The World Evangelical Alliance has come out with their report on the translation practices of Wycliffe Bible Translator’s Muslims Idiom Translations that remove and change the terms ‘Son of God’ and ‘Father’ in the Bible. This has been a heated, yet important topic when it comes to world evangelism. We at Biblical Missiology believe in a Biblical application of missions. But what happens when the Bible itself has changed?
The following is a web seminar talk we recorded online with questions and answers. It is an important discussion to listen to and we hope that whether you know a lot about this topic, or are new to it, you will gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom from this web seminar.
Panelists:
- Georges Houssney – Member & Founder of Biblical Missiology, Helped Translate and Organize over 5 Translations including the Modern Arabic Translation. Pres. of Horizons International.
- Scott Seaton – Pastor of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA). Scott served as a PCA missionary, a church missions pastor and the director of the PCA’s international ministry to Muslims. He also is the lead author of “A Call To Faithful Witness,” the PCA’s 2011 overture related to Muslim Idiom Translations.
- Mark Stephan – Member, Founder of Biblical Missiology. Product Manager for Horizons International and former Missionary in ME.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for fighting for the integrity of the Word of God.
I am deeply concerned that I cannot trust the Wycliffe and SIL leadership that allowed and fostered this corruption of God’s Word. It seems the statement should be that translators translate Father as Father neither adding to it nor taking from it. The same with Son. God created the family and chose to call Himself Father and the second person of the trinity He calls the Son. Nothing should be added to this.
The slow progress and hesitancy and the use of wording that allows for modifications makes if obvious to me that the leadership of SIL and Wycliffe do not feel that the mistranslation is wrong. It is very sad, but, I don’t feel that the current leadership of Wycliffe and SIL should continue. I feel they need to step down and allow people who are faithful to the use of only Son and Father. It is God who decided to use Father and Son. That should settle it. God is able to explain Himself and replace one’s false understanding. He has done is millions of times and over thousands of years. He doesn’t need our help.
As a supporter of the translation and dissemination of God’s wonderful word, I need a faithful alternative to SIL and Wycliffe.
Thank you so much for this Webinar and the articles!!!!!!!
It would be great if an mp3 version of this file could be made available. Is it already? Where can I access it?
Hello Jane, thanks for the request, unfortunately, transcripts are incredibly time intensive to create and we don’t have the software for that. Would an audio track be good for you? Clint also requested one and if that is the case, seems there is a demand for audio, I’ll sit down and make an mp3. Let us know! and thanks!
Could you make webinar transcript available for download? Thank you so much.
Honestly, haven’t thought about it. If here is a big need, we can make one.
Will you be making the .mp3 available for download for this discussion?