Word of God presented to people in more than 3200 languages

Illustration of the distribution of Bibles in China up to 1908 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2016 a milestone was reached having the Word of God presented to people in more than 3200 languages.

At least 1.5 bil­lion peo­ple do not have the full Bible avail­able in their first lan­guage. Over 684 mil­lion of these have the New Tes­ta­ment; oth­ers have por­tions or at least some level of trans­la­tion or prepara­tory work begun.

There is known ac­tive trans­la­tion and/or lin­guis­tic de­vel­op­ment hap­pen­ing in 2400 lan­guages across more than 165 countries.

As of 1 Oc­to­ber 2016, a new method of iden­ti­fy­ing trans­la­tion need sug­gests over 160 mil­lion peo­ple, speak­ing 1700-1800 lan­guages, may need some form of Bible trans­la­tion to begin.

To­day ap­prox­i­mately 100 or­gan­i­sa­tions from more than 60 na­tions form the Wycliffe Global Al­liance. But also outside that alliance several groups, like the Bible students the Jehovah Witnesses and others are working at bible translations.

By pro­vid­ing staff, funds, train­ing, trans­la­tion and sup­port ser­vices, Al­liance or­gan­i­sa­tions are cur­rently in­volved in al­most 2000 of the 2422 lan­guages with ac­tive work.

Wycliffe Global Al­liance or­gan­i­sa­tions and per­son­nel have been in­volved in the trans­la­tion of Bibles and New Tes­ta­ments in more than 900 lan­guages. At least one of the Bible’s 66 books has been pub­lished in an ad­di­tional 600 lan­guages. Many other lan­guages have other ini­tial por­tions published.
Work­ing in com­mu­nity part­ner­ships, Al­liance per­son­nel not only as­sist in Scrip­ture-re­lated goals but also help pro­duce thou­sands of re­sources for lit­er­acy, ed­u­ca­tion, health and other com­mu­nity-based ob­jec­tives along­side Scripture.

An ever in­creas­ing num­ber of Scrip­ture prod­ucts are now in dig­i­tal for­mats as text, au­dio and video. These are of­ten avail­able on web­sites, so­cial me­dia or through a va­ri­ety of phone apps, as well as in for­mats that can be eas­ily shared phone-to-phone in places with lim­ited internet.

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Find also to read:

1. Written and translated by different men over thousands of years
2. Bible Translating and Concordance Making
3. Looking at notes of Samuel Ward and previous Bible translation efforts in English
4. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #1 Pre King James Bible
5. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #2 King James Bible versions
6. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #3 Women and versions
7. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #4 Steps to the women’s bibles
8. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #5 Further steps to women’s bibles
9. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #6 Revisions of revisions
10. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #7 Jewish versions
11. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #8 Selective Bibles and selective people
12. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #9 Restored names and Sacred Name Bibles
13. Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #10 Journaling Bibles and illustrative women
14. Missed opportunity for North Korea

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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.

Seminar on Bible Translation in Prague

At the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague,several speakers shall try to explore and facilitate a conversation on the overall picture of Bible translation, particularly in Eastern Europe There will be given five major papers on Translation Logistics, Models of Translation and the Target Audience, Recent Research on Bible Translation in Central and Eastern Europe, Folk Translations and Vernacular Readings, Recent Romanian Translations with particular reference to Cultural, Ecclesiastical and Doctrinal Bias, and the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version. Four Workshops with short papers and discussion on Translation Structures and Ecumenical Considerations in the Slovak Ecumenical Bible (2007), and other possible topics such as translating the Psalms, translation for beginners and a ‘first academic’ translation of the Bible in an Eastern European country.

Further input from other countries, with time for open discussion, informal conversations and networking.

