MAP — Modular Aggregation of Principles for Bible Translation

Google Link to the PDF SEPTEMBER 2026 Translation Newsletter

Extracted text from 09_Sep_2026_TransNews.pdf:

SIL 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.

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September 2026 My Motivation for Bible Translation - Judi M Have you tried the Logos Auto-Translate Feature? - Nick Peterson Oral Translation Services - Kris Toler OBT Best Practices Discussion Oral Bible Translation and Biblical Performance in Southern Siberia OBT Reading Group Africa OBT Online Consultation 2026 Comunidad de Práctica Flexible and Scalable Quality Assurance - Phil King Fruit of BT Projects - Huichol of Mexico - Libby Willett Translator’s Notes Update - Randy Groff Interviews with Translation Consultants - Freddy Boswell AI & Translation Spot AI Training Materials - Steve Payne Case Study of AI-Assisted Adaptation - Jeff Webster The Bible Translator Journal - 4 AI Articles AI for Consultants: Video Recording and Notes - Nick Peterson AI for Language Programs - New Google Group News Key Terms of the Old Testament Update - Peter Schmidt Asia TCDW 2026 Report - Steve Doty, Amber J, Angie Foo Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) - Evelyn Hibbert Online Conference on Hebrew and the OT - Nov 2026 2027 Asia TCDW Registration BiblePlaces.com Special Discount - A.D. Riddle Jerusalem Center for Bible Translators Courses - Bob Carter Advanced Translation and Exegesis - SIL Australia Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language - Jochanan Löwenstein Useful Links SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Area Translation Coordinators

Coming Events Oral Bible Translation Consultant Workshop (Sep 2026) South Africa Taste of FLExTrans (Sep 2026) Online Africa OBT Consultation (Oct 2026) Online FLExTrans Workshop (Nov 2026) Online Conference on Hebrew and the OT (Nov 2026) Online Greek linguistics. Global CoP for BT Consultants. (Nov 2026) Online Translation Development Event (Nov 2026) EurAsia SBL Global Bible Translation Studies (Nov 2026) Denver Asia TCDW (May-July 2027) Hybrid Bible Translation Conference (Oct 2027) Cape Town, South Africa

My Motivation for Bible Translation Judi M - SIL EurAsia These last few months our newsletter has begun with members of the Global Translation Community of Leadership sharing what motivates them to be involved in Bible translation. This month we hear from Judi. She is a Senior International Translation consultant and her PhD focuses on applying rhetorical-literary features in Bible translation. I was first motivated to serve as a translation advisor for an unreached people group who had no orthography, no church, and no access to the Scriptures in their own language. These people had minimal access to written and aural Scriptures in a language of wider communication that requires the equivalent of about nine years of education in the national language to understand. Very few people are interested in expending this amount of effort to read or listen to a foreign translation version. As a result, virtually no one in this people group had any exposure to the Word of God. My husband and I committed our lives to Bible Translation to alleviate this Bible poverty—to produce a variety of Scripture products in the heart language of the receptor audience, so reading and listening to the Scriptures is not a burden, but rather a transforming experience that enriches their lives. I am motivated to work alongside mother tongue translators (MTTs) and others to translate the whole Bible because all of it is relevant, even legal codes, cultic rituals, and obscure prophecies. I've discovered that Leviticus addresses their modern day animistic sacrificial practices, Micah condemns corrupt practices that they currently suffer from, and artistic expressions of the Psalms in their mother tongue dramatically penetrate and impact their hearts, unlike foreign versions. My passion, as a translation advisor and as a translation consultant, is to equip teams to apply linguistics, Biblical studies, and LiFE (literary-functional equivalence) translation principles to produce good quality Bible translations that are accurate and expressive. I enjoy learning and sharing methods for bridging the linguistic and cultural gaps between the source text and receptor text, so that the message of the Bible communicates in relevant ways. I am excited to be part of multicultural translation teams who use multimodal (all the senses) and multimedia (written, aural, electronic) tools to produce Bible translations and paratextual materials that serve the multi-faceted needs and expectations of the receptor audience. I desire to avoid restricted access to the Scriptures, a phenomenon where people are required to learn foreign languages, are limited to just one product (e.g., either a written version or an oral version), and/or constrained to just the NT or the OT.

Have you tried the Logos Auto-Translate Feature? Nick Peterson If you have a TW license, you have access to Logos’ auto-translate feature. You can access it by opening up your favorite resource in a new panel, going to the panel menu and selecting “Tools” and then “Translate”. It will open up a sidebar in the same panel with the translation of the resource. The green box in the image highlights the language selector dropdown.

As you scroll in the main window, the Translation sidebar will update to give a translation of what you are currently looking at. To maximize the use of your AI credits, copy the translation using the copy icon in the top right corner of the Translation sidebar and save it off in a Logos Document, Clipping or Note for easy access or in your own word processor. How does auto-translate help? There are so many rich resources in Logos that are available to TW users, but unfortunately, most of it is in English. With auto-translate, you can help provide your team with all sorts of information that could help them with their exegesis of the passage that they are working on without having to have the pressure of learning adequate English to understand the material. What languages are available? There are currently 134 languages available to translate into! Take a look here for a language that you know how to speak.

Oral Translation Services Kris Toler OBT Best Practices Discussion - The August session of the Multimodal Bible Translation Community of Practice was a first step in having conversations about developing Best Practices in OBT. The conversation revealed that there are many layers that need to be worked out in order to develop a good set of standards that we can all agree on. Watch the recording and let us know your thoughts about what needs to be included in the conversation.

