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Bible Translation ExplainedContents
Why Bible translation?1) To know the truth about GodWe believe that Bible translation is one of the most important things we can do with our lives. Without the Bible in your mother tongue, you would only know about Jesus if someone told you about Him, and you would ONLY know what they told you. If they told you a lie, you wouldn't detect it. That is why there are some cults working in PNG and being successful. The people don't know the truth about God as revealed in His Word. And, if no one came to share God's great news with you, you would never learn about Him, and how to be saved. 2) Bibles in other languages can be misinterpreted Suppose you have a Bible that is in a language different from your mother tongue, and you can read that language. This doesn't mean that you will understand what you are reading, or that you will easily and correctly understand the meaning of the text. How much of the Bible you understand depends on factors like how well that language communicates the meaning, how well that Bible was translated, how well you can read that language, and how well you know that language. For example, a young girl in Morobe Province was leading a women's Bible study from the Tok Pisin Bible. Tok Pisin is the dominant trade language in this part of PNG. The passage was Acts 9:36-43, about Peter raising Dorcas back to life. The girl read verse 39 and was confused about the translation of "widows": "Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them." (emphasis mine) This girl, who could speak Tok Pisin and had done some schooling in that language, read these words in the Tok Pisin Bible and was confused. She stopped and thought and then said that it must be saying that the men and women who have died were crying and showing Peter the clothes Dorcas had made. But she wasn't quite sure, so she tried to explain it using her own knowledge, saying that while it could have been referring to those who had died it MUST really be about older people. Even though it seemed to be saying that Dorcas made clothes for people who had died she concluded that it must be about clothes for elderly men and women. The Scriptures, even in a language you know pretty well, is more difficult and less rewarding to read, and more open to misinterpretation, than if it were translated into your own language. 3) So that the local church can become truly indigenous and have a greater impact Another reason it is so important to have the Bible in every language on earth is so that the church can become truly indigenous, and not just "something from the outside". When a missionary comes to a village, the people only see what the missionary does to worship God, and only knows what the missionary believes about doctrine, etc. While they may be encouraged to consider other viewpoints, the people will always feel a pull to believe like the missionary, because he is their friend and has given up so much to live with them and teach them about God. Without the Bible in their own heart language can anyone really make up their own minds about how to worship God or what doctrine to believe? Have you seen the movie "African Queen"? The first scene is of a church service in Africa, and the village people are dressed in clean white clothes, standing in rows, and singing a hymn in English. Do you think those people would have chosen that way to worship God? Do you think that expatriate church is as successful at meeting peoples' genuine spiritual needs as one organized by the African people themselves? 4) "The translated Scriptures go straight to my heart" A fourth reason in favor of Bible translation is that it speaks to the people better than a translation in another language. We have had Papua New Guineans say to us that when they read or hear God's Word in another language it goes into their head, but when they hear it in their own language it goes straight into their heart. Another time a Papua New Guinean said to us that when he reads his mother tongue Bible it is "sweet". Have you ever had that experience of reading a passage in the Bible and it just jumps out at you? That is what that man experienced! And it only happens for him when he is reading the Scriptures in his own language. 5) The Bible has had a profound impact in our lives The final reason we feel Bible translation is so important is that it has such a profound impact on our own lives. (back to top) The Remaining TaskWorldwide
In PNG Database of languages worldwideThe following link will take you to a website devoted to listing all the languages of the world and current information about them such as population, geographical location, translation status, and churches involved. The Sam people refer to their language as Sam and language researchers call it Songum. The Ethnologue code is SNX.Check out the Ethnologue! History of Bible translationHave you ever wondered how we got a Bible in our language, and why there are so many different English translations of the Bible? The history of Bible translation is fascinating, and the Wycliffe Bible Translators website has a great description of it, along with pages from the Bible translations of John Wycliffe (14th century) and William Tyndale (second edition in 1534).Click HERE to go to Wycliffe's webpage about the history of Bible translation. (back to top) Rate of Bible translationAs you can see from the chart below, in 1800 the New Testament had been translated into around 100 languages. In 1942, when William Cameron Townsend founded Wycliffe Bible Translators, the number of New Testament translations had risen to 500, and currently, it is over 2000 languages.
(Taken from the Wycliffe Bible Translators webpage: http://www.wycliffe.org/history/BibleTranslation.htm) (back to top) Goals of Bible translation:
The goal of a good translation is to convey the meaning of the source text,
and nothing more or less. The people who will read the translation don't
need to have the form of the source text, but only the meaning. When we
begin translating the Scriptures our goal will be to create a translation
that is accurate, clear and natural.
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 Accurate
- The text should have the same meaning as the source text, with
none of the meaning added to or taken away.Clear
- The text should be clear to the reader.Natural
- The text should sound like natural speech in the target language,
with no unnatural metaphors, vocabulary, or grammar. |
