Bible translation and the cross-cultural advance of the gospel

Recently, the New Testament was translated into the Bakoko language of Cameroon. Upon engaging with the message, one of its speakers said: “It feels special. It is like we are closer to God, because he understands even our sighs. He understands when we don’t want to talk in French or in English. We can speak in our language and we can talk to everyone. We can talk to grandmothers. The gospel has become accessible to everyone.” When God’s Word reaches people in their own languages and cultural identity, it generally triggers a deeper response.

The end of missions is the gathering of a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multicultural and eternal worship of the Lamb of God. We serve in missions because the vision of Rev. 7:9-10 compels us: “… I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb … And they were shouting with a great roar, ‘Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!’”

A step is taken towards the realization of this vision each time the gospel crosses new ethno-cultural barriers and bodies of believers are formed who worship God, using their own languages and cultural artifacts. The engagement with languages and the translation of the eternal Word of God allows the spread of God’s Kingdom.

Theological and missiological basis

We believe in a triune God who speaks within the Trinity (Gen. 1:3). He also created human beings in his image (Gen.1:26-27) and uniquely gifted them to use language to express their emotions and thoughts, to relate to each other and form communities and identities, and to relate to God. God speaks to human beings through his word and expects them to understand him and respond accordingly. For this reason, God’s Word is essentially translatable into the variety of the world’s languages. As such, what looked like a curse at the Tower of Babel (Gen.11) has been reversed and all the languages of the world have been redeemed to become the vehicles of the Good News (Acts.2:1-8). The engagement with languages and translation are central to Christianity because the incarnation of Jesus requires that he should be at home in all cultures. Unlike Islam which is a revealed message in a specific language that all proselytes must learn, the Christian faith relies on translation. Jesus essentially spoke Aramaic, but today, the source text of his message is captured in Greek, attesting to the translatability of our Christian faith and message.

Types and processes

For Jesus to be at home with everybody, Bible translation seeks to adequately serve the needs of literate, oral, deaf and blind peoples. Therefore, we have text, oral, sign language and braille translations to meet respective needs. Whatever the type of translation, it necessarily involves understanding the source texts of Scripture through exegesis, the functioning of the target languages, and identifying the ways to transfer the meaning (literal, dynamic, etc.) from one end to the other. Bible translation also calls for a contextually relevant engagement with the translated message. This involves art – songs, poetry, storytelling, drama, dance, etc.

Progress and needs

Africa is the home of 2,221 languages. 295 of these have a full Bible, 508 a New Testament, 1,653 have works in progress, and 187 languages^[1] are still to be engaged with Bible translation.^[2] The significant growth of the Church in Africa, as Lamin Sanneh has observed, is essentially the outcome of Bible translation.^[3] Missionaries from the Western nations led the efforts in the field of translation until recently. Just over the past four decades, we have seen the decrease of Western missionaries in Bible translation by half, whereas local missionaries have grown to more than 70 per cent. The shift of the responsibility in Bible translation to Africa comes with significant needs and challenges. We need people with expertise in biblical studies, linguistics, literacy, ethno-arts, and translation to advance this ministry. Moreover, these people will need to be supported with financial resources, technical equipment (computers and translation software), as well as spiritual and emotional coaching, if we desire to see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the continent of Africa.

What Christianity for Africa?

Today’s Muslim-dominated North Africa was the home of Christianity in the early centuries. But this faith lacked the deep roots that come through Bible translation and the appropriate inculturation of the gospel. As a result, it could not withstand the threat of Islam.

To what extent has the much-celebrated growing African Christianity transformed the worldview, values, beliefs and behaviours of Africans? The answer to this question lies with the Bible agencies and the Church in Africa, who have the responsibility to take up this challenge of transformation.

¹Potential need: 152 languages. Expressed Need: 35 languages. Another 88 languages have “limited or Old Scripture”.

²Progress Bible, SNAPSHOT, November 2024.

³Lamin Sanneh, “Bible translation and the birth of Christianity as a world religion”, Communication made on 14.6.2007 at Horsleys Green, UK.

Michel Kenmogne became the Executive Director of SIL International in 2016. Before his appointment, he served as Director of Wycliffe Global Alliance for Francophone Africa. For ten years, he led the Francophone Initiative, a network of various Bible agencies to build vision for Bible translation in theological institutions across Francophone Africa. He is also the Board Chair of IFES and holds a doctorate in African Linguistics. He and his wife, Laure Angèle, have five children and live in Germany.