Why SE and Language Development are Top of the Food Chain

Many of us see Bible translation as the ultimate goal of what we do in our work. That’s what we were recruited for, that’s what we trained for. Linguistics is an important means to an end, and that end is Bible translation. When we sit down and plan the next year’s activities what do we plan? Books of the Bible (New Testament?) that we want to draft or edit during the next year? A typical plan has: training for new members to the project, work for experienced translators and checking work for the exegete/advisor/coordinator assigned to the project (or Translation Consultant). But what if we were to rephrase everything in terms of impact? The impact a scripture translation has is clearly a Scripture Engagement goal. Who is the impact going to be on? The community. It depends what kind of a community we’re talking about. If there are churches then the SE goals need to be worked out with those communities. What are the primary needs? Which scripture selections are most likely to appeal to people? In what format should they be presented? And so on.

If not then the language development goals need to be worked out with the wider community. That’s where development comes in. Community relations and finding out what people want to do. Also sociolinguistic and cultural research of course.

So SE and language development drive everything else. Translation is a means to an end, once we have worked out the impact we (or rather the community in question) would like to see. Sorted!