Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast

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In this episode we have the pleasure of talking to biblical scholar Dr. Drew Longacre. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham and has recently been a researcher at Cambridge Digital Bible Research on the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, which we did an episode on in the past. From 2016–2021, he was the postdoctoral researcher on the a project called “The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls”, where he applied the latest advances in radiocarbon dating and digital paleography to the study of the Dead Sea Psalm scrolls. Longacre and Brent Strawn from Duke Divinity School have received an NEH Scholarly Editions grant to complete an eclectic critical edition of Psalms 1–50 for the Hebrew Bible: a Critical Edition series from 2024–2026. A little about this critical edition of the Hebrew Psalter: the project aims to provide the world with the first truly critical edition of the Book of Psalms. It plans to use the full range of the Dead Sea Scrolls, incorporate important Greek papyri, and take advantage of recent methodological advances in textual criticism.

The project website.

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Video Bible Dictionary

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Bitcoin represents a transformative tool for missionaries, offering a secure, transparent, and ethical alternative to traditional financial systems. By embracing Bitcoin, missionaries can protect themselves and those they serve from economic instability and corruption. Moreover, Bitcoin’s alignment with biblical principles of fairness and justice makes it a fitting choice for those committed to upholding these values in their work.

This single episode is not meant to convince you to invest in Bitcoin, but rather to encourage you to explore it with an open mind, especially from a biblical point of view. For that, I've compiled a curated doc of recommendations for those who are interested in learning more.

Read the doc.

The anecdotes about Wences at the beginning are from Digital Gold.

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Am I dogmatic about using "Yahweh" as opposed to other pronunciations? What about Yehovah? How do we end up with the pronunciation of "Yahweh" anyway? Doesn't the Septuagint provide conclusive evidence for how to pronounce the divine name? These are some closing thoughts and loose ends I wanted to address.

⁠⁠Read the book⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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The previous episodes in this series considered God’s desire for us to use his name, how the pronunciation was lost, and how the New Testament writers handled the matter. It remains, finally, to consider how it has been handled by translators since the Reformation. In that time there have been various departures from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, which rendered the divine name as Dominus (“Lord/Master”), while others have maintained the tradition, which goes back to the Septuagint.

Read the article⁠⁠.

⁠⁠Read the book⁠⁠⁠.

Read about Sacred Name Translations.

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We know that the inhibition for pronouncing God’s name came before Christianity, although we don’t know how widespread it was. It’s possible that rendering the divine name as “Lord” (kurios) had already been a strong tradition for centuries by the time we get to Jesus and the apostles. What’s clear is that the New Testament manuscripts we have all follow the tradition that the Septuagint set, which was to substitute the title “Lord” (kurios) for God’s name (YHWH). So, the fact that the New Testament never uses God’s personal name as revealed in the Old Testament, or even an approximation of it, is crucial.

Why did the New Testament authors choose to do this? Was it because they thought God’s name was too sacred to write out in Greek transliteration and feared that God might strike them down if they did so? Or, had its pronunciation already been forgotten to history? Were they afraid that the Jews might be angry about it? Or, was it some other reason(s)? The writers never tell us why, so everything that follows here is speculation. Nevertheless, it’s an honest attempt to grapple with the issue.

Read the article⁠.

⁠Read the book⁠⁠.

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This is part 2 of a short series on the divine name.

It’s important to recognize right up front that we simply do not know with absolute certainty how God’s name was originally pronounced. The common English pronunciation of “Yahweh” is an educated guess, but we’ll never know for sure how it sounded when God spoke it to Moses.

Two key things prevent us from knowing: (1) Hebrew was written without vowels for many centuries, so we’re left with only four consonants: YHWH, and (2) people started avoiding the pronunciation of God’s name long before Hebrew began to be written with vowels. And when the Hebrew Bible was finally written with vowels, artificial vowels were inserted into the spelling of God’s name in order to keep people from pronouncing it! So, in this article we’ll try to understand why—why did the Israelites go from swearing by Yahweh’s name, using it in prayer, song, and greetings to forbidding its use altogether?

Read the article.

Read the book⁠.

Audio clip credit: Tyrant Contra God.

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A few years ago I did a series on the pronunciation and translation of the divine name here on this podcast. It was a long series that eventually turned into a book.

Now, a while back the Text and Canon Institute asked me to do a four-part series on the divine name for their website, which forced me to significantly condense the highlights of the book into smaller, less technical articles. So as a service to anyone who may not have the time to read them, or who may not have the time to listen to the longer technical series, I’ve recorded these articles, and this will be the first. Even if you end up disagreeing with my conclusions, I guarantee that most people will learn a few new and surprising things.

Growing up, I understood that the name of God was “the Lord.” As I got older, I began to understand that when I saw the Lord in all caps, that meant that it was God’s special, divine name that he revealed to Moses. This seemed strange and confusing to me—adding a level of complexity to understanding a Bible that was already difficult enough for a teenager to understand. I don’t remember when it was that I first heard the name Yahweh pronounced, but when I went to seminary, I quickly realized that it was an accepted pronunciation and spelling for God’s name, especially in academic circles.

So how did we get to this point where nearly every English Bible uses “the Lord” (a title) in place of his personal name? Can we know how God’s name was originally pronounced? Shouldn’t we avoid using God’s name out of reverence for the sacred? Why didn’t the New Testament authors use God’s name? How do Bible translators decide whether they should render something like Yahweh or the Lord? These are all important questions that we will try to answer throughout this series. But first, we need to answer a foundational question: What is God’s revealed desire regarding the use and preservation of his name?

Read the article.

Read the book.

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Back in 2021 I had Dave Brunn on this podcast to talk about his amazing book One Bible, Many Versions. If you haven’t heard parts 1 and 2 of that interview, I highly recommend going back to listen when you finish this episode. Dave recently published an article titled Gender in Bible Translation: A Crucial Issue Still Mired in Misunderstanding. It would be an understatement to say that this is an important article for the Church, particularly English-speaking evangelicals. So when I saw his article I immediately reached out to him, and he very kindly agreed to record a reading of it for the listeners of this podcast. It’s an honor to feature him and his work again here.

Dave Brunn is a missionary, translator and educator. He and his wife Nancy spent over twenty years in Papua New Guinea where they served the Lamogai people through church planting, literacy training and Bible translation. Currently, the Brunns reside in Camdenton, MO, where Dave serves as a translation instructor and an International Bible Translation Consultant. He and Nancy have helped hundreds of students in the US, Canada and Australia prepare for missionary service among remote people groups across the globe.

One Bible, Many Versions: Are All Translations Created Equal?

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This is the second in a two part series that aims to introduce you to the work of Dr. Reinier de Blois and honor some of the incredible labor of love he has poured out for the sake of the Bible translation community and movement. Specifically, I want to highlight his work in Hebrew lexicography as he nears the end of a project that has spanned over two decades; and that is the creation of a new ⁠semantic dictionary of biblical Hebrew⁠. Learn more about Dr. Reinier de Blois in the previous episode.

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This is the first in a two part series that aims to introduce you to the work of Dr. Reinier de Blois and honor some of the incredible labor of love he has poured out for the sake of the Bible translation community and movement. Specifically, I want to highlight his work in Hebrew lexicography as he nears the end of a project that has spanned over two decades; and that is the creation of a new semantic dictionary of biblical Hebrew, which is available under an open creative commons license. This can be found over at semanticdictionary.org. Back in 2000 he wrote a paper outlining some of his vision for the new dictionary, and I think it would be valuable for us to work through some of it together.

Dr. Reinier de Blois is from the Netherlands and is currently the coordinator of ICAP for the United Bible Societies. ICAP stands for The Institute for Computer Assisted Publishing, which is a global initiative of the United Bible Societies which provides technology support and training for the scripture translation and publishing community. The ICAP team has extensive experience in text archiving and data conversion, and a long history of working closely with national Bible Societies and partner agencies. The knowledge and expertise accrued in this area serves as a foundation for the ongoing development of the Digital Bible Library. So currently he is in charge of the development of Bible publishing software, including implementation and training. Dr. de Blois is also a translation consultant and has served on projects in Nigeria, Guinea, and Tanzania. He teaches at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, and has published a number of things that you can see listed on his CV over at Academia.edu.

Explore the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew.

Read the full paper.

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This is an episode about consulting, specifically addressing some challenges involved with the current consulting model, and possibly some ways it could improve. It also covers some difficulties that may arise when mentoring a consultant in training (CIT) or being mentored as a CIT. Recently I supervised a CIT doing practice checking, and I want to share some lessons learned from that experience.

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I want to introduce you to an initiative called Global Bible Tools, which aims to provide the global Church with access to the same advanced biblical language tools that the West enjoys. This includes lexicons, grammars, and text critical information. In this podcast we'll discuss the importance of these tools for serious study of the Bible and Bible translation, and propose a way to make them more accessible to the majority world.

Contact me at andrewdcase@gmail.com.

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In my vast array of interactions with intelligent people working in Bible translation, I have learned something: most approach the issue of copyright out of complete ignorance, and sometimes with a great deal of pride and irrationality. I used to be one of those people. So I'm doing my best to share what I've learned.

"For nearly a century, copyright legislation has been subtly but effectively applied, misused and abused in regard to the Word of God in order to chain the Bible to a new pulpit, differing in kind but not in essence from the restrictive practice so loudly decried in the Middle Ages. While the contemporary difference can be described in terms of dollars and cents, the net effect is identical: the free and unhindered access by God’s people to the revealed truth of his Word is restricted once more, this time not by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but by the chains of copyright and financial ransom as demanded by the proprietary publishers. Has God’s Word suddenly ceased to be the “intellectual property” of God’s people? Must it now remain under the peculiar control of executives, scholars, and lawyers?"

This is a paper presented at the Evangelical Theological Society in 1996 by Dr. Maurice Robinson. Dr. Robinson is a professor of New Testament and Greek, with expertise in NT textual criticism.

Links:

How the Jesus Trade Harms the World (video documentary)

How the Jesus Trade Harms the World (audio only)

Against Intellectual Monopoly

Books and articles about copyright on SellingJesus.org

Music: "Hidden Beauty" by Liborio Conti, https://www.no-copyright-music.com

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"For the people by the people." That is the slogan of The Word for the World, which is a Bible translation org that we’re going to be learning about in this episode. They exist to equip language groups for mother tongue translation and literacy development. Since 1981, they have been working towards this goal through translation, training, literacy, and partnerships with like-minded organizations. Their prayer is that every person will know that God loves them and speaks their language! Our guest today is Joel Brown, who very kindly agreed to introduce us to his mission and help us understand more about it. You can reach out to Joel at jbrown@twftw.org

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As I said in the last episode, I’ve been working on the Selling Jesus project, which is now well underway with a ton of content. Please check out the website sellingJesus.org and you’ll find enough reading material to keep you busy all Christmas vacation. Also, it would mean the world to me if you would help boost the views of the first Selling Jesus video on YouTube, which is on the homepage of sellingJesus.org, and share it around. I’ll be releasing the next long video in the series soon, so make sure you’re subscribed to the YouTube channel. Selling Jesus is also a podcast, so if you’d rather listen to the articles on the website, you can do that on the podcast. There’s already a lot of content on there, and we post more every week.

