SEPTEMBER 2024 Translation News

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Sep 2024 Translation News

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International Translation Services (ITS)

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 flourish and engage with Scripture. We value: Interconnectedness. Capacity Building. Diversity. Innovation.

September 2024 Is God in a hurry? - Greg Dekker Translation Training & Development Updates - Phil King Papua New Guinea Church-Based Translation Consultant Development and Management Competency-Based Certification (CBC) Digital Training Library UBS Partnerships Trends in OBT - Kris Toler New Senior Translation Consultant - Dan King Interviews with Translation Consultants Samuel Kpagheri (Africa) Bill Hanna (Asia) Scripture Impact Stories - Irene Van Riezen News MTTs Facilitating Translation Training - Erika Arcenas Knowing Me, Knowing You - Michael Jemphrey afrique.sil.org - David Wafo KTOT Latest Release - Peter Schmidt Proverbs Course - Murray Salisbury Biblical Hebrew Courses Starting Soon - Jochanan Löwenstein Material Culture of the Biblical World - A.D. Riddle Coming Events ILAC-8 (Malaysia) Sep 2024 Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation (Oct 2024) Kenya Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation (May 2025) Cameroon (French) ICON-25 (May 2025) Johannesburg, South Africa EMDC (May 2025) The Netherlands BT Conference 25 (Oct 2025) Thailand

Useful Links SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Area Translation Coordinators

Is God in a hurry?

• Greg Dekker - International Translation Services

Director “God is never in a hurry, but He is always on time….” (1) ““The problem is not whether God will do what He says He will do. The real problem is whether you will wait for Him to do what He says He will do.” (2) 2 Pet. 3:8 “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” (NLT) Is. 60:21-22 “All your people will be righteous. They will possess their land forever, for I will plant them there with my own hands in order to bring myself glory. 22 The smallest family will become a thousand people, and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation. At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen.” (NLT) “The only time in the Bible when we see God in a hurry is when He runs to meet the [prodigal] son who is coming home.” (3) “I cannot find a single example in the Bible where Jesus was in a hurry. In fact, if anything, He was decidedly unhurried and present in whatever He was doing... Jesus’ example of patience and presence is a really powerful message… [When we take time] we are more likely to notice suffering and be present enough to stop and help or at least support [others] while they hurt.” (4) “Hurrying leads to errors in judgment, or worse. I will miss opportunities to minister, fail to focus on important issues, say things I regret, shortchange relationships, react instead of act.” (5) There’s a human subtlety that creeps into our theology of Mission: Hurry. Sometimes called “urgency”. By “hurry” we are most often responding to the idea that people are passing away without ever hearing the Good News, so we must hurry to tell them. It’s a subtle way of thinking that skews the manner in which we are to bring the Good News as Paul tells us: Admonishing. Teaching with all wisdom. Presenting everyone complete in Christ. (Col. 1:26) These things take time. Years ago when we were pursuing an interest in Bible translation and literacy work, Diane and I approached my pastor, John Maxwell, with our interest, seeking his blessing and support in what we planned to do with our lives. He encouraged us to rethink our plan in favor of a different approach. He said, and I quote, “Wycliffe is 50 years behind times.” We were shocked, and not convinced! We had concluded Wycliffe was 50 years ahead of times! He went on to explain that people are increasingly moving to urban centers and that reaching people for Christ in the most efficient and effective way involves reaching them where they are (as opposed to smaller communities of people who lack vernacular Scripture.) I did my best to present my understanding: that God leaves the 99 to reach the 1 lost sheep; that God cares as much for the few as he does the many, and that by providing God’s Word, we provide the testimony to the Truth which will outlast any of us who proclaim that Good News in any single event. He wasn’t convinced. He gave the illustration of two vessels sinking. One is a ship carrying 300 people and one is a small boat carrying 10. He asked, “Which one will you attempt to save?” For the missiologist, it may be an unsolvable conundrum. Why? What I choose to do in this hypothetical situation must take into consideration 2 things: God’s sovereignty and my limited ability to save (desperate) people. If I had the means to save them all, I surely would utilize it. But I don’t have that ability. Yet going to the many, versus going to the few is immaterial, because I likely would save just as many in both attempts with my limited resources. We attempt to solve this dilemma in Bible translation these days, in part, by relying on new methodologies and technology. We aim to go faster. Yet, do we lose anything in the process? As I read Scripture, I don’t encounter this “hurry” and I don’t see it in Jesus’ life, nor in the lives of His followers. “Hurry” lacks a seeing eye to- and an acknowledgement of what God is doing in the long-term. In the New Testament we encounter Jesus acknowledging the right time, and we hear him acknowledging the Father’s will and time for Jesus’ purpose on earth. It’s a good example for us to follow. Hurry-ing in the BT task causes me to question whether we have the right perspective, whether we are putting the right goal ahead of us. (6) God has the whole fleet of sinking boats in His hands and he has the power to rescue them all. Knowing God is sovereign causes me to work unhurried, recognizing the results are his. This does not mean I do nothing. Rather, it does mean that I rest in His timing and sovereignty and focus on what I can do to affect transformation in people. Our methods must prioritize people. And we will remember, God will do it in order to bring Himself glory. 2 Pet 3:9 “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (NLT) ----------------------------------Footnotes [1] Rick Warren at https://pastorrick.com/god-is-never-in-a-hurry/ [2] Pastor T. O. Banso, Cedar Ministry International, Nigeria, https://cedarministry.org/god-is-never-in-ahurry/ [3] Sam Crosby at https://sansabafbc.org/blog/the-only-time-god-is-in-a-hurry [4] Anne Rulo at https://annerulo.com/2022/03/30/if-jesus-wasnt-in-a-hurry-maybe-we-shouldnt-beeither/ [5] Shane Hartley in Open the Bible, with Pastor Colin Smith, https://openthebible.org/article/problemhurry/ [6] Cf. my Sept 2023 ITS Newsletter article here, titled “When is Vision 2025 Accomplished?” https://drive.google.com/file/d/10lQwoWSAvY-P2bWFTvdlmnvi_a7q5cEY/view

