Deserves More Than a Facebook Status

Yesterday, August 24^th 2012, the translation team of the Nsenga Bible Translation Project finished the last six verses of their first rough draft of Mark’s Gospel. This is extremely exciting news!

However, as everyone who’s written anything longer than a grocery list knows, the first rough draft is the easy part. Especially in something as complicated and demanding as a translation of the Bible, the subsequent editing, checking, revising, and polishing of the work is the major part of the task.

From here, all three translators as a group will read and check each verse of Mark, discussing word choice, meaning, and that ever-elusive quality of “naturalness.” Chris, in his role as exegete, will also help make sure the original meaning of Scripture is communicated (though with his extremely-imperfect Nsenga language skills he is still heavily reliant on the translators to help him with “back-translation”).

After this “internally-reviewed” draft is finished, we will send copies of Mark out into the wider Nsenga community – to churches, pastors, and other people throughout the Nsenga-speaking area who have indicated willingness to help review. We will also be making visits to more remote villages for checking sessions, to make sure our translation is clear and beautiful to people who are less-familiar with the Bible.

All of this work is leading toward our interim goal of having Mark’s Gospel published by the end of the year – and our long-term goal of bringing all of God’s Word into the Nsenga language. Rejoice with us in this milestone, and please continue to pray for all the milestones yet to come!