In this episode I’m highlighting the ministry of Pioneer Bible Translators, and I’m joined by Tim MacSaveny who was kind enough to share the ins and outs of his organization. My hope is that this will be helpful for those who don’t know much about PBT and want to find out more, especially those who are trying to navigate the differences between all the BT orgs and decide who to join. Tim is married to Erin, they have four kids, and they’ve served with PBT since 2008. Currently they live in Louisville, KY.

Tim and Erin facilitate Bible translation for two projects in two different countries. The first is a people group living in southeastern Tanzania. Tim travels to Tanzania three times a year to meet face-to-face with the translation team, while working remotely throughout the year.

The second project involves a diaspora group who have experienced significant tribal and political attacks in their home area of eastern Congo. Many of them now live in the US. This project is currently being hosted at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where the MacSavenys now live.

Tim and Erin, along with their children Rose, Everett, Julian, and Lucy, have served with Pioneer Bible Translators since 2008.

tim.macsaveny@pbti.org

Visit https://pioneerbible.org/ to find out more.

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This episode will just be a brief announcement that I’ll be taking some time away from this podcast in order to focus on some other important things right now. I may be posting sporadically, but I’m not sure how often. There are a lot of episodes I’d like to do in the future.

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MA in Bible Translation from Nida Institute: https://www.nidaschool.org/ma-bible-translationSeed Company Residency Program: https://seedcompany.com/residency/

Wycliffe's convergence program for training consultants: https://www.wycliffe.org/blog/posts/6-ways-convergence-will-prepare-you-to-become-a-translation-consultant

Word for the World's training programs: https://training.twftw.org/

Mekane Yesus Seminary: https://mekaneyesusseminary.org/

SIL Translation CiT Funding Guidelines:

Is a current SIL staff member
Is already an approved Translation CiT with their OU – have a mentor, a growth plan, and have begun their mentored checking training
Is within their last two years of their Translation CiT program – ie, within two years of starting this program they will become approved as a Translation Consultant
Have approval to enter this program from their OU Administration (supervisor) and their OU Translation Coordinator
Upon becoming a Translation Consultant, they commit to working 0.5 FTE (50%) of their time as a Translation Consultant for at least five years

Authors/ contributors are needed for two Translation Resources projects currently underway - Bamboo TN (Translator's Notes) and KTOT (Key Terms of the Old Testament). If you are interested in working part-time with either of these projects, email Brian Migliazza for further information.Contact Phil King: phil_king@sil.org

Contact Brian Migliazza: brian_migliazza@sil.org

News from Jerusalem about John Mark's lawsuits by Don Lowe.

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This episode is going to be a little different and more informal. My wife, Bethany, and I had a really great conversation the other day about interlinears and their different uses for second language acquisition, as well as the subject of reader's bibles. So we decided to record a second version of it to share, because we hope there are some helpful things we can add to people's thinking about these things and the general discussion of second language acquisition. If I said anything valuable in this episode, it probably came from my wise and brilliant wife in our first conversation! And for those of you who are unfamiliar with our Hebrew learning channel, you can learn more at freehebrew.online. Enjoy!

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In this episode we continue our conversation with Dr. Alan Bunning, Executive Director for the Center for New Testament Restoration.

Check out the project overview.

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When people think about starting a translation of the NT, they usually need to decide which Greek text they’re going to use as a source text. Unlike OT translation where everyone defaults to the MT, there are more than one NT source texts to choose from, like the UBS, the Nestle-Aland, the Byzantine text, the Textus-Receptus and others. And some of the modern, popular ones are locked down by copyright. So over the course of the next two episodes I want to introduce you to someone who is innovating in this field, and trying to serve the Church with a transparent critical Greek text that everyone can use without any hindrance.

Alan Bunning received his education in New Testament Greek from the Kensington Theological Academy under the tutelage of Dr. David R. Dilling, and received his D.Litt. degree for his work done in textual criticism. Alan’s primary background is in computer science and after working in the industry for many years, he became a college professor working as an Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems at Ivy Tech Community College and then was a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Purdue University. Alan retired from Purdue University in 2020 and now devotes himself to working full time as the Executive Director for the Center for New Testament Restoration.

Make sure to read the project overview, especially section 2.2.

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Back in 2021 an article entitled Just How Broken Is the Bible Translation Industry? came out on MinistryWatch. People keep asking me what I think about it. I've waited a long time to let the organizations critiqued in the article have a chance to speak for themselves and respond to the article, but they never did. This episode is my summary and thoughts on the article, and an encouragement to the leaders of the big BT orgs to set the record straight and clarify any misunderstandings that might exist.

The MAP forum post and responses mentioned.

illumiNations

A note written by me on the forum:

Regarding raising a child: it's a good point, and most people would say that raising children well doesn't cost millions of dollars. In fact, if you introduce too much money into raising a child, you'll probably ruin your child. I wonder if that's the concern in this article. If I went around to churches telling them that I needed to raise 10 million dollars to raise my kid well, I would only raise eyebrows. I think that may be the message coming across to many like the author: that Bible translation is no longer just hard; now it's exorbitantly expensive. I think military spending may be a good analogy here. I learned yesterday that if one toilet gets clogged on the new US aircraft carriers, it costs $400,000 to unclog it. So the question is: should it really cost that much? We all know that BT has a high cost in energy, time, stress, trauma, etc., and that should be expected. But our orgs usually require us to de-emphasize those costs and give a chipper façade to donors. All the donors see is the marketing and begging for high dollar amounts, without understanding where it's going. So it's no wonder people might start to suspect that it's being thrown at ridiculously expensive ways to "unclog toilets." Is Bible translation spending money for the sake of spending money in some areas? Are they raising money for job security because they don't know what else they would do? As long as donors are ignored and not given clear answers to these questions, we remain suspect and a target to more articles like this one. In my experience, the big orgs ignore these kinds of articles and leave everyone with question marks, instead of humbly and clearly responding with wisdom and detailed honesty. I can only pray that leaders take this seriously and actually respond publicly instead of hiding behind silence. I would genuinely welcome any leader to come on my podcast "Working for the Word" and respond to this article.

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Raised in the jungles of Venezuela by missionary parents in a vibrant Christian home, Tabitha Price is well-acquainted with the challenges of Christian ministry. Tabitha married her high school sweetheart, Joel, and together they attended New Tribes Bible college in preparation for missionary service. After that, she earned a bachelor degree from Southwest Bible College and Seminary and spent eight years teaching at international mission schools first in Venezuela and later in Florida. She is a graduate of Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary (Master’s in Ministry), and has completed a doctorate in Executive Leadership.

Tabitha has served with Wycliffe Associates since 2009 in a variety of ministries. She was privileged to be part of the first MAST translation event and has since taught translation principals and theory to hundreds of translators in countries all over the world. Today Tabitha serves as the Vice President of Translation Services leading teams who are training our partners in church owned Bible translation.

Tabitha and her husband Joel have three children, Marshall, Jaden and Roman. They call Central Florida home.

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ChatGPT is considered by some to be the biggest technological revolution since the iPhone. In this episode we take it for a spin to see what it knows about Bible translation and test the limits of its expertise regarding more challenging biblical studies.

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Now that we’ve learned more about internalization from Katie Frost, it’s time to talk about a new tool that recently came out for actually doing oral Bible translation projects. It’s called Audio Project Manager, and it’s a free program that anyone can download and start working with right away. Nathan Payne is going to walk us through what the software does and how it can be leveraged for oral projects.

I’ve worked with Render for a while now and it still has a lot of drawbacks. One of the biggest ones is that it’s not freely available, and you have to jump through a ton of hoops to get access to it. The interface has a lot of annoying quirks, especially for consultants, and it has very little flexibility. This is where Audio Project Manager comes in to give people a better option with much more flexibility and freedom.

Nathan Payne who is going to help us understand the software, was born in Peru to missionary Bible translators who worked in the jungle with the Asheninka people. He met his wife, Katy, in high school, and attended Texas A&M university where he studied chemical engineering. He and his wife later studied linguistics after feeling called to Bible translation. After some fieldwork, he moved into a training and consulting role for storying projects. A few years later he became the SIL Americas Area Storying and Orality Coordinator. And in 2020 became the SIL Oral Translation Services coordinator, giving direction to the organization’s involvement in Storying, OBT and other oral strategies. He currently serves as director of the Oral English Bible Translation (Spoken English Bible) and Oral Exegetical Tools project.

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As Oral Bible Translation continues to grow in popularity and influence, it’s helpful to keep learning more about its core component: internalization. So I’ve asked one of the few experts in the world on this subject to join me and walk us through what internalization is, how it works, and more. Her name is Katie Frost, and she was actually my teacher a long time ago for a workshop on oral drafting that I attended in Dallas. Katie is an Ethnoarts consultant with SIL, and a professor at Dallas International University. Her experience in both ethnoarts and linguistics/translation led to co-founding the Psalms: Layer by Layer project as part of pursuing how these disciplines intersect in biblical Hebrew poetry. She’s done fieldwork in the Netherlands and the Middle East, and is married to Josh who also serves in Bible translation. And they have a baby girl.

See Katie’s presentations and handouts on Non-Narrative Internalization and Preparing for and Facilitating Internalization.

Kris Toler's thesis on internalization can be downloaded here.

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Links:

The Archive: https://brandfolder.com/portals/thearchive

https://tools.bible/

https://bibletranslationcompetencies.org/

https://www.sebts.edu/news-and-events/headlines/2022/12/announcing-the-new-caskey-center-for-biblical-text-and-translation/

Journal of Translation

KTOT: https://paratext.org/download/download-paratext-extras/

Psalm 136 in Hebrew: https://youtu.be/HDD2gX64IDc

More news at MAP.

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No English translation of the Bible has had more influence on the world than the King James Version. But have you read its preface? A lot of people haven’t because for years it has usually been left out of printings of the KJV. Our guest in this episode, Josh Barzon, wants to make sure more people listen to what these legendary translators had to say, so he’s written a book called The Forgotten Preface which aims to shed more light on this overlooked historical document. What did these men actually believe about inspiration, preservation, and translation?

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We continue and conclude the interview with Jon, the creator of copy.church.

Before we get into the rest of the interview I want to make a few comments. As I have more conversations with people around the world about the issue of freely giving gospel ministry and the stance that I hold that ministry should be supported, not sold, I’ve run into a few common threads. The first is that people–even world-class intelligent scholars, have no biblical arguments for disagreeing with me. Everyone has pragmatic or emotional arguments, but so far no one has any biblical arguments. And this, I suspect, is perhaps because there are none. We’re letting our thinking about selling ministry be driven by the world rather than Scripture.

Second, when people hear me talk about these things, many seem unable to listen to what I’m saying. They assume that what I’m saying is that all people who engage in ministry should never receive money and should be dying of poverty. So let me say again: I believe gospel ministry should be supported, not sold. It’s a very simple distinction that for some reason people often refuse to hear, and then assume something totally irrelevant to the discussion.

Third, I’d like to suggest that it’s not a very serious argument to simply dismiss the example of Jesus and Paul as irrelevant and non-prescriptive to the believers today. This is another thing I’ve run into. If you want to say that Jesus’ command to freely give in Matthew 10 has zero implications for present day ministry, you have to give some serious reasons for why that’s a serious hermeneutic. And if you are still convinced that Jesus and Paul’s examples have no bearing on your life and the church today, I’d encourage you to at least figure out where in Scripture we find guardrails for money and ministry. If there are no guardrails in the Bible regarding these things, then we have no answer to the prosperity preachers. It’s important to be able to show why it’s unbiblical to sell prayers for people or charge money for admission to a church worship service. Obviously there are no direct commands in Scripture regarding these things, so you would have to base these convictions off biblical principles. I would strongly suggest that it would be pretty sad and disgraceful if we as the Church end up with no way to scripturally condemn the selling of prayers or the selling of baptism, for example. If we can’t condemn such basic abuses, then we are not actually paying attention to the very fabric and spirit of God’s Word. Yet this is precisely where everyone I have talked to so far who disagrees with a biblical prohibition of selling ministry ends up. That is, they are unable to tell me from Scripture why it’s not ok to charge someone money for a baptism.

