Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast

My guest in this episode, Dr. Jeannine Brown, has taught at Bethel Seminary for over 20 years in the areas of New Testament, hermeneutics, and integration. Her many books include Scripture as Communication, Becoming Whole and Holy, and several commentaries on Matthew. She has also published numerous journal articles and book essays on the Gospels, 1 Peter, and topics of hermeneutics. She’s married to singer-songwriter Tim Brown, and has two adult daughters, Kate and Libby. And most importantly for this podcast, she is a member of the NIV translation committee and is a part of the revision project for the NIV Study Bible. So if you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in the NIV translation committee, this is your chance to find out! Write a thank-you to the NIV committee over at Biblica.com. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

If you’re like me, you have a mixed relationship with study bibles. Once in a while they can give you a jolt of amazing insight or new understanding, but many times you find the notes redundant, useless, painfully obvious, filler fluff, or just simply irrelevant. Our tendency as readers is to ignore these problems and assume that the “professionals” know what they’re doing. But not Dr. Harriet Hill. Today we’re going to dive into her careful analysis of some major study bibles and see how they can improve. Spoiler: it’ll make you laugh and cry. There’s lots to learn and tons of room for improvement in the study Bible world. Dr. Harriet Hill's article "Relevant Study Bibles" The Bible at Cultural Crossroads Dr. Hill's artwork The best study Bible I've ever used, and recommend my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

As we saw last time, translation into sign language is a significant need, and it’s often misunderstood or overlooked when people think about Bible translation. In this episode I want to introduce you to a team currently working on a sign language version of the NT in Spain. In order to hear from the team members who only communicate with sign language, my friend Steve Parkhurst kindly agreed to interpret and be their voice. So let’s see what we can learn together. The project's main website. Make sure to check out these two articles to learn more about the Spanish and Catalan Sign Language Projects: Article 1 | Article 2 The book on SignWriting. PROEL's website. *As of the release of this episode I haven't been able to get clear details on how to give donations to the project, but I will update this when that info becomes available. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

For a long time I’ve been wanting to do a podcast on something that’s not on a lot of people’s minds when they think of Bible translation: translation for the deaf. Just as some communities are served best by an oral translation, others are served better by a visual translation. And this is the perfect time to talk about this because, as of the fall of 2020, we’re celebrating the completion of the first full Bible produced in sign language: the American Sign Language Bible. A big thanks to Bob Van Zyl for joining us in this episode. DeafBible.com One of the images Bob mentioned from Ephesians my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

While many are taking advantage of the Internet age by spreading lies far and wide for free, many Christians are busy selling Truth. American Christians have been shown to be staggeringly ungenerous with their money, and this is in spite of being the wealthiest Christians in all of human history. And this ungenerosity spills over into how they give away or do not give away biblical resources for the purpose of Bible translation, or even translations of the Bible itself. I’ve touched on this issue before, but I wanted to have a single, succinct episode where these issues are revisited. You may hear something new and interesting, so stick around. Passing the Plate by Christian Smith The Copenhagen Alliance Creative commons volumes on Tiberian pronunciation by world-class hebraist Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1, Volume 2. Transcript of this podcast with extras Letting Go by Tim Jore much of which is quoted verbatim in this episode. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

In spite of the vast expanse of Bible poverty across the globe, there are many churches who are either unaware of the need for BT or simply view the problem as marginal and not integral to the mission of the Church. 2 Thessalonians 3.1 says, "Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored.” And our guest today takes this verse as one of the reasons why praying for BT, sending Bible translators, and giving to BT should be woven into the fabric of the Church. Let’s listen to Kyle, founder of Bible Translation Fellowship, tell a little of his journey and encourage us to think carefully about the Church and its relationship to BT.  Also check out Propempo. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

Let’s begin this episode with a thought experiment. Imagine you’re a local indigenous translator working on the translation of Deuteronomy. You don’t have access to any resources besides a handful of translations in the trade language that you know. That’s because the commentaries and helps are only in English and locked up by copyrights that prohibit their translation. You also know zero Hebrew and almost nothing about textual criticism because that isn’t usually taught to indigenous translators. So you get to Deuteronomy 33:2 and read all these different versions that have a rather confusing way of dealing with the last part of the verse.... my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

Why does every single English version ignore the best solution to translating Exodus 6:3? We're going to take out the magnifying glass and try to get to the bottom of this. A big thanks to Michael Fenske for his contribution to my thinking on this, and for pointing out the following verse examples without the interrogative ה: Jonah 4:11, Lam 3:38, and 1 Sam 20:9. Correction: It was brought to my attention after releasing this episode that there is one English version (although not mainstream) that translates Ex 6:3 as a rhetorical question: the TS2009 version, which is a Hebrew Roots/Sacred Name translation. Duane Garrett's commentary on Exodus The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew by Andersen my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

What does Catholicism in Latin America have to do with Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the great fish? And what kind of derogatory language doesn’t really come through in English translations of his poetic prayer? Translation is always an artistic endeavor to capture all the flavor and nuance of the original that we can. We’re going to take a little stroll into the translation of just one verse in Jonah, and see what we can learn. Watch the video from the National Museum of Scotland here. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

A while back, while I was checking Deuteronomy in the Mixteco language of Mexico, we came to chapter 32 which is a whole lot of difficult poetry. Verse 8 stood out as one of the most complex verses to navigate and explain, mainly because of a textual variant. The big debate is whether to read the original text as saying “sons of God” or “sons of Israel,” and getting to a solid answer isn’t simple. English translations still don’t agree on it, but we’re going to do our best to tackle it in this episode and see where the Mixteco translation landed. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook