Bible Translators Aim At Closing Language Gap

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. While much progress has been made, more than 2,000 languages spoken by more than 350 million people still lack translations of the Bible.

Now, Bible translators are aiming to close the gap with the next wave of translations that target yet unreached people groups and offer study aids and new versions for nations where the Gospel is actively preached.

Biblica, which has already translated the Bible into more than 100 languages, just took the Gospel one step further by offering the Word of God in Tagalog. Just other translators are publishing modern-language versions of the Scriptures, Biblica has released a Tagalog Bible in contemporary language for the Philippines’ 85 million Tagalog speakers.

Work on the NIV-like translation for the Tagalog Bible began 20 years ago. That’s when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Lech Walesa became president of Poland, GM launched its Saturn line of cars, and the first Web page was created. The Tagalog Bible comes at the heels of Biblica’s Thai NIV Bible.

Even still, there is much work to do. Wycliffe Bible Translators, though, has more good news. The company recently announced it has raised nearly $250,000 million of the $1 billion it needs to execute the Last Languages Campaign.

Wycliffe’s mission is to see a Bible translation started in every language that needs one by the year 2025. Launched in November 2008, the Last Languages Campaign aims to gather the people, prayer and financial resources needed to accomplish Wycliffe’s mission.

All the while, there are still new translations of Scripture emerging for English speakers. Most recently, Zondervan announced an update to the text of the New International Version of the bible. The new version drops the gender-neutral language that caused some controversy when it debuted in 2005.

What’s your favorite translation of the Bible? Let me know in the comment box below.