Arabic, which is not the case for most Muslims around the world).

Conclusion:

In terms of seeing God's kingdom around the world grow, Bible translation is still a key strategy. Before we dismiss Bible translation as work for a few egg-heads, let's think about how important it is for ordinary people to have access to the Bible in a language they know well, preferably the one they speak at home. Once that goal has been achieved, we really will be out of a job (for a while, at least)...