Translation Training & Development Updates

• Phil King Here are a few updates from my desk: Papua New Guinea Church-Based Translation - At the end of June, I was invited by Global Partnerships (alongside a Dutch consultant) to travel to Papua New Guinea to review the church-based translation projects Global Partnerships are supporting there. The full report will soon be available, and I’m happy to talk with anyone who is interested. For me, it was an interesting first opportunity to see what Bible translation might look like when embedded as a ministry of a regional church body (in this case, the United Church), and to recognise the different ‘operating system’ compared with SIL and BTA projects I am familiar with. It was also encouraging to see communities and churches using the FIA materials (see the June newsletter), in a translation process that is deeply integrated with engagement, use, discipleship and evangelism right from the start. Consultant Development and Management - In July, the Consultant Development and Management (CDM) team held a seminar on ‘Managing Consultants’. Questions we looked at included: if a government agency or church entity approaches us for technical assistance, how do we know the consultant we assign is able to understand the ecosystem (what the organizations are doing and why), and work from current best practices based on different approaches, successes and challenges over recent years? How can consultants support each other to provide accountability, learning, mentoring, care and community? What kinds of processes are being used by projects to encourage consultant input from multiple domains? Sign up for the CD&M bulletin if you are interested in these kinds of questions. Competency-Based Certification (CBC) - There have been several recent improvements to the functionality of the Competency Manager tool that can be used to track progress through the various competencies to become a translation consultant. The most significant is the ability to make comments at the competency level. This means that a mentor can now document their decisions and reasoning when someone has demonstrated competence in enough of the subcomponents to increase their overall competency rating. Digital Training Library - The certificate on discourse in narrative texts (based on content provided by SIL) is now available to sign up for on the website, as are the certificates on World of the New Testament and World of the Old Testament. If you are interested in scholarships to benefit from any of these certificates, please get in touch with me. UBS Partnerships - I also attended a couple of days of meetings with UBS leadership at the end of July. Most significant was the feeling of closeness between our organizations and the desire to continue partnering together. We’re looking at starting some more intentional periodic conversations between International Translation Services and counterparts in UBS. Please get in touch with any thoughts you have about collaboration between SIL and UBS or individual Bible Societies, which might contribute to that conversation.