Oral Bible Translation and Biblical Performance in Southern Siberia - The September session of the Multimodal Bible Translation Community of Practice is meeting Tuesday, September the 8th at 9:00am Dallas, 14:00 UTC, 19:30 India, 21:00 Thailand. Bron Cleaver will be presenting “Oral Bible Translation and Biblical Performance in Southern Siberia”. Bron will present her 2025 book, which is about designing a contextualized performance, based on biblical passages translated by oral Bible translation, to give oral-preference learners in the Republic of Altai the best possible access to Scripture. It presents a model for other oral Bible teams to translate and perform biblical texts in culturally relevant ways. The book explores key issues: the internalization process, orally translating non-narrative genres, extra-linguistic exegesis, using local poetic features in oral biblical translations, creating notes for translation teams, and integrating audience responses into the translation.

Be sure to invite others to the session. If you are interested in joining the Community of Practice you can contact me at kris_toler@sil.org to be added to the mailing list. OBT Reading Group - In the September OBT Reading Group we will discuss “Oral Bible Translation and Its Role in the Future of Bible Translation” by Bronwen Cleaver. Please come with your thoughts and questions so that we can engage in a lively discussion. The discussion session will be on September 25th at 9:00am Dallas time. I look forward to seeing you then for a great discussion. Here is the zoom link for the session: https://sil.zoom.us/j/99964509859. Africa OBT Online Consultation 2026 - This year’s edition of the Africa Oral Bible Translation Consultation will be held online from October 13-15, 2026. Be sure to sign up here so that you don’t miss any of the presentations. You can also access the recordings from previous years here. Comunidad de Práctica - La sesión de la comunidad de práctica de la Traducción Multimodal de la Biblia en español de este mes será el 9 de septiembre a las 9:00 de la mañana, hora de México. Enviaré un correo electrónico aparte anunciando el tema y los detalles de la sesión una vez que estén confirmados. El enlace de Zoom para la sesión es https://sil.zoom.us/j/99964509859.

Flexible and Scalable Quality Assurance Phil King In early August, I had the somewhat daunting privilege of speaking to the ETEN Steering Committee. It is always inspirational and humbling to be around that group of leaders: the CEOs of 11 major Bible Translation organisations, and the 5 resourcing partners who are passionate about bringing them together around a common vision. You can see who they are on the ETEN website. Since Paul encourages us to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2), you could even print that webpage out and pray for one of them every day! I had Gary Nelson stuck in my wallet for several months .

🙂

I was there because the committee had raised concerns about Church Based Bible Translation, and three of us from the Innovation Lab (Andy Kellogg, Teryl Gonzalez and myself) were asked to go and respond to their questions. It forced me to dig even deeper into the lab’s recommendations, and I want to share some reflections here - but first some context. You’ll be aware that the ETEN Alliance (of which SIL is a key part) was formed some 15 years ago around the vision of greater access to Scripture - an end to Bible poverty - with a set of specific catalytic milestones recognised in the 2033 All Access Goals. All languages over 500,000 speakers would have a full Bible, those with over 5,000 speakers would have a complete New Testament, and those with 1-5000 speakers would have 25 chapters available. There was an early recognition that methods in use at the time would not reach that goal, and the Innovation Lab was set up around 2020 to look for ways to increase the pace - focused on how technology could help and on alternative ways to approach quality assurance that might ease consultant bottlenecks. Might there be more flexible and scalable approaches to quality assurance that would still be effective? I joined in 2021 to be a bridge for SIL with what was being developed. For me, and I’m guessing many of our readers, increasing the pace of Scripture production has only limited motivational appeal when held alongside other values. Yet, what I’ve discovered while working with the lab is that this initiative has been a catalyst to new approaches in areas that I do care deeply about: churches and communities engaging deeply with God’s word, and growing capacity to wrestle with its implications in their own context. The biggest impact I’ve seen has been from the FIA (Familiarisation, Internalisation, Articulation) resources. These repackage much of the same kind of content as found in translators notes or handbooks into a structured accessible format that walks a group through exegetical content and reflective questions as they think about the point of the passage, the scenes, the characters, the key terms and translation challenges. The presentation is somewhat like an inductive Bible Study, and it is beginning to be used this way in various churches around the world. I’ve heard more than one story of pastors changing their Sunday morning services to FIA sessions, or using them for their own preparation and revolutionising the way they preach. The lab’s recommended approach has come to be called Church Based Bible Translation, which has caused some confusion since many approaches have been labelled with similar names, but don’t necessarily align with the lab’s key recommendations. The process is built around understanding (through use of the FIA resources, embodied internalisation and supported by Scripture Authentication elders), translating (using multimodal drafting strategies) and refinement (through reviews by peers, community, church leaders, church Scripture Review Boards, and supported by Quality Assurance mentors). These are some of the points that we sought to clarify in our Steering Committee presentation: There are places where the lab’s approach is having a significant impact. Teryl Gonzalez shared 5 case studies where much broader segments of the church and community are getting involved in quality assurance, from Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Liberia, Nigeria and Eurasia, and summarised her observations on pace (increasing), impact (“wow!”) and confidence in the quality of the translations (reliable). This does not mean it is appropriate everywhere. However, using