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We’ve talked about copyright on this podcast already, but we still haven’t taken a meticulous look at the way mainstream Bible translations are licensed, what the specific limitations are, and how different translations compare to each other in this area. This episode will be a real eye-opener for many of you, so make sure you’re sitting down. We’re going to be talking to the creator of a website called copy.church, which seeks to point people to the simple truth that it’s wrong to limit access to the Word of God. He’s been thinking about and studying these things for years, and I think what he has to say is extremely important.

Jon is the founder of Gracious Tech, a mission-focused app development ministry. He first got interested in missions while travelling in South-East Asia and realizing the dire need for the gospel there. He promptly committed his life to mission work and completed an MDiv in preparation. While he initially thought he'd be putting his IT skills to the side, he soon realized how advantageous it would be to have apps for sharing the Gospel and aiding mission work.

During his first term of mission overseas, he worked on an app for sharing Bible stories using plain Scripture. It was almost finished when he realized the licenses of almost all Bible translations don't permit sharing plain scripture, and instead must be accompanied by other commentary. Not knowing much about copyright or how to go about seeking permission, the project was put on hold for many years.

Jon later founded Gracious Tech and now commits most of his time to developing apps for mission. He currently lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two young daughters.

Please consider helping spread Jon's website copy.church.

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Many people ask me what they might need to become a BT consultant. In this podcast we'll walk through all the details of what you'll be need to measure up to if you want to serve the BT movement in this way.

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What does a sociolinguistics consultant do, and how can Bible translators continue to think carefully about language vitality? What kinds of questions should you ask to quickly assess the status of a language? For answers to all this and more, we have Scott Smith as our guest today. Get ready for a deep dive into the world of sociolinguistics.

Scott Smith and I met back in 2011 when he convinced me to join him and his team over in Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa. He and his wife Margaret have been working there on and off for decades, and they are some of the most generous people I know. Fun fact: they built their home out of shipping containers right on the beach in Equatorial Guinea, and I’ve spent a lot of time out there visiting with them over the years, drinking coconuts and enjoying the warm ocean water. Sometimes Scott and I would have meetings while floating on the waves. Scott is also known for his jokes, playing with words in multiple languages, and for enjoying being a polyglot in general.

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My grandparents ended up having four children, all of whom eventually worked in Bible translation. Their family loved to laugh and sing and tell jokes. This is the second part of their lives in BT, in which we reach the completion of the NT in Zapotec of Sierra Juarez (language code zaa). "God has helped us to translate portions of the Old Testament and the complete New Testament. We have done a literacy program, with primers, a dictionary, grammar and reading books. We have trained and discipled many Zapotecs, done medical work, taught music, helped choirs and programs, participated in community projects, sent Zapotecs to schools of higher education, done group service and public relations, and hospitality, counseling, discipleship and a few other things. We even had a part in beginning a radio program in Zapotec. Now there are many trained Pastors and leaders, churches and Christian workers."

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My grandma and grandpa Neil and Jane Nellis are no longer with us, but they did leave behind a 60,000 word book that records their story in their own words—their family histories, their conversions, their love story, and the account of their work in Mexico and Bible translation. This is the first part of an abridged version of their story. They lived through the Great Depression, played chess with Uncle Cam, and eventually ended up translating the NT into the language of the most famous president of Mexico.

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Before we continue with the series on my family in Bible translation, I wanted to bring a few things to your attention, recommend some things, and share some BT general news.

First, on my website workingfortheword.com I’ve added a resource page for people interested in finding out more about translation or who want to grow as a consultant in training, etc. It’s still a work in progress, and I’m sure some of you will have recommendations of things that would be helpful to add to it, including things I’ve mentioned in the past on this podcast and forgot to include. If you do, feel free to email me at workingfortheword@gmail.com. And if you’ve been following this podcast for a while, you’ll know that I’m especially interested in free, open access resources. What I’m doing with this page is providing a curated list of things I personally have read and recommend for your professional development or if you just have a casual interest in BT. Obviously there are many more works on BT out there, and many more tools, but I personally don’t find all of them useful or helpful. So go ahead and check it out and see if there’s anything on there that looks interesting. I hope it can serve the BT movement.

Links mentioned:

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the meaning of everything

Internalization: A Key Ingredient in Achieving Naturalness in an Oral Translation

My series in Spanish on the textual criticism of the Old Testament

freehebrew.online

freegreek.online

Interview on the Bible in India

Bible Translation Training and Development Community of Practice

Quality in Translation Exploratory Symposium

Multilingual Assessment Tool

November News on MAP

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Last episode we began listening to the story of my dad’s life and involvement in Bible translation. In this second and final part we’ll hear about how he broke his neck while in the village, spiritual warfare he and my mom faced, the translation work, and more. Enjoy! Another huge thank you to my dad. I hope this interview proves to be interesting, encouraging, and edifying.

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In this series on people in my family who have contributed to Bible translation, the next person is my dad, Daniel Case. He’s been through a lot in his 75 years of life, from growing up in Cuba to serving in the Vietnam War to being a medical missionary and working for decades in Bible translation for the Chatino people of El Carrizal in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. I really admire his wisdom, tenacity, humility, and servant heart, and I wanted to share his story with you.

My parents played a big part in inspiring Mark and Gloria Zook to go into Bible translation. This is the Ee-taow story about their ministry in PNG.

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There are actually a lot of people in my family who are currently involved in Bible translation or were at some point, so I thought it would be fun and interesting to put together a series that tells their stories. Each one is unique, and my hope is that this will give you a window into some of the history of Bible translation and the different experiences and challenges that people have faced, especially here in Mexico. We’re going to start with my grandpa Edward Case, my dad’s dad, who is 101 years old and now lives in California. I got my uncle Jim who lives nearby to ask him some questions about his brief involvement in BT and subsequent missionary work in Cuba during the decade or so before Fidel Castro took over, which were some of Cuba’s golden years. Although his time working towards BT in Mexico was cut short by WWII, it’s interesting to hear the trajectory of his life and the way God used him and his family.

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The advance of globalization among the minority languages of the world is rapidly changing the landscape of Bible translation. Though a complete written Bible is a worthy goal, in some cases the declining vitality of minority languages and lack of mother-tongue literacy make this approach impractical. By the time the completed Bible is published, there may be few left to read it. This is where oral Bible translation can help. In this episode we’re going to talk about the process of training for these kinds of oral projects.

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A lot has been going on lately with Bible translation in my neck of the woods. In this episode I want to talk about my experience being a test pilot for some of the resources CDBR has been developing for the Psalms, and walk through a draft that I’ve been working on that's designed to guide translators step by step through the process of translating Hebrew poetry.

My step by step doc (sorry for the mix of English and Spanish).

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As part of my growth as a Bible translation worker, I want to listen to a wide variety of people and different strategies, and not just to those who are within the echo chamber of people who think like me and agree with me. This interview with Jane Schoen of SRG raises some big questions that have been debated for years about whether BT should be done by believers or unbelievers. The method she’ll describe for us is still essentially in a proof of concept phase, and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out ten to twenty years down the road. There’s no doubt it’s a bit controversial, but it’s worth listening to and considering.

Jane has a broad range of experience, and currently serves as the director of the unreached people groups fund for an organization called SRG, the Strategic Resource Group, which funds projects to reach unreached people groups in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Does the Bible translation movement need a Dorean reformation? Do our organizations reflect a sense of urgency to eradicate Bible poverty to the point of casting off anything that hinders so that we can all run the race towards helping the Bibleless without friction or obstacles? Do they reflect the radical generosity of the heart of Jesus shown in the very Bible they are trying to get into the hands of every tribe and every nation? Or do they reflect the petty spirit of the world, grasping at pennies when they have already been generously provided for by the sacrificial offerings of God’s people? Donors give, expecting nothing in return. Shouldn’t those receiving the donations do the same at a minimum?

As I’ve said many times before, the goal of this podcast is to become more like the man of Psalm 1. The more you immerse yourself in the scriptures, the more you want to bear fruit like a tree planted by streams of water. Part of the fruit of what I want to see come from this podcast is that of greater movement towards God's word in all of our practices within Bible translation. To see more and more people take a stand with conviction on certain issues within the Bible translation movement, and not compromise just because a lot of people are doing it or there's a lot of money involved. The more you immerse yourself in Scripture like the man of Psalm 1, the more you realize how much it has to say about money. Jesus had more to say about money than heaven and hell and love combined. So I hope you'll forgive me for doing just one more podcast along these lines, to make a call for deeper thinking in this area, greater conviction, repentance, and ethical consistency.

If you haven’t listened to the previous two episodes with Conley Owens, this episode won’t have enough context to make sense, so go ahead and make sure to listen to those episodes before you continue with this one.

Read The Dorean Principle for free.

Some of the websites mentioned:

freegreek.online

progress.bible

ethnologue.org

iblt.ac

btconference.org

open.bible

A big thanks to Sarah Owens for lending her voice to the beginning of this episode.

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Last episode we introduced the idea of "the dorean principle," which is explained in Conley Owens’ free book. We left the interview wondering how this applies to Bible translations and manuscripts, so we’re back to finish the conversation and apply Jesus’ principle of freely giving to those issues. We’ll also discuss how the concept of intellectual property is unbiblical, goes against natural law, and more.

Visit https://thedoreanprinciple.org/

Join the facebook group to show your support.

Against Intellectual Property

Read Frame's and Poythress's blog posts along these lines here and here.

David Clines' paper on the brokenness of current biblical academic publishing infrastructure.

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As we’ve discussed multiple times in this podcast, the world of Bible translation is severely hindered by the status quo of locking up biblical resources under a "Copyright, All Rights Reserved" system. The global Church suffers tremendously because of this as well, and they only receive the crumbs that fall off the table of the rich Western Christian publishing industry. There is no longer a distinction between the world and the Church in the practice of monetizing everything–even gospel ministry and the resources needed to make Bible translation truly succeed and be sustainable. So I’m deeply thankful that someone has finally published a book that directly addresses the problem of the commercialization of Christianity. We’re going to talk to him over the next two episodes and see what we can learn.

Read or listen to The Dorean Principle for free in multiple formats here.

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How do you keep track of the status of over 7,000 languages in the world? Our guest today, Dr. Dave Eberhard, is going to help us with that question, which is an important one for the world of Bible translation. Because you don’t want to end up investing hundreds of thousands of dollars and twenty years of work on a language that will die before you finish, while neglecting other languages that are in full health. This is a serious issue that many fail to consider, so let’s talk about it.

Learn more about Dr. Eberhard

Visit the Ethnologue

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Some of you may be wondering what happened to me, so here’s a brief update with a few potentially interesting tidbits.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

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As we wrap up this series on the Bible in Arabic, I want delve a little deeper into the issue of how BT orgs are handling the issue of Muslim Idiom Translations today. That way hopefully we can have more informed conversations about a healthy way forward and know how to pray for Bible translation in Arabic and other Muslim-dominant languages. We also want to look at how these orgs are communicating or not communicating openly about these things with financial partners, and see what we can learn.

