This episode is going to be a little different and more informal. My wife, Bethany, and I had a really great conversation the other day about interlinears and their different uses for second language acquisition, as well as the subject of reader's bibles. So we decided to record a second version of it to share, because we hope there are some helpful things we can add to people's thinking about these things and the general discussion of second language acquisition. If I said anything valuable...

In this episode we continue our conversation with Dr. Alan Bunning, Executive Director for the Center for New Testament Restoration. Check out the project overview. workingfortheword.com | my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

When people think about starting a translation of the NT, they usually need to decide which Greek text they’re going to use as a source text. Unlike OT translation where everyone defaults to the MT, there are more than one NT source texts to choose from, like the UBS, the Nestle-Aland, the Byzantine text, the Textus-Receptus and others. And some of the modern, popular ones are locked down by copyright. So over the course of the next two episodes I want to introduce you to someone who is...

Back in 2021 an article entitled Just How Broken Is the Bible Translation Industry? came out on MinistryWatch. People keep asking me what I think about it. I've waited a long time to let the organizations critiqued in the article have a chance to speak for themselves and respond to the article, but they never did. This episode is my summary and thoughts on the article, and an encouragement to the leaders of the big BT orgs to set the record straight and clarify any misunderstandings that...

Raised in the jungles of Venezuela by missionary parents in a vibrant Christian home, Tabitha Price is well-acquainted with the challenges of Christian ministry. Tabitha married her high school sweetheart, Joel, and together they attended New Tribes Bible college in preparation for missionary service. After that, she earned a bachelor degree from Southwest Bible College and Seminary and spent eight years teaching at international mission schools first in Venezuela and later in Florida. She is...

ChatGPT is considered by some to be the biggest technological revolution since the iPhone. In this episode we take it for a spin to see what it knows about Bible translation and test the limits of its expertise regarding more challenging biblical studies. workingfortheword.com | my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

Now that we’ve learned more about internalization from Katie Frost, it’s time to talk about a new tool that recently came out for actually doing oral Bible translation projects. It’s called Audio Project Manager, and it’s a free program that anyone can download and start working with right away. Nathan Payne is going to walk us through what the software does and how it can be leveraged for oral projects.  I’ve worked with Render for a while now and it still has a lot of drawbacks. One of the...

As Oral Bible Translation continues to grow in popularity and influence, it’s helpful to keep learning more about its core component: internalization. So I’ve asked one of the few experts in the world on this subject to join me and walk us through what internalization is, how it works, and more. Her name is Katie Frost, and she was actually my teacher a long time ago for a workshop on oral drafting that I attended in Dallas. Katie is an Ethnoarts consultant with SIL, and a professor at Dallas...

Links: The Archive: https://brandfolder.com/portals/thearchive https://tools.bible/ https://bibletranslationcompetencies.org/ https://www.sebts.edu/news-and-events/headlines/2022/12/announcing-the-new-caskey-center-for-biblical-text-and-translation/ Journal of Translation KTOT: https://paratext.org/download/download-paratext-extras/ Psalm 136 in Hebrew: https://youtu.be/C8ZIJ2fmnMw More news at MAP. workingfortheword.com | my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles |...

No English translation of the Bible has had more influence on the world than the King James Version. But have you read its preface? A lot of people haven’t because for years it has usually been left out of printings of the KJV. Our guest in this episode, Josh Barzon, wants to make sure more people listen to what these legendary translators had to say, so he’s written a book called The Forgotten Preface which aims to shed more light on this overlooked historical document. What did these men...

We continue and conclude the interview with Jon, the creator of copy.church.  Before we get into the rest of the interview I want to make a few comments. As I have more conversations with people around the world about the issue of freely giving gospel ministry and the stance that I hold that ministry should be supported, not sold, I’ve run into a few common threads. The first is that people–even world-class intelligent scholars, have no biblical arguments for disagreeing with me. Everyone...

We’ve talked about copyright on this podcast already, but we still haven’t taken a meticulous look at the way mainstream Bible translations are licensed, what the specific limitations are, and how different translations compare to each other in this area. This episode will be a real eye-opener for many of you, so make sure you’re sitting down. We’re going to be talking to the creator of a website called copy.church, which seeks to point people to the simple truth that it’s wrong to limit...

