Scripture Engagement

When translating the New Testament from Greek into the various languages around the world that still need it, translators have to make a decision. Which manuscript are they going to work from? Often, the policy by Bible translation organisations such as SIL, UBS and IBT is to translate from the critical text (the latest UBS or Nestle-Aland version). Modern-day scholarship would support such a decision. The assumption is that the shorter and simpler texts are likely to be the earliest. These are mostly from Alexandria in Egypt. The longer and more complex texts are thought to be later. These are mainly from Asia Minor (modern-day Türkiye).  The problem is that the regional translations used in many parts of the world such as Russia and Central Asia are often based on the Textus Receptus. This is the first Greek text to have been widely published, and was put together by Erasmus and published in 1516, along with a new translation into Latin (it was a diglot Greek-Latin New Testa...

Last week Rocco recorded this podcast, which is an interview with me about Bible translation and Bible impact. It includes the question, "Is Christianity geographically dependent?" If you want to find out the answer, please watch the video! Please watch it on YouTube and like and subscribe to his channel! #thetruthovertrendpodcast

I recently watched an online lecture at Wheaton College by Lamin Sanneh on the Translatability of Scripture. This is a fascinating topic. He himself is from an Islamic background. His brother told him not to become a Christian, because, if he did, he would be limited to one wife! Islam is based on the idea of supersessionism - the idea that one religion replaces another, so the newest monotheistic religion is best. In addition, he points out that Islam uses Arabic, the language of Muhammad, whereas Christianity does not use Aramaic, the language of Jesus the Messiah. Pickthall, in his introduction to his, 'The meaning of the Glorious Quran', which is in English, says that the Quran cannot be translated, it has to be read in Arabic. Wherever Muslims go, they begin Quranic schools to teach young boys (mainly) Arabic, so they can memorise the Quran. Whether or not they understand what they are reciting from memory is, in some parts of the world at least, a moot point. In contrast...

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: 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. Only about 30% of completed translations are well used. The initial set up of the programme needs to take SE into consideration (it's no good wai...

Image by Juanita Mulder from Pixabay In the TV show 'Top Gear' one of my favourite parts of each episode was the 'star in reasonably-priced car' where the Stig would race round the track and a star (e.g. Tom Cruise - good name for a car prog) would try to beat his time (and all the other stars who had recently raced). In Bible translation, according to Hill, Gutt, Unger, Floyd & Hill,* we are often driving the equivalent of a Land Cruiser, rather than a reasonably-priced car. That is, we want to do a full Bible translation (BT) and produce a print Bible, with all the extras, a full audio recording, and several videos (perhaps of the gospels). This is all very well, but what might actually be needed is the reasonably-priced car.  The authors then go onto explain two approaches to Bible translation and Scripture engagement (SE). This approach encourages communities to consider producing products that meet their needs in the short term. This will allow them to focus ...

Recently I was giving input to a team who had worked on Psalms. I noticed that in several places they had included footnotes referring to the New Testament use of those Psalms. One example was a footnote in Ps 34:20 'not one of [his bones] will be broken' that referred to John 19:32, 33, 36 where this prophecy is fulfilled. Now, obviously this is a useful link for readers, but it is better to put it in John's gospel referring back to Psalms. Why? Because the New Testament is (to some extent) a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, whereas the reverse is not true (the Hebrew Bible never refers to the New Testament). There are often two possible ways of reading a Psalm: In its original context, and  As interpreted by the New Testament writers. This is quite important, as the Hebrew Bible belongs to two faith communities, the Jews and the Christians. (Muslims too, to some extent, though they refer to the Torah and the Psalms only). If we translate the Bible in such a way that it onl...

The Spirit of the Lord is on me...  "... because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour." Isa 61.1-2; Luke 4.18-19 The passage in Luke is often given the title: ‘Jesus rejected at Nazareth.’ That is part of it. It reinforces Jesus’ identity as a prophet – just at those before him were rejected (e.g. Elijah, the first prophet, v26), so will Jesus. It ought, perhaps, to be entitled ‘Jesus’ Manifesto’. This has more of a focus on what Jesus actually says (rather than the hometown’s rejection of him). Jesus 'owns' the Isaiah quote by claiming that it is fulfilled today (their today), in a region inhabited by Judeans, in his home town. So what do we notice about Jesus’ manifesto (quote is from Isa 61:1-2)? The Good News Jesus is proclaiming is: A great example of integral mission (ministry to ...

I was just in a presentation,* and the presenter shared a slide about the Scripture engagement (SE) impact chain, which I thought I'd pass onto you fine folks! Here it is: The point is, to have community transformation, you need to have individual transformation. To have individual transformation you need eyes and ears either reading or listening to Scripture. To have eyes and ears reading and listening you need people being reached with those materials in print or audio format (or video, which combines both). To have those materials you need to develop them in the first place. That's the SE impact chain, in a nutshell! Now, the clever amongst you will have spotted that you can't just produce materials, therefore. Neither can you just produce materials and distribute them, as that's only two steps along the SE impact chain. To have community transformation you need to make sure the whole chain is working as it should. As the picture of legs on the side shows, that means...

