Translation
Languages are living entities that go to the core of who we are. Because they change over time, Bible Society translation departments have to keep pace – working every single day to give tribes, peoples, languages, and nations access to God’s Word with a text that clearly transmits the full meaning of God’s message.
By putting the Bible “their way” we are striving to bring the Word of God to life for various cultures. Overwhelming evidence shows that Scripture speaks most powerfully when people have it in their first language. Often, a Bible translator will have to choose between translating the meaning and message of the text, and focusing on replicating, as closely as possible, the words and phrases of the original text.
- 6,900 identified languages in the world
- 451 languages with a translation of the whole Bible
- 2,028 languages with part of the Bible
- 4,421 languages still wait for even one book of the Bible
At any given time, the average number of active translation projects around the world numbers about 650. In the past year, CBS has released The Inuttut Heritage Bible and the first Ojibwe Bible with a partial Old Testament. Scriptures in dozens of other native Canadian languages have been provided by CBS and additional work in about a dozen languages is currently in progress.
Translation is putting the Bible “their way” in a language and format that people everywhere can understand and embrace, sharing the Bible’s life-changing message in the language of their heart.
"At Babel, God responded to the people's arrogance by confusing their languages, but at Pentecost he reversed this and allowed everyone to hear in their own language the wonderful things God has done (Acts 2.11). In Bible translation, we work with God to continue this reversal of Babel so that all people will be able to respond to the wonderful things God has done." - Hart Wiens