Many people ask me what they might need to become a BT consultant. In this podcast we'll walk through all the details of what you'll be need to measure up to if you want to serve the BT movement in this way. Here's a public listing of these competencies: https://bibletranslationcompetencies.org/consultant-competencies/ workingfortheword.com | my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline

What does a sociolinguistics consultant do, and how can Bible translators continue to think carefully about language vitality? What kinds of questions should you ask to quickly assess the status of a language? For answers to all this and more, we have Scott Smith as our guest today. Get ready for a deep dive into the world of sociolinguistics. Scott Smith and I met back in 2011 when he convinced me to join him and his team over in Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa. He and his wife Margaret...

My grandparents ended up having four children, all of whom eventually worked in Bible translation. Their family loved to laugh and sing and tell jokes. This is the second part of their lives in BT, in which we reach the completion of the NT in Zapotec of Sierra Juarez (language code zaa). "God has helped us to translate portions of the Old Testament and the complete New Testament. We have done a literacy program, with primers, a dictionary, grammar and reading books. We have trained and...

My grandma and grandpa Neil and Jane Nellis are no longer with us, but they did leave behind a 60,000 word book that records their story in their own words—their family histories, their conversions, their love story, and the account of their work in Mexico and Bible translation. This is the first part of an abridged version of their story. They lived through the Great Depression, played chess with Uncle Cam, and eventually ended up translating the NT into the language of the most famous...

Before we continue with the series on my family in Bible translation, I wanted to bring a few things to your attention, recommend some things, and share some BT general news. First, on my website workingfortheword.com I’ve added a resource page for people interested in finding out more about translation or who want to grow as a consultant in training, etc. It’s still a work in progress, and I’m sure some of you will have recommendations of things that would be helpful to add to it, including...

Last episode we began listening to the story of my dad’s life and involvement in Bible translation. In this second and final part we’ll hear about how he broke his neck while in the village, spiritual warfare he and my mom faced, the translation work, and more. Enjoy! Another huge thank you to my dad. I hope this interview proves to be interesting, encouraging, and edifying. workingfortheword.com | my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook | contact | download all...

In this series on people in my family who have contributed to Bible translation, the next person is my dad, Daniel Case. He’s been through a lot in his 75 years of life, from growing up in Cuba to serving in the Vietnam War to being a medical missionary and working for decades in Bible translation for the Chatino people of El Carrizal in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. I really admire his wisdom, tenacity, humility, and servant heart, and I wanted to share his story with you.  My parents...

There are actually a lot of people in my family who are currently involved in Bible translation or were at some point, so I thought it would be fun and interesting to put together a series that tells their stories. Each one is unique, and my hope is that this will give you a window into some of the history of Bible translation and the different experiences and challenges that people have faced, especially here in Mexico. We’re going to start with my grandpa Edward Case, my dad’s dad, who is...

The advance of globalization among the minority languages of the world is rapidly changing the landscape of Bible translation. Though a complete written Bible is a worthy goal, in some cases the declining vitality of minority languages and lack of mother-tongue literacy make this approach impractical. By the time the completed Bible is published, there may be few left to read it. This is where oral Bible translation can help. In this episode we’re going to talk about the process of training...

A lot has been going on lately with Bible translation in my neck of the woods. In this episode I want to talk about my experience being a test pilot for some of the resources CDBR has been developing for the Psalms, and walk through a draft that I’ve been working on that's designed to guide translators step by step through the process of translating Hebrew poetry. My step by step doc (sorry for the mix of English and Spanish). My step by step doc in Spanish workingfortheword.com | my books...

As part of my growth as a Bible translation worker, I want to listen to a wide variety of people and different strategies, and not just to those who are within the echo chamber of people who think like me and agree with me.  This interview with Jane Schoen of SRG raises some big questions that have been debated for years about whether BT should be done by believers or unbelievers. The method she’ll describe for us is still essentially in a proof of concept phase, and it will be interesting to...

Does the Bible translation movement need a Dorean reformation? Do our organizations reflect a sense of urgency to eradicate Bible poverty to the point of casting off anything that hinders so that we can all run the race towards helping the Bibleless without friction or obstacles? Do they reflect the radical generosity of the heart of Jesus shown in the very Bible they are trying to get into the hands of every tribe and every nation? Or do they reflect the petty spirit of the world, grasping...

Last episode we introduced the idea of "the dorean principle," which is explained in Conley Owens’ free book. We left the interview wondering how this applies to Bible translations and manuscripts, so we’re back to finish the conversation and apply Jesus’ principle of freely giving to those issues. We’ll also discuss how the concept of intellectual property is unbiblical, goes against natural law, and