Trends in OBT

• Kris Toler Recently, multimodality has become a buzzword in the world of Bible translation. What can multimodality look like in language projects? Some projects start with oral drafting and then move through a traditional written translation process. Some begin as an oral translation project and once orthography difficulties are ironed out, they transition to a written translation. Other projects pass through the entire translation process orally and then transcribe the approved oral translation to have a written product, often with some significant stylistic changes. Multimodality in Bible translations can give translators a more holistic approach to language projects and better help meet the needs of local communities and projects. The SIL Oral Translations Services department can help teams looking to include oral strategies in their projects.

New Senior Translation Consultant Congratulations to Dan King on being appointed as an SIL Senior Translation Consultant for the five-year period of January 2025 to December 2029, in recognition of his high level of excellence and accomplishment in consulting and academic service in this domain. This certification is based on a thorough review of his academic service to SIL and partner organizations. The significant role of an SIL Senior Translation Consultant is strategically important as a model, mentor, consultant and trainer in the cause of Bible translation and related language development.

Dan King Dan studied Classics at university and then a little later an MTh and then completed his PhD in Syriac in 2006. He worked for several years as a lecturer in Hebrew and OT at Cardiff University, before he and his wife, Rachel, felt called by the Lord to work in the ministry of Bible translation. They joined SIL in 2012 and were assigned to the Uganda-Tanzania Operational Unit (OU). He served some years as an advisor for the Nyakyusa NT translation and wrote up the grammar for that project. For some years he has been working as a consultant on language projects across Tanzania, and mentoring/ training Tanzanian translators and advisors. In 2023 he began serving as the Translation Coordinator for SIL Tanzania. This opened up another exciting aspect of ministry as the OU seeks to expand its capacity in starting up new language engagements around the country. For now the family is based back in the UK, from where Dan can complete many consultant checking sessions remotely, and is able to travel to Tanzania three times per year to work with the teams in person. Since moving to Tanzania, Dan has continued with his academic research and has published several books and articles, mostly in Syriac Studies and ancient Philosophy, with occasional forays into text-critical and linguistic problems, such as the Greek article and the similarity between ancient scribes and modern translators. As well as being a consultant for SIL, he is an Associate Research Fellow in Syriac studies and Semitic languages at Cardiff University. He hopes one day to complete work on a book tracing the history of the Bible translation movement in the first 1000 years of Christianity.

Interviews with Translation Consultants We asked experienced Translation Consultants, Samuel Kpagheri and Bill Hanna, to share their thoughts concerning their work and philosophy of ministry. SIL consultants have been a key organizational resource over the years, equipping and encouraging others to academic and professional excellence while providing much needed leadership and service to our own staff and many partner organizations.