For this episode I’m going to be quoting at length from a forthcoming publication by linguist, Bible translator, and former Mormon Seth Vitrano-Wilson (listen to a previous episode with him here).

The Arlington Statement on Bible Translation

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What are the underlying assumptions that might influence our choice of how to translate the Bible into Arabic, and also in other Muslim contexts? We’re going to step back in this episode and try to understand what presuppositions might be driving certain ideas in this debate. In order to do that, Dr. Aaron Shryock has kindly agreed to contribute his perspective. This will be interesting, because I’m sure there are a lot of people who would disagree strongly with his view, but I hope that we can all learn together by listening and trying to empathize with different convictions and positions in the world of translation.

Books Aaron recommends:

Translating the Bible in Plain Language by de Jong

Muslim Conversions to Christ

Aaron’s website

Aaron’s email: aaron@horizonsinternational.org

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We’ve heard from some significant voices on translation issues in Arabic and other Muslim contexts, but so far we haven’t been able to sit down with a native speaker of Arabic and hear their perspective. As D.A. Carson said, it’s important to listen to people from the Middle East, rather than focus our attention only on Western opinions. So that’s what we’re going to do in this episode. Georges Houssney is our guest, and he grew up in Lebanon and he’s an author. He has vast experience in missions, Bible translation, linguistics, and engaging Islam. He is also the president of Horizons International mission.

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In the spring of 2012, the World Evangelical Alliance leadership agreed to facilitate an independent external review of Wycliffe and SIL International’s practice of the translation of the words for “God the Father” and “Son of God.” The review was intended to focus on SIL’s Statement of Best Practices for Bible Translation of Divine Familial Terms, to set boundaries for theologically acceptable translation methodology particularly in Muslim contexts, and to suggest how to implement the recommendations practically. We're going to work through this 30-page document together and see what we can learn.

Read the whole document from the WEA here.

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Last episode we saw how the controversy unfolded over translating "Son of God" and "Father" in reference to God in the Arabic-speaking world and among other large Muslim groups. Now we want to focus on what biblical theology is at stake in the translation of divine familial terms. For this we get the privilege of listening to D.A. Carson talk about some of the content in his book titled Jesus the Son of God: A Christological Title Often Overlooked, Sometimes Misunderstood, and Currently Disputed published in 2012 mainly to address the controversy.

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In the last episode we saw that contemporary Bible translators in Muslim contexts face some unique challenges. We also saw how the particular challenges in evangelizing the Islamic world can lead to creative ways of contextualization that may end up being harmful, deceptive, or simply unbiblical in different ways. Now we want to set the stage for understanding the broader history of the brouhaha that erupted out of the issue of making Islamized Bible translations that are more conducive to Insider Movements missiology. We’re going to trace more of the academic debate, as well as the events surrounding the biggest recent controversy in BT.

Read Donald Lowe's full article in Muslim Conversions to Christ: A Critique of Insider Movements in Islamic Contexts.

The report on Divine Familial Terms from the WEA.

The Divine Familial Terms Procedures Guide from the WEA.

The Executive Summary of the Divine Familial Terms Translation Procedures from the WEA.

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As we continue to learn about the story of the Bible in Arabic, we need to look at what the particular contemporary challenges are to translating the Bible in Muslim contexts, as well as understand missiological trends that affect the way people might translate. These are not always easy things to grasp with nuance and wisdom, which perhaps is why some organizations have banned their members from any public discussion of the issues. So we’re going to do our best to patiently explore these things and see what we can learn–and hopefully proceed with humility and fairness by God’s grace.

Article referenced: Challenges Facing Bible Translation in the Islamic Context of the Middle East by Issa Diab published in "The Bible Translator" journal.

Article by Rebecca Lewis

Video from Biblical Missiology

John Piper interview

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As we saw in the last episode, God raised up some amazing men to produce the most influential Bible translation in Arabic. I want to continue exploring a little more about this translation and see what its legacy has been over more than a century. No Bible translation is perfect, and languages undergo significant changes over the course of a hundred years, leading to a need for updated translations that contemporary readers can understand. Cultures and religions have also shifted in the Arab world, which raises new challenges for Bible translation. So let’s explore these things and more together.

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In the last episode we got a brief view of what some of the Arab world was like in the 1800s, and what protestant missionaries were facing as they endeavored to produce a translation of the Bible that could become a standard text for their mission work and church-planting. In this episode we want to look at the detailed first-hand account of what went on behind the scenes of this translation, which is widely known today as the Van Dyck translation. Who were the people involved and what tools did they use for this work? You may never have heard of this translation, but it became the best-selling book in Syria and Egypt, and later attained the equivalent status of the KJV amongst Arabic-speaking Christians.

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Christian history is full of unsung heroes, and the world of Bible translation is no exception. Even though books have been written to record amazing things God has done through different missionaries, we often forget about them because they were written so long ago. One such book is Fifty Three Years in Syria, a two volume work that describes much of the missionary work done in the 1800s and early 1900s in the middle east, including the most influential complete translation of the Bible into Arabic, which is still used as a standard text today. When I first set out to do this series I imagined that I would focus exclusively on BT into Arabic, but the more I read about the events, culture, and people surrounding the history of Arabic BT, the more I wanted to share it with you. It’s absolutely fascinating and many times stranger than fiction. At times it may feel like we’re jumping around a lot, but I think through these various vignettes we’ll gain a more fully-orbed idea of what the world was like in this part of the middle east during the birth of the most influential Bible in Arabic.

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As we grow in our understanding of Bible translation, we want to focus on the Middle East and see what we can learn about the history of Bible translation into Arabic. In this series we’ll discover one of the most amazing missionaries you've never heard of, as well as seek to understand and learn from a significant controversy in the history of Bible translation. A big thank-you to Darren Duke for joining us on this episode!

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Founded back in 1990, the Forum of Bible Agencies International was born out of a need for understanding and partnership between organizations working in Bible translation. According to their website, they are a nonprofit made up of 40 members working together to maximize worldwide access and impact of God's Word in a trusted community of like-minded peers. Obviously this is a huge player in the world of BT, so let’s dive in and learn more about it.

Translation Standards

Consultant Standards

workingfortheword.com

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It’s no secret that the book of Psalms is one of the darlings of the Church, and has been throughout the centuries. The poetic artistry, the raw emotion, the complete transparency—are all elements that make The Psalms so unique and compelling. Yet most of us never have the time or the tools to dig as deeply into them as they deserve. And when it comes to translating them, we need to have a profound grasp of their design and message. Today we’re going to talk about a project whose purpose is to provide translators with detailed analysis and useful information on The Psalms in one place. A big thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Robar and Katie Frost for taking the time to share their work and vision!

Psalms: Layer by Layer project
Cambridge Digital Bible Research (the non-profit hosting the Psalms LBL project, with an opportunity at the bottom to sign up for monthly newsletters to stay abreast of the project)
For more information on joining the project as a scholar/translator: info@cdbr.org

Listen to the previous podcast with Elizabeth in which she laid out the original vision for the project.

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Have you ever read the letters that went back and forth between St. Augustine and Jerome about Bible translation? If you haven’t, this is going to be a surprising and maybe even shocking episode for you. It turns out that the strong tendency to claim that your favorite traditional translation of the Bible isn’t new at all, and was happening all the way back in the fourth century. This was a type of KJV-onlyism at an epic scale, because it involved arguments between church fathers.

This podcast quotes at length from Jerome and the Jews: Innovative Supersessionism by William Krewson.

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Recently Justin Taylor shared some quotes from three different men that reflect on a biblical view of success in ministry. Those three men are Mark Driscoll, Francis Schaeffer, and J.I. Packer. I wanted to share this in light of Bible translation, which can often be measured by numbers. Its success is often judged based on the quantity of output: how many NTs were finished this year, how many complete bibles, how many copies have been sold or used, how many people have been impacted or saved as a result of Bible translations, etc. Whether we’re a massive organization like Wycliffe or a single person working out in the middle of nowhere, there’s always a temptation towards ambition, and to evaluate whether or not we are successful by the world’s wisdom and by leaning on our own understanding. Although the following quotes have to do with churches and pastoring, I’d like to suggest that we ask ourselves as we listen: how can we guard our hearts in this regard when it comes to the world of Bible translation?

Justin Taylor's article

Liberating Ministry from Success Syndrome

Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

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I want to share with you a wonderfully articulate and insightful book review done by my friend Mark Ward. Mark has been on this podcast before talking about the problems with KJV-onlyism, and when he released a video reviewing Robert Alter’s book The Art of Bible Translation, I couldn’t help but want to share it with all of you here on the podcast.

Check out Mark's book: Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

Mark's infotainment documentary: Authorized.

Watch Mark's Fifty False Friends in the KJV series here.

Mark's review originally appeared in the Puritan Reformed Journal, 12:1, pages 207–212—with a bit of an addition about KJV-Onlyism in the 11th minute or so.

Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible

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We take a deep dive on the state of the text of Samuel and 2 Samuel 22:26 in particular, and hopefully gain a broader, better, more nuanced understanding of what can make Bible translation a bit slow at times.

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A while back I featured Jordon Monson on my podcast who presented a particular view of Satan or "the satan" in the book of Job. This view has been widely promoted by Michael Heiser, who some of you may be familiar with because of his hugely influential and successful book The Unseen Realm. But his view is only one perspective on how to think about "the satan" and how to translate it in Job. The more traditional position deserves a thorough representation and defense, which I believe is compelling. So to present this view, I asked Dr. Ken Berding to record an article he wrote on the matter.

Links referenced:

Dr. Berding's original article

BibleFluency.com

My talk at the Bible Literacy Coalition

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There are still a lot of notes that we haven’t discussed from my time spent checking 2 Samuel, so we’re going to tackle a couple more in this episode. We’re going to see how maintaining important plays on words in translation might sometimes seem impossible, but with some creativity there may be some workable solutions. We’re also going to see how important it is to understand the interplay between all the languages involved in checking a translation of Scripture.

Statement of Faith referenced

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In the last episode I left you hanging on the question as to why it’s possible to translate Isaiah 55:3 referring to David as the subject of acts of covenantal love. And this runs contrary to all the major English versions, which interpret David as the object of acts of covenantal love. This was not an idea that originated with me, but with Dr. Peter Gentry. So I invited him to share with us his arguments that appear in his book Kingdom through Covenant, and he kindly agreed. This may be a more technical episode than usual, but never fear: Gentry has also written a far more accessible, less technical volume of Kingdom through Covenant that’s called God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants. So definitely grab a copy of that for Christmas when you finish listening.

God's Kingdom through God's Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology

Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Second Edition)

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It’s been a while since we got into some nitty-gritty, concrete examples of my daily workflow in translation consulting. So in this episode we’re going to see how many issues we can walk through, and hopefully we’ll all learn something useful or fascinating from the experience. You’ll definitely want to stick around for the discussion of 2 Samuel 7:19.

Kingdom through Covenant by Gentry & Wellum

Critique textuelle de l’ancien Testament for Free Download

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Make sure you listen to the first part of this conversation in the previous episode. You can check out Nat's blog at https://ntgreeketal.com/.

