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My topic is situated here at the BT conference under the related topics of Lessons from the History of BT, and Consultancy Training/Paradigms, and is part of the conference subtheme of Theory and Prac8ce and Translator Training Transforma8on: peoples, tribes, languages and na8ons transformed from unrighteous rebels to righteous worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ I m arguing from history and the Bible that our training paradigms and prac8ces should serve to strengthen the church, which is called and commissioned by God to grow in godliness and to serve the lost with the gospel BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 2
A backlog of biblical material waiting for back-checkers (unfoldingword.org) High demand for exegetical consultants, translation consultants and others trained in the biblical languages, hermeneutics and theology A berer transla8on and back transla8on when there are exege8cal consultants and MTTs working from the biblical languages at the beginning of the BT The rela8onship of interpreta8on to transla8on is a con8nuum BT requires interpreta8on and every BT reflects one s interpre8ve decisions BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 3
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Lynell Zogbo develops the point that BT teams need exegetes who are well trained in the biblical languages, hermeneu8cs and theology (see Introduc8on: The Field Today in A History of Bible Transla2on, ed. Philip Noss) The BT team should include MTTs and indigenous consultants who are qualified and ac8ve church leaders and disciplers: pastors, scholars, theologians, exegetes, linguists; that is, indigenous and TL church members who are trained in the BT Triad. I m advoca8ng that the indigenous church leaders be trained in as many of these disciplines as there are willing and qualified people to train, even if star8ng from a neighboring language group. When I speak of a model that includes the BT Triad, it need not require that each person is an expert in each field, but the team should be composed of people with both specialists and generalists. I m not sugges8ng each member of the team only fulfill one role. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 5
Our models should be developed from the principles of Scripture, and I have men8oned a few Scriptures that are especially relevant. But in keeping with the assignment of Lessons from History, now I turn to history to learn some lessons from historical pastor- translators. Tyndale is not alone; he is an example that stands in a long line of churchmen who ministered God s Word, shepherded God s people and then came to help translate the Bible. In my presenta8on I highlight Tyndale but have found these lessons to be derived from other pastor- translators as well, and even from missionary socie8es and historic statements of faith. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 6
Historical theology is a tether that binds us to the mooring or anchor of scripture. But so also is church history and pastoral theology, and pedagogical models of training others in order to serve the church and not just our own para- church work, whether BT or mercy ministry. The church in history at least deserves our aren8on to see if we are being too crea8ve; maybe our rope is slowly working itself loose as the 8des of culture come in and out around us, with out our knowing and perceiving clearly the dangers of our own cultural methods; un8l we wake up one morning and find ourselves miles out to sea, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4). One area I fear we have been too crea8ve in BT orgs is in specializa8on that leads to para- church autonomy. Have we, in our para- church specializa8ons and training paradigms, come un8ed from the rope, leaving the church on its own, while we play the specialists, train our own BT disciples? My aim is to integrate BT with the church, by looking first at our consultancy training models, and sugges8ng that church history teaches us to train biblically qualified churchmen and churchwomen who sa8sfy 2 Tim 2:2 and Titus 2 characteris8cs and abili8es. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 7
Let s look at some possible implica8ons of priori8zing the church. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 8
1526 Swedish NT: Paul Ellingworth, From Mar8n Luther to the English Revised Version, in A History of Bible Transla2on, ed. Philip Noss (American Bible Society, 2011), 112. Equip leaders, who in turn equip believers to evangelize (Eph 4). We oken put too much weight on the transla8on, as if it has to speak for itself, simply, without any explana8on, to unbelievers, and without offense. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 9
Our BT philosophy is integrated into how the theory and prac8ce of BT is complementary to or at odds with the church and its Great Commission mission. Do our training paradigms reflect the priority that Scripture gives for serving the believer before the unbeliever (Gal 6:10: MaR 25:40) Every Christian is called to evangelism; equipping leaders equips the church (2 Tim 2:2) BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 10
Tyndale was reac8ng against the scholas8cism that prevented students from studying theology. The quote above can be found in David Daneill, William Tyndale, 37. I m not iden8fying a one- for- one correla8on with what Tyndale said about heathen learning and our borrowing from the secular human sciences (e.g. linguis8cs, anthropology, sociology or other related missiological and BT disciplines). But we do need to priori8ze training in a thoroughly biblical worldview, built from the ground of the biblical languages and hermeneu8cs, up through systema8c and biblical theology, so that we can properly and faithfully assess and incorporate truths from the secular disciplines we apply to BT and training paradigms. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 11
Tyndale further adds: If they will not let the lay- man have the Word of God in his mother tongue, yet let the priests have it; which for a great part of them do understand no La8n at all, but sing, and say, and parer all day, with the lips only, that which the heart understandeth not. Christ commandeth to search the Scriptures (John 5) Regulative principle in the Reformed Tradition: read, preach, pray, sing, see the Word (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19; Psalms) People have been turned away from Wycliffe because they wanted to train pastors in the BT Triad while they worked on the BT. Others were discouraged by Wycliffe recruiters from genng training in the BT Triad, instead telling them to just get linguis8cs training. I ve spoken with people at mul8ple seminaries who have received extensive training in the biblical languages: none of their professors encouraged people to consider BT. A survey was done recently showing that 80% of people think the Bible exists in every language in the world. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 12