Samuel Kpagheri - Togo, Africa How did you get interested in Bible translation? When I was in secondary school, I was involved in a literacy program in my mother tongue, and the portions of the NT that were translated into this language were sent to me for proofreading. When I was in college, I also translated some booklets such as ‘The Heart of Man?’, ‘Help from Above’ and ‘Who shall deliver me’ into my mother tongue. This gave me a particular interest in Bible translation and when I was asked to join the translation team to translate the OT into my mother tongue, I did not hesitate. Later, when the full Bible was translated into my mother tongue, I felt that I could help others by being a translation consultant. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? The first thing that gets me excited is the Word of God itself. Every verse I check with the translator seems to be new to me and I always discover new things in it for myself. Interacting with other people through the Word of God, and trying to understand how their language works is always exciting. When the checking of a portion or a book is done, it is always a great pleasure for me. What is your consulting philosophy? My first concern when checking is to serve as a facilitator between the translators’ work and the source text. With relevant questions, I help the translators identify what they have done well and what they need to improve in their translation. Besides the clarity and faithfulness of the translation, translators have to read aloud during the checking session to identify the naturalness of the translation. What translation resources do you really value? I value the resources found in Paratext and Logos, particularly the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia along with the Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, UBS Handbook for Translators in English and French, the valuable exegesis found in Translator’s Notes, the meaning lines of Translator’s Notes, and the Comprendre pour Traduire. How do you continue to grow as a consultant? (What helps you continue to grow as a consultant?) Continuing studies of Hebrew and Greek, going through former checking reports, and reading translation journals in English and French. I also learn a lot when I teach in workshops. How do you share your translation discoveries with others? I share my translation discoveries during translation training workshops, consultant checking sessions, interacting with the members of my organisation and churches. Writing articles for journals dealing with translation issues is another way to share my translation discoveries. Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? I checked the book of Numbers with a translation team, and sent the report of the check to the team. But while going through the report, the coordinator realized that there is an omission of ‘Please, my lord’ in 12.11. He wrote back to me about this omission and I acknowledged with gratitude that his remark was true. I had omitted this clause when I was writing my report. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? First of all, have a good relationship with God and be a Bible student. Be a good reader and love people from different cultures. Be ready to learn and be teachable. Know that a Bible translator or consultant requires spending a lot of time before the Lord for guidance, but also in preparing the material to be translated or checked, hence perseverance is necessary. Finally, humility is one of the important things to cultivate. Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee? Joseph Koabike has been my mentor and I learned many things from him. One of these is to have a small notebook in my pocket wherever I go and write down things that people say and do. This method has helped me to write down new, strange, unfamiliar things in many cultures, including my own culture, and to discover their meaning. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? Actually, the church is the owner of the Bible translation. The church's ownership of the direction and outcomes of Bible translation is essential for transformation and lasting impact. The Church plays a key role in ensuring that projects are locally relevant, in relationshipbuilding, decision-making, funding and assurance of the quality of Bible translation programs. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? Being a translator is a vocation. The translator must be sure that he or she has received the call from God. They must trust God in time of difficulties and attacks of the Devil. As in all Christian ministries, they must know that God is the only provider in all domains. They must also trust God to help him to do the work of translation. He must be prepared to work hard in order to achieve the competencies and skills for the work.

Bill Hanna - Asia How did you get interested in Bible translation? I went to the Urbana Student Missions Conference in 1973 full of prayer and enthusiasm, and everybody I met seemed to be talking about Bible translation. I figured that was God’s voice to me. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? The thought that churches will grow, that pastors will preach from the Word in their own language, and that people will memorize Scripture in their own language. What is your consulting philosophy? 1) “First, do no harm.” This medical motto is good for consultants as well as doctors. I think about how much thought a team of translators have put into their work, and I remind myself that they can actually speak their language. I want to make their Bible better, not make it worse. I want it to be something that believers [and unbelievers alike] are more likely to read, not less likely. 2) Be an encouragement. Draw near to God together. Help the translators keep their eyes on the big picture of the growth of their churches. Praise them where it is appropriate. What translation resources do you really value? 1) The original text. 2) Commentaries. 3) Translator’s Notes often clarifies the issues and gives me a good place to start. Paratext is an amazing tool that has replaced many of the books I used to spread open on my desk. Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? A couple of times I have lain awake at night and wondered if I threw my weight around and forced my amazing solution on the MTTs. Sure enough, when we revisited the verse the next day, they were happy to restore the text to something pretty close to what they had started with. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? Work hard at Greek and/or Hebrew while you are young. I regret that I never learned any Hebrew. The older I get the more daunting it seems to get started. Share something that you learned from a mentor? I have two heroes. David Thomas was a linguistics consultant with amazing insight. The thing he stressed the most was that a consultant must be an encourager. Dick Elkins came to Thailand from the Philippines to do our first translation consultant check on Mark, and I always hope I can be as good as him. He got to know us, developed good rapport with the MTT, prayed with us, asked insightful questions, gently helped us think about some new ideas, and left us feeling like this could be a success. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? The Bible is for the church, and must be done by the church. I encourage translators to think multidenominationally. I ask them to focus on words that will help people to grow in Christ, that can be read fluently out loud. Some passages should be quotable and memorize-able. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? If I could reconsider my life’s direction, I would definitely choose to do this all over again.

Scripture Impact Stories Irene Van Riezen shares some amazing stories of the impact of Oral Bible Storytelling in South Asia. “Brother” and "sister" just means a man and a woman. It does not mean a believer. These stories are told in the words of the story-telling trainers in different places.