this approach in places where it is viable may bring greater impact of translation, and release the capacity of technical experts to work in areas where they may be more strategically needed. The lab is not saying that technical expertise can be bypassed for translation. It is crucially important to consider the ecosystem of expertise, how equipped the church is now, and how its capacity will grow. There are, however, some differences from some traditional projects in the proposed architecture of expertise - how expertise for quality is distributed and accessed and how competency develops in a way that affirms local agency. The lab is promoting the concept of a ‘Quality Assurance community’ - a broader participation from communities, church elders, regional church leaders and others into the task of quality assurance, supported by Quality Assurance mentors with consultant-type skills. The approach is also leaning into community-directed learning rather than expert-directed learning: affirming the value of communal, embodied, problem-based skills development embedded in the translation task. It may be that you read some of this and think: that’s pretty much what we do already! I think some of these directions are much closer to our current best practices than is sometimes portrayed. For me, the most challenging question is around the issue of quality control checks - are there contexts where these could be even more in the hands of the local church and community, supported by consultants? One thing that has struck me in these meetings was how deeply financial investors care about quality translation - they want to be assured that the processes in use lead to translations that are actually trustworthy, not just ones that the church feels good about. This was a significant debate at the steering committee: without a consultant controlling the quality assurance process, how can they be sure that a project is actually making use of all the resources and processes that we know can lead to quality? There is much that is still being learned as these new approaches are being explored. The two major asks for the Steering Committee at this stage, with which Andy Kellogg concluded our presentation, were:

to recognise Flexible and Scalable Quality Assurance as another responsible pathway to trustworthy translation (in appropriate contexts), and
to seek to incorporate elements of it as appropriate, in particular to think about how current consultants could focus even more on broadening involvement and equipping the church for quality assurance. So my question for you - what would it take for you to respond positively to either of these?

Fruit of BT Projects - the Huichol of Mexico Libby Willett Dr Libby Willett (SIL Senior Translation Consultant) provided this report on the annual Huichol youth camp. She has served in Mexico and throughout Latin America, including coordinating the Huichol Old Testament project. The Huichol [hch] translation in the remote mountains of west central Mexico was begun by John and Genevieve McIntosh in the late 1940s, and then was continued by Joe & Barbara Grimes in 1953 when John's people skills were needed in leadership. Translation began in earnest in the mid-1950s.

Chuck Grimes says: "The Huichol NT was published in 1967, followed by several reprints, and in the face of much persecution of believers. After a hiatus in translation over several decades, the full Huichol Bible (2020) is now being put to good use by the 54 local Huichol pastors that have grown up around the translated Scriptures. At the Huichol Bible Camp 2026 over 200 youth participated and over a dozen made decisions for Christ." Photos by Debbie Mellberg.

The 13th annual Huichol youth camp took place outside Tepic, Nayarit, during Holy Week 2026, with 224 Huichol teens attending. Huichol leaders from various locations taught Bible lessons in Huichol on this year’s theme, Clay in Your Hands, using the examples of Mary Magdalene, Moses, and Peter. Volunteers from the Iglesia Bautista Bíblica de Tepic (IBBM) served the Huichol community with practical workshops: first aid, anti-scorpion venom injection, basic electrical installation, toilet installation, welding, hair cutting, forming a workable outline from a Bible passage for teaching purposes, and beginning guitar. The Tepic youth organized lots of crazy games. Singing was done with a combination of Spanish and Huichol musicians, an amazing blend of two cultures worshiping and praising one God making the most joyful noise. After the committed Tepic youth had set up everything at the campground (stoves, gas tanks, tables, chairs, even the electrical connections) and everyone was registered and had received their camp T-shirts, blankets, and team assignments, everyone met under an enormous canopy for Pastor Refugio’s introductory message. No sooner had he finished praying and spoken a sentence or two about the camp theme, than thunder clapped, lightning flashed all around, and an intense rainstorm, complete with one-inch hailstones, poured down in the middle of the dry season.

Campers under the canopy

Everyone huddled together under the canopy. Instruments were quickly stuffed into jumbo garbage bags. The IBBM volunteer staff went around with broomsticks, releasing gallons of water that kept accumulating in the canopy to keep it from collapsing. Within minutes, what had been a grassy, dry campground turned into one giant vat of clay…in the Potter’s hands. By morning, blankets, clothes, and tents were spread out and hanging everywhere, soaking up the sun and drying out for the night. No one seemed to notice the disorder. After young Huichol leader Gabriel spoke about Moses, several campers offered their own lives to be clay in the Potter’s hands. Lead Huichol pastor and translator José López closed the camp with a moving summary of how God had used the Huichol Scriptures in his life to form him into the vessel for His service, and the Potter could do the same for each of them.

Crazy camp games

Scripture banner and DILA* graduate David García addressing the camp.

Consulting Huichol Bibles

DILA is the Diplomado Internacional de Lingüística Aplicada (International Diploma in Applied Linguistics), a biennial course sponsored by ILV (Instituto Lingüístico de Verano) and the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.

Translator’s Notes Update Randy Groff The Translator’s Notes team continues to diligently draft new TNs and update old ones. They can always use help in producing these TNs, particularly for the OT. If you are interested, please contact Randy Groff, the coordinator of the Translator's Notes (TN) project.

