The Ideal Translation Effort

[John of Japan]

Like I said, the most common missionary translation effort involves one translator and one national native language speaker. I've read some fascinating biographies of this approach. The most fascinating account of such an effort is Jesus Led Me All the Way, by Margaret Stringer. She worked with tribes in Papua, Indonesia. I was privileged to hear and meet her in person. She told the story of being lowered from a helicopter into the village of a head-hunting tribe. The helicopter pilot was too scared to land! But she began working to reach the tribe with not trouble at all. Turned out they only ate men!

In Japan, Church of England missionary John Batchelor (1855–1944) translated the Ainu NT by himself, I suppose with Ainu helpers. I have a reprint copy, but have no way to see how accurate it is. The Ainu are an indigenous tribe, completely different from the Japanese. The Japanese pushed them north over the centuries, so they finally ended up on Hokkaido, the northern island where we served for many years. I've been in the church building of a church he planted, but there are almost no full-blooded Ainu left. In the church I started in Yokohama we had a scholar of the Ainu language who travelled to Hokkaido every summer to record the last living speaker of one dialect.

Like with these two translators, quite often one missionary, one national helper effort is just to reach one small tribe of a few hundred. It is almost impossible for such efforts to have all the team, the ideal team, that we like to have for our English Bible translations. Is it worth it? The tribe always thinks so!

 

[Van]

In your thinking, how good can a one-man translation be? The single translator must know the source and target languages, both, extremely well. In his book Issues in Missiology, Thoughts about Translation, Robert Patton describes his one man translation of Sranantongo, a language of Suriname. From what he says in his book, the Lord really helped him and he produced a serviceable translation for that people group. But normally I highly recommend against a one person translation. Most missionary translations occur with one translator and one national.

And I agree, of course, that the translators should be born again.

Yes, I totally agree, as I knew a missionary who spent his life bringing God's word to a small group in Africa whose language he acquired. So I am referring to many of the well respected English translations, such as the KJV, NKJV, NASB, LEB, CSB, ESV, NIV NET and WEB. All were produced using a team, and all have differences, which suggest one or more in each case miss the mark. When I first met one of our church supported missionaries, we were both sitting on the same bench waiting to go in to see the Pastor. He looked at my bible and asked what version, and I said NASB, because I had an easier time understanding it, than the KJV. He smiled at me and said, "Yes, it is important to have a bible you can understand." It was years later before I realized just how profound were his words.

 

[John of Japan]

Yes, I totally agree, as I knew a missionary who spent his life bringing God's word to a small group in Africa whose language he acquired. So I am referring to many of the well respected English translations, such as the KJV, NKJV, NASB, LEB, CSB, ESV, NIV NET and WEB. All were produced using a team, and all have differences, which suggest one or more in each case miss the mark. When I first met one of our church supported missionaries, we were both sitting on the same bench waiting to go in to see the Pastor. He looked at my bible and asked what version, and I said NASB, because I had an easier time understanding it, than the KJV. He smiled at me and said, "Yes, it is important to have a bible you can understand." It was years later before I realized just how profound were his words.

Those who go to such a people group to reach them for Christ and translate the Word of God into their language are, to me, the greatest heroes of the Christian faith. That takes an extreme level of devotion, sacrifice, and faithfulness the average believer doesn't know. Those who go to first world nations may have a tough time, but not nearly as tough as those living in the jungle or mountains to reach a tribal people.

 

[John of Japan]

So, what should the leadership of a translation effort look like? Should he be the best linguist, or the best theologian, or the best politician, the best organizer, or simply the best servant leader?

 

[Piper 2]

My daughter and son in law are going to an unreached people group in Chad and will spend years translating the scriptures into that language. It wold be impossible to have a large team of scholars, since Scholars do not know the language. The scholars would all have to spend 5 years learning the language.

 

[John of Japan]

My daughter and son in law are going to an unreached people group in Chad and will spend years translating the scriptures into that language. It wold be impossible to have a large team of scholars, since Scholars do not know the language. The scholars would all have to spend 5 years learning the language.

God bless them! It will be them and whatever believers can join them. But with God's help they can do an excellent work. Hopefully God has prepared one or more "persons of peace" to work with them on the translation. They can guide the work, but of course will depend much on the believers.

 

[John of Japan]

There are almost no books about translation that give guidance about what a translation effort should look like. Steve Combs (the best writer in the KJVO camp) has a chapter on it in his book, A Practical Guide to Bible Translation Projects, "The Organization of the Translating Team." He delineates the single translator approach ("sometimes...the only way," but "not the ideal method" (p. 88). He then mentions the "single team approach," then the "multiple teams approach" (a minimum of 8-10 translators total).

The team he presents consists of: the translators, the churches, an overall director or leader and leaders of each team, chief records keeper, typists, an expert in the target language, checkers, testers, translation advisor (his name for a translation consultant). This is a pretty good approach, but it assumes the possibility of a large number of translation helpers, something that rarely happens.

What do you think of this detailed approach? His "multiple teams approach" is probably based on the KJV effort, which had multiple teams, then a team of English scholars as style consultants.

 

[John of Japan]

Here's my ideal team:

At least one native speaker with linguistic ability. They can be trained if they are able, but ability is a God-given gift.
At least one translation consultant who knows the original languages.
At least one style editor who can put the first draft into better, more literary language.
At least one proof reader to catch the mistakes (and there are no error-free translations!)
One final editor who looks at format, liaison, printing, etc.

 

[Deacon]

My former church supports a translation team in eastern India composed fully of natives to the land.
The area is predominantly Islamic with isolated pockets of Christians.
Currently they use Scriptures translated into the common language of the region but they desire to read the Word in their own language.

Rob

 

[John of Japan]

My former church supports a translation team in eastern India composed fully of natives to the land.
The area is predominantly Islamic with isolated pockets of Christians.
Currently they use Scriptures translated into the common language of the region but they desire to read the Word in their own language.

Rob

This is certainly the ideal. Usually, though, the nationals do not know the original languages, so a translation consultant is needed. Bibles International, affiliated with Baptist Mid-Missions (as you probably know), is a great ministry doing this. I've met their scholars, and they are quite good in the original languages.

I have a friend who is currently consulting on 10 different missionary translations. He's an incredible linguist. Our graduate working with the Madi translation in Africa is very good in the original languages, but has not learned the Madi language much yet, being still on deputation. He has been to Africa several times already not just to consult on the translation, but to teach Hebrew and Greek to the nationals.

A ministry that focuses in on this area is WorldView Ministries: Home | Worldview Ministries