Bible Translation Basics: Communicating Scripture in a Relevant Way

Bible Translation Basics will help translators work with language communities to determine the kind of Scripture product(s) that are most relevant for them, given their abilities and preferences. Scholars over the past thirty years have made significant advances in understanding how human communication functions. Rather than solely looking for meaning in texts alone, texts are now seen to provide clues to hearers so that they can discover the speaker's intended meaning. Hearers use other inputs as well, such as things they already know and information from the speech environment, in order to understand not only what the words of the text say, but also what the speaker is communicating with those words. The significant implications of this for Bible Translation are the subject of this new book.Bible Translation Basics accomplishes two things: 1) it expresses these developments in communication theory at a basic level in non-technical language, and 2) it applies these developments to the task of Bible translation in very practical ways. The content of this book has been tried and tested around the world, and will aid people with a secondary school education or higher to understand how communication works and to apply those insights to communicating Scripture to their audiences.

Harriet Hill (Ph.D., Fuller School of Intercultural Studies) is the Director of Scripture Engagement Content with the American Bible Society, formerly with SIL International. She is the author of The Bible at Cultural Crossroads: From Translation to Communication (2006).

Ernst-August Gutt (Ph.D., University of London) served with SIL International and has been associated with University College London, University of Manchester and the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He is the author of Translation and Relevance (2008).

Margaret Hill (M.A., University of Manchester) serves with SIL International. She is the author of Translating the Bible into Action (2010).

Christoph Unger (Ph.D., University of London) serves with SIL International and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Mainz. He is the author of Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence (2006).

Rick Floyd (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego) serves with SIL International and is a professor at Biola University.