 I have heard many objections to the hard work of Bible translation over the years. Here are some of them: 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) It's all been done already (this is just based on a lack of knowledge of how many languages there are) Translate the ‘original’ King James (assumption: the King James is the first ever Bible) 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) 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) 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.) Ethnos in Revelation 7:9 refers to Gentiles, not people groups We shouldn...

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...

In the field of missiology much has been written on the topic of contextualisation. Paul Hiebert has used the phrase 'critical contextualisation' for the kind of contextualisation that works. He also criticises lack of contextualisation and uncritical contextualisation for causing syncretism. The reason for the latter is obvious. The reason for the former less so: if people are carrying out a practice that they have done since they were young, and been told is essential for their well being, they will continue to carry it out until they have been convinced that the teaching of Scripture has something which replaces the effect of that practice (in terms of their well being). It takes time for people to change their worldview, and they need much support from other members of their community as they do so. One good powerful question to ask is, 'What would happen if you didn't (do such and such a ritual)?' Also, what people believe is often reinforced by community stori...

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 ...

The tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH in Roman script) is most likely to have been pronounced 'Yahweh', not 'Jehovah' by the Hebrews.* It's meaning is explained in Exod 3 - it means 'he who is'. It might also mean 'he who causes [things] to be' i.e. the creator. Because of the second commandment the scribes, when reading from Scripture, avoided pronouncing the divine name, and substituted either ha shem 'the name' or adonai 'lord'. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, the word used to translate YHWH was kyrios 'lord'. This usage carried on into the New Testament, so when believers said 'Jesus is Lord' they were equating Jesus with the YHWH of the Old Testament, as well as threatening the political  status quo where, in the Roman empire, Caesar was given the title 'Lord'. The usage of YHWH is interesting. In the Old Testament it frequently used with the sense 'God ...

 And now for something completely different - a testimony!  Why did I join the Bible translation movement? I often get asked this question, and it's a good one. Of course, it was a matter of calling. But how did that calling manifest itself? It's a long story... Back in the 1980s we already knew that God had called us into mission work, but we didn't know what type of mission work he'd called us too. In my final year at university I visited Crosslinks in London, but they told me to go and get a secular job, and establish my profession, then I'd be able to use that in mission work. We got married, settled down, and became school teachers. But we were still exploring opportunities for mission - in fact we lived in a highly multicultural city, attending a church in the inner-city area where there were a mix of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. This enabled us to continue friendship making amongst those of other faiths, whilst attending the church and building rela...

Sometimes in a corporate organisation there are issues with the structure and mentality that can get in the way of change taking place. Scripture engagement is all about seeing change happen in the lives of people and communities as they engage with God through the Scriptures. Therefore some of the books about theories of change are helpful to us as we investigate issues within our family organisations. Here is a list from John P Kotter's book, Leading Change , p 16: Allowing too much complacency Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition Underestimating the power of vision Undercommunicating the vision by a factor of 10 (or 100 or even 1,000) Permitting obstacles to block the new vision Failing to create short term wins Declaring victory too soon Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture All of these can be an issue in our family of organisations. Here's why: We allow ourselves to believe our own propaganda about the importance of peoples...

Many Bible translation projects have exegetical advisors (EA). In some parts of the world they work with a cluster of languages, giving exegetical (meaning of the Hebrew and Greek) advice to translators working in several languages (some regions call them translation advisors). In Eurasia area we often have exegetical advisors working on one language. The usual expectation is that they learn to be able to read this language, and can speak the language of wider communication (LWC) with the team, if the team know it. If not, they have to use the local language with the team. That works with traditional translation projects. Many projects these days are using a method called Oral Bible Translation (OBT), where only aural and oral methods are used. The translation is only transcribed at a later stage of the process in order to keep track of key terms, and in case the consultant requests the translation in some kind of written format. The EA is expected to give input to the team about the b...

We all now the importance of community checking (or testing) a translation. This is where members of the team (but not the translators) go out into the community to test a translation, to see if it is understood, often using Katy Barnwell's ' 10 Ways of Testing Your Translation .' If you haven't read it yet, do read it now. Community Checking and Scripture Engagement So, what is the connection between community testing and Scripture engagement (SE)? There are several things that can be said about this: Community checks are a good way of gaining legitimacy or acceptance of your translation amongst the community. They've had input, so now they have had their say, their feel they own the translation It's not about a product it's about a process - building relationships with the community which will lead to SE Some of the methods of community checking overlap hugely with SE, namely Listening to Readers (or to those giving their voices to audio recordings), Tell ...

When discussing Wayne Dye's Eight Conditions of Scripture Engagement , it's common for people in the Bible translation world to say, 'That's one of those conditions we can't do anything about.' Unfortunately there are a couple of these: Condition 6: Spiritual Hunger Condition 7: Freedom to Commit to the Christian Faith Actually it's not true. Let's have a look at how these can be addressed by teams. Condition 6 can be addressed by looking at the felt needs of the community, and by contextualisation. Condition 7 can be addressed by contextualisation. So... Felt Needs Sometimes a community will have various struggles to do with finance or health or their collective self esteem. These can be addressed biblically, which means coming up with Kingdom goals or biblical values to replace those that are unhelpful. I heard of one community where they were continually hungry, because they could not produce enough rice to feed themselves. Developers came in and help...