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Have you ever heard anyone say that God chose to write the NT in Greek because it’s such an incredibly precise language? I’ve heard plenty of people make this claim, including pastors and professors of Greek exalting it as having an almost supernatural precision. Can this be true, or is Greek just a language like every other language, with its own idiosyncrasies, ambiguities, strengths, and weaknesses? This is an issue we need to explore, because it gets at the heart of Bible translation, raising the question, “If Greek is magically precise, more than all other languages, aren’t we losing that precision in translation?” I invited Nat Erickson to walk us through the answer to this question, and I was so pleased with how well he prepared, and how detailed and articulate his presentation was. So who is Nat? Well, he’s on the tail end of completing a Ph.D. in New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And he’s researching how information structure affects constituent order in 'periphrastic' constructions in Koine Greek, focusing on non-New Testament Jewish and Christian writings. He blogs regularly about Greek and aspects of New Testament study at https://ntgreeketal.com/.

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My guest in this episode, Dr. Jeannine Brown, has taught at Bethel Seminary for over 20 years in the areas of New Testament, hermeneutics, and integration. Her many books include Scripture as Communication, Becoming Whole and Holy, and several commentaries on Matthew. She has also published numerous journal articles and book essays on the Gospels, 1 Peter, and topics of hermeneutics. She’s married to singer-songwriter Tim Brown, and has two adult daughters, Kate and Libby. And most importantly for this podcast, she is a member of the NIV translation committee and is a part of the revision project for the NIV Study Bible. So if you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in the NIV translation committee, this is your chance to find out!

Write a thank-you to the NIV committee over at Biblica.com.

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If you’re like me, you have a mixed relationship with study bibles. Once in a while they can give you a jolt of amazing insight or new understanding, but many times you find the notes redundant, useless, painfully obvious, filler fluff, or just simply irrelevant. Our tendency as readers is to ignore these problems and assume that the “professionals” know what they’re doing. But not Dr. Harriet Hill. Today we’re going to dive into her careful analysis of some major study bibles and see how they can improve. Spoiler: it’ll make you laugh and cry. There’s lots to learn and tons of room for improvement in the study Bible world.

Dr. Harriet Hill's article "Relevant Study Bibles"

The Bible at Cultural Crossroads

Dr. Hill's artwork

The best study Bible I've ever used, and recommend

NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Personal Size, Hardcover, Red Letter: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture

The Bible at Cultural Crossroads: From Translation to Communication

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As we saw last time, translation into sign language is a significant need, and it’s often misunderstood or overlooked when people think about Bible translation. In this episode I want to introduce you to a team currently working on a sign language version of the NT in Spain. In order to hear from the team members who only communicate with sign language, my friend Steve Parkhurst kindly agreed to interpret and be their voice. So let’s see what we can learn together.

The project's main website.

Make sure to check out these two articles to learn more about the Spanish and Catalan Sign Language Projects:

Article 1 | Article 2

The book on SignWriting.

PROEL's website.

*As of the release of this episode I haven't been able to get clear details on how to give donations to the project, but I will update this when that info becomes available.

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For a long time I’ve been wanting to do a podcast on something that’s not on a lot of people’s minds when they think of Bible translation: translation for the deaf. Just as some communities are served best by an oral translation, others are served better by a visual translation. And this is the perfect time to talk about this because, as of the fall of 2020, we’re celebrating the completion of the first full Bible produced in sign language: the American Sign Language Bible.

A big thanks to Bob Van Zyl for joining us in this episode.

DeafBible.com

One of the images Bob mentioned from Ephesians

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While many are taking advantage of the Internet age by spreading lies far and wide for free, many Christians are busy selling Truth. American Christians have been shown to be staggeringly ungenerous with their money, and this is in spite of being the wealthiest Christians in all of human history. And this ungenerosity spills over into how they give away or do not give away biblical resources for the purpose of Bible translation, or even translations of the Bible itself. I’ve touched on this issue before, but I wanted to have a single, succinct episode where these issues are revisited. You may hear something new and interesting, so stick around.

Passing the Plate by Christian Smith

The Copenhagen Alliance

Creative commons volumes on Tiberian pronunciation by world-class hebraist Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1, Volume 2.

Transcript of this podcast with extras

Letting Go by Tim Jore much of which is quoted verbatim in this episode.

Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money

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In spite of the vast expanse of Bible poverty across the globe, there are many churches who are either unaware of the need for BT or simply view the problem as marginal and not integral to the mission of the Church. 2 Thessalonians 3.1 says, "Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored.” And our guest today takes this verse as one of the reasons why praying for BT, sending Bible translators, and giving to BT should be woven into the fabric of the Church. Let’s listen to Kyle, founder of Bible Translation Fellowship, tell a little of his journey and encourage us to think carefully about the Church and its relationship to BT.

Also check out Propempo.

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Let’s begin this episode with a thought experiment. Imagine you’re a local indigenous translator working on the translation of Deuteronomy. You don’t have access to any resources besides a handful of translations in the trade language that you know. That’s because the commentaries and helps are only in English and locked up by copyrights that prohibit their translation. You also know zero Hebrew and almost nothing about textual criticism because that isn’t usually taught to indigenous translators. So you get to Deuteronomy 33:2 and read all these different versions that have a rather confusing way of dealing with the last part of the verse....

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Why does every single English version ignore the best solution to translating Exodus 6:3? We're going to take out the magnifying glass and try to get to the bottom of this. A big thanks to Michael Fenske for his contribution to my thinking on this, and for pointing out the following verse examples without the interrogative ה: Jonah 4:11, Lam 3:38, and 1 Sam 20:9.

Correction: It was brought to my attention after releasing this episode that there is one English version (although not mainstream) that translates Ex 6:3 as a rhetorical question: the TS2009 version, which is a Hebrew Roots/Sacred Name translation.

Duane Garrett's commentary on Exodus

The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew by Andersen

A Commentary on Exodus (Kregel Exegetical Library)

The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica)

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What does Catholicism in Latin America have to do with Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the great fish? And what kind of derogatory language doesn’t really come through in English translations of his poetic prayer? Translation is always an artistic endeavor to capture all the flavor and nuance of the original that we can. We’re going to take a little stroll into the translation of just one verse in Jonah, and see what we can learn.

Watch the video from the National Museum of Scotland here.

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A while back, while I was checking Deuteronomy in the Mixteco language of Mexico, we came to chapter 32 which is a whole lot of difficult poetry. Verse 8 stood out as one of the most complex verses to navigate and explain, mainly because of a textual variant. The big debate is whether to read the original text as saying “sons of God” or “sons of Israel,” and getting to a solid answer isn’t simple. English translations still don’t agree on it, but we’re going to do our best to tackle it in this episode and see where the Mixteco translation landed.

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“This lightly written and frequently amusing book gently hides the competent scholarship that underlies it. For those who are convinced of the superiority of the KJV, whether for stylistic, cultural, pedagogical, theological, or traditional reasons, this is the book to read. Mercifully, Dr. Ward does not pummel his readers or sneer at those who take another position. Patiently, chapter by chapter, example by example, he makes his case-all of his work geared toward fostering more and better Bible reading. Highly recommended." Those are the words of D.A. Carson about our guest’s book, entitled Authorized. As we continue our conversation with Dr. Mark Ward, we’re going to hear yet another false friend example, talk about what the KJV translators themselves would have thought about KJV-onlyism, and more. Make sure to get your own copy of his book Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible. Also don't miss his excellent YouTube channel.

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The King James Bible remains the most recognizable piece of literature in the English-speaking world. It stands as a masterful example of translation for its day, involving some of history’s most remarkable scholars. For over three centuries it served as the standard English Bible and has had unparalleled influence on English and American culture in nearly every sphere—including education, law, literature, government, art, science, and religion. Even though English has changed a lot over the last 400 years, there are thousands of people who believe the KJV to be the only trustworthy translation in English, and strongly discourage or even forbid the use of modern versions. This has come to be called “KJV-onlyism,” and I’ve met a handful of them over the years. In the next two episodes Dr. Mark Ward is going to help us understand this mentality, and graciously and lovingly argue why it’s unhelpful. Make sure to get your own copy of his book Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible. Also don't miss his excellent YouTube channel.

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As we continue our interview with Dave Brunn, translation consultant and author of One Bible, Many Versions, we’re going to put the final nail in the coffin of the idea that translations can be literally word-for-word. We’re also going to hear how translating into languages that aren’t Indoeuropean shatters the notion of word-for-word equivalence even further, which we’ll see is something not even Jesus himself seemed to see as the ideal. Finally, Dave will share a way forward for all of us in the English-speaking world, away from the arguments over translation, towards unity, and into a deeper experience of God’s Word.

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You’re in for a treat in this episode. Author and translator Dave Brunn joins us to talk about many translation issues that you’ve probably never thought about. His book One Bible, Many Versions is now my favorite book to point people to in order to understand the true issues behind our English Bible versions. He helps cut through the marketing rhetoric and provide a view of the objective reality of translation. This will be the first of two parts and you’re not going to want to miss it. Get ready to be surprised, learn a lot, and be reminded of some important things.

Dave Brunn's book One Bible, Many Versions.

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As we continue our whirlwind journey through the history of the Bible in China, we’re going to see how missionary translation efforts culminated in a successful Union Version that achieved unprecedented and unimagined impact, and lasting acceptance and use. We’re going to see more intimate descriptions of what went on behind the scenes, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and see how God made possible what was impossible with man. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in this episode, and you may even want to divide it into two parts because it’s a bit longer.

You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book The Bible in China here.

Bible in China (Monumenta Serica Monograph Series)

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In the history of Chinese Bible translation the name of one extraordinary man stands out: Joseph Schereschewsky. In this episode we're going to take a look at his life and hopefully learn from him and be inspired by his example of perseverance and sacrifice. Most evangelicals know about the genius of Tyndale, but Schereschewsky has been all but forgotten even though he was at least as brilliant as Tyndale. He could speak 13 languages and read 20. And no man of that day equaled him in idiomatic mastery of spoken Mandarin. He had a command of nearly 10,000 Chinese characters, while the average Chinese at the time could use around 700. He was a master of Hebrew, having studied it since childhood. John Hykes of the American Bible Society called him “The Prince of Bible translators.”

You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book The Bible in China here.

Muller's biography of Schereschewsky.

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As early missionaries sought to create a Chinese translation that would suit everyone from every denomination, they needed to decide on the right language style to use, as well as overcome obstacles to getting the translation done in a reasonable amount of time. We’re going to look through some interesting windows into the work and its details, and see how the Baptists were still not happy until they created their own version. We’ll also see how haste can hurt a translation’s quality, as well as how messy translation can be when trying to make different denominations cooperate and agree on a committee.

Book mentioned: Spectacular Sins by John Piper (free download available)

You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book The Bible in China here.

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As we continue our series on China, we’re going to look at an issue that created massive conflict when translators from different backgrounds tried to come together to create a unified translation. This issue was the word for God, and it stands as one of the monoliths of Bible translation debate history. It came to be called the Term Question, and some have said it was the greatest controversy of the Protestant mission in China. We're joined by Dr. Simon Wong from UBS to talk about this issue.

You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book The Bible in China here.

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There is so much we can learn from history and the ways other people have dealt with translations. In this episode we’re going to continue our conversation with Dr. Jost Zetzsche and talk about some of the strengths of Chinese for translating the Bible, about the richness of its idioms, and more. We’re continuing to lay a foundation for some of the history of Bible translation in China. You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book here.

