Bible translation is changing rapidly. Around the world, translation teams are increasingly using Assisted Translation Technology (or Artificial Intelligence tools) to help increase the efficiency and speed of translation. These tools have enormous potential to help bring Scripture to languages that still need it. But they also raise an important question: What happens if AI translations are not grounded in the original biblical languages?

Ram Gidoomal, former chair of the Lausanne Movement and a longtime Whole Word Institute Board member, has often asked in our Board meetings: What will happen if we don’t?

If we don’t develop methods and tools that allow translators to work from the original Scriptures, local translation teams may have no option but to continue to rely on English, French, or other widely spoken translations as their source.

The problem is that a translation is never exactly the same as the original. Each translation layer introduces drift: subtle meaning loss, or even misinterpretation that compounds over time. Words, phrases, relationships, and nuances can be difficult to carry from one language into another. When a new translation is then built from that translation, some of those differences can be carried forward, and potentially multiplied.

AI makes this challenge both more urgent and more promising.

AI can help translation happen faster. But if it learns primarily from existing translations rather than the original biblical languages, it can also reproduce the limitations of those translations. And as more translations and resources are generated from one another, local translators and churches need a way to evaluate what is being produced from the original Scriptures.

So what is the antidote? 

Faithful translation should ideally be grounded in the original biblical language. When local translators are equipped with biblical Hebrew and reliable AI tools from the Hebrew text, they can guide, evaluate, and refine their translations directly from the original Scriptures, safeguarding the integrity of the Word as it is translated, interpreted, and applied.

That is why our investment in biblical Hebrew training matters, and why Whole Word Institute and our partners are developing an AI assisted Hebrew-to-local-language translation training program and a Hebrew language dataset designed to help AI tools to work directly from the original Hebrew. Any translator who has completed Hebrew training with Whole Word Institute or has achieved Hebrew translation proficiency will be able to use these tools to translate the full Bible more accurately.

We believe it is critical for Bible translators to be trained to work directly from the original languages with the aid of new technology and we are excited about this vision as we answer the next question: What can happen when we do? 

I’m looking forward to sharing more about what we believe will happen as we step forward in this vision to enhance and accelerate full Bible translation. In the coming weeks, I’ll give an update on the biblical language technology tools that are being developed and used in the new Asah’EL program, testimonies from our localized training around the world, and news about the translators who will be part of the next chapter in Jerusalem. 

Avec vous à son service,

David Swarr PhD
Président et directeur général

One translator changes lives. One translation changes generations.