Can you ever have too much Bible?
Maybe.
Right now, NTM missionaries have 30 Bible translations in progress in Papua New Guinea. A total of 21,000 verses are ready to be checked, so they can be published and used.
Great news, right?
Not if you’re waiting for the verses to be checked, like one tribal man who said:
“My older brother is already blind and my eyes are getting weaker. I just want to have a small book of God’s Word to read with my own eyes before I am unable to see it for myself anymore. I have already marked my sons and daughters and told them that it will be their job when I am old to continue to read God’s Word to me until I die.”
NTM missionaries who have done Bible translations and shown particular skill at it receive further training so they can check translations. They also help with other steps of translation, and provide on-field, hands-on training in Bible translation.
The check itself involves a missionary, usually the translator, reading translated verses to someone from the people group that speaks that language. The hearer then tells the checker, in the trade language, what the verse said. This way, even though the checker cannot speak the tribal language, they can see whether the important concepts of each verse are coming through clearly.
As you can imagine, this takes time and often turns up issues that need to be addressed. That slows things down, but makes for a more accurate translation, which is the goal. An experienced checker can verify about 500 verses a month.
So you’re probably also starting to see the problem, aren’t you? At a rate of 500 verses a month, you would need 42 checkers to get through 21,000 verses before the end of the year.
Of course, identifying and training more missionaries for this work is an ongoing task. It has to be; people go on home assignment, or become ill, or retire.
But despite the best efforts of NTM leaders in Papua New Guinea, there is only one checker right now.
The verses are translated. People are waiting. Will you pray that God hastens the completion of His Word in their languages?
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