TN is an exegetical resource started by Katy Barnwell in the 1990s to give exegetical and translation help to local translators (MTTs) - though many Translation Advisors and even consultants also find it useful. A great deal of research and effort go into drafting each TN book to ensure that it is not only exegetically sound, but easy to read as well. Because of the work involved, it can take a decade or longer to produce a single TN the size of Mark. So even though the work has been going on for decades, much work remains to be done, particularly in the Old Testament. TN is developed in two parts: the Notes and the Display. The original concept was that the translator would study the Notes (the analysis part) of each verse first, then the Display (the synthesis part). However, field reports indicate that translators often look at the Display first, and sometimes only look at the Display. They read the Notes only when further information is needed. In order to give the translators at least some help in the Old Testament, a new initiative was launched several years ago to recruit an international team to draft the Display of the remaining OT books first and make those available chapter by chapter, then circle back and draft the Notes later. Today the result is that we now have: a complete Display for 34 of the 39 Old Testament books, a Display well along for another 2 books (Leviticus and Deuteronomy) Display work in progress for the remaining 3 books (Exodus, Psalms, and Jeremiah) A complete TN (both Notes and Display) is available for 18 OT books: Genesis, Joshua, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Esther, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi. Some of these are still quite preliminary and are being edited. Much of the Old Testament material mentioned above is available in TW Logos and Paratext in the TND and TNN resources. Some of the OT drafts are only available in the TNND and TNDD (development) projects. You can write to Translators_Notes@sil.org to be added as observers to these two projects if you wish to see the drafts. For the New Testament, a complete TN is available in Logos and Paratext (TND and TNN resources) for every chapter of every book except Matthew 23-28 and Hebrews 7-13. These chapters are only available in draft form in the TNND and TNDD projects.

Interviews with Translation Consultants We asked Freddy Boswell, a Senior Translation Consultant, to share his thoughts concerning his work and philosophy of ministry. He is the editor of the Journal of Translation and serves on the translation faculties of CANIL and DIU. Experienced 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 many Bible translation organizations.

Freddy Boswell - Global How did you get interested in Bible translation (BT)? For as long as I can remember, I have had a love for the Bible, for language studies, and for cross-cultural ministry. BT was a perfect fit. I didn’t realize it at the time, but an M.A. degree in

seminary, rather than the classical, pastoral M.Div., gave opportunity to dive deeper into the study of biblical languages, and that opened the door to translation which the Lord brought my way.

What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? I love to see their sense of excitement of reading and hearing God’s Word in their heart language; of noticing their satisfaction at achieving milestones; to see them apply training to advance in their craft. What is the most gratifying thing you have done as a translation consultant? To help multiple languages achieve a full Bible or full New Testament. It is extremely humbling. What is your consulting philosophy? To start with the team where they are, and not where I think they should be (which in itself, does sound like I know what is best for them!) I begin with an awareness of their experience, their goals, and even on a very basic level, what kind of translation are they intending—rather than coaching them necessarily to a type of translation that I assume or presume would be best for them. In the process, I stress through teaching and example that meeting Scripture translation goals is a long and involved process—it’s not like instant potatoes, where you add water, stir, and cook. It takes enormous amounts of time, and every team is different in how they learn and develop. Patience on the part of all of us is required! In terms of actual consulting, I don’t see myself as a Gatekeeper, but as a Specialist, brought into the team to contribute what gifts I might have to help the team reach their goals. How would you describe your relationship to current developments in the field of translation? Aware that there has never been this much translation activity and output in the history of the Christian church, it should not surprise us that new developments are constantly emerging. I honestly feel like I stay behind. And that’s why conference attendance and journal reading are so important. What worries you about where the field of translation is heading? What gives you hope? Not sure how to say this so it doesn’t sound rude, but I’m afraid at times that we are dumbing down this holy craft. Back to the instant potatoes metaphor— sometimes it seems that the ‘better instant mashed potatoes recipe has been discovered; step right up and peer at the unveiling of the holy grail’! I won’t take time to delineate, but I believe our readers will relate. I take hope that there are astute practitioners and leaders who are good at putting on the brakes towards the next big thing, for more careful introspection and correction—not to discourage or derail, necessarily, or bring a big dose of pessimism, but to add major dashes of reality checks. With the current burst of energy towards AI—which has tremendous potential—there are some among us who are adding their research and thoughtful voices to consider appropriate angles of discussion and points of view. How do you share your translation discoveries with others? Dr. Pike preached the value of publishing. I took that to heart very early on, setting a personal goal of publishing two articles/academic engagements per year. The outlets are numerous, such as journals or conferences, and the investment is valuable in multiple directions. Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee? I remember a major disagreement once in a translation consulting session. I had learned to intentionally lower my voice (lower the heat of the moment) and come alongside to try to reason with cool heads. It worked out and we found a way forward. On another occasion—right at the end of an NT project—our team got stuck. Without fanfare, I halted the proceedings and went to prayer. The Holy Spirit helped us in a dramatic way to get through the rough patch. This is a spiritual work—and we should expect spiritual opposition. Also, I learned from Katy Barnwell to document consultant notes—which does not have value just for the team we are consulting with, but also for sharing more widely. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? This is a rich way to spend your one life on earth. Any other comments? I am thankful for all who teach me, sow into my life personally and professionally, and who have guided me patiently in this holy work. I particularly acknowledge Andrew Piaso, Paul Headland, Steve Swartz, Katy Barnwell, Carl Gross, Tom Webb, Jerry Allen, and a host of colleagues in the Solomon Islands and Eurasia.

AI & Translation Spot AI Training Materials Steve Payne - SC When AI is mentioned in relation to Bible translation, we often immediately think of AI drafting in Scripture Forge. But there are other AI tools that can help national translators be more effective in their projects—perhaps tools they are not yet aware of that can assist them in their language of wider communication.

Steve Payne has developed a simple presentation that shows translators how they can use several AI tools to support their work, including Faithbridge, BT Servant, Google Translate and Google Lens, Auto-translate in TW Logos, speech-to-text tools, and chat agents such as Gemini and ChatGPT. The easy-to-follow PowerPoint can be presented in a workshop setting or shared with individual translators. It is available here: AI for Bible Translators You are welcome to modify the examples and exercises to include ones from the LWC used in the area where you work.

