Scripture Engagement for Translation Advisors

What do translation advisors need to know about Scripture engagement (SE), and why?

Let's look at the 'why' first:

Translation advisors (TAs) are often involved in day-to-day exegesis. They help mother-tongue translators (MTTs) prepare drafts. The MTTs they work with might not know Hebrew or Greek. The TAs then take part in the team check of that draft, which involves other MTTs in the project as well as the TA. Sometimes they are also involved in the coordination of the translation programme. They are very busy people. So why do they need to know about SE? Because:

1. The translation is ultimately for an audience that has felt needs that are not being addressed by the translation programme. Analysing and meeting (or helping to meet) the felt needs of the audience should be the first priority of any mission worker, including TAs.
2. Only about 30% of completed translations are well used.
3. The initial set up of the programme needs to take SE into consideration (it's no good waiting until the end of the programme for this to happen).
4. There might be issues to do with bilingualism and multilingualism to factor into the equation.
5. There is a danger that the team might focus on print products and neglect other important formats such as audio and audio-visual products, or applications.
6. Members of the audience really appreciate Scripture McNuggets. Short portions of Scripture, or adaptations from Scripture. This can help them engage with God through the Scriptures more easily. It's also helpful to think of which books to publish before others. For example, in some projects a panorama of both OT and NT books are translated, rather than a straight NT. Then the gaps are filled in.
7. Contextualisation is more than just contextualisation within the translation. There are issues such as use of the arts, appropriate clothing, and how to deal with competing ideologies, such as polytheism, pantheism, and overtly-strict monotheism (that excludes the idea of God becoming human).
8. Reviewing isn't just a way of improving the translation, it is great PR for your project. You want your project to be a) known about b) bought into by church leaders and other key believers.
9. Comprehension testing is also a great way of getting people to engage with Scripture. A testing session can easily turn into a discipleship or even outreach session. People often ask questions, or share how they have been listening to audio Bible recordings. They want the Bible to change their family, and this comes out in testing sessions.

As for the what, the above list discusses some of the things they need to think about already. What else is needed? 

1. The importance of the team partnering with other stakeholders, whoever they might be. In limited access and unreached people group scenarios these might be local religious leaders. Often other mission partners need to be included in discussions. Where there are churches the stakeholders might be church leaders and other key individuals. If the team is based in one village, how are other villages (and their churches) included in decisions and the benefits of the programme? Perhaps the TA needs to encourage the translators to spend more time in the village(s) promoting the need for local language Scripture? This might mean slowing down the rate of verses translated per month.
2. How to build applications that aren't just thrown together with whatever the team has translated already included, but think about audience issues in terms of artwork, what to call the various parts of the Bible, what to call the Bible itself, and how to lay it all out. Also, what paratextual information needs to be included? This relates to point 7 above, contextualisation.
3. How to choose Key Terms. Again, key stakeholders need to have input.
4. How to choose translators. Their lives need to model the book they are working on. They should internalise each Scripture passage or portion they translate before drafting it so it has become part of their life.
5. Dialect and orthography issues. It's easy to be overly scientific and not practical enough. Literacy specialists can help here.
6. How will the products be distributed? It's tempting to make PDFs and upload them to a website, but what if no one knows about the website? How can it be advertised? Is use of social media an option? Can the team (or a separate media team) create videos, and post them on a YouTube channel the programme creates?
7. Teaching the background to the Bible is so important. It is important for SE reasons as well as for good exegesis. A passage can really come alive once we realise the context that gave rise to it. Perhaps, for instance, the author of that passage was writing in a context where the supposed people of God had turned to false gods? Then polytheism is an issue, and it will apply in modern-day polytheistic contexts. Or, what about submission to authorities. Why did the apostles not always submit to authorities (see Acts)?

There is more that could be discussed, but this is a good starting point. Can you think of any other reasons why TAs need to know about SE? And concrete things they need to be able to think about or do?

Just to say, it could be someone else who is the expert in SE - the programme manager, or one of the translators. It doesn't have to be the TA, but someone needs to think through the issues.

Also, many of us these days talk about Scripture engagement projects that contain translation, literacy, community engagement and church partnership (to quote another SE specialist). If the overall goal of the project is transformed lives, then SE needs to be paramount. That transformation does, of course, need to be holistic, but I've discussed that point in other blog posts...