“One of the most sobering aspects of the failure to translate is to realize that over the centuries the major peoples that have most persecuted Christians have been those who were evangelized, but never had the Scriptures in their own language.”
—Patrick Johnstone, author, Operation World
In its 70 years of history, Wycliffe personnel have been involved in the translation of 721 New Testaments and Bibles representing over 80 million people.
In 1999, Wycliffe and SIL leadership recognized that the rate of Bible translation was too slow. At the 1999 pace, the Bible would not be available to the last language community until sometime around 2150. So Wycliffe decided to work differently and with a renewed sense of urgency.
Vision 2025 was adopted as Wycliffe’s mission. It is our resolve to achieve a dramatic increase in new Bible translations—to start the last translation by the year 2025.
Working differently has taken many forms. Training national translators to take up the task has made a major contribution in starting new languages. As members of the local community are trained in translation skills, they bring a ready passion for their culture and an urgency to reach and teach their children and their neighbors.
Where untranslated languages share a similarity with a translated language, computer tools can now provide a first draft of a rough translation, based on “predicting” key terms and phrases. Where several languages can be started at the same time, a “cluster approach” to translation begins all languages simultaneously, rather than sequentially.
Where a community has no written language, a start can be made by first translating Bible stories or the Gospel of Luke, and then partnering with other ministries to reach these oral communities with the gospel. In most cases these partnership strategies rapidly lead to a translation.
Forty percent of the current language projects have been started within the past eight years. But so much remains to be done. Numbers don’t tell the whole story. It is about entire communities, and about making a difference for eternity.
In the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific, the Langalanga people heard a missionary read aloud the entire book of Mark in their heart language. Their joy was so great they have pressed persistently for the day they could have the entire New Testament in their own language.
The Guajajara people of Brazil have a lifestyle very close to that of people portrayed in the Old Testament. While they’ve had the New Testament in their own language for two decades, it’s the Old Testament translation they’ve wanted for 10 years. The people have asked for the “whole sword”—not just the “little dagger”!
In Cameroon, West Africa, there are 10,000 Christians among the Mofu-Gudur whose New Testament was dedicated in February of 2008. Local pastors have gotten by using a French or Fulani language translation, but most Mofu don’t understand enough of these languages to grasp the truth of the Gospel. Portions of the translated New Testament were read to a Mofu church. Afterward, one young man said, “God’s Word is so delicious in our language!”
A New Testament was dedicated recently at a location above 12,000 feet elevation in the Andes Mountains of Peru. The Wanka, descendents of the ancient Incas, now have the Word of God in their mother tongue. That dedication service began with a Saturday morning parade of several thousand Wanka Christians through the center of Huancayo, a small town in the Andes.
It is a movement with gathering momentum. The last languages are at last in view.