While at Magdalen College (Oxford): Tyndale would gather students and fellows together to read Scripture aloud and teach others (Daniell, 39) Even Tyndale s enemies said he was learned, a man of good living and a good preacher (Daniell, 39) Tyndale was an open- air preacher (Daniell, 56), with access to the whole NT in the Greek, and thus his developing burden to translate into English the whole of God s Word. He translated La8n works into English for the benefit of other English speakers BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 13
During this 8me Tyndale was hiding and wri8ng. But his efforts were always aimed at genng God s Word to God s people. He was willing to return to England and face death if the king would promise to translate the Word into English. Tyndale had a singular devo8on, to get God s Word into English so God could edify the church and save the lost. In our pursuit of linguis8c excellence in BT, we must also welcome experts in the whole BT Triad: including the exege8cal disciplines of biblical languages, textual cri8cism and hermeneu8cs, and the theological disciplines. But we must do more than welcome them, we must invite them to our conferences, pursue their exper8se for advice, ask them to come teach modules and workshops to train indigenous leaders or even to train us. We must not just leave it up to our administrators to build official partnerships at the organiza8onal level. Rather, we can build BT teams which reflect the mul8- disciplinary nature and demands of BT, even if that team is not made up of full- 8me BTs working in country, but incorporates guest Bible scholars who come teach and train us and our indigenous co- labors, MTTs, and consultants and the whole of the BT team. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 14
Tyndale asked for some warmer clothes during his imprisonment as he awaited the verdict on his life. He also asked for a lamp, and like Paul during his imprisonment in 2 Tim 3, he requested his Scriptures, in Hebrew. Guard your own life and doctrine, but also guard whom you invest in (2 Tim 2:2); train those who are truly converted and devoted to the Lord, His Word and the glory of God in the church, not themselves and their own glory. With current trends of globaliza8on and rapid language change, it may be difficult to expect any of our transla8ons to last as long as Tyndale s work. But we have much to learn from Tyndale, and men like him throughout history. Whether one person gets trained in the full BT triad, or berer, we send teams of people with different academic strengths, we ought to especially take note of the way that BT work and agencies seem too oken divorced from the work of evangelism, discipleship, church plan8ng and church strengthening. This is something that history has many worthy lessons to teach our culture of OVERSPECIALIZATION. We may have specialty experience in linguis8cs or theology, NT or OT, Greek or Hebrew, but at the end of the day those are only tools for understanding the Word, loving the Lord and growing with respect to salva8on and godliness so as to glorify the Lord in and through our lives, to delight in Him and His Word, and to be faithful servants to the end. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 15
History has much to teach our genera8on: Listen to the 1689 2 nd London Bap8st Confession, one of the few statements of faith that I know of that include BT in the Great Commission mission of the church. We must keep our end goal in sight: not a final BT but a healthy church, dwelling on the Word, displaying the glory of God and the fullness of Jesus Christ (Eph 3-4) Q: So what is our duty? It is to faithfully serve the Lord in building up his church through the giks he has given, BT being one of those, but discipleship being required of every follower of Jesus Christ. Every Chris8an is called to evangelism and discipleship; we are called to be churchmen and churchwomen, not specialist linguists who disconnect our professional BT work from the call to make disciples. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 16
Have we become so focused on our goal of finishing the BT that we lose sight of the end goal, the glory of God displayed in a healthy church? Is the church front and central in our allegiances and our BT ministry s aims, goals, methods, programs? This from the Bap8st Missionary Society, formed by the efforts of William Carey and his team of co- laboring pastors and churches, including Andrew Fuller the rope- holder We need a more biblically holistic view of where BT fits in to the overall mission of the church, of which para-church ministries fit into one small slice of God s plan for the church in the world. As translators, we are not here to serve the government and its literacy programs, though we may do that. We are here to serve the Lord and His church. We must help our supporting churches and US colleges and seminaries understand the great need in BT work, and how it fits into the Great Commission Mission of the Church. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 17
In Zogbo s article, she notes the increased training that MTTs have in Biblical languages, theology and linguistics. But we must also train nationals to be consultants and back-checkers, and we must labor to integrate the training of BT specialists with the training of churchmen. People have been turned away from SIL because they wanted to integrate their BT work with discipleship and pastoral training; others have been turned away from the IMB because the IMB is focused on church planting and not BT. We have a problem. It is not sufficient to say that each organization has its specialization and we all work together. Academia has shown that without generalists who are doing both research and practice, the specialists get more specialized and never mix with the generalists. Para-church ministries often leave the church and other para-church ministries on their own. Christian non-profits are not immune to a kind of specialization that puts the health of the church on the margins of ministry. The integration of training churchmen with training BT teams (MTTs, consultants and checkers) will help to bridge the often difficult task of empowering and including local churches from the beginning stages of the BT project. This model helps to develop TRUST BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 18
The Bible and church history provide a model for training BT teams that is much more integrated with the church than it seems our current models are. The emphasis today is on specialization in every academic discipline, and theological studies are no exception. Excellence in scholarship honors the Lord when it is put in its place, when it serves God s plan to glorify himself in making a bride for His Son, a people gathered from every tribe and language, people and nation, who are built up in love to a mature man where Christ dwells and God s glory is put on display. There is a divide between theological studies with the biblical languages (exegesis and theology) in our seminaries and Bible colleges, and the training of translators in linguistics and missiology. How do we get people to train in all of the BT Triad, or to form relationships with people in other areas so as to build a team of specialists and generalists? The church must issue the call for a new generation of translators, and we can be of help with that. BibleTransla8onFellowship.org 19