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With a population of over a billion people, China is one of the world’s oldest civilizations. It’s massive, it’s diverse, and it has an incredibly rich history. And in all that history I’m interested in exploring the question of how the Bible was first translated in China. What were the different challenges people faced? What can we learn from their mistakes and triumphs? We’re going to talk about this and more across multiple episodes.

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We’ve said before on this podcast that translating bibles can be like making sausages; a peek behind the curtain of the process can reveal some unpleasant realities. But part of my goal with this podcast is to cut through any saccharine veneer that people might have in their minds and help them understand what doesn’t always get talked about. I especially want people interested in serving in Bible translation (BT) to get a clearer picture of what they may face so that they can count the cost. We’ve talked a lot about the joys of BT, and they’re real. But today we’re going to dip into some things that may be disillusioning or disenchanting. Sometimes you might just end up talking about poop, bastards, and testicles for hours as a translation consultant. Find out why in this episode.

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As we continue our discussion of the Tyndale House Greek NT with Dr. Dirk Jongkind, we’re going to tackle some more in-depth questions about early translations of the NT into languages like Latin and Syriac, and how they factor into the textual criticism of the NT. We’re also going to discuss some of the ways NT and OT textual criticism differ, especially in terms of reliance on manuscripts of translated versions as opposed to manuscripts of the original language they were composed in. Finally, we’re going to hear Dr. Jongkind share his biblical theology of the transmission of the text and why God has ordained that textual criticism be necessary.

The Bible Translation Fellowship

If you’d like to enter to win a copy of Dr. Jongkind's new book An Introduction to the Greek New Testament produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge, simply email me at andrewdcase@gmail.com by April 17th, and tell me 1) how you discovered this podcast and 2) what one of your favorite episodes has been. Or, if you’re a Mac or iPhone person, another way you can enter is by leaving a review of this podcast on iTunes and sending a screenshot of that review to my email. This is open to people living in any country.

An Introduction to the Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge: Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge

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As we touched on last time, in Bible translation it’s important to be able to decide what text you’re going to translate before you get to the task of translation. So to do that we need to compare manuscripts and ancient versions, and weigh the evidence, which is called textual criticism. This will be the first part of a conversation with Dr. Dirk Jongkind, the editor of the Tyndale House Greek New Testament. At Tyndale House Dr. Jongkind does research in the transmission of the text of the New Testament and maintains an interest in lexical and grammatical studies. So get ready to learn some new things and stretch your mind.

Peter Gurry's evaluation ofCoherence-Based Genealogical Textual Criticism.

If you’d like to enter to win a copy of Dr. Jongkind's new book An Introduction to the Greek New Testament produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge, simply email me at andrewdcase@gmail.com by April 17th, and tell me 1) how you discovered this podcast and 2) what one of your favorite episodes has been. This is open to people living in any country.

A Critical Examination of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method in New Testament Textual Criticism, (New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents)

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In this episode we’re going to look at some concrete examples of where the knowledge and discipline of textual criticism is important to help us navigate what text we are actually going to translate. Often these are little details that make simple verses turn into more difficult challenges than one might imagine. We’ll focus on the book of 1 Samuel and see how a simple narrative on the surface can turn out to be a complex balancing act underneath.

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The Passion Translation (TPT) has sold millions of copies and is recommended by some big names in the evangelical world. I think it needs to be addressed because there are some slippery, sneaky things going on behind it that many people may not know how to deal with. This is an episode on how Bible translation can go horribly wrong and make someone a boatload of money at the same time. It’s the story of how spiritual language, the supernatural, and sophomoric talk about the biblical languages can impress a lot of people. To some of you this may be a terrifying episode, but I hope it proves helpful to those who have been wondering about this translation.

Article on Polysemy and Homonomy in Biblical Hebrew

Fact sheet about TPT

Problems with Peshitta Primacy

Mike Winger's critiques on YouTube

The Peshitta Study Tool

The Gospel Coalition critique from Dr. Shead

Sid Roth's interview with Brian Simmons

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If you go to the entry page on Wikipedia for the word 'almah you’ll find this: “despite its importance to the account of the virgin birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, scholars agree that it has nothing to do with virginity.” They sound very sure of themselves, and this tide needs to be turned. Dr. Rico is helping us see how this sort of definition is completely wrong based on the evidence, unhelpful, and obscures the contextual meaning of Isaiah 7:14. This episode is full of everything from musicology to exposition. It's going to be a good one.

Make sure to get your own copy of Dr. Rico's book here. For those who might want the French version, it's available here.

This is his book that teaches Greek as a living language.

Wikipedia pages on 'almah and Isaiah 7:14.

Sing, O Barren One

Other music and YouTube links 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7: 14

La mère de l'Enfant-Roi - Isaïe 7, 14 (ETUDES DE LA BIBLE EN SES TRAD) (French Edition)

Polis: Speaking Ancient Greek as a Living Language, Level One, Student's Volume

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We’re continuing a series on the translation of Isaiah 7:14, which says: Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and bear a son, and his name shall be called Immanuel. If you’re like me, it’s always good to review what we heard last time, so Dr. Rico’s going to recap and add some detail along the way, and then he'll get into the positive arguments for why we should translate 'alma as young virgin.

Make sure to get your own copy of Dr. Rico's book here. For those who might want the French version, it's available here.

This is his book that teaches Greek as a living language.

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Isaiah 7:14 in the KJV reads: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” But then the RSV came out in 1952 and translated virgin as young woman. Without a doubt more has been written on the interpretation of this term than on any other verse in the Old Testament. The majority of modern scholars for the last century have asserted that the Hebrew word ‘alma refers merely to a young woman. Are they right, or are the KJV translators and church fathers correct that it means virgin, as the apostle Matthew implied in the first chapter of his gospel?

Make sure to get your own copy of Dr. Rico's book here. For those who might want the French version, it's available here.

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Since last time we talked about the book of Job, I wanted to touch on another translation issue in the book that many people haven’t heard of or thought about. This is found in 42:6, where Job is speaking to God after hearing his voice out of the whirlwind. If you’re reading the ESV it’ll sound like this: “therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” And then you’ll notice this little footnote on the word repent that says “or and am comforted.” These are wildly different translations, and the average Bible reader doesn’t have the tools to make any sense of it. So let’s talk about it.

עַל־כֵּ֭ן אֶמְאַ֣ס וְנִחַ֑מְתִּי עַל־עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃

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When talking about Bible translation what often gets avoided or buried is all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes that isn’t ideal. Many people like to imagine that their Bible translation came to them through perfect, peaceful processes, via perfect, holy men of God without struggles or weaknesses. But that’s just not the case, and we need to be transparent and honest about these things. Christianity is not about putting on enough makeup to hide our blemishes, nor is it about rewriting history to make ourselves look better. We are all broken people through whom God is glorifying himself by saving us and slowly making us more like Jesus. It’s messy, and it’s not helpful to be in denial about that. Today we’re going to look at some of the difficult, strange, or even sad things that go on in the background of some of the translations we love.

Definitely check out all of Jordan's article here.

And you can get Peter Thuesen's book here.

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When someone asks you to help check a translation, where do you start? What kinds of questions should you ask? This happened to me recently, so let’s talk about it. Also, it’s been a while since we dug deep into some actual checking issues that arise in real world situations, so let’s talk about some of the things I’ve been running into in Deuteronomy and 1 Samuel.

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Since the time of the Reformation the word holiness among orthodox protestants has been understood mainly as purity and transcendence. Throughout this series we’ve seen that, on the contrary, holiness carries the core connotation of absolute devotion or consecration to God. And for God to be holy means that he is completely devoted to his people and his name. But today we want to address a couple objections and talk about how we can go forward from here with Bible translation.

You can read my journal article on this topic here.

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Why is God called holy three times in Isaiah 6? Why does the Holy Spirit have “holy” in his name instead of “loving” or “powerful”? We’re going to try to answer these questions and continue searching out a more biblical way of understanding the Hebrew root qadash, which is where our word “holy” in English comes from. Once again, we’re going to see that the core meaning of holiness has nothing to do with separation, but rather of meeting, belonging, and total devotion.

Listen to the full lecture by Dr. Peter Gentry here.

You can read my journal article on this topic here.

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Last time we began an in-depth look at what it means for someone to be holy, and we saw how there has been a lot of confusion around the concept of holiness for centuries. Since a word’s meaning is the sum of its contexts, we’re going to continue looking at the broader contexts in Scripture that reveal that for God to be holy means that he is totally devoted to his people and his name.

Peter Gentry has written more along these lines in this recent publication.

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The word holy is firmly embedded in our western consciousness with certain connotations. We think we know what it means, but most of us never stop to think where our idea of the meaning of holiness came from and whether it’s consistent. The standard understanding of God’s holiness is usually described as “separation”, “transcendence”, or “infinite purity.” But does it really mean that when we are talking about God? And how have people typically translated the word holy in other countries? We’re going to go deep together into answering these questions and more.

Book on Holiness by Costecalde.

Aux origines du sacré biblique (French Edition)

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God’s communication with humanity was intended from the beginning for “every nation, tribe, and language.” While all languages are equally competent in expressing the message of the Bible, each language has particular and sometimes unique capacities to communicate certain biblical messages in exceptionally enriching ways that other languages cannot. But where can the average person get a window into how other languages communicate God’s truth? Today we talk about Translation Insights and Perspectives (also known as TIPs), a free online resource at tips.translation.bible, which provides a growing collection of translation insights in the form of stories so they can be made available to everyone in the church as well as researchers and others. Thank you, Jost Zetzsche for making this possible!

If you live in the US, Canada, or Europe, and want to win a hardcopy of any one of my books on my website hismagnificence.com, then this is your chance. All you have to do is leave a review of the podcast on iTunes (which you can still do even if you usually listen on Android or Spotify), and then email me here at andrewdcase@gmail.com. In the email just include the name you used to leave the review, and if you're willing, tell me about how you started listening to the podcast. If you're chosen in the drawing, I'll reach out to you and ask which book you'd like and mail it to you.

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The Legacy Standard Bible is a new revision of the NASB that's in the works right now led by people from the Master's Seminary in California. When new English translations come out there tends to be a lot of different rhetoric and assumptions that get thrown around, and it's not always clear and helpful to the average person. So let's sit down together and join a roundtable discussion that the LSB translators had. Let's listen, and comment a bit. See the full discussion here.

If you live in the US, Canada, or Europe, and want to win a hardcopy of any one of my books on my website hismagnificence.com, then this is your chance. All you have to do is leave a review of the podcast on iTunes (which you can still do even if you usually listen on Android or Spotify), and then email me here. In the email just include the name you used to leave the review, and if you're willing, tell me about how you started listening to the podcast. If you're chosen in the drawing, I'll reach out to you and ask which book you'd like and mail it to you.

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Dr. Aaron Shryock currently serves at UnfoldingWord and has also served as the Director of the Tyndale Center for Bible Translation at the Master’s Seminary. Prior to that he spent several years in Africa involved in linguistic research, lexicography, and translation. In this episode he joins us to talk about the life and impact of William Whitaker, one of the lesser-known reformers who had a lot to say about Bible translation.

You can read/download Whitaker's book A Disputation on Holy Scripture, Against the Papists, Especially Bellarmine and Stapleton here.

Check out Aaron Shryock's blog, where you can read more about Whitaker and Bible translation in general.

