This is the final part of a nine-part series on divine authority in Bible translation. The full series can be accessed here.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
The Task Ahead
The need for Bible translation in the world is great. More than half of the languages of the world do not have even a single word of Scripture translated, with more than 250 million speakers. This is more than the entire population of Pakistan or Brazil. An additional billion-plus people have some books translated into their language, but not the full Bible. In all, the number of people who lack the full Bible in their language is some 1.5 billion—greater than the population of China. Great progress has been made in recent decades to increase the world’s access to the Bible. But much work remains to be done.
Yet the task ahead of us is not simply a matter of “checking off boxes” of language groups with no Scripture. Bible translation organizations sometimes present the task as a matter of numbers, with no thought to the kind of translation that language groups need in order to use their Bibles as God’s authoritative Word in their lives.
A Lesson From the Reformation
When Protestant reformers started translating the Scriptures into vernacular languages, they were opposed by the Catholic hierarchy. Church officials had appointed themselves as the only ones capable of giving Christians a faithful interpretation of the Scriptures. They feared that if believers were given the Bible in their own language, they would misinterpret them and be led into heresy and lies. In their minds, there were two acceptable methods of people interacting with Scripture: 1) The Latin text (accessible only to the well-educated), and 2) The teaching of church leaders like themselves.
When translators translate too literally, we could say in a sense that they are not fully giving people the Scriptures in their own language. It may be “English” (or whatever language) in a grammatical sense, but if the meaning of the original language text is not actually present in the translation, readers are little better off than if they were a medieval peasant trying to read unintelligible Latin. The reformers were right that people need the Word of God in their own languages; this must be a true transfer, not simply a transfer of form that distorts the meaning of the text.
On the other hand, and highly ironically, translators who only give their own interpretation of the text to readers, rather than seeking to maximize the actual meaning resemblance to the original language texts, are in danger of acting much like the Catholic officials who opposed vernacular translation. Having decided that they are in the best position to know what the text really means, they give readers their own understanding of the text rather than simply presenting the meaning of the text, complete with ambiguities, metaphors and figurative language (which often confused the original hearers just as much as it may confuse readers and listeners today). For speakers of hundreds—probably thousands—of languages, the only translation they have is one that is highly interpreted by the translators themselves, far more than linguistic differences would require. Such translations cannot properly fulfill the essential role that sola scriptura translations play in the life of a language group.
To the extent that these translations have faithfully explained and clarified the text, they have been a tremendous blessing to the global church—just as much (though certainly not all) of the Catholic leaders’ teaching was a blessing to medieval peasants, and just as faithful commentaries or sermons are a blessing to the church today. They are a huge step forward for language groups compared to having no access to any type of translation. Many translators have sacrificed years and faced many challenges to help bring these works into being. The global church needs more, not fewer, works that faithfully clarify, interpret, and explain the meaning of the Bible as translators best understand it.
Yet millions and millions of believers worldwide still have no translation that actually tries to give them as close a representation as possible of the meaning of what God gave us in his Word. While we thank God for translation work that has benefited the church, we need to recognize what is still lacking for so many language groups today. Because the dominant translation philosophy in organizations like Wycliffe, SIL, and the United Bible Societies has for decades been strongly geared toward creating highly interpreted translations, it is likely that most Bible translations in the world today cannot properly fulfill the key role of being an “infallible rule of faith and practice.”1It is important to note that there is diversity within large organizations like Wycliffe, SIL, and UBS. Certainly, in addition to producing explanatory paraphrases that bless language groups as faithful Christian teaching (as well as, sadly, some unfaithful translations), individual translators in these organizations have produced translations that are far more in line with the kind of translation that fulfills the sola scriptura function of God’s Word than the dominant philosophy of their organizations would produce. We should not assume that any given translation is not able to faithfully fulfill the sola scriptura function. The key point here, though, is that the church cannot simply treat a translation as having automatically met the need for a group to have what God wants them to have. The work remaining to be done, therefore, is greater than it would appear simply by looking at a list of language groups with or without Scripture.
The millions of people who have only a highly interpreted translation in their language, therefore, still have no ability to actually know what the Bible affirms and does not affirm—and, crucially, the major Bible translation organizations do not even have the creation of sola scriptura translations as a goal.
There is therefore a great need for additional work even among the roughly 700 languages in the world (10% of the world’s total languages, representing billions of speakers) that have a full Bible translation, in addition to those who have portions of Scripture but no suitable sola scriptura translation. Even among the languages that have suitable sola scriptura translations, there is great benefit in readers having access to more than one such translation, so that they can see nuances of the original text where more than one word or phrase may fit the meaning.
Unrestricted Access to Biblical Resources and Translation Tools
Thankfully, the ability of the global church to meet this tremendous need is greater than ever before. The ability to freely and seamlessly share digital information across the globe enables far more people than ever before both to access Bible translations as well as contribute to faithful, sola scriptura-fulfilling translations themselves. Key to this ability is the development of translations, tools, and resources that are freely available online and kept free from copyright restrictions that would hinder their rapid, decentralized spread, utilization, and adaptation into new languages and contexts.
