It’s quickly getting to the time when I will be back in the UK. It’s both happy and sad to think about coming back. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back home again, however I have been trying very hard to stay here in Canada (I’ve just passed the 50 résumés sent mark).
Right now, I have a ticket home booked for the 5th of May.
I realise that I have posted very little about Bible translation itself on this blog, so I’ll share a story I heard from someone who has worked on a translation project…
During a translation project, a team experienced just how important it is to carefully check that the potential readers of a new Bible understand the translated text fully. When translating the gospel message, they wrote about how John accused the Pharisees of their sin, and how he baptised people in the water.
The passage was read to a few people from the group receiving the translation. Afterwards, the translators asked the people to explain it back to them… “John drowned the people in the water because they were sinners”.
Thus proving that Bible translation is far from straight forward. (The solution in this case was to be more specific in the phrase used to describe baptism. The team also stated that John took the people out of the water as well as putting them in, the passage was understood.)