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What if we lost all of our copies and manuscripts of the New Testament? Would we still be able to reconstruct all of it with the quotations in the writings of the church fathers? Dr. Andrew Blaski joins us today to explain the origins of this popular myth and how we can think more carefully about the church fathers and their handling of Scripture. Get ready for a fascinating discussion of a lot of things you may have never considered this deeply.

Definitely get your own copy of the book with Blaski's chapter here.

Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism

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Isaiah 26:13 says, "O Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance." What are some other key verses in Scripture where a title substitute for God’s name turns out to be awkward or inadequate? In this last episode on the divine name we’re going to soak up a lot of Bible as we survey passages where a translation just makes more sense when a name for God is translated rather than a title.

My paper on the Name is now free to download here.

New Aleph with Beth intro video here.

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As we near the end of this series on the divine name, we need to address some more important questions and objections. Won’t we offend Jews if we try to pronounce God’s name in some way other than a title or circumlocution? Won’t rendering God’s name as a name in translations spoil the literary effect? And what is the position of the Catholic church on the use of the divine name?

Links mentioned:

Jewish Virtual Library

Evangeline of Sky Valley

Sing Hebrew

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As we continue our series, in this episode we’ll address more objections, including the teaching of Nehemiah Gordon who has an increasingly influential voice on this topic. We’ll talk about whether he is a trustworthy scholar, whether pronouncing God’s name makes us run the risk of "taking his name in vain," and more.

Video link #1 evaluating Gordon's claims in exhaustive detail concerning John 17.

Video link #2 evaluating Gordon's claims about the Masoretic pointing on YHWH.

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What is the Arlington Statement on Bible Translation, why is it important, and what does it have to do with the divine name, especially in the NT? And did the NT writers try to make a distinction between Yahweh and Jesus? In this episode linguist, Bible translator, and former Mormon Seth Vitrano-Wilson joins us to talk about those things, offer some perspective on Bible translation in Muslim contexts, and more.

You can read Seth's paper here.

Seth did another interview recently that covers more about the Arlington Statement here.

Here is SIL's response to the Arlington Statement, which is impossible to find if you don't know exactly where to look:

*SIL and its partners in the Wycliffe Global Alliance believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. As such, Bible translations must always faithfully reflect the meaning of the Scriptures in a way that communicates clearly without distortion. SIL is committed to translation practices that result in accurate, clear, and natural translations. As a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International (FOBAI), SIL is committed to the translation standards of FOBAI and the standards based on the guidelines of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and has processes in place to ensure that its work adheres to these.

SIL’s concern about the Arlington statement centers around its prescriptive approach. It is more restrictive than the FOBAI and World Evangelical Alliance standards, which maintained a commitment to faithful translations while including carefully crafted language about the movement’s rich diversity. We believe that our current standards and policies enable us to achieve accuracy while appropriately engaging with the different contexts in which we serve.

Therefore SIL is not supportive of the Arlington Statement.*

Dick Kroneman, SIL International Translation Coordinator

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What does the name of God mean? Can we analyze it as some kind of verb and figure out something about God’s nature and character? And should we translate "I am who I am" or "I will be who I will be," and does it matter? As promised, we’re going to sit down today with an expert who has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about these things and more. So get ready to hear some ideas you’ve probably never heard before!

Click here to download and read Dr. Surls' dissertation on this topic for free.

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What is a sacred name Bible, and is it something you should use? In this sixth installment on the divine name, we’re going to discuss the sacred name movement and its problems, and see how it has muddied the waters for people like me seeking clarity on the issue. It’s time to take another deep dive into the world of Bible translation, and this time into one that isn’t as well-known.

This is something I forgot to include in the episode audio:

The preface to The Word of Yahweh explains:

"The prime objective in producing this new edition of the scriptures was a desire to accurately represent the most sacred names of our Father and His Son. It has been the tradition of most translators to substitute more common, familiar terms such as lord and god, in place of the very names inspired from Yahweh Himself. We believe this is a grave injustice. Not only does this substitution steal from the richness and fullness of the original languages, but probably directly breaks the third commandment we read in Exodus 20:7.

The personal name of the Heavenly Father, Yahweh, was inspired into the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament nearly 7000 times. This includes 134 instances where the Masoretic scribes admittedly changed Yahweh to the more common Hebrew adonai. In all instances where Lord, or God was substituted for the Sacred Name in the English text we have properly inserted Yahweh…. Because there is no accurate translation of elohim we have transliterated that title into the English. As for adonai, sovereign or master serves as an adequate translation in most cases.[1]"

It should be noted their accusation of breaking the third commandment applies to the NT writers, and nowhere in the preface do they address that issue. They do, however, claim that “In recent years many scholars have proposed that there are Semitic originals underlying the Greek text of much of the New Testament.” They do not substantiate that claim or admit that it is purely speculation and therefore does not ameliorate their grave accusation.

They also do not substantiate their use of “Yahweh” as the correct pronunciation of the divine name, nor do they explain why there is no accurate translation of elohim—a claim which is nonsense if no good reason is given. Finally, when reading the entire preface, it seems to be the case that, because they do not believe in the Trinity, they speak of Jesus as distinct from Yahweh. Thus, in their mind, Yahweh is Jesus’ father, and Jesus is not God, although he is the savior of the world.

[1]http://assemblyofyahweh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Bible-Read-More.pdf. Accessed October 5, 2020.

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What did Martin Luther, the KJV, ASV, NJB, and others do with the Divine Name in their translations? What did the translators of the NT into Modern Hebrew do? When did the pronunciation Yahweh come into vogue? All this and more fascinating and surprising stuff in today's installment.

Links promised:

Vasileiadis's article Aspects of rendering the sacred Tetragrammaton in Greek

The Divine Name in the Hebrew New Testament

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Was the NT unique in its use of kurios, and what did people do with the divine name after the NT? As we will see, pronunciation continued to be avoided by some, while others sought to recover its original pronunciation or use it in various ways. In this episode we look at what big names like Irenaeus, Jerome, and Origen said about the divine name, as well as its magical use throughout the first centuries after Christ.

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In this episode we tackle the puzzling and controversial issue of why the NT authors consistently used "Lord" in place of the divine name.

For those of you who will want to go deeper into this issue with something in writing, I will soon be making all of my research available as a small, free book that will be creative commons, free to share and translate without permission. My goal is to eventually make all of it available in Spanish as well. If you'd be willing to help with the Spanish translation (or another language), please let me know at andrewdcase (a) gmail.com

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In this episode we take an exhaustive look at what Jews have written outside of the Bible about the pronunciation of the Name throughout their history, and then examine all the ways YHWH was rendered in different early manuscripts of the Septuagint. I tried my best to keep it simple, but you might have to gird up the loins of your brain before you listen! Persevere, and it'll be worth it.

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After more than 9 months of research, this baby is ready to see the light of day. In this series we seek to answer two main questions:

1) Would it be better for translations of the Hebrew Bible to use some approximation of Yahweh, or a title like the Lord?

2) When teaching and reading Hebrew today outside of Israel, would it be better to pronounce his name as some approximation like Yahweh, or say Adonai (Lord)?

It's gonna get a bit technical at times, but fear not! I'd rather treat people like they're smart and give them a challenge than oversimplify everything. Wade through it and you'll learn a lot, no matter where you're coming from.

O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! –Psalm 8:1

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I think the title says it all! This episode draws largely from The Murderous History of Bible Translationsby Harry Freedman. Make sure to get a copy for yourself! Worth every penny.

The Murderous History of Bible Translations: Power, Conflict, and the Quest for Meaning

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I had the privilege and pleasure of talking to Dr. Peter Gurry about his book Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism. Enjoy getting to meet one of the guys who's doing quality work for the Kingdom in an area many people overlook or don't know exists!

The clip towards the beginning comes from this excellent introduction to NT Textual Criticism by Daniel Wallace. It's worth watching the whole thing.

Other links to things mentioned in the episode:

Text & Canon Institute

Text & Canon Institute YouTube

Scribes & Scripture

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"I failed miserably my first go around using a traditional Hebrew grammar." Have you heard or experienced something like that before? Sadly, it's all too common. Here are some further thoughts on the status quo of learning Greek and Hebrew, what the best research has shown, and what we can do about it.

Sound clip of Stephen Krashen taken from this clip, and Steve Kaufmann from this clip.

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It was an honor and delight to interview Dr. Carmen Joy Imes about her dissertation on the Name Command in Exodus 20:7, which you can check out here. She's produced a less technical version called Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. For those who have an intermediate level of Hebrew, she's published an illustrated edition of Exodus in Hebrew. Make sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel Torah Tuesday.

Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters

Illustrated Exodus in Hebrew (Hebrew Edition)

Bearing Yhwh's Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue (Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement)

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Ready to have your language learning assumptions shattered? At Aleph with Beth we’re working hard to use the new technology God has given us to teach Hebrew to the world in a way that works for them. But why do we teach this way in this format? Is there serious science and intentionality behind it? Should biblical language teaching remain in the status quo? We tackle this question in this episode, and learn from the great linguist Stephen Krashen. The audio of Krashen comes from the following three videos:

Part 1, part 2, part 3. His website is sdkrashen.com.

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It's a joy to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Robar to the podcast and hear about all the exciting stuff she's up to. You can read some of her articles here.

Elizabeth has loved languages ever since she first discovered she could teach herself Latin from her mother’s college textbook. First came philology (the traditional comparative study of a family of languages), then came linguistics (the modern comparative study of all known languages of the world), and thus was born an interest in the structure of language and languages as undergirding and determining our knowledge of the biblical text, not to mention ourselves, our world and our God.

Elizabeth’s current research interests include the Semitic languages, Biblical Greek, linguistics, syntax and everything that flows out from these: literary studies, discourse analysis, grammar writ large (a.k.a. exegesis), and how best to transmit what knowledge we have to the next generation. This has led to an interest in classical education, including language-learning pedagogy.

In addition to academic research, Elizabeth enjoys mentoring younger scholars, encouraging them to not despair at the breadth and depth of the work needed but rather to identify the work allotted to them and to do it faithfully and well. Some days that work is highly academic in nature, and other days it is simply loving one’s neighbour. Both are equally important.

In the episode we mention copenhagen-alliance.org.

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In this episode we dive into Psalm 107 and talk about its connection to Lamentations 3:32, and how it helps translators understand better the range of meaning of hesed in Hebrew (steadfast love). I forgot to mention that Lamentations 3:32 also speaks of God's hesed in the plural, just like the end of Psalm 107. And Lamentations is like a longer vignette of Psalm 107 in the sense that Israel finds itself in the midst of horrific affliction because of their sin, and they are hoping that God, in His gracious hesed, will give them a great reversal, just as the pattern in Psalm 107 portrays.

The music in the middle of the episode comes from this full version of Psalm 107 that I put to music and recorded in my simple apartment in Yaounde, Cameroon, when I was just beginning my time as a foreign missionary Bible translator.

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How can video games help us understand and translate the Bible better? That's what we're going to talk about in this episode!

If you want to watch the discovery tour of Assassin's Creed: Origins, click here. For Odyssey, click here. Enjoy!

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In this episode we conclude our discussion of the "all rights reserved" copyright mentality and talk about what the future might look like if we were to adopt the "free and open" paradigm for the sake of the global Church. Once again, I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore.

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In this episode we continue our discussion of the "all rights reserved" copyright mentality and tackle the final hindrances/objections to embracing the open licensing of biblical content and resources. Once again, I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore.