If you have developed any materials to help people use AI responsibly and helpfully in translation projects, we would love to share them here. Please email Brian with anything you are willing for others to use.

Case Study of AI-Assisted Adaptation Jeff Webster - SC Jeff Webster has written this Case Study of AI-Assisted Adaptation that used a combination of adaptation and AI. A takeaway is that for languages where we have the foundational elements in place, that are needed for any successful adaptation, doing a high-quality NT in less than two years is straightforward. His guess is that in the years to come we are going to have many more languages that are closely related to main languages that already have Scriptures, and where we can apply this strategy.

AI drafting using Scripture Forge requires training data that generally uses completed translation. By definition, this training data doesn’t exist yet at the very beginning of the translation process. AI drafting generally works best when drafting from a language of wider communication that is itself in the No Language Left Behind base model that Scripture Forge fine-tunes. Attempts to generate AI drafts from a neighboring related language have not proven very successful. These two constraints, of no initial training data and a very low-resource source language are severely limiting in most situations. But relatedlanguage adaptation is a different situation that can overcome these constraints. In this situation, why did this "adaptation + AI" strategy work so well? First, all the foundational pieces for successful adaption were in place. My experience has been that even when translators are bilingual in source and target, and the source and targets are significantly similar to enable adaptation, adaptation frequency fails because the translators don’t trust the source text or for whatever reason prefer to do their own thing with regard to style and exegesis. That wasn’t the case here. Secondly, since AI drafting works by training a target language against a source language, and the more aligned the texts are (the translations in this case), the better the AI model’s quality. In the case of adaptation, the texts, by definition, are highly aligned. Using a tool like Adapt It for the initial chapters keeps the target translation very closely aligned to the source, and at the same time ensures that spellings are also kept consistent, which further improves the robustness of the AI model. The combination of close linguistic similarity, a fairly literal translation of the source that adaptation provides, and the consistency of details that adaptation enables, combines to quickly train an AI model with a relatively small data set.

The Bible Translator Journal - 4 AI Articles Jeff Green announced the new issue of The Bible Translator 77.2 (August 2026). You can read a full description of all the articles on the MAP posting. The first four articles are reflections on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Bible translation, three of which were presented at the Bible Translation Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in October 2025. Matthijs de Jong (Sacred Text, Human Choices: An Ethics of Difference for Bible Translation) argues that because Bible translation is interpretive and culturally embedded, involving both representation and transformation, AI drafting is problematic. He strongly advocates for the human translator to remain the primary decision-maker in this deeply interpretive, culturally embedded task.

Judy Heath, Jeff Heath, and Emma Kuipers (The Privilege of First Draft: Technical and Ethical Aspects of Using AI to Draft Scripture) discuss the technical, practical, and ethical aspects of providing translators with machine-generated first drafts of Scripture in their language. They show that AI-generated drafts contain errors of both exegetical accuracy and naturalness and argue that the post-editing of these drafts is often hampered by automation bias, cognitive anchoring, and skill decay. Like De Jong, they conclude that the first draft should remain in the hands of first-language speakers. Martha Wade, (AI Drafting of Scriptures: Analysis of Results from Ruth and Jonah in Apal) on the other hand, supports the use of AI in the form of Scripture Forge. On the basis of her experience with the Apal language in Papua New Guinea, she argues that the tool can help translation teams who have little access to translation resources, and that even though Scripture Forge drafts require extensive correction, they can still serve as functional first drafts for experienced translators. Willem van Peursen, (Bible Translation and AI: Some Reflections in Response to the Contribution) Professor of Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence at VU Amsterdam, provides a response to the three articles above. He acknowledges the current problems with AI drafting as voiced by the first two articles, but also sees opportunities and potential for such tools to be further developed and refined.

AI for Consultants: Video Recording and Notes Nick Peterson A special thank you to the over 200 participants of the August 5 preliminary Zoom discussion on the use of AI in consultant work. There was strong feedback that we could have talked for a lot longer, and there were definitely topics that we only lightly covered or didn't even get to. Thank you for making these discussions helpful and interesting!

1. Video recording: click here for the Zoom link. Passcode: 3QU%A6+% 2. Three page summary: click here for the synthesis. This covers the topics that were discussed, plus a resource guide with links for the various tools that were mentioned. 3. Feedback: click here for the survey. There was overwhelming agreement that we should continue these discussions. Please take some time, whether you attended live or have watched the recording, to take this survey and give input into what topics within AI use that we could discuss next and how we can make these discussions better.

AI for Language Programs New Google Group Doug Higby (Director of Language Technology Use) announced this new Google Group entitled "AI for Language Programs" which is open to anyone who wants to join and share what you are doing in this space: https://groups.google.com/g/ai4lp. This Group is private, and membership must be requested at this link above. AI for Language Programs - How can AI be harnessed to empower minority language communities to use their own languages to flourish: in daily life, in learning, and in faith? Practitioners, researchers, and language communities welcome, from any organization or background.