In order to unlock the potential that these technological changes create, Bible translators need to move beyond the mindset of copyright restrictions that dominate Bible translation today. While the desire to protect translations from unfaithful modification is a good one, trademark—not copyright—is the right tool for this.2See Tim Jore, “Letting Go: A rationale and appeal for making biblical content available under open licenses,” Unfolding Word, section 4.5, which outlines the difference between copyright and trademark, and how trademark is more appropriate and helpful for Bible translations than copyright.Copyright is designed to maximize profits for its holders, not maximize impact for God’s kingdom. It is right and legitimate for translators to make efforts to prevent others from changing their translation and passing it off as the original; trademarking a translation accomplishes this. The release of translation work into the public domain (or at least the use of Creative Commons licenses)3For the advantages of public domain over open licences for Bible translation, see Conley Owens, The Dorean Principle (Dublin, CA: FirstLove Publications, 2021), and Andrew Case’s podcasts interviewing Owens (Andrew Case, “One of the Most Important Books of the Last Hundred Years — with Conley Owens,” Working For the Word, 2 July 2021; “The Dorean Principle & Bible Translation — with Conley Owens.” Working For the Word, 14 July 2021). allows the global church full access to translations, while also protecting the identity and integrity of translations through trademarks.
Moreover, freedom from copyright restrictions will enable translators throughout the global church to utilize a broad variety of tools and resources to translate God’s Word into their own languages. Today, a vast wealth of biblical resources exist in English and a few other languages. Sadly, most of this material is under copyright, and gaining access to it can be difficult and expensive. For many native speakers of languages without adequate sola scriptura translations, these barriers are prohibitive. But when we come together and produce unrestricted biblical resources and tools, which anyone is free to use, translate, and adapt for their language communities, the rate and quality of Bible translation will significantly increase.
In order to create sola scriptura translations, translators need solid, high-quality access to resources and tools to understand the biblical languages. These include:
- Linguistically sound, up-to-date lexicons of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, written and presented in a way that is easy for laypeople to use, giving clear indications in each case of how the meaning of a word or phrase changes depending on grammatical and semantic context
- Search tools to enable translators to see how a given word or phrase is used elsewhere in similar contexts
- Accessibly written articles and notes on key terms and on difficult words or passages
- Quality resources for translators to learn the biblical languages themselves in a natural way (such as the free online Hebrew course Aleph with Beth developed by Bible translators, and its counterpart Alpha with Angela in Greek)
These resources will benefit not only translators, but also pastors, seminary students, and any believer who wants to dig deeper into the Word of God. They will improve the quality of theological education for each language community and give the church greater ability to discern true, biblical teaching from unsound or heretical teaching. The increased access to sola scriptura translations will also benefit the whole church in a language community as well, by enabling more faithful theological work in each language community as they work and learn in concert with the whole global church. The use of Creative Commons licenses will enable Christians throughout the world to be active participants in the development of these resources, and ensure that they are developed in a way that maximizes the impact and accessibility for each language group. All in all, these tools and resources being freely available, easily accessible, and adaptable will lay the groundwork for language communities to be people devoted to God’s Word, meditating on it day and night (Psalm 1:2), shaping and transforming the culture around them, and loving truth and obedience as they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
For a full treatment of the need for unrestricted biblical tools and resources, see Tim Jore’s The Christian Commons, as well as Conley Owens’ The Dorean Principle.
A New Movement To Develop Sola Scriptura Translations for All Languages
Currently, the Bible translation movement is dominated by translations that explain and interpret the text beyond what God himself has made clear. These serve the church well for what they do, but they do not adequately fulfill the essential function of Scripture to act as the infallible rule of faith and practice for a language community. This is too important to leave by the wayside.
We need a new movement of Bible translators, Bible scholars, biblical language experts, prayer warriors, pastors, and laypeople; a cross-denominational network to engage in a multi-pronged effort to produce sola scriptura translations for all languages that lack them. This goal must be done in concert with the effort to produce free, unrestricted biblical content, tools and resources, so that these translators have the greatest access to the best faithful scholarship. This knowledge should not be locked in the ivory tower and written only in a few major languages like English; instead, the whole church—indeed, the whole world including those who have not yet believed—should be the recipients and beneficiaries of this knowledge as it deepens our understanding of and appreciation for God’s flawless Word.
This effort cannot be the work of one organization or even one entire denomination, but must involve a wide variety of Christians from different language communities, with different skill sets to bring to bear to this task. To be most effective, it cannot be centralized under the leadership of a few, but instead must be a widely dispersed effort involving the free sharing of resources and knowledge, flexibility, and rapid adaptation to different economic, political, and linguistic contexts. What works well to produce sola scriptura translations in North America may not work well at all in West Africa or Southeast Asia.
God has given us great tools in the internet and digital technologies that will enable accurate, faithful sola scriptura Bible translations to be done rapidly across the world. We cannot simply assume that the major Bible translation organizations will accomplish this task given their current path. This task will take the involvement and input of the whole global church—but first we must awaken to the need, and devote serious time and effort to accomplishing this sacred task.
May God’s pure and flawless Word go forth faithfully among all nations through the power of the Holy Spirit working in the church, proclaiming the good news of his Son, to the glory of God the Father!
This is the final part of a series on divine authority in Bible translation. The full series is linked to below. To contact the author or learn more about how you can contribute to the development of sola scriptura translations around the world, click here:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
References
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Case, Andrew. “One of the Most Important Books of the Last Hundred Years – with Conley Owens.” Working For the Word, July 2, 2021. https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/One-of-the-Most-Important-Books-of-the-Last-Hundred-Years—with-Conley-Owens-e1kn04l
Case, Andrew. “The Dorean Principle & Bible Translation – with Conley Owens.” Working For the Word, July 14, 2021. https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Dorean-Principle–Bible-Translation—with-Conley-Owens-e1l6fuh
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