History of Bible Translation The history of Bible translation can be understood in various ways. For some it begins with the example of Ezra teaching the law to those who had returned to Jerusalem from the exile (Nehemiah 8). He read in Hebrew, but after long years in exile his hearers no longer understood Hebrew and needed a translation in Aramaic. In the following centuries in the Jewish assemblies, the practice developed of the meturgeman (interpreter) who gave an oral translation (targum) of the scripture being read. For others, Bible translation begins with the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek (known as the Septuagint or LXX) in Egypt in the second century BC.

William Smalley divides Bible translation into a number of eras:1

Era Time Notable Features Era of spreading the faith 200 BC Septuagint (LXX) onward Era of European vernaculars 405 Vulgate completed Era of printing 1450 AD Gutenberg’s Vulgate completed in 1456 Era of Bible Society 1804 British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) founded 1804 Era of professionalised translation 1943 Eugene Nida, ABS; W. Cameron Townsend, WBT- SIL Nida’s Bible Translation ‘47 Interconfessional era 1965 Vatican II 1962-1964 Dei Verbum Era of non-missionary translation 1970

1. Languages with part or all of the Bible. Bible translation advanced slowly in the first 1,500 years of our era, and then saw significant growth with Spanish and Portuguese colonial expansion (usually the translation of texts for the liturgy and lectionary readings) and the Protestant Reformation. However, as can be seen, the Reformation did not result in the expansion in translation that is often attributed to it.

Year Translated Languages 1499 35 languages 1799 an additional 59 languages 1899 an additional 446 languages 1949 an additional 667 languages

Total: 1207 languages2

The figures show that the major development in Bible translation took place after 1800, coinciding with the development of the Bible Society movement. For example, the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was founded in 1804.

2. Scriptures of the world. The annual statistics compiled by the United Bible Societies (UBS)3 give the following picture:

Component Translated Languages Bibles in 426 languages4 New Testaments in 1,114 languages Portions in 862 languages Total 2,403 languages

In terms of population, at least a portion of the Bible exists in languages spoken by ninety-five percent of the world’s population. Around 300 million people, or four thousand languages, still have no scripture in their language. At the same time we must remember that the existence of scripture in a language does not mean that the ninety-five percent have actually received, heard or read scripture in their own language. In addition, over two billion people in the world today are illiterate; this is one-third of the world’s population.

Some Features of Bible Translation: 1950-2005 Bible translation has a rich history; however, all that has taken place since the middle of the twentieth century has yet to be fully documented. In that time there has been an explosion of Bible translation. From1950 to 2005 new translations have been made available in 1,196 additional languages.

1. Eugene Nida and Kenneth Pike. The history of this period cannot be written without reference to two pioneers of translation theory: Eugene Nida and Kenneth Pike. Following World War II, both applied the tools of the new sciences of linguistics and anthropology to the challenge of making the Bible available in languages around the world. In developing their approaches to translation they became the theoreticians of the UBS and the twin organisations of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT).

In the 1950s and 1960s translation theory was in its infancy, and Bible translation was at the cutting edge of that new discipline. The emphasis was on meaning-based translation. This approach became known as “dynamic equivalence” and, later, as “functional equivalence.”

2. Post-war missionary generation. In the aftermath of World War II there was a surge in the evangelical missionary movement, especially from North America5, as well as a new missionary thrust on the part of the Roman Catholic Church. In the Americas a significant number of these new missionaries focused attention on indigenous peoples. Bible translation was a core concern. Pike’s tools for linguistic analysis and Nida’s theory and practice of translation provided the keys to advance in this area.

3. Shift from missionary translators to mother-tongue translators. From the mid-1970s onward the growth of the Church, the increase in training facilities and the changing missiological emphasis produced the shift from expatriate translators to mother-tongue translators in indigenous language projects. Bible translation had thus moved to a third stage.

Stages Notable Element pre-1950 Translations done by missionaries 1950-1975 Translations done by missionaries with help from mother-tongue “informants” 1975 onward Translations done by mother-tongue translators

4. Interconfessional developments. The promulgation of the Dei Verbum document in 1965 following the II Vatican Council marked a fundamental change in the use of vernacular languages in the Roman Catholic Church. This produced a commitment to Bible translation and to work such as El Libro de la Nueva Alianza (1968), the NT translated by Fr. Armando Levoratti and Fr. Alfredo Trusso in Buenos Aires. In 1969, the “Guidelines for Interconfessional Cooperation in Translating the Bible” was published by the United Bible Societies and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity of the Roman Catholic Church.

Bible Translation: The Changing Context At the outset of the twenty-first century major social changes affect the task of Bible translation and decisions regarding priorities.

1. Globalisation. One of the major driving forces in creating our globalised world has been the revolution in communications of the last twenty years, and particularly the emergence of the Internet. In relation to the translation task the two most important features are (1) the emergence of dominant languages at a global level (such as English6) and (2) the search for ethnicity and identity at the local level. Many minority languages now find themselves under threat in the face of these global forces. The forces of cultural globalisation are seen most clearly in media such as television. Globalised television programmes produce similar sets of cultural icons, images and styles which impact regions of the world far away from the places where these programmes were produced.

2. Language change. Languages are living entities. All languages change over time—sounds, syntax, meanings, etc. This alone leads to the need to revise translations in each generation. Changes in language use (i.e., inclusivity, issues related to gender and political correctness) must also be taken into account by translators.