Europe

The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek, a European language that served as a trade language for many in the Mediterranean region. The Bible records the beginning of the gospel’s spread through Europe: “That night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia in northern Greece, pleading with him, ‘Come over here and help us.’ So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for we could only conclude that God was calling us to preach the Good News there”  (Acts 16:9-10, NLT). 

Bible translation provides language preservation

Translations followed the gospel’s spread in Europe. Not only did translations open doors for spiritual truth, enabling greater and deeper understanding of Christianity, but translations also have provided foundations for the preservation of languages.

In the ninth century, the brothers Cyril and Methodius began a quest to translate the Bible into Slavonic. After some initial criticism and road blocks, they were given permission by the Church to move forward with the project. They developed a system of writing which became the foundation of the Cyrillic script that continues to be used today in Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and many other languages in Europe and Asia.

In fourteenth century England, French was the language of the aristocracy, Latin was the language of the Church and government, and English was the low language of the common people. When John Wycliffe and his followers (called Lollards) began to translate the Bible from the Latin translation into English, they received harsh criticism.

“This Master John Wyclif translated into the Anglic-not Angelic-tongue, the Gospel that Christ gave to the clergy and the doctors of the Church… whence it is made vulgar by him, and more open to the reading of laymen and women than it usually is to the knowledge of lettered and intelligent clergy; and thus the pearl of the Gospel is cast forth and trodden under the feet of swine.” (Henry Knighton, canon of Leicester)

The King James Bible (which used much of William Tyndale’s English translation) is credited with being a key source of stability in the English language. The translation helped to normalize spelling and gave the English language a platform with the educated. Today, there are more than 400 different English translations of the Bible. Once considered a vulgar language, English is now one of the most widely used languages, and serves as the common language of international commerce.

Bible Translation Today

Now, most of the languages of Europe have a completed Bible translation, and many even have several different versions of the Bible. Yet translation continues for a few European languages.

Scripture is being translated into Plautdietsch, a language spoken primarily by Mennonites, including approximately 90,000 individuals in Germany.

Translation work is also in progress for language groups that have immigrated to Europe. These displaced communities need Scripture translations, but come from difficult-to-access areas; for example, countries where war and unrest or political opposition make translation difficult or impossible to carry out.

Some History

One of the earliest known writing systems, as seen on an artifact that is about 4,000 years old (the Phaistos Disc), is believed to have been developed by the Minoans on the island of Crete, just south of Greece. The Greeks also developed an early system of writing that many believe was based on the Pheonecian alphabet. It later evolved into the alphabet used in Latin. Later this Roman script was used for many languages in Europe.