Scripture Engagement

Despite what I posted earlier about people having several mother tongues, it's still a fundamental belief of ours that people need to access Scripture in a language they know well, that they are fluent in. Today I was asked in an email for articles that back this up. In fact, here is the question: 'I’m writing a paper based on my research about the impact of reading the Bible in English versus mother tongue, and wondered if you have articles to hand or Wycliffe/SLI (sic.) statements of values which might outline why we believe that having the Bible in one’s heart language/mother tongue is important (even if the English translation is available).' The question was written by a PhD student. By SLI she means SIL , I think. Wycliffe is short for  Wycliffe Bible Translators . TBH I was slightly confused by the question. Why 'English'. Did she mean 'the Language of Wider Communication' (Spanish, French, Russian, Classical Arabic... )? Here is my reply: ...

The very first believer from one Central Asian group we worked with said that it wasn't possible to pray or preach in his mother tongue. 'Our language is too poor, it doesn't have the right vocabulary for prayer or preaching. How would you even say the word "prayer" in our language? The word " doga " means "charm" as well as "prayer". We couldn't possibly use that word in church! We should use Russian, which is a rich language and has all the right words for these things!' This is a very common response when people first become believers. They see their own language as inappropriate for use in worship. This is because what they see as 'Christianity' is being modelled in a language of wider communication like English, French, Russian, Urdu or Classical Arabic. To use a more local language seems like a step down to something too basic for spiritual use. In the end a whole bunch of young men became believers, and the...