Contributors:
Juraj Bandy, Slovak Professor and specialist in Bible translation, responsible for the recent translation of the Slovak Ecumenical Bible.
Emanuel Contac, lecturer at the Theological Pentecostal Institute in Bucharest, whose doctoral dissertation (published by Logos) addresses theological and cultural bias in Romanian translations of the New Testament focussing on eleven concepts (eg Mariology, presbyteros, etc) and specific words and texts (eg dikaioun, menoun, etc) in 40 Romanian versions.
Iryna Dubianetskaya, a Greek Catholic biblical scholar and linguist, Doctor of Sacred Theology (Ph.D., S.T.D), leader of the Bible School (Flying University, Minsk), Docent at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, initiator and co-ordinator of the Committee for the first academic translation of the Bible into Belarusian.
John Elwolde (to be confirmed), former UBS Translation Consultant in Ukraine, Belarus, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Russia, and Central Asia. Recent contributions include ‘Language and Translation of the Old Testament’ (Rogerson & Lieu (eds), Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, pp 135-38, OUP), ‘Relationships among the Russian Synodal Bible, the Slavonic Text, and the Septuagint’ (Folia Orientalia 47) and ‘The Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and Some Issues of Canon’ (Lénart J. de Regt (ed), Canon and Modern Bible Translation in Interconfessional Perspective, pp 1-41, UBS, Turkey).
Florentina Badalanova Geller, graduate in Slavonic Philology, University of Sofia, holding a PhD from Moscow State University, 1984. Currently Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, teaching courses on Biblical Anthropology and Apocrypha, on leave from the Royal Anthropological Institute, London. Previous appointments in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the University of Sofia, and University of London. She is Honorary Research Fellow, UCL (Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies). Currently working on the Folk Bible and vernacular Mariology.
Alec Gilmore, Baptist minister in the UK, graduate of Manchester University, IBTS Senior Research Fellow and author of Dictionary of Bible Origins and interpretation (T & T Clark).
Jamie Grant, lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Highland Theological College, University of the Highlands and Islands, UK.
Lydie Kucova, graduate of Brunel and Edinburgh Universities, member of the IBTS Academic Team and lecturer in Biblical Studies.
Silviu Tatu, Senior Lecturer at the Theological Pentecostal Institute in Bucharest, and well acquainted with the Cornilescu version and other translation issues, including relationships with the Orthodox Church.

For further details relating the programme of the seminar please contact: Lydie Kucova (Kucova@ibts.eu) or Alec Gilmore (a.gilmore@gilco.org.uk).

HalleluYah Scriptures

Although there are a number of Messianic Scriptures available with the Name of the Creator restored to It’s rightful position, the majority have used the modern Hebrew Tetragammaton  . The HalleluYah Scriptures version will use the ancient — sometimes called paleo Hebrew letter forms of YHWH  — the form which it is believed Jehovah/YaHuWaH wrote His Name YaHuWaH on the Ten Commandments in stone.
This practice is used in the “Dead Sea Scrolls” which are written in the modern form of Hebrew yet the Name of  retains the form of the ancient Hebrew.

A number of Messianic evangelists worldwide who call on the Name of YHWH = YaHuWaH / Jehovah and have commonly forsaken all (and therefore have financial restrictions) have lamented that they would love to be able to give out free Scriptures to those who have ears to hear and have aknowledged that the Name of the Creator and His Son are vital to salvation:

"And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of YHWH shall be saved." Acts 2:21

They have produced a Messianic English version of the Scriptures that will have the Name of YHWH and His Son - Yahushua restored to their rightful place and be FREE to ANYONE in need.

"You have received without paying, give without being paid"
Matthew 10:8

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You may have your own copy of His Word or even several that you read from, but there are thousands of believers worldwide who simply cannot afford the high prices some are charging for restored name versions let alone the honor of being able to give out the Word for FREE!

Yahweh never “copyrighted… His Word and no one should claim recompense for a service to the Master let alone make a profit from His Word.

“Attain the truth and do not sell it….” (Proverbs 23:23)

If you are interested in what form and style the 'Halleluyah Scriptures' will look like Read This.
> HalleluYah Scriptures