Bible translation matters, there is no debate. Everyone deserves to have God’s Word in their own heart language, to hear him speak directly to them.
More than 1 billion people still don’t have the full Bible in their own language. Almost 4,000 languages – that’s more than half of the world’s languages – still don’t have any Scripture translations at all.
When it comes to understanding the importance of Bible translation, we must also understand one critical truth about Bible translation, that Bible translation is, without question, a question of justice.
1. Bible Translation promotes Equality of Access
Bible translation promotes equality of Access. Power should not determine access to the things that really matter. Power should not determine access to education, to safe water, to the vote – and it absolutely should not determine access to the Bible.
2. Bible Translation enables Agency
Imagine you are a woman of low status and limited resources who doesn’t yet have access to the Bible in their own language. You are a person of faith, and you attend a church gathering each week, where you are instructed about who God is and what he wants from you from a book that only certain leaders in the community are able to read, since they speak both the local language, and the trade language the Bible is translated into.
You are completely dependent on others telling you what God thinks about you and wants from you – you have no ability to check their teaching against God’s Word, since you have no ability to engage with the Scriptures for yourself. You are completely without agency in the most important matters shaping your life and beliefs.
Having access to the Bible in a language you easily understand removes the issue of powerlessness at having to rely on mediating voices telling you what God says, and empowers you to disagree with exploitative or false or just misguided teaching that you can see for yourself doesn’t line up with Scripture. Bible translation enables people to have the agency to explore the Scriptures for themselves.
3. Bible Translation Affirms Identity
Bible translation is a justice issue because it affirms identity. For some people groups, the word for ‘man’ or ‘human’ is the same as the word for their people group. In Inuktitut, for instance, spoken by the Inuit people in Canada, the word for people is, in fact, ‘Inuit’. So, to say, “Then God said, let us make human beings in our image”, is to say, “Let us make Inuit in our image.”
Can you imagine how powerful it is to read that your community, specifically, are image bearers of God? This is what the Inuit were finally able to read when the Inuktitut full Bible was launched at a very special church building in 2012.
Translation into these languages creates for the community a very strong sense that God is finally speaking to them personally – he speaks their language and affirms their identity as his created people and children.
4. Bible Translation Preserves Cultures
Bible translation can be a potent force in preserving cultures which are in danger of being suppressed by more dominant language groups.
We have seen how sometimes the very act of creating an alphabet or committing a language to text for the first time in the process of Bible translation can help not only preserve but strengthen and nurture a culture itself.
Bible translation can even help shift the landscape of educational policy, encouraging multi-lingual mother tongue education in countries from Panama to the Philippines.
Bible translation in the heart language of a community is a force for justice by promoting and preserving local culture and language throughout the generations.
5. Bible Translation Enriches Theology
Finally, Bible translation is a question of justice because all theology is local theology. It is the meeting of the Scriptures with the thinking and perspectives of real people in a real time and place.
When a community receives the Scriptures in their own language, they are released to fully engage in the development of theology, bringing their own unique cultural perspectives to bear.
The more aspects of God’s heart and character that can be revealed through the Holy Bible, for the body of Christ, the richer all our understandings of God can be.
This is of profound value to them as a community, and truly until they receive that opportunity they are missing out on something which should be the birthright of every believer.
It promotes equality of Access. It enables Agency. It affirms Identity. It preserves Culture. And it enriches Theology.
And the reality is that there has never been a more exciting time for Bible translation. We are in a moment of history which is seeing unprecedented collaboration, investment and innovation. The progress over the last two decades, compared to the centuries beforehand, has been remarkable.
You can read more about an ongoing translation in Serbia on pages 14-15 of this magazine.
Do you know how many languages had the full Bible in the year 2000?
In the year 2000, 426 languages had the full Bible!
Do you know how many languages had the Bible by mid 2022?
By 2022, 720 languages had the full Bible!
That’s an increase of 70% since the start of the millennium.
That’s significant.