The Bible For The Whole World
For the majority of Church history, most Christians have never had direct access to the Bible in a language they understood. Today that’s changing, but the work is far from finished. In this article Andy Warren-Rothlin, a long-time part of City Church Cambridge, shares his journey into the field of Bible translation and why it’s one of the most critical missions of our time.
The Bible For The Whole World
By Andy Warren-Rothlin
The vast majority of Christians in history have never read the Bible, or even parts of it. (Meanwhile, the vast majority of Jews and Muslims have read their own scriptures and can quote large parts of them!)
What most Christians have read or heard is not ‘the Bible’, but Bible translations - that is, retellings of the meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek text in another language. The fact that we call our translations ‘the Bible’ shows that what’s more important to us is the meaning, and not the original words.
Bible translators and Bible users have long grappled with this issue: do we want to know the words of the Bible (if so, best just learn Hebrew and Greek!) or do we want to know the meaning (then use a real translation like GNB, CEV or NLT)? The worst solution is to use something that claims to be a translation but is actually just a gloss (English words in Hebrew/Greek structures). The NIV (1984 edition; similarly ESV) says, ‘Blessed is the man who … does not stand in the way of the wicked’—stop for a moment and think what that means in normal English!
Working with Pakistani and Egyptian colleagues
Many languages, one message
I was bad at most things at school…except languages! Somehow I enjoyed the way that people could express the same meaning by saying ‘Please’ (in English), ‘If it pleases you’ (in French) and ‘Request’ (in German)—the meaning and function of words has almost nothing to do with their derivation (and little to do with dictionary definitions), and everything to do with how they’re used by people in real-life contexts. And the more languages I’ve learnt bits of in my life, the more diversity I see (try Duolingo!). This means there’s an endless number of ways in which the meaning of biblical messages can be expressed in words (see Translation Insights & Perspectives for thousands of examples!), not to speak of pictures, like those on the walls of mediaeval churches and in illuminated manuscripts, and video, like The Passion of the Christ and The Chosen.
Throughout my life, since growing up in the Brethren Church, I’ve known people who are passionate about ‘defending the truth’, ‘putting a fence around the text’ and maintaining ‘inerrancy’. And now I work in a very formal kind of quality assurance (I check Bible translations and approve them for publication). But my passion is not to ‘defend’ the Bible or to spot mistakes in ancient manuscripts or modern translations, but to share its message with people! As Spurgeon wrote, back in the nineteenth century:
The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.
Preaching in Lahore, Pakistan
80% and counting
The last century has seen an explosion of Bible translation worldwide, especially by three major international organisations (the United Bible Societies, SIL Global and Wycliffe Bible Translators). In the last decade, they, along with a host of smaller organisations, have been able to accelerate their work thanks to a better-qualified global workforce (no longer predominantly monolingual, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants!), significant American funding, and new methods, such as Oral Bible Translation and AI tools.
“Many of those without access in their mother tongue are Muslims, who believe that God speaks through sacred books, and whose own scriptures tell them to read the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel!”
As a result, today, over 80% of the world’s population has access to the Bible in their own language—most of these translations are available on YouVersion/Bible.com. And many of the best technologies and media for promoting deeper engagement with the Bible are also available in multiple languages. For example, the excellent Bible Project exists in over 50 languages! But that means there are still 20% of the world's population with no full Bible translation in their mother tongue (though most of them are bilingual and can access the Bible to some extent in another language). Many of those without access in their mother tongue are Muslims, who believe that God speaks through sacred books, and whose own scriptures tell them to read the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel!
How you can be involved
People often ask me how they can respond to this need. Giving money is good, but it's even better to provide personal sponsorship to someone who’s translating into their own language. Praying is good, but in my experience, prayer is most effective when it’s consistent, well-informed and engages with people’s lives and ministries.
Best of all? Contributing the skills you have. You may not be into languages, but Bible translation needs communication specialists who can bridge the north-south divide, as well as highly qualified experts in finance, project management, literacy and adult education, who can share best practices with local colleagues in Africa and Asia. We especially need people who are multilingual and multicultural, such as Europeans with African or Asian heritage. And, of course, we need people with PhDs in Bible, languages, literature and translation studies.
“You may not be into languages, but Bible translation needs communication specialists who can bridge the north-south divide, as well as highly qualified experts in finance, project management, literacy and adult education, who can share best practices with local colleagues in Africa and Asia.”
Called to translate
The Spirit called me into Bible translation work through a combination of my gifts, a particular prophecy and the guidance of wise spiritual mentors. Then he gave me the tools I needed—he put me together with fellow students from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and India, who taught me to think and relate in new ways, and he provided me with relevant academic training. Not everyone will be involved to this extent, but if the Spirit has chosen you for it, go and acquire the knowledge, skills and attitude you need, and get stuck in!
By Andy Warren-Rothlin
Andy Warren-Rothlin is a Global Translation Consultant with the United Bible Societies and a member of the Board of Directors of SIL Global. After finishing his PhD in Biblical Hebrew in 1998, he was first commissioned to work in Bible translation by City Church Cambridge. Since then, he has travelled to over 70 countries, teaching Bible translation principles and helping over 50 teams of people to translate the Bible into their own languages, mostly in Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Burundi, Ethiopia, Pakistan and in the Afghan diaspora; he specialises in Bible translation with and for Muslims. He lived for nearly 20 years in West Africa, and now lives in Switzerland. His favourite Bible translations are the English New Living Translation and the German VolxBibel.