Scripture Engagement

Dear Magsatabat, One thing I didn't do, was to list the advantages and disadvantages of recording audio first (before the print version is released). The advantages are: It makes the books available in a very useful way. Various partners can use them for their ministry Changes will need to be made to the style of some sentences as you make the recordings. For instance, word order changes might need to be made. These can then be included in the print version, so they match. If you release the print version first you have zero flexibility for making changes while you are doing the audio recording Audio is arguably less threatening than print (less 'official'), so can be released without causing any problems It doesn't take much time to record e.g. Genesis, whereas the whole Old Testament will take months You might need permission for the OT before you start the recordings The disadvantages: You might not be able to use a professional actor (though you could, if you can us...

Many years ago I had some friends at university who were against Christmas. 'It's not in the Bible,' they argued. Well, possibly. The festival at least is not actually in the Bible. So how did we come to celebrate Christmas and Easter in the ways we do now? Part of the answer is that we continued some practices from our previous, pagan religion. Churches were built next to sacred trees. The winter festival was redeemed and became Christmas, along with the Christmas trees, which might have come later, but are definitely not in the Bible. Similarly the spring festival was redeemed and became Easter, though this actually coincides with the Jewish Passover festival when a lamb was sacrificed in remembrance of the redemption of the people Israel from Egypt, (John 19.14 cf . Exo 12ff). What my friends were against is the mixing of our previous paganism and our current Christianity into one, syncretistic modern day religion, with all of its feasts and fasts. I would argue that we ...

I just had some training on these four levels that businesses use to evaluate their priorities: Tier 1: Mission Critical Tier 2: Very Important and Strategic Tier 3: Meaningful but not Essential Tier 4: Lower Priority and Often Externally Initiated So, what, in the world of Bible translation (BT), is mission critical? Many would say, "Translating the Bible!" I would actually put that on level 2, very important and strategic. At the level of mission critical is Scripture engagement (SE). Meaningful but not essential would include certain computer programs we use, such as Paratext, which is essential to some but not, for example, if you are involved in oral storying or oral translation (HearThis, or Render are more useful). At level 4, lower priority, would be all the stuff we have to do to a) stay in the country where we are carrying out our ministry b) organisational requirements like archiving data (not the same as having an online backup of it). We need to have a discussion...

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...

I often get asked, 'So, why don't you use Google translate? Or, worse, 'I suppose these days you just use Google translate (GT) to translate the Bible.' Here are several good reasons not to use GT: 1. Most minority languages are not on GT. The one we worked on only became available fairly recently, after the Bible was already translated. 2. GT uses a statistical method, relying on having lots of texts available in the language, and lots of translations of those texts into other languages. It then compares the two and guesses the translation. For minority languages, those don't yet exist in books, let alone online. 3. If you do use it it requires heavy checking and editing of the translation afterwards, which takes time, so you haven't gained anything. This is because it guesses the translation. Google does not, as far as I know employ real translators. The only way of improving the quality of Google translations is for many many people to click 'improve tra...

  Seven Myths About the Exile What are you looking forward to? The Jews were looking forward (and still look forward) to the coming of the Messiah. The word for Messiah in Greek is Christ : 1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David , the son of Abraham : 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab , Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth , Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife , 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram t...

We are often told that salvation is past present and future. We have been saved (made righteous at the cross), we are being saved (our ongoing sanctification), we will be saved (to future glory). Likewise the kingdom of God is now and not yet. Now this is probably true across the whole of Scripture, but in any given book there tends to be an emphasis using one or the other for whatever idea you're looking at. Take salvation, for example. In the book of Hebrews salvation is a future event. The term is not used about our past or present state or life with God. Therefore to ask the question, 'Can we lose our salvation?' in the context of Hebrews 10:19-39 is to ask a poor question, as salvation is only future in Hebrews, therefore you can lose your salvation as you haven't had it yet! In Scripture as a whole, however, it seems the opposite is true. i.e. if you define salvation as the act of us being made righteous through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, then the answe...