Danger: AI in Bible Translation

[John of Japan]

Just for the record, the Bible translator who lectured on the dangers of AI Bible translation is one of the top two Bible translators I've ever known. He was the lead translator for the Mongolian Bible, and currently is a consultant on up to ten missionary Bible translation projects. He learned his Hebrew by living in Israel, and his Greek is better than mine, and I have taught it for years in both Japanese and English. He speaks five languages (I think it is) fluently, and can speak others to a lesser degree.

This all is to say that I can safely ignore any "wannabe" about this issue and stick with what he taught in his lecture.

P. S. Oh, and by the way, the lecturer is not an academic, but a hands on Bible translator and mission head. In fact, the whole conference was about hands on Bible translating, with about 12 current missionary translators there. My son and I are academics, but I'm actually not sure if any other professors were there. "Just us Bible translators, boss!"

 

[Armchair Apologist]

Perhaps, but not in Bible translation, because that is obedience to Matthew's Great Commission, and AI cannot obey God.

Google translate can use AI to produce a Bible document, but it does this by analyzing the syntax, the semantics, and places on the Internet where the passage has previously been translated. It's a different set of steps than a search engine, though it may use that tool.

Translating the Bible for a people group with no written language, or with a written language but very little literature. AI has no thinking ability to do that correctly without extensive human input, though last week I learned that there are efforts in that direction, unfortunately.

Yeah, I was just wondering if AI could perhaps help with some of the initial work and save some time. I wasn't saying we could (or should) depend on AI to make a complete translation of the scriptures with little to no human input Perhaps it would provide a rough "first pass" from which you could tweak and refine as necessary for accuracy and readability? In other words, would it save any time and help to streamline the process?

I am fairly convinced that God has not called me to translation work. I simply haven't the "gift" for it! My ADHD would literally drive me off the rails but I am certainly greatful to those whom God has called to such work!

The great commission is the proclamation of the Gospel and translation of the scriptures into native tongues enables this.

I have a good number of tools at my disposal in which I could rely upon in order to save time in sermon preparation but I believe that it is far better to manually dig through and do the work yourself so that God will first speak to you through his word and from there, you will have something of value for your congregation.

 

[John of Japan]

Yeah, I was just wondering if AI could perhaps help with some of the initial work and save some time. I wasn't saying we could (or should) depend on AI to make a complete translation of the scriptures with little to no human input Perhaps it would provide a rough "first pass" from which you could tweak and refine as necessary for accuracy and readability? In other words, would it save any time and help to streamline the process?

Good question, and I'm sure this is what pro-AI translation people would say. First of all, translation ability is a spiritual gift. It is in the list of spiritual gifts as "the interpretation of languages" (1 Cor. 12:10). God gave me this gift, and I dare not use it for any secular purpose (making money as a translator), and likewise I will not use secular sources for translation work. Secondly, being gifted that way means that I can do a pretty quick basic translation myself without AI. But my first rendering of a verse is done looking at nuance, original language usage, target language usage, semantic and syntactical form, etc. AI cannot do these things with the complete fluency that I can, therefore its renderings in a couple of seconds are not up in fluency and quality to my renderings in a few minutes.

I am fairly convinced that God has not called me to translation work. I simply haven't the "gift" for it! My ADHD would literally drive me off the rails but I am certainly greatful to those whom God has called to such work!

The great commission is the proclamation of the Gospel and translation of the scriptures into native tongues enables this.

Bible translation not only enables the fulfilling of the Great Commission, it is part of it. Otherwise, it is not possible to teach them what Jesus commanded us (Matt. 28:20). The missionary without a Bible in the language may do a quick, on the spot rendering, but it is still translation.

I have a good number of tools at my disposal in which I could rely upon in order to save time in sermon preparation but I believe that it is far better to manually dig through and do the work yourself so that God will first speak to you through his word and from there, you will have something of value for your congregation.

Agreed! "We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God" (Acts 2:11). "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading" (Neh. 8:8).

 

[John of Japan]

I'm going to translate a verse for the readers of this thread. I've chosen Daniel 1:21. I've never translated this verse before, or even looked at it, so it should serve as a good example of what AI cannot do. (I have been translating in Daniel, but not this passage.) I'll not go into the various reasons my team is translating into Japanese except to say it has to do with the major conservative translation and money. Our translation is completely free. We copyright it and then make it free: no money, no restrictions on how many verses you can use, etc.

First of all, I copy and paste the verse from my software (BibleWorks, now impossible to get but I love it) in the Hebrew, and several other versions I consult:

NKJ Daniel 1:21 Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.
NAS Daniel 1:21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.
JAS Daniel 1:21 ダニエルはクロス王の元年までそこにいた。
KOG Daniel 1:21 ダニエルはクロス王の元年まで仕えていた。
WTT Daniel 1:21 וַֽיְהִי֙ דָּֽנִיֵּ֔אל עַד־שְׁנַ֥ת אַחַ֖ת לְכ֥וֹרֶשׁ הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃ פ

1. I make sure I'm walking in the Spirit. Am I faithful in my personal Bible reading and prayer? Do I harbor sin or bitterness or unforgiveness? Do I want God's glory or my own? Very obviously Bible translating is a spiritual task.

2. I make sure I know the context. In this case, Daniel 1 is a young man taken prisoner in the conquest of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar. The chapter establishes who Daniel is, and his faithfulness and godliness. This is very important for the next step.

3. I exegete the verse. In this case not much exegesis is necessary since it is a short verse, but it is still an important step. (Some verses in Daniel can be very complicated.) Last week two of the linguists who lectured said, "Understand, then translate." If you don't understand what the passage means, you cannot translate it correctly. I may or may not consult commentaries at this point. I did not need to for this short verse, but I have five on Daniel.

4. I do a quick and basic translation while looking at the various versions I've listed, but remember that Hebrew is the main one and the authoritative one. In Japanese I must make sure I get the honorifics right, since it is an honor/shame language. Also, at this point I must be sure of the semantics (word meanings) and syntax (sentence order). I could spend a lot of time explaining this process; maybe later.

5. I then go through the verse again, checking it against my software's Hebrew parsing: What part of speech is it? If a verb, what Hebrew form is it? (Qal waw consecutive in this verse. This determines the meaning.) I check my lexicons (Holladay, BDB).

6. I revise the verse if necessary.

Here is what I came up with, right here before you on the good old BB:
２１　こうして、ダニエルはクロス王の元年まで続いていました。

Now some will say that AI can do it much faster. My answer is that this process for a short verse like this will all only take about 5 minutes. Sure, AI could do it faster, but so what? This is the Word of God. Fast is not necessarily the best; accuracy and faithfulness is much more important.

So, could AI handle all of this?