

Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast
Andrew Case
It's been said that people don't want to know: 1) how sausages are made, 2) how bibles are translated. In this podcast we bravely talk about the latter, go deep into biblical studies, and seek to treasure and understand the Bible together. It's for people who want to get nerdy about Scripture and for those who want to understand how their translations came to be. Everything from history to Hebrew, we're on a quest to learn more and make beautiful translations of God's Word. We believe the Bible is a unified, God-breathed, God-centered, hope-giving book, sweeter than honey, pointing to Jesus.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 11, 2026 • 40min
Breaking the Literate Bias - Kris & Susan Toler
Last year at the Bible Translation conference Kris and Susan Toler presented a paper titled Breaking the Literate Bias: Exploring the Sufficiency of Oral Bible Translation. In it they examine Oral Bible Translation (OBT) as a rigorous and sufficient alternative to traditional written methods, specifically for oral-preference communities. They argue that a deep-seated literacy bias in missions often leads people to incorrectly view spoken Scripture as inferior to printed books. But they demonstrate that OBT utilizes the same high standards of accuracy and naturalness as written translations. The paper provides evidence that audio-based Scripture fosters better engagement, deeper comprehension, and intergenerational participation within cultures that prioritize oral communication. Given the very nature of the topic, it would be best to present this in audio to you, the listener. Once again, because I’m a dad with babies, I’m relying more on NotebookLM to help me present some of this information, not simply because it saves incalculable hours of time, but also because it often does such a superior job, even in spite of occasional imperfections. In this particular recording there will be some pronunciation mistakes regarding the name of the Central Pame people group, but if you can overlook that, you’ll glean some very valuable insights, challenging ideas, and healthy food for thought.Read the paper.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Jan 8, 2026 • 41min
"Confess or "Give Thanks"? The Key Term "YDH" ידה with Ayala Wing
We’ve talked about the Key Terms of the Old Testament (KTOT) project in the past, but in this episode I wanted to reintroduce it to those who are unfamiliar, and allow one of the contributors to share their work on one key term in their own voice. So let me introduce you to Ayala Wing. She was raised in Israel, in a Christian family, and she’s an OT translation consultant with Wycliffe. She and her husband currently live in Luxembourg, Germany, and hope to move back to Israel in God’s timing. She wrote the KTOT article on root YDH in Hebrew, which typically is rendered as to give thanks, and in its nominal form TODAH, is typically rendered as thanks or thanksgiving. But she’s offering a challenge to this traditional understanding. Her article on this term is freely available in Translator’s Workplace and in the KTOT addition to Paratext. Read her article.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Jan 1, 2026 • 2min
Four Announcements
First, I have a new podcast that’s extremely eclectic that summarizes interesting books of all kinds, from theology to travelogues and everything in between. If you’re at all interested in seeing some of the things I’m learning about or want to highlight for others, and don’t have time to read tons of books, these are usually about 30 mins long each. It’s a fun one.Second, the expanded and revised edition of my book on the Divine name is out now, so you can get a free copy. It's free on all the ebook platforms. If you want a paperback, it's available at cost for a little over six dollars on Amazon. If you don't have time to read it, I've already recorded the audio for it and will be releasing it here on the podcast as I edit it. This will effectively replace the series I did a few years ago. Also, the book is public domain, so feel free to make your own version or translate it into another language. I'll be translating it to Spanish and Portuguese soon, Lord willing. Third, I want everyone to know that there’s a free book out called God Spoke, and it has been dedicated to the public domain. The author wanted something modern and comprehensive to be available freely to everyone about the transmission of the text of Scripture–in essence, how we got the Bible. I’ll link that in the description as well: God Spoke by Matthew Mangum.Fourth, there’s a new text of the GNT coming out soon, which will also be public domain. I recently interviewed one of the guys behind it on the Selling Jesus channel. Whether or not you agree with his choice of textual tradition for the Greek New Testament, Dwayne Green and his colleagues are setting a refreshing, biblical example of freely giving their work of ministry. It represents countless hours of labor for the Church. If you want to learn more about their work and why they believe the Byzantine Text is better than the Critical Text, check out the following videos:Reason 1 - Conjectural Emendation: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 1Reason 2 - Geography: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 2Reason 3 - Accounts Best for the History of MSS and the Church: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 3

Jan 1, 2026 • 44min
The Privilege of the First Draft Revisited
We’re going to go a bit meta in this episode. Since Jeff and Judy talked about AI in the last episode, we’re going to feed their paper into NotebookLM and see how it does presenting their ideas. Why do this? First, because it’s kind of funny. Second, because their message is important enough to listen to again from another angle, so that you can internalize it better. Third, because NotebookLM actually does a fantastic job at this kind of thing, and I hope it inspires more people to consider using it to generate exegetical summaries for translators to listen to in different languages of wider communication.

Dec 15, 2025 • 51min
Consider Saying NO to AI Drafting - with Jeff and Judy Heath
Jeff and Judy Heath join us in this episode to talk about their recent presentation at the Bible Translation conference called The Privilege of the First Draft, which critically examines the technical and ethical implications of using Artificial Intelligence tools, specifically Scripture Forge, to generate initial drafts of Bible translations. The paper highlights that AI-drafted texts in their target language demonstrated numerous problems. They explore the limitations of AI, such as its inability to understand meaning, its dependence on limited training data for minority languages, and the risks of cognitive offloading for human translators. Ultimately, the paper concludes with a strong recommendation that the essential "privilege of first draft" should be reserved for in-culture, first-language speakers to preserve the human, spiritual, and cultural integrity of the translation process.Write to judy_heath@sil.org for a copy of the unpublished paper.Bibliography for further study.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Nov 27, 2025 • 45min
Oral vs. Written English: A Case Study of Jonah by Christine Doi
Read the thesis.Listen to the SEB version of Jonah.I recently came across this new master’s thesis out of Dallas International University by Christine Doi on differences between oral and written English. It’s fascinating, but I know most people won’t have time to read all 166 pages of it. So I went ahead and generated a NotebookLM summary of it for you, and it turned out to be amazing. I hope you find it as useful and engaging as I did.Abstract: This thesis explores differences between spoken American English and written American English through a comparative analysis of two written translations of Jonah withan oral translation of Jonah. The author outlines research elements of analysis pertaining to the academic fields of orality studies, emotion studies, and prosody studies. Additional relevant elements regarding discourse analysis and contextual background of the source material are also covered. The author outlines the methodology of the analysis resulting in a two-part comparative analysis: a data analysis of features, and a qualitative analysis comparing the translations side-by-side. Included in both parts of the analysis are small-scope prosodic analyses of features of interest. The author observes, as a result from this analysis, differences in word and clause length, emotional coding, explication, and verbdiversity among other findings. These findings contribute evidence to the discussion regarding differences between oral and written language.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Nov 24, 2025 • 25min
Translation Principles from 1877 - part 6
In this episode we conclude our journey through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone.The Problem with Creative Commons SharealikeGet a free copy of Abolish the Jesus Trade"Interesting Book Summaries from Andrew Case" podcast"Libros Importantes" podcastwebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Nov 4, 2025 • 17min
Translation Principles from 1877 - part 5
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections:Marginal referencesItalics and other modes of marking supplementary wordswebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Oct 27, 2025 • 24min
Translation Principles from 1877 - part 4
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections:Cases in which a translator is liable to be misled by the English BibleAlternative renderings, explanations of proper names, etc.Marginal referenceswebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Oct 21, 2025 • 58min
The Rise of the Bible Societies & the First Copyrighted Bible in America
This past week I presented two talks at Doreancon 2025 on the Stewardship of Scripture, where we launched a historic statement I would invite you to consider signing and sharing. This is the first talk that I presented. You can find an unfinished draft of the talk and others here.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline


