This is the last
week of my #30daydietofpassion, and this week I would really love to focus on
some stories from the field that highlight some interesting translation
issues! The more I learn about
linguistics, Biblical exegesis, and how
the two must work together to "crack the code" of Bible translation in each individual culture, the more I
understand what a sheer miracle it is each time a translation team completes
the Scripture in a new language!
It used to take a missionary's lifetime to learn a people group's language, and to then begin and finish the long, hard work of discovering each best word and/or phrase to convey the meaning of each Bible passage. This time has been diminished a little in many places, due to the move of working with national translators and missionaries that I've mentioned before. However, this just means that teams of nationals and ex-pats are now working together to discover those words of life that impart the right theological meaning encapsulated in each verse.
It used to take a missionary's lifetime to learn a people group's language, and to then begin and finish the long, hard work of discovering each best word and/or phrase to convey the meaning of each Bible passage. This time has been diminished a little in many places, due to the move of working with national translators and missionaries that I've mentioned before. However, this just means that teams of nationals and ex-pats are now working together to discover those words of life that impart the right theological meaning encapsulated in each verse.
Ivy's story below
shows one such example of a phrase that eluded a translator for a long while,
until an incident with a donkey brought the right words to light! Enjoy:
Excerpt from Ivy Cheeseman's article, published in InFocus 2010, Issue 4
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