What would an Open Bible Translation look like?
What would a Bible translation look like if it was “open” in the modern sense of open development?
What if from the first day, the eventual end users of the Scriptures had access to the Scriptures rather than it being hidden in some office somewhere for years of polishing before anyone could have a look? A trackback to my blog from Blue Cord reminded me of the topic of Open Bible Translation. I blogged on Open Development Models and Bible Translation several weeks ago and continue to think about it from time to time.
- What if Bibles were localized rather than translated?
- What if the more than 3,000 language groups without access to Scriptures in their mother tongue were able to collaborate on a version of the Scriptures in their own language? Impossible, you say? They don’t have the tools? Or the knowledge? Or the desire? Balderdash, I say. At the moment I’m sitting in the middle of one of the “poorest countries in the world,” Mozambique. And yet this country is awash in technology and development. For example, if I send the word “adivinha” to a certain phone number, a Portuguese riddle will be returned to me in seconds.
- What if instead that was a “Scripture of the day? “
- What if you could send the name of one of the 17 major Mozambican languages to a phone number and have it return you a Scripture in that language?
- What if mobile phone users could send verses from their phone to a central server that would incorporate them into a larger database, over time building a translation of the Bible in that language?
A free, open-source program like mbuni could make it happen.
What if you were the one to make it happen?
“It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.”
What if Bibles were localized rather than translated?
You mean something like the Cotton Patch Version? Well, you certainly need to define your terms here.
What if mobile phone users could send verses from their phone to a central server that would incorporate them into a larger database, over time building a translation of the Bible in that language?
What an awful thought! A translation made up of individual verses with no overall discourse level continuity! At least KJVs etc printed in separate verses do have some continuity when viewed as continuous text, for they were not translated as separate text. Don’t let Mike Sangrey read this, I would fear for his health if he did!
Just as open source computer programs are not put together by separate developers writing individual lines of code (which certainly wouldn’t work!), but by the task being divided up in a coherent way, so open source Bible must be produced in meaningful chunks. And even then serious effort has to be put in to ensure consistency of translation of repeated words, phrases etc. So maybe something like this can be done, but it has to be a much more complex process than you suggest.
In using the term localization I was referring to the concept of Internationalization and localization in which documents are translated and made available in diverse locations and languages. I wonder if this concept doesn’t have something to teach us about the Bible translation process.
Regarding mobile phone users uploading isolated verses to a centralized server, there are indeed awful pitfalls as anyone sensitive to discourse would anticipate. But as you have correctly noted open source development is not envisioned that way and its application to Bible translation need not suffer from fragmentation.
Finally, regarding the mysterious Mike Sangrey, he seems to keep a low profile these days. Maybe he fears for his health or possibly is too busy raking in the big money to have time for blogging.
Does this post mix together two distinct (though related) things, Scripture distribution and translation.
On the distribution issue like Peter I have some reservations about SMS as a medium, but we are not far from the possibility of chapter length downloads over mobile phones, and that’s what I’d love to see people planning for…
But on translation and localisation, suppose there was a website with an approximate (but changing) translation into a particular language, perhaps working from rendering CEV into the target language, with professionals reading and checking but also mother-tongue users able to comment and question. Preachers able to use the increasingly good approximate translation in church on Sunday and they or their congregation commenting on Monday (or whenever they are next visiting a cousin who works somewhere with an Internet connection…
PS sorry probably I did not explain well, I’d envisage printouts of sections posted on noticeboards, passed around groups, and then someone “posting” the resulting comments (or a digest of them) to the web. NOT that everyone would need their own connection (as would be the case in the West).
Amen to chapter-length downloads! It is possible on mobile phones using e-mail and MMS protocols. Even if someone is limited to SMS length messages, a longer text can still be truncated and sent in multiple packets.
Regarding a web-based collaborative translation, the technology exists but I think it will be inaccessible for the average speaker of a minority language. The remaining languages in need of Bible translation tend to be spoken by marginalized and impoverished populations. We don’t do them any favors by creating inaccessible technologies. Our challenge, and an interesting one at that, is to innovate accessible technologies.
Another point worth pondering is that if we are talking about small population groups there isn’t really a need to be distributing everything world-wide. Maybe local media are a better way to go: community radio, small printings, etc. if you’re hoping to get feedback and community involvement.
There are many insights to be gained from open development that don’t involve technology. One is reducing the amount of time before a “draft” is available and being more end-user focussed.
As far as I know Mike Sangrey is alive and well, and maybe earning some of the kind of big money which helps to keep you in Africa! I haven’t heard yet that he has suffered a heart attack over verse by verse Bibles. So he doesn’t have much time for blogging. But he does still post on the b-trans list, and this extract from his latest one, last week, might suggest some worries about his health when he reads about such issues:
Excellent example. IMO, the common rendering of that text breaks [Ephesians] 5:21 and 22 right in the middle of a clause! A clause!!! It’s a clause!! (Ok…Ok…breath slowly…calm down. I’m OK. <chuckle>)
Hilarious!
No-one’s mentioned the word copyright. Surely things can’t be open until Scripture is published without all rights reserved, maybe under a Creative Commons license? Is this happening anywhere?
I would love to see an open content translation of the Bible. However there is the issue of ensuring that it doesn’t get turned into the next NWT/insert-heretical-translation-here. Prehaps a CC by-nd licence would work?