News Key Terms of the Old Testament Update Peter Schmidt The latest release of the "Key Terms of the Old Testament" (KTOT) will be going live soon. This brings the total to 127 articles. KTOT is a tool for the Bible translation and consultant community. It provides current research on some of the most important key terms of the Old Testament using minimal technical language. They analyze Hebrew concepts that are central to the OT and give advice for translating them. For each article, this happens on two levels: in a quickly accessible Summary and in an in-depth Discussion. The current release discusses six terms from various semantic domains—including [‫ ]ֵמ ִע ים‬mē‛îm ‘bowels’, [‫ ]ַ֫מ ַע ל‬ma‘al ‘betrayal’, [‫ ]סלח‬slḥ ‘forgive’, [‫ ]זכר‬zkr ‘remember’, [‫ ]ַאְזָּכָר ה‬azkārâ ‘memorial portion’, and geography terms Rivers & Wadis. The articles include remarks on set phrases and difficult verses. Thanks to Jennifer Love, KTOT now comes with a Glossary with a jump link to some linguistic terms (first half; work in progress). The text now has glossary term and abbreviation popups. KTOT is now available from the Download/Install Resources window in Paratext. Once you have it installed, then it will update automatically each time there is a new release. Logos will have same update at a later time. Have you ever wondered what is part of the [‫ ]ֵמ ִע ים‬mē‛îm ‘bowels’ and what isn’t? It is not without reason that the Hebrew word is a plural of extension, suggesting some complexity or multiple elements. Manie van den Heever untangles the concrete senses and lists the figurative senses (agitation of various kinds), and how the word overlaps with its synonyms. Manie von den Heever also provides a helpful initial Summary for [‫ ]ַאף‬ap ‘nose’ – occurring over 200 times in the sense of ‘anger’. Tackling one of the less common sin terms, JoAnna Hoyt unfolds the meaning of [‫ ]ַ֫מ ַע ל‬ma‘al ‘betrayal’. It is often the serious breaking of a covenant, and has to do with holiness and truth not being upheld. The author further advises on what to do with cognate constructions like ‘betray a betrayal’ or ‘the betrayal which you betrayed.’ Moving on from sin terms to salvation terms, Meg Billingsley now offers the complete entry on [‫ ]סלח‬slḥ ‘forgive’. It is always used of the Lord, who loves to re-establish a good relationship and only refuses to do so when there is no repentance. Many synonyms and idiomatic expressions for slḥ in Hebrew and receptor languages are discussed.

Rebecca Loveall describes the seemingly unsuspicious word [‫ ]זכר‬zkr ‘remember’ (causative: ‘remind’) and related nouns. She helps translators consider senses like ‘mention’, ‘proclaim’, ‘invoke’ without narrowing down the term too much, and discusses issues “to be remembered” when translating. (Does God forget? / “Remembering” implies action – obeying a command, fulfilling a promise etc. / Remembrance can refer to the “portrait” we have of someone, and includes honoring.) Peter Schmidt presents a range of translation options for the sacrificial term [‫ ]ַאְזָּכָר ה‬azkārâ ‘memorial portion’. He pursues the question of what this part of the grain offering reminded of, or who was supposed to remember what. In her second chapter on geography, Anne G. Kompaoré deals with Rivers & Wadis. The words for these, and their semantic frames, are compared. Besides the River Jordan, virtually all water flows in Israel are wadis. A wadi is a seasonal water flow, but the topography of wadis differs strikingly. In order for translators to be able to make the right word choice, she describes each wadi that is named in the OT. Multiple issues around the Jordan, the Nile, the Euphrates etc. are taken up.

Asia TCDW 2026 Report Steve Doty, Amber J, Angie Foo

The 2026 Asia Translation Consultant Development Workshop (TCDW) was held from 15 June to 24 July. It was partially online and partially onsite in Southeast Asia. This training programme offers a well-rounded curriculum, equipping participants with a wide variety of foundational translation consultant skills. The diverse team of 24 trainers brought a range of practical perspectives and depth of experience to their presentations. The multi-evaluator programme structure ensures that each CiT receives objective, well-rounded feedback from several trainers throughout the course - from classroom theory to practical supervised checking experience. This TCDW was six weeks long, and consisted of four parts: (1) Two weeks of online classroom instruction using video recordings, discussions on Zoom, and homework submitted via email. (2) One week of practice finding problems in a back translation of 1 Thessalonians in Paratext. (3) One week of travel to Asia and preparation for supervised checking. (4) Two weeks of onsite supervised practice checking with actual translation teams. In 2026 there were 14 Consultants-in-Training (CiTs) from six national backgrounds, serving across regions from AsiaPacific to EurAsia and representing a wide range of ministry partners (including SIL, Wycliffe Organizations, SC, and FCBH). All 14 CiTs completed the initial online classroom phase. For the second phase, ten participants completed their supervised checks onsite, while one completed one supervised check online, and the remaining three participants are pending completion.

Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) Evelyn Hibbert Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) is a practitioner journal for those doing cross-cultural evangelism, discipling and church planting. Dr. Evelyn Hibbert (EMQ Editorial Director) announced a "Call for Submissions." They are looking for articles that: reflect on personal experience in intercultural ministry, share stories about what God is doing as he extends his kingdom across cultural boundaries, and explore issues related to cross-cultural ministry practice. Research-based articles are definitely welcome. Theoretical articles are also possible but must consider the practical implications of theory for cross-cultural mission practice. Any article focused on cross-cultural ministry practice is welcome at

any time, even if the topic of the article does not fit into the themes below.

