Welcome!

 

This blog is directed at practitioners, supporters or donors of the Bible translation movement – if you count yourself as part of this target group, you are most welcome to read on, and to discuss the presented statements with me and with others who may also find their way to this blog.

Statements on Bible Translation is intended to grow to become a collection of entries that each focus on a different proposition that I hold to be true about Bible translation, but that, apparently, needs to be defended in today's Bible translation environment. Starting this blog, I have no clear idea how many of these statements are going to be needed, but eventually, I will reach a point where I will have no more statements to add – so I expect a finite number of entries.

For now I plan entries on the following statements (and these entries might be produced in different orders):

• Bible translation is a technical task, not a spiritual one.
• Bible translation is a complex task.
• Bible translation requires a solid linguistic foundation that feeds into the work of the translators.
  
• Bible translation can be done well, and it can be done badly, and anything in between.
• Bible translation requires well-trained people.
• Bible translation requires focus.
• Bible translation is mission, and often needs missionaries.
  
• Bible translation usually does not happen through the Church, but in spite of the Church.
• Bible translation is best done by para-church organizations.
• Partnerships are necessary means for Bible translation.
• Bible translation should not be done with a hand tied to the back.
• Bible translation cannot be planned like a well-drilling project.
• Bible translation needs a long-term commitment, not only by the translators, but also from donors and partners.
• Bible translation needs to be done right at the first attempt, because there won't be another for many years.
  
• Bible translation is not the way to speed up the second coming of Jesus.
• The most crucial resource for Bible translation is not money, but expertise.
• Bible translation strategy requires technical experts to be among the decision makers.
  
• Bible translations already exist where the language community has the capacity to do it without external help.
• Rushing Bible translation means to delay it for generations to come. 

Why this blog?

In 1989, I joined the Bible translation movement – as a candidate of Wycliffe Germany, and of SIL International. In 1999, after a long time as a candidate, I finally started work with SIL Ethiopia – first as an advisor in a language development project that I hoped would turn into a translation project, and then as a linguistics consultant.

Since I started out with Wycliff and SIL, a lot of things happened in the global Bible translation movement. Many of these things are good, but I also observed several developments that I am not so positive about. These are the things I want to write about here. It is not so easy to find a place and a format where these kinds of things can be discussed, as the usual venues of discussion, at least in my organizations, have tended to disappear over the past few decades.

In my observation, many of the not so fortunate developments since the turn of the century can be traced back to certain assumptions that have been adopted by decision makers and supporters of the Bible translation movement, and therefore I see it as beneficial when these assumptions can be contrasted with statements that I think provide a more helpful understanding.

Some groundrules

I'm very new to doing blogs, so I'm not exactly sure what will be in my power to do or not to do as the owner of this blog. But I want this to be a safe place for everybody, even for people who disagree with me.

Let me therefore state that whatever misgivings I may have about the current direction of the Bible translation movement, I do not trace them back to any assumed deliberate ill will by any of the participants. Whoever volunteers to contribute to the task of Bible translation by giving their time, resources, money, energy, prayers, or thinking, in my opinion does so out of the genuine desire to further the Great Commission in the best possible way. Like I do. It is unavoidable that in the course of this differing opinions develop, each of which deserve to be taken seriously. They need to be discussed calmly without any assumptions of bad faith. This should also hold for this blog, where I hope that some vigorous discussions should develop, but in the spirit of careful listening. Discussions should be directed at the strength of any argument, but not at the people behind it.

I will therefore monitor the exchange happening on this blog, and if I observe that people do not follow this desired behavior, I will kindly ask them to change their contributions in a way that they are less offensive to others. Only when this leads nowhere will I remove statements that I judge to be below the standards that I want to set here – even if it's people that I agree with. This is more likely to happen when someone else is attacked in an inappropriate way, less so myself, since I am the one putting out bold statements here, and I should be able to take some heat because of that.

Knowing myself, I may be the worst offender in this, and I urge you to let me know when my wordings are not according to my own rules. Bear with me when I sometimes use strong verbal images to drive home a point, and try not to be offended when you feel yourself under attack as part of a group that I state is moving in the wrong direction. Instead, let me see where I am wrong by responding to the argument that I make, and you may even convince me.

I may come back to this page once in a while to amend some of the things I said here, or to add to them – depending on how things develop in the discussions.

Some important disclaimers

1. Although I am working in the Bible translation movement under SIL Global and Wycliffe Germany, this blog is entirely my private endeavour that I pursue during my spare time. None of the statements I make here, and none of my contributions in any discussion, claims to represent the perspective of these two organizations.
2. This may sound odd now: I have never translated a verse of the Bible in my life, except when I studied Greek in 1989. My work in the translation movement is that of a linguist, a linguistics consultant, and as a trainer, often of translators and translation consultants. By all means, you are welcome to assume that I have no idea what I am talking about. I do claim, however, that I do know the basic processes in a translation project, that I have observed a good number of translation projects over the years, and that I have talked to countless practitioners about what is going on in their projects.
   
3. All of my statements are published here under a Creative Commons license BY-SA – which means that you can distribute this content wherever you like, for whatever purpose you like, as long you give an attribution to this blog and share it under the same conditions.