Directions in Bible Translation

Compiled by Bryan Harmelink, Director for Collaboration with Kirk Franklin, Executive Director

6 November 2017

The Wycliffe Global Alliance Board during its 31 October- 2 November 2017 meeting made the following decisions (emphasis ours):

1. The Board endorses, supports and encourages the Alliance Leadership Team (ALT) in helping Alliance Organizations and partners to work together to develop curricula for Bible translation training and processes that serve the changing contexts of Bible translation movements.
2. The Board endorses, supports and encourages the ALT, together with Alliance Areas and Organizations and partners, to develop appropriate processes for accrediting Bible translation consultants within the Alliance, and to review the concept and role of translation consultants in the translation process.
3. The Board endorses, supports and encourages the ALT:
   • to articulate the Alliance’s commitment to the translation of the whole Bible
   • to encourage Alliance Organizations to partner together with local communities to ensure that the whole Bible will be eventually translated and made available in the appropriate media
   • to commit to establishing sustainable community-based processes.

Implications

As stated in each point above, partnering with others is an important component of these decisions. On the matter of accrediting or recognizing translation consultants, some Alliance Organizations are already doing this, but others are not. This decision encourages all Alliance Organizations to partner in ways that will contribute to increased capacity for translation consultancy in the global Bible translation movement.

On the matter of Bible translation training, the recent decision recognizes the importance of the Participation Stream “Training in Bible Translation Roles” and highlights the active role Alliance Organizations should be playing in partnership with others to develop training that is appropriate for their needs in the changing contexts in which they work.

Click here for a pdf of this document

Click here to read Directions in Bible Translation: A Threefold Commitment to Increasing Global Capacity

Click here to read The Necessity of Old Testament Translation, by Dr. Paul Kimbi