Next week, translators from around the world will join us in Jerusalem for an intensive season of biblical Hebrew training. They will be among the first to pioneer a new approach to Bible translation, bringing together biblical Hebrew and translation assistance technology that works directly from the biblical text.
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?
There is a movement taking place that is rapidly accelerating God’s plan for His Word to all nations. Local leaders even in remote areas are learning to translate the Bible into their own languages and communities.
The Bible translation movement recently celebrated a remarkable milestone: the completion of the 800th full Bible translation. The first 400 full Bible translations took nearly two thousand years. The next 400 have been completed in just a few decades.
As we approach Shavuot and Pentecost Sunday, we remember both the giving of the Word in the wilderness and the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost, when the apostles were empowered to proclaim God’s Word in many languages.
God is making a straight path for the whole Word to reach Bibleless people, leading into a broad place of growth, local leadership, and the light of His love.
I’ve been reflecting on the Passover story this week as we look toward Resurrection Day.
“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him.” —Exodus 15:2
This song comes after God makes a way where there was none, a worshipful response to deliverance that could only come from Him. From Passover to the Resurrection, Scripture tells the story of God bringing His people out of bondage and into new life.
You and I know God’s Word as a love letter—spoken, breathed, and shared from generation to generation. In Exodus God introduces himself as “The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation.” Through the prophet Jeremiah He reminds His people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Poleg was familiar with the New Testament but still struggled with understanding the depth of “God with us.” Then when he read Genesis for the first time in his own language, he said:
“Now I see that God never abandoned humanity. Even when people disobeyed him, he still loved them and had already planned a way of salvation (through Jesus).”