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In this episode we continue our discussion of the copyright mentality and tackle two more common hindrances/objections to embracing the open licensing of biblical content and resources. In this episode I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore.

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Hardly anyone is talking about this, so I was compelled to dedicate several episodes to the subject. The global Church needs biblical resources and the tools to do sustainable Bible translation, but our Western, paternalistic copyright laws are keeping many people in a state theological famine. In this episode we take the time to begin carefully thinking through the implications of open licenses to biblical content, as well as all the major objections to the creative commons paradigm. In this episode I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Goby Tim Jore.

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Julia Woods kindly joins us in this episode to talk about the exciting things going on in remote places you may never get to see. Even if for nothing else, listen to this episode to experience the samples of Siberian throat-singing!

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Get a free copy of my novel as an audio book here. In this episode we talk about a verse you may never have noticed in the KJV that seems to have translators scratching their heads. We also discuss some of the inflammatory history of the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

Book quoted: The Murderous History of Bible Translations

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In this episode we have the pleasure of meeting Brian Kelly, to have a conversation about oral Bible translation and how we can change our paradigm to reach oral communities. You can also watch a video presentation from Brian about oral translation strategies here.

Don't Throw the Book at Them by Harry Box

The Network of Biblical Storytellers

The International Orality Network

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In today's episode we explore a paper by Tim Jore from unfoldingWord in which we are challenged to reevaluate the current status quo paradigm of translation consultants and the future of Bible translation.

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Daniel Whitenack joins us to talk about how he uses his wide range of technological skills for the Kingdom of God. Check out his podcast Practical AI.

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What are some of the challenging passages and terms to translate in the book of Exodus? In today's episode we talk about orienting a translation team for the translation of a book to make the process smoother and more accurate.

The article I referenced on the meaning of "holiness" can be found here.

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Dr. Stephen Dempster joins us to talk about how he has spent sabbatical time volunteering in Cameroon to help train local translation personnel. Check out his books Dominion and Dynasty and Micah.

Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (New Studies in Biblical Theology, Volume 15)

Micah (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary)

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What do jackals and sea monsters have in common? We survey some of the fascinating translation history of the Hebrew word tanin/tanim, and talk about the importance of having a theology of Creation.

Book mentioned: All the Animals of the Bible Lands.

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In this episode we talk to the Chief Innovation Development Officer of SIL about some of the dimensions of his job. Thank you, Steve!

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It's already difficult enough to understand what "the knowledge of good and evil" actually means, but what do you do when you have to translate it into another language? In this episode we discuss this challenge, along with more on the image of God.

my books | my free Scripture prayer apps | my music | learn Hebrew for free | facebook page

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Chris Lim joins us for a conversation about how faith and technology can be integrated to further the Kingdom of God and advance Bible translation. He is the co-founder and CEO of Theotec which has developed a service called spf.io. He has his own podcast, and you can listen to the episode we mention on a second Reformation here. He will be one of the main speakers at the Global Missional AI Summit in Spring 2021 in Holland. He's also the creator of the Ceaseless prayer app.

Read my books | download my free Scripture prayer apps | listen to my music | learn Hebrew for free | facebook page

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What is it like to go on a checking trip as a consultant in training? Nathan Michael shares some of his experience and takeaways.

To learn more about Andrew Case, visit HisMagnificence.com.

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We're back after a brief hiatus, to talk about the challenges of translating "image of God" and other things in the first chapters of Genesis. These primeval accounts provide some of the richest insights as well as some of the most difficult obstacles for translating into other languages in a way that encapsulates all the connotations of the original language.

You can check out my novel that I mention here. Other books that I've published can be found here. And if you haven't subscribed yet to Aleph with Beth, you can do that here.

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Today we finish the series on Oral Scripture Adaptation with a fascinating look at all the parallels between Fang and OT culture we discovered throughout the process. This is one of my favorite things to share with people.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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Lucas Ardelean, a language enthusiast and ESL teacher, shares his story about how he almost gave up on learning his first language through immersion, and what helped him finally have a successful learning experience. He shares mistakes he made, gives advice on how to learn a new language, and provides some helpful resources. Thank you, Lucas!

Language Learners Triangle

Time in the language
Comprehensible input
Motivation

Develop a learning lifestyle

Turn every aspect of life into a language and culture learning exercise.

Sing in the language
Talk to yourself.
Read everything.
Write new words down.
Speak in the language at every opportunity.
Have Intentional conversations to practice new words and grammar.
Take time to rest.
Find media at your level: TV, movies, YouTube, Podcasts, magazines, books,

Approaching a language

Determine why you should learn
How will you do it? Make a plan and set goals.
Find a good language coach.
Start to become familiar with the target culture and language.
Be committed for the long haul
Experiment with methods.
Have fun

Books

Lanier, Sarah. Foreign to Familiar. Hagerstown: McDougal, 2000.
Storti, Craig. The Art of Crossing Cultures. Boston: Intercultural Press, 2001.
Thomson’s academic writing on GPA can be found here.

Apps

Mango Languages
LingQ

Some Definitions

Coach - a foreigner or local who helps you and the nurturer in the task.
Comprehensible input - Content that a learner can understand the essence of but not does necessarily mean that they will understand the grammar or even all the words.
G.P.A. - Growing Participatory Approach (GPA) as developed by Greg Thomson
Nurturer – language helper or teacher
Production – speaking the language.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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Here are some of the things I reference in the episode:

Make It Free: Improving Online Effectiveness by Removing All Barriers to Accessing and Sharing Contentandthe follow-up article

From Orality to Orality: A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible

Audio-Based Translation: Communicating Biblical Scriptures to Non-Literate People

Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

LightStream Pocket

*I apologize for how the audio has glitches about half way through. My computer went haywire. Must be the virus.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More

Audio-Based Translation: Communicating Biblical Scriptures to Non-Literate People

From Orality to Orality: A New Paradigm for Contextual Translation of the Bible (Biblical Performance Criticism)

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We continue the story, talk a little about why oral Bible translation matters, and listen to some more cool samples. Here's a video of how we did the sound effects for the recording of the Exodus. If you're curious, you can download and listen to the first part of Genesis that we produced here. And all of the audio Scripture we produced can be accessed on this Facebook page.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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The story continues, and we listen to some samples. Here's the music video of the Exodus 15 song that we filmed (make sure to activate the English subtitles).

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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The advance of globalization among the minority languages of the world is rapidly changing the landscape of Bible translation. Though a complete written Bible is a worthy goal, in some cases the declining vitality of minority languages and lack of mother-tongue literacy make this approach impractical. By the time the completed Bible is published, there may be few left to read it. Facing this reality among the Fang people of Equatorial Guinea and observing a very low interest in the existing written Fang New Testament (NT), we began an experimental oral adaptation of portions of the Old Testament (OT). Narrative passages of the OT were translated orally from Spanish into Fang by a gifted storyteller, and presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style, called mvét oyeng, including traditional music and rhythms. The resulting recordings have been positively received by the community, and we offer this detailed project report as an alternative and innovative model for other language groups who may be facing similar circumstances.

For those of you who are interested, this is what the mvét oyeng instrument looks like.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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In this episode we discuss Judges 5:20, 22, and 25. The book I reference is The Translator's Invisibility.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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I had the honor of interviewing my lovely wife on this episode, and as you'll soon find out, she has a lot of fascinating linguistic knowledge to share! The book she talks about by Albert Bickford can be found here.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

Morphology and Syntax: Tools for Analyzing the World's Languages

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Today we talk about a translation issue in Lamentations that is more relevant than ever for those who are suffering around the world in this time of danger and difficulty.

Recommendation for today: An Interview with John Piper on NPR. Every so often I recommend this interview with Piper in the aftermath of the tsunami years ago. Today it is still the most relevant, beautiful, pastoral answer to world calamities like this virus. I've never heard anyone give better answers to the world's hard questions in times of crisis.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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Dr. John Meade was kind enough to share some of what he's learned about the canon of Scripture. Thank you, John! (I apologize for the less-than-ideal audio quality, since the COVID virus has slowed down internet speeds.) Links to his books and articles can be found here, and you can learn more about The Text & Canon Institute here. The book he recommends at the end is A Christian’s Pocket Guide to How We Got the Bible by Lanier.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

A Christian’s Pocket Guide to How We Got the Bible (Pocket Guides)

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Do you know where your Bible came from? We talk about some of the main witnesses to the text of the OT, how it was preserved throughout the centuries, and the task of sifting through the evidence to arrive at a text that represents the original canonical one.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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Dr. Joel Harlow kindly agreed to share about his experience over the years in Bible translation and consulting. I hope you're as encouraged and inspired by what he had to say as I was. Thank you, Joel! Recommendations at the end: The Old Testament in English (The Knox Bible) by Ronald Knox | Biblegateway.com | Biblehub.com

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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We look at Judges 5:11, and introduce the work of the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project.

ESV To the sound of musicians at the watering places

KJV They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water,

NAS "At the sound of those who divide flocks among the watering places,

NET Hear the sound of those who divide the sheep among the watering places;

NIV the voice of the singers at the watering places.

NLT Listen to the village musicians gathered at the watering holes.

RV60 Lejos del ruido de los arqueros, en los abrevaderos,

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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Dr. Gentry kindly agreed to chat about the issue of translating and pronouncing the Divine Name. Thank you, Dr. Gentry!

The book he recommends at the end is God Crucified by Richard Bauckham.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament

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Phil kindly agreed to chat about teaching biblical Hebrew to local translators in Papua New Guinea, as well as share with us a little about his own journey in Bible translation. Thank you, Phil! Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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Nathan kindly agreed to sit down outside his home in Madrid, and share with us what his journey has been like, as well as some of the things he's been learning lately as a consultant-in-training. Thank you, Nathan!

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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We look at more of Judges 5, and discuss the unlikelihood of finding a translator who can handle poetry in a beautiful, creative way, thus seeing how so much of translation work depends on God bringing the right people together at the right time.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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Drew kindly agreed to share with us what his journey has been like, and some of the exciting, surprising, and fascinating things he's encountered as a consultant in Cameroon. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Thank you, Drew!

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We take a look at more issues in Judges, talk about a feature of discourse analysis, and other miscellaneous things you'll just have to listen to find out about! Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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We look at the challenge of translating the widely misunderstood and mistranslated term "judge" in the book of Judges, as well as a few other issues. Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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We dive into the lexical complications and interesting theological implications of the Spirit's effect on Samson in 13:25.

Music by Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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We take a look at the various possibilities for understanding what an ephod actually is in the OT, and see how many mainstream translations avoid translating the term and leave the reader with a nebulous understanding.

The music in this episode is by my good friend Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea. You can check out more of his work in Fang at www.facebook.com/nkuwalong.

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We look at the most powerful tool for Bible translation and 15 myths about Bible translation from Daniel Wallace. Visit credocourses.com to download Wallace's course or visit csntm.org to see some amazing manuscripts of the NT.

The music in this episode is by my good friend Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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We look at Judges 2:2 and the challenges of the rhetorical question from the messenger of Yahweh.

The music in this episode is by my good friend Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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We continue our look at Judges 2:1 and the challenges of translating "angel of the LORD."

The music in this episode is by my good friend Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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We take a look at Judges 2:1 and the challenges of translating "angel."

The music in this episode is by my good friend Canuto Ngui "Nfumayong" from Equatorial Guinea.

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In this first episode, Andrew introduces himself and explains what he does as a translation consultant.

Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast: Recent Episodes

Andrew Case