The article needs to be well written, focused on the journal’s purpose and no more than 3000 words long. References should use endnotes and the Chicago referencing style. Submit articles using the linked form. In 2027 EMQ is specially inviting submissions on the following themes, although articles focused on any aspect of crosscultural ministry are always welcome. Bible teaching (January) – deadline September 30th, 2026: The Bible is central to Christian living. We communicate its message in evangelism. Its study is our lifelong task. Through its translation churches are planted across cultures. Because the Bible is a book, literacy has been integral to missionary work. Often, teaching reading has been inseparable from teaching the Bible. But people can also learn biblical content through listening and the creative arts. There are also many methods of teaching the Bible. Whether these methods are designed for illiterate disciples or people studying advanced degrees, the Bible doesn’t change. This issue examines how missionaries teach the Bible so its living text transforms lives. The need for missiology (April) – deadline December 31st, 2026: A surprising number of people still come out to the field without any missions training. Some argue the Bible is all they need. In contrast, some mission organizations offer many professional development courses. This issue seeks to clarify what people doing cross-cultural ministry, whether at home or abroad, need to learn besides traditional Bible and theology. Like for all EMQ articles, the focus is on practical issues. How does missiology help missionaries be more effective in sharing the gospel across cultures? Why is studying it important? This issue will also explore how the formal study of missions (missiology) is developing, and what new ideas are emerging as the world changes. Church planting (July) – deadline March 31st, 2027: The church is the body of Christ and the means through which most people meet Jesus. As we go into all the world to make disciples, gathering them into churches is a critical part of the process. Yet, despite the simplicity of the Acts 2 church, culture and history can raise many challenges. At the same time, church life in different cultures has much to teach all of us about how we can better serve and reflect our awesome God. For this issue, articles exploring any aspect of cross-cultural church planting—models, examples, challenges, joys—is welcome. Interpersonal relationships (October) – deadline June 30th, 2027: Ministry is all about people. Yet, fellow missionaries often challenge us more than those we serve. Also, the stress of cross-cultural work often exaggerates challenges between people. It is no surprise that Jesus formed his disciples into a community and directed them to love one another as proof of their belonging to him. Relating to others is integral to Christian spirituality. This issue explores how relationships and missionary spirituality intersect. Authors could reflect on different types of relationships, how relationship with God affects these, and the impact of them on personal spiritual growth.

Online Conference on Hebrew and the OT November 2026 The European Hebrew Journal will host an international online conference entitled, "New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies." Click here to register. For group tickets, simply scroll a little further down on the

same page to find the group ticket options.

This will be held via Zoom from 6 to 8 November 2026. Early bird presale tickets are available through September 5. This conference may be especially relevant for theology students, doctoral students and early-career researchers, professors and researchers, clergy and religious educators, biblical scholars, teachers of theology and religious studies, Hebrew language specialists, Bible Translators and members of the wider public interested in the Bible. The program includes a wide range of thought-provoking speakers and topics. A few highlights include presentations on divine names in Hebrew, Arabic, and English; the archaeology of the Return to Zion; the preservation of 1 Enoch in Ethiopia; the War Scroll from Qumran; and new directions in understanding the Exodus and the formation of Israelite identity. One of the speakers will be Janice Baca who is the person who transcribed and translated the Hebrew version of the book of Revelation, which was found in Cochin, India. This translation was published in 2024 and is available on Academia.edu

2027 Asia TCDW Registration The 2027 Asia Translation Consultant Development Workshop (TCDW) will be held from 31 May to 09 July 2027. Steve Doty, Angie Foo, and Amber J are the co-directors. To request an application or more information, please email Angie Foo with Subject line: [2027 TCDW]. Note that the application deadline is 31 January 2027.

Space is limited, so preference will be given to the best qualified applicants who apply before the deadline. The program consists of four parts: (1) Weeks 1-2: Online classroom training in translation checking techniques and other consultant skills, (2) Week 3: Online practice in writing consultant notes, (3) Week 4: Consultants in Training ( CiTs ) travel to onsite location to prepare for supervised checking, (4) Weeks 5-6: Onsite checking of translations under the supervision of experienced Translation Consultants. Applicants must meet any and all pre TCDW requirements stipulated by their entities and/or organizations. They should also have attained the following: Christian maturity Good English proficiency Basic training in linguistics Good knowledge of the Bible Sponsorship by a Bible translation organization Good computer skills, especially Translator’s Workplace & Paratext Good knowledge of and commitment to meaning based translation principles At least 3-5 years’ experience as a Translator or Translation Advisor involved in all stages of the translation process in a Bible translation project

BiblePlaces.com Special Discount A.D. Riddle BiblePlaces.com is offering a special discount on our photo collections to commemorate Bible Translation Day. Click this link to check out this limited time offer which extends from Sept 28 to Oct 10. For further inquiries, email A.D. Riddle. You are welcome to take a look around our BiblePlaces.com website to read the reviews, check out the catalog, and view the free images, but please use the links on this page to receive the reduced prices. Our three photo collections are described below. Click the links for each collection to learn more about the individual volumes.

BiblePlaces.com produces collections of high-quality, digital photographs designed for use by teachers, translators, pastors, and students of the Bible. The images illustrate Bible sites, landscapes, museum artifacts, and cultural scenes. How do you explain what the wadi/naḥal Arnon is to a translator? How do you describe a fig tree or olive cultivation? If a language has a large choice of words for “hill,” how do you select the most suitable option? Photos can go a long way to painting the right picture in a translator’s mind. Indeed, oftentimes a picture really is worth a thousand words (or more!). Photos can be more effective for visual learners/thinkers. In some instances, photos may allow translators to circumvent an intermediate translation and to go directly from biblical realia to their mother tongue. Our team consists of people who teach the Bible and who are knowledgeable in biblical studies, ancient languages, archaeology, and geography. Their photographs were taken with an expert eye to illustrating the Bible and its context. All photos are given descriptive filenames and the accompanying PowerPoints include extensive annotations, labels, and markings. We produce three collections:

Photo Companion to the Bible (PCB). This collection illustrates each book of the Bible, chapter-by-chapter and verse-byverse, in PowerPoint files. The entire collection currently covers 28 books of the Old Testament (plus Psalm 23) and every book of the New Testament. You can get a taste of this collection by downloading free sample chapters listed for each book on the website. Pictorial Library of Bible Lands (PLBL). This collection is organized by geographic region and consists of 20 volumes. In addition to geographic regions, there are special volumes on “Trees, Plants, and Flowers” and “Cultural Images of the Holy Land.” Historic Views of the Holy Land (HVHL). This collection brings together some of the earliest photography in the Bible Lands and some of the earliest color photography as well. The collection currently consists of 20 volumes. These images capture many scenes that are no longer possible to see today.

