The Secret To A Maximum Impact Bible Translation

How long do you think it takes to translate the Bible? What do you need to know about grammar and meaning to accurately produce a text a tribal person can understand? Each verse takes careful consideration and lots of revision. Translating just the New Testament would take years of disciplined hard work. But beyond that, how do you make the translation last for generations and impact many people? You have to build a culture of reading and writing. Most tribal groups are illiterate.  As church planters, we must teach literacy so the people can study the Bible we will translate. Without a literate culture, our translation efforts will be in vain. In Literacy class this semester, we learned how to prepare teaching materials and how to prepare the people to look at pictures, grasp the concept of the written word, and even how to train indignenous literacy teachers. Next time we read about a missionary teaching literacy, we know all the work and preparation that […]