BJ from K village was suffering with stomach pain for many days. She was taken to nearby hospitals by her parents for the treatment but she was not healed completely and went through the problems. Her mother had gone to our Bible storyteller S’s home for some other work and there she shared about her daughter’s problem that they are very much worried about her illness. Then our Bible storyteller visiting them shared the story about “Jesus raises the dead girl and heals the bleeding woman”. After hearing the story, sister BJ and her mother said that Jesus is only the true and powerful God, so he raised the dead girl. Then our Bible storyteller prayed for sister BJ and encouraged them to believe in Jesus for the healing. Miraculously that sister was completely healed after a week. Now she is attending the Local Church at K village regularly and believing in the Lord Jesus. Brother P. from the K. village (a believer) heard the story of “choosing seven helpers”. After hearing the story, he said to the Bible storyteller that the story is very good, and it has nice information about the Church taking care of poor people. He said he is happy to know about the solution of the problem which was among the believers. The Bible storyteller told him, God wants believers to help each other in the local Church. Then that brother said to the Bible storyteller, that God has blessed him enough, so he wants to distribute clothes to all the widows in his village and neighboring village too. Then the next day he distributed the new clothes and thanked the Bible storyteller for sharing with him the beautiful story and that he should do good for the needy people. Some people have experienced the healing and also deliverance of evil spirits after hearing the stories and prayer of the Bible storyteller SM. M. people have very much caste feeling and they easily don’t accept and mingle with the people of other communities. Before also many Christian workers from other communities have tried to work among M. people but they were not successful because M. people don’t talk with people of another community about other religion and they feel the hesitation to enter the Church where the other community people are worshiping. Those who had accepted Christ as personal Lord and Saviour by our Bible storyteller, they started to have fellowship in the house of our Bible storyteller at B. village and slowly that was turned into first house Church for M. community. All the M. new believers are very much grateful for the oral stories, that they could know the truth, and accepted Christ through the stories. Our Bible storyteller donated his land for the Church building and now first M. Church building has been built and more than 25 M. people are attending the Church service.

News MTTs Facilitating Translation Training

• Erika Arcenas - Philippines In June 2023 in the Philippines, we were planning a Translation Principles Workshop for four new MTTs whose translation project was soon to begin. Others heard about this workshop and wanted to join. So, in the end we had twelve participants from three different language groups. This meant that we also needed more people to teach and present the various topics. Apart from myself there was one other colleague who is also involved in a translation project. In that project they have three very well-trained MTTs – they dedicated their NT the previous year and were now translating OT books. These MTTs then became part of the teaching staff for this 3-day workshop. We divided the topics between us and during the workshop we used two, sometimes even three languages: English, Tagalog and Cebuano. This was very helpful to the participants because they are more familiar with Tagalog and Cebuano than English. The highlight, however, of this workshop was that these MTTs, who were now teaching people from more or less Christian people groups how to do Bible translation, have a majority-religion background! They not only became believers in Christ, but also translators of His Word. We all really felt God’s blessing during this workshop. And the participants shared wonderful testimonies, saying that they saw and felt the presenters’ heart and commitment to sharing God’s word in a clear and meaningful way with other people.

Knowing Me, Knowing You

• Michael Jemphrey Michael Jemphrey announced a new online course, Knowing Me, Knowing You, which is relevant for all domains and all field workers translators, SE workers, CITs, etc. This is a six week course, which involves 7 hours of work per week, including a 90 minute weekly group meeting over zoom. Here is the link to the course description and you can click here for the course registration form. The pilot course runs from 13 September to 25 October 2024. The weekly session is on Friday 12:30 - 14:00 UTC. This is an anthropology course on Worldview and Interpersonal Dynamics. We all work with people who have different backgrounds from our own. Knowing Me, Knowing You is an introductory course about learning to understand both yourself and others better, so that we can build good relational foundations. This should improve our effectiveness when partnering in multicultural environments and enable us to foster community engagement, informed decision-making and ownership. The course is open to all.

afrique.sil.org

• David Wafo Congratulations to David Wafo and his team in Francophone Africa on the launch of their new website, afrique.sil.org, which showcases the work of SIL in Francophone Africa. Thanks to the team of Tracy McLean and Eszter Ernst-Kurdi (Francophone Training Team), Lena Gogula (Africa Communications), Rick Harman (SIL Global Communications), and many others, for their dedication and hard work in making this launch possible. David Presson (Africa Communications) says, "This website marks the first step in our broader initiative to enhance communication tools across SIL Africa. Join us in celebrating this milestone!"

KTOT Latest Release

• Peter Schmidt Peter Schmidt (Editor) announced the latest release of new articles to the Key Terms of the Old Testament (KTOT) resource in Paratext. This brings the total to 104 articles available in this valuable translation resource. KTOT is a tool for the Bible translation and consultant community, providing current research on some of the most important key terms of the Old Testament. Anne Garber Kompaore explores the width and depth of ‫ ָׁש לֹום‬šalom ‘well-being’, as it applies to one’s personal life and to relations with others. It further occurs in greetings, also in encounters where there is mistrust. Contextual meanings range from outward safety in traveling to inner peace of mind. The many-sidedness of the term calls for the translators’ sensitivity to each text and probing their own vocabulary. Meg Billingsley investigates the two adjectives tāmîm ‘without defect’ and tām ‘blameless’ and the noun ‫ ֹּתם‬tōm ‘integrity’ and explains how the idea of physical wholeness serves to express moral quality: that someone does not do wrong and has pure motives. For where a simple equivalent is not available, she discusses translation examples from other languages. A concise comparison with other terms of morality helps to see the differences between them. Working on a synonym to the above, Terry Wardlaw expounds on words from the root ‫ ָיָׁש ר‬yšr (‘straight/level; uprightness’) and on how metaphors are at work here: In the concrete world, the words can refer to ‘channeling’ water, or fighting in ‘the plain.’ When it comes to ethics, people are—in a live metaphor—pictured on a ‘straight’ path, or ‘right’ way. Moving on to a dead metaphor with a higher degree of abstraction, people do ‘what is right,’ and count among ‘the upright.’ God judges with ‘uprightness.’ Translators are reminded that they need to check whether these metaphors work or don’t work in their language. Peter Schmidt offers an in-depth study of ‫ ְּת רּוָמ ה‬tərûmâ ‘contribution’, which is often poorly understood as “a general offering term” and in some versions neglected. He sees it as a religious tax, or something set aside for the support of the sanctuary and its staff. Numerous difficult constructions and verses, from Leviticus to Ezekiel, are addressed. Ayala Wing informs us about ‫ ַׁש ָּבת‬šabbat ‘time of rest’, be that a day or a year. She discusses the variant šabbaton, and points out that the combination šabbāt šabbaton implies a stricter ceasing from work. She counters some misunderstandings like the etymology from “seven” or the character as a “joyful celebration”; incorporating Jewish exegesis, it is argued that miqrā’-qōdeš is probably not a ‘holy assembly,’ but the ‘announcement of a holy time.’ She alerts to some pitfalls in certain national or church contexts. In his overview article, Manie van den Heever orients translators about their main options regarding the weighty question of how to render God’s name ‫ יהוה‬YHWH. Peter de Niet examines ‫ ָנִביא‬/ ‫ נבא‬nabi’ ‘prophet’ and the verb ‘prophecy.’ Well aware of potential mis-conceptions among believers and non-believers, he evaluates translation equivalents like messenger etc. To do so he studies thoroughly how prophecy is presented in the OT – including (a) how prophets in Israel and elsewhere receive revelation, (b) the phenomenon of ecstasy, (c) the “companies of prophets,” and (d) how some texts keep in suspense the question whether someone is a “true” or “false” prophet.

Proverbs Course

• Murray Salisbury The Jerusalem Center for Bible Translators (JCBT) announces this exciting course on Proverbs taught by Murray Salisbury. It is offered as a hybrid course, but the opportunities to be onsite in Israel and experience the five days of fieldtrips related to Proverbs far exceed what participants would gain online. TEXT IN CONTEXT: The Book of Proverbs Hybrid classes: November 25 – December 13, 2024 Click here for full course information / Contact email Website: https://bibletranslators.org Instructors: Murray Salisbury and Ronit Maoz Murray Salisbury is a translation consultant with thirty-three years of experience training 1850 consultants and translators around the world. Ronit Maoz is a licensed Israeli guide. She will take you out on five full-day field trips, giving you hands-on experience with some of the Bible’s metaphorical language: Israel’s flora, fauna, horticultural and farming practices, geography, weather, seasons, etc.

Biblical Hebrew Courses Starting Soon

• Jochanan Löwenstein Shalom! We hope to see you soon in a Hebrew class! Join us this fall semester at Jerusalem Seminary: Hebrew for the Nations for a robust roster of online Biblical Hebrew courses. As always our methods are to teach Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language with teachers that are Israeli followers of Jesus. Learn to read the Hebrew scriptures fast and better retain your Biblical Hebrew knowledge while reading, writing, singing and even story telling in Biblical Hebrew. This semester we are offering Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language levels 1, 2, and 3, as well as personal or group tutoring and Biblical Hebrew reading groups for those who want to sharpen or maintain their skills. For tutoring or reading groups you can form your own cohort or join a waiting list to join a group we form. Since many of you have backgrounds in Biblical Hebrew, you are welcome to take our placement test to see which level fits you best. For further information contact Jochanan.

Material Culture of the Biblical World

• A.D. Riddle A.D. Riddle will be teaching a new course from 15 Jan to 08 May 2025 Material Culture of the Biblical World, offered through Dallas International University (DIU). You can take the course for audit (fees only). Or if you are a graduate of DIU/GIAL with a Master’s degree, then you can audit the course for free. And you can also apply as a regular student for graduate credit, and register for the course. This course will bring together archaeology, Hebrew lexicology, semiotics, and other disciplines to examine specific categories of material culture from ancient Israel, and then apply that to the Elijah-Elisha narratives (1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 13). For further information or to ask any questions, please contact A.D. Riddle at or Kim Wells. Material Culture is the study of manmade artifacts (such as clothing, pottery, architecture), exploring how those artifacts were produced as well as their function and significance within the culture that created them. This course will focus on the material culture from the Biblical World, with special emphasis on ancient Israel. The principal sources for study are results of archaeological excavation, experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and iconographic studies. This course is designed principally for students who anticipate working in the areas of Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement. In this course, students will (1) be introduced to key concepts for the study of material culture, (2) study material artifacts from ancient Israel and explore their cultural significance, (3) apply this information to the exegesis of biblical passages, and (4) extend these principles to the analysis of material objects of contemporary world cultures for the purpose of ethnographic research and Scripture Engagement. This course is holistically multidisciplinary in that it intersects the disciplines of archaeology, semiotics, biblical studies and ethnography.

Coming Events 2024 - 18-25 September. ILAC-8. Making good decisions in language programs. Penang, Malaysia. 2024 - 09-29 October. Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation. Nairobi, Kenya. 2025 - 28 Apr-16 May. Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation (in French). Cameroon 2025 - 05-13 May. ICON-25: The SIL International Conference & Vision 2025 Celebration. Johannesburg, South Africa. 2025 - 19-22 May. EMDC. The Netherlands 2025 - 28-31 October. Bible Translation Conference 2025. Chiangmai, Thailand.

Useful Links Bible Translation Consultant Competencies / YouTube channel for BT Competencies Journal of Translation SIL Senior Translation Consultants Email the SIL International Translation Office / International Translation Services ILS page Join/visit the SIL Translation Resources Google Group Visit the public SIL.org/Translation site Find Translation Resources (both free download and for purchase) SIL.org/Resources/Publications Bamboo Project website Mentoring Matters website - Mentor Training Courses Consultant Development and Management Team Progress.Bible Information Memoriam website

SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Greg Dekker - ITS Director Angeline Foo - International Coordinator for Translation Research and Practice Paul O'Rear - International Coordinator for Translation Resources Phil King - International Coordinator for Translation Training and Development Kris Toler - International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services Viji Mathew - Director, Global Consultant Pool Brian Migliazza - ITS Operations and Project Management

Area Translation Coordinators Angeline Foo & Amber Jasa - Asia Greg Carlson - Pacific Drew Maust - Francophone Africa Jonathan van den Broek - Anglo-Lusophone Africa Tim Robinson (interim) - Eurasia Rick Floyd & Dwight Shaver - Americas Bernadet van der Louw - Global Sign Languages Team (GSLT)

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