Author: James Howard-Smith, 30 September 2022
International Translation Day falls on 30 September. It's an annual occasion launched by the United Nations in 2017 to celebrate the work of language professionals. Translation work is key to the UN’s aim of encouraging understanding between nations. But the fact that the day falls on anniversary of the death of St Jerome, a Christian convert who translated Scripture 1,600 years ago, is a reminder that it all begins with the Bible.
The legacy of Jerome and his many successors is the transformation of not only individual lives but whole communities. People make the deepest connection with God’s word when they experience it in their own language. The Bible is meant for everyone. It was loved by Elizabeth II, and presented to her at her Coronation as ‘the most valuable thing this world affords’, but it’s not the exclusive property of monarchs.
When Joshva Raja, head of the International Bible Advocacy Centre, introduced Bible Twinning in June 2022, he said that just as people gave their lives to translate the Bible into English, many people are doing the same today in Africa. The Bible, he said, establishes and strengthens the human identity of whole communities. It can change the way marginalised groups see themselves.
The Bible is now available to 5.8 billion people in their own language. As a supporter of Bible Society, you have been part of that story. Another 90 languages were added last year, representing more than three quarters of a billion people. The world’s Bible Societies continue to work together, with your support, to reach the remaining 1.5 billion people with the transformative power of the Bible in their own language.
You can support a community waiting to hear God’s word by twinning your Bible with theirs, which translators are hard at work on. Your donation of £60 could translate ten verses of Scripture and help make the Kabiye or Ngäbe Bible a reality. You’ll get a bookplate sticker to go in your Bible and show that your support is giving a community the same opportunity to experience God’s word that you enjoy daily. Explore Bible Twinning.
As an English speaker, your access to the Bible in unmatched. Explore 16 different English translations of the Bible with this three-part digital resource, ‘Which is the best Bible translation?’
It’s certainly worth celebrating that 7.1 billion people have at least some access to Scripture in their own language. But considering the Bible is yet to be translated into more than half of the world’s 7,376 languages, there’s a lot of work left to do. Will you pray for a continued increase in Bible translation so the millions so far left out would soon hear God speak their language? The image below shows where we are as of 2022.
International Translation Day is celebrated on 30 September in honour of St Jerome, who has also been commemorated in an extraordinary artwork called Little Pieces of God by Portsmouth-based artist Pete Codling.
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