Faster pace for Indigenous Bible translation

#1147 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 1 November 2015

It means a great deal to have the freedom to read the Bible in your own native language, a privilege most of us take for granted.

The Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL) has embarked on a new process, putting Indigenous people in charge of translation, so more language groups get the Bible more quickly, and spearheading Bible translation in major languages as a springboard for further translations into smaller, clan languages.

Historically, Bible translators and linguists would spend years learning an Indigenous language before commencing the painstaking translation process. The Bible Society published the Yumplatok New Testament in 2014 after a 27-year process. The new process may cut this by many years.

If you read the Bible, or heard it read today, in your own language, consider it a blessing from God, made possible by a considerable investment of time, effort and learning.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.