When the Church Translates the Bible

In light of recent conversations and presentations regarding “Bible translation by the church” I wonder if this recent paper would be of interest. It differentiates between two different modes of BT by the church: a “Bible-centric” mode of Bible translation (focused on production of a Bible translation, led by the church that speaks the language) and a “Church-centric” mode that is not primarily focused on production of a Bible translation. In Church-Centric Bible Translation (as defined in the paper), the focus is on the equipping and formation of the church with the capacity to grow to maturity as disciples of Jesus, and experience in translation of Scripture is a means (and, in some ways, an end) of that process. In CCBT, the translation agenda is secondary to the theological formation agenda. Thus, CCBT provides an answer to the question “How can Bible translation by the church work where there is no (or only a young/new) church?”

Executive Summary – This paper presents “Church-Centric Bible Translation” as a theologically formative and capacity-building paradigm of Bible translation. Through multilingual and multimodal interaction with the Scriptures, shaped according to biblical patterns of church and mission, the church that speaks a given language progressively builds their biblical understanding, theological maturity, and translation experience. This iterative process aligns the church’s production of a Bible translation with their growing capacity, ensuring that the pace of the process is commensurate with their ability to reliably and confidently assess the trustworthiness of their translation of the Bible. 

PDF: "When the Church Translates the Bible"