SIL Translation News

 International Translation Services (ITS) works in collaboration with colleagues in SIL and other agencies to creatively steward and advance the translation practices, tools, methods, and training necessary to enable a supportive environment for individuals and communities to engage with Scripture.

March 2021

• Language, Translation, and Human Flourishing - Greg Dekker
• Poetic Translation of Psalm 119 Dalet Portion in English & Portuguese - Timoteo Bachman 
• Sefaria Hebrew Manuscripts
• New Senior Translation Consultants - David Frank and Mike Miller
• New Eurasia Consultants - Roman Kim
• Bamboo Project Update - Brian Migliazza 
• Discourse Analysis of the New Testament Writings - Todd Scacewater
• Editor Staff for Global Publishing Services - Eric Kindberg 
• Updated Transcriber Release - Dale McCrory 
• Update on Discourse Analysis for Translation Workshop - Steve Nicolle 
• Remaining Translation Needs by Continent - Progress.Bible Snapshot

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Language, Translation, and Human Flourishing Greg Dekker

The ITS leadership team and I have been reflecting on the theme of language and human flourishing in our monthly meetings, and asking God how what we learn can impact the way we work. I encourage you and your teams to join us in this and share with me what you learn.
 
 In our last meeting we reflected on Rev 22:17 (CEV):
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”_
Everyone who hears this should say, “Come!”
If you are thirsty, come! 
If you want life-giving water, come and take it. It's free!_
 
 For me, this verse “breathes” life. My spirit feels uplifted, freed, just reading it, and the repetition of the invitation, “Come!” I see this as an invitation to flourish! 
 
I recently viewed the story of Dr Charles Mutua, affectionately known as “Mully,” a well-known social entrepreneur in Kenya and founder of Mully Children’s Family, a self-sustaining home for orphans. The movie told the story of how Mully, after hearing a message from God, decided to never again work for wealth, but to use his wealth, gained from an impressive life of business, to benefit the homeless street children of Kenya. The movie showed how Mully began walking the streets of Nairobi, collecting children who were living on their own, on the streets, and bringing them to his home, and in the beginning, these homeless children lived with him and his family in their home. I thought, what a wonderful picture of what God invites us to! Isaiah 55:3 says, “Come to me and live!” 
 
 The Rev 22:17 text implies or outright states that a positive response to God’s invitation to “come” to redemption through Christ Jesus is:  

• renewed relationships with God, others, and the environment
• intimacy with our Creator; belonging; inclusion in God’s family
• satiated physical needs; relief from physical hardship*; renewed energy
• our deepest longings fulfilled, with no payment needed!

In short, we flourish! *We know that coming to Christ involves taking up our Cross, too. Being a Christ-follower does not mean we will not suffer hardship. 
 
In his statement on the topic of Language and Human Flourishing, Michel Kenmogne said this, “The pursuit of flourishing - understood as shalom - among minority speaking communities implies active engagement in activities that further the presence and reign of God. This includes building a positive context for people to use the languages they value to expand their possibilities through adequate access to and engagement with God’s Word, education, and integration within the socio-economic life of their nations [...] Such realities provide a wider basis for the interest in language development, language preservation, language promotion, and language use in the various domains of life.” (Kenmogne 2020:12, 14)
 
Our work in Translation training, development, resources, research, practice, and in oral translation methods is aimed at seeing people flourish using the language(s) they value most. And, we don’t ignore the impediments to flourishing that exist in a community, but, together with our partners, we address them, trusting God to satisfy the urgency we feel to facilitate access to His Word for all who need it in the most expedient way possible.   

Poetic Translation of Psalm 119 Dalet Portion in Acrostic Timoteo Bachmann

Timoteo Bachmann (Brazil Translation Consultant) and his son-in-law Saulo (an ethnodoxologist) translated Psalm 119:25-32 in a poetic, acrostic form, both in English and in Brazilian Portuguese. Every translator struggles with trying to convey poetic Hebrew into a popular genre of poetry in their mother tongue. This exercise helped Timoteo to be more aware of the challenges the translator undergoes, and thus as a consultant to be more understanding and bolder to state what alternatives there are, in the semantic and syntactical fields. 

My purpose in poetically translating Psalm 119 (and eventually, any other poetic passages of the Bible) is to be fully faithful to the original meaning, while also conveying the emotional impact God wants it to have on the audience, whether to comfort, exhort, encourage, rebuke or correct. 
 
I enjoyed studying Hebrew during my Translation Consultant training. In my fourth semester of Hebrew, I had to exegete, translate and comment on OT poetic passages, and I found that most Bible Translations are fine and faithful in content to the original text, but are very ‘matter of fact.’ These translations lack the emotional effect the original text had on the senses and on the hearts of the original audience, which were strongly conveyed through the diverse forms of Hebrew poetry. That is the whole idea and purpose of composing poetry or songs in any language, i.e., to communicate something different from other genres of communication and somehow affect the receptors’ hearts, stirring their emotions to better absorb the content.  

1. My translation attempts to make Psalm 119 more accessible to Brazilian Portuguese speakers, by re-expressing it in the terms and forms of a popular poetic style that better conveys the feelings, reflections and attitudes that the psalmist originally wanted to bring out in his audience -- along with, and not in spite of, the eternal revelation it embodies. 
2. The translation should also make it easy to remember, which is how the OT Scriptures affected the original audience. We know most Israelites did not have their own copies of Scripture at home, so they had to keep reciting whatever they heard of it in order to memorize it and be able to reflect and meditate on it. When the Lord instructs Joshua (1:8) to meditate on the Word, the verb actually means to ‘murmur’ (also in Psalm 1), i.e., recite in a low voice. Reciting Scriptures to oneself is probably how the people of Israel meditated on Scriptures and it’s how many people are doing it even to this day.
3. The translation should also be relevant for the never-ending need of Scripture Engagement. Even seasoned believers need to be stimulated and encouraged to engage with the Word of God. Competition is fierce. I am working with a team of young Christian artists who produce paintings, “lettering” and songs based on the poeticized portions of Psalm 119. Our goal is to someday publish it all in two formats: (A) a format and style that would be relevant to Brazilian believers -- Scriptures with accompanying forms of art (plastic and performance) based on the psalm; (B) a format relevant to Brazilian unbelievers -- it would be entitled something like “Ancient Middle-Eastern Wisdom,” with a different selection of visual arts also based on the psalm.

Sefaria Hebrew Manuscripts Thanks to Harry Harm for this notice that Sefaria is now offering manuscripts of the Tanakh, Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud - while they work on manuscripts for Tosefta and Yerushalmi. 
 
Thanks to incredible metadata compiled by the National Library of Israel, each manuscript is aligned with the corresponding text on Sefaria. The Manuscripts section includes both manuscripts proper as well as images of important early pressings. At this stage, you can see:

• Tanakh: A beautiful hi-res color series of the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete manuscript of the Tanakh.
• Mishnah: Full-res color images of the Kaufmann manuscript.
• Babylonian Talmud: The complete Munich manuscript, the Bomberg pressing, and the Romm-Vilna pressing.
• Two more manuscripts — one for Tosefta and one for Yerushalmi — are in the works.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the National Library of Israel for doing the work of identifying what text is on each page of these manuscripts. With the help of their data, we're able to point users to the right page of each manuscript.  

New Senior Translation Consultants David Frank and Mike Miller

Congratulations to David Frank and Mike Miller on their recent accreditation as Senior Translation Consultants. This certification is an official recognition by SIL International of advanced professional competence as a consultant -- in addition to advanced academic credentials and a history of successful consulting, Senior Consultants demonstrate a strong commitment to lifelong learning and scholarly service to others.  David Frank, Senior Translation Consultant, has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington (1983). He is also a Senior Linguistics Consultant and editor of the Journal of Translation. David and his wife joined Wycliffe in 1982 and worked for 17 years in Saint Lucia, publishing the Saint Lucian Creole New Testament in 1999. In 2002 he was asked to assist the Sea Island Translation team, and the Gullah New Testament was published in 2005. He is currently consulting in Jamaica, Guinea-Bissau (West Africa) and Nigeria. David is a specialist in creole languages: French Creole (Saint Lucia), English Creole (Gullah, Jamaican), and Portuguese Creole (Guinea-Bissau).   Mike Miller, Senior Translation Consultant, has an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Texas Arlington (1989). He and his wife joined Wycliffe in 1980, serving in Peru with the Huaylas Quechua community which published their New Testament in 2006. Mike has worked as a translation consultant throughout South America and also in Asia. Currently Mike is helping with checking a Quechua Old Testament translation in Peru and training of new translation consultants for Latin America. He is also the Translation Team Leader for SIL Americas South.   

New Eurasia Consultants Roman Kim

Roman Kim: Congratulations to Roman Kim (Wycliffe Russia) on completing his Translation CiT training under his mentor Lesley Fast and being approved as a new Translation Consultant with SIL Eurasia. Roman serves in the Caucasus and also works with the Bamboo TN program. He received an MA in Field Linguistics (2016) from Redcliffe College, Gloucestershire University (UK) and an MA in Classics (2011) from Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). Linda Humnick (Chair of the Eurasia Consultant Technical Evaluation Committee) says:  

• The SIL Eurasia Area Consultant Technical Evaluation Committee (CTEC) met and affirmed Roman Kim’s qualification to serve in the role of translation consultant. 
• We offer our warmest congratulations to you, Roman, on reaching this milestone, and we want to express gratitude to all of you who have contributed to his development as a consultant. 
• Roman, we commend you, for your hard work over the years, your readiness to take on challenges and make the most of every development opportunity, and your dedication to placing service to others above all. 
• We look forward to the many ways God will use your unique gifts and consulting services to bless the peoples of the world. 
• We especially want to recognize and celebrate Wycliffe Russia’s role in launching Roman in the work of Bible translation and supporting him in his path to becoming a consultant.