Wycliffe Associates supporting underground Bible translators

English: The study translation Bible 2009 Česky: Český studijní překlad Bible 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bible translation from the jesuit and professor for oriental languages Ignaz Weitenauer, printed at Joseph-Wolffische Buchhandlung, Augsburg 1783 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a region with nearly 1,000 languages, representing 280 million people, we find that many are without the Scriptures.

 Bible translators need technology, training, and resources to translate the Bible as quickly and effectively as possible.

Over the past year, 11 of the 28 Bible translators living and working in the Middle East and Central Asia, where there is a widespread, deadly presence of extremists, have been reported dead or missing.

Like everywhere in the world we can find extremist which do everything to get rid of those who do not fit their teachings or ideology.

Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates says:

“Given the realities of the world in which these translators live and serve, some people might think the best thing they could do right now is to go into hiding and lay low for a while.”

This would not be in line with Jesus his teachings. He asked us to go out in the world and not to fear man, but in the fear of God try to bring His Holy Name over all the world. Only by spreading the Word of God, people may come to find the Only One God and His only begotten son Jesus Christ.

Even when there are a lot of trinitarian translators and organisations working at bringing God's Word in other languages, this is an important work of the evangelisation. Even when those churches are bringing false human doctrines, by providing the people with a Bible translation in their own language they should be able to come to find the real True God.

Smith says these Bible translators want the Scriptures to be distributed by every possible means, and they

“want an audacious number of printed copies, which reflect their conviction that everyone who speaks their language needs to have God’s Word.”

Wycliffe Associates which empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation. It is currently raising $300,000 to equip these local translators with the technology and training they need to work more safely.

According to Wycliffe Associates

Of the 6,901 languages spoken worldwide, only 531 have a full translation of the Bible. A Bible translation is currently in progress for 2,195 languages, and 1,023 languages in the world have at least one book of the Bible. Wycliffe Associates is striving to achieve the goal of beginning the translation of God’s Word into every remaining language by 2025.