Jerusalem Center for Bible Translators Courses

Bob Carter - JCBT Executive Director Bob Carter announces these upcoming courses. You can register now. Jerusalem Center for Bible Translators (JCBT) is looking for more students to join our special program that we call Biblical Hebrew for Consultant Training (BHCT). It started in 2016 as a Seed Company (SC) program to train NT-experienced consultants in Biblical Hebrew and the Historical Geography of the Land of the Bible, and has now grown to serve 107 consultants and CiTs from several BT organizations.

This program has become a training partnership between SC, SIL, Jerusalem Seminary's School of Hebrew, and JCBT. We've been planning to start in the first week of September. If you're interested or you know someone who is, write to Bob Carter soon, as we will need to close registrations. We're also looking for people interested in our Fall 2026 One-Book-at-a Time course: The Book of Psalms (in English) from 23 Sept to 16 Dec 2026. This is online only (weekly). The instructors are, Murray Salisbury and Niek Arentsen.

Advanced Translation and Exegesis SIL Australia Wendy Nicholls announced that SIL Australia has a new course offering that may be of particular interest for colleagues working in translation. For further details or to apply, email the Academic Administrator. SIL Australia has recently received government approval for a new Master in Language Development program that they teach through a local partner college. Advanced Translation and Exegesis is their first semester-length unit and the teaching occurs in a 2-week intensive in November. One or two assessment tasks will be due after the intensive.

Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language Jochanan Löwenstein - Hebrew for the Nations Director

Hebrew for the Nations, Jerusalem Seminary’s School of Hebrew, invites Bible translators, consultants, and anyone who works with the Hebrew Scriptures to join us for a free online Biblical Hebrew Taster Day on September 4 or 5. For more information and to reserve a seat at one of the open days, click here. Step into a real lesson with one of our Israeli teachers and experience our communicative approach to Biblical Hebrew— hearing, speaking, and reading the language of the Bible. The one-hour session is live on Zoom, includes time for questions, and is open both to complete beginners and to those who have studied Biblical Hebrew before through other methods. Our online Biblical Hebrew courses begin in October, with live class times designed to serve students across time zones— from Asia to the Americas and anywhere in between. We are also excited to offer Unfolding Isaiah with Murray Salisbury, bringing Murray’s extensive experience in Bible translation and Hebrew poetry to a focused exploration of this remarkable prophetic book.

For questions about the open days, our course offerings, or special programs for Bible translation organizations, you are welcome to email: hebrew@jerusalemseminary.org

Coming Events 2026 - 14-25 Sep. Oral Bible Translation Consultant Workshop. Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact Kris Toler for further information. 2026 - 16 Sep. Taste of FLExTrans (Online). Register here 2026 - 13-15 Oct. Africa Oral Bible Translation Consultation. Register here 2026 - 02-06 Nov. FLExTrans Workshop (Online). Contact Emily Havens 2026 - 06-08 Nov. Conference on Hebrew and the OT (Online) Register here 2026 - 17 Nov 15:00 UTC. Global CoPs for BT Consultants (Online). Greek linguistics (Michael and Rachel Aubrey) 2026 - 05-12 Nov. Translation Development Event (EurAsia). For further information contact Thomas Hemphill or Amber Jasa. 2026 - 21-24 Nov. Global Bible Translation Studies Consultation (GBTS) at The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). Denver 2027 - 31 May-09 July. Asia TCDW (Hybrid). Contact Angie Foo 2027 - 19-22 Oct. Bible Translation Conference. Cape Town, South Africa. Lagoon Beach Hotel. Theme: Bible Translation and Humanity - the image of God in context

Useful Links Donate to SIL Translation Services / Translation Services Website / AI & BT articles BT Glossary / Translation Development Event / Progress.Bible Info / Memoriam website Bible Translation Consultant Competencies / YouTube channel for BT Competencies Linguistic Standards and Deliverables for Bible Translation website SIL Senior Translation Consultants / BT Communities of Practice Join/visit the SIL Translation Resources Google Group / Visit the public SIL.org/Translation site Find Translation Resources (both free download and for purchase) Journal of Translation / Mentoring Matters website - Mentor Training Courses

SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Phil King - ITS Director Angeline Foo - SIL Coordinator for Translation Research and Practice Nick Peterson - SIL Coordinator for Translation Resources Kris Toler - SIL Coordinator for Oral Translation Services Viji Mathew - Director, Global Consultant Pool Brian Migliazza - ITS Operations

Area Translation Coordination Teams AsiaPacific - Angeline Foo & Greg Carlson & Fletcher Hardison EurAsia - Amber J & Feruza & Selvi & Judi Africa - Drew Maust & Jonathan van den Broek & Judy Heath Americas - Rick Floyd & Dwight Shaver & Dany Tasama GSLT - Bernadet van der Louw

This newsletter is produced by SIL Translation Services. It contains items of interest for translation personnel within SIL and related organizations. It includes notices of upcoming conferences and workshops, announcements of recent dissertations and journal articles, and pointers to useful information related to translation.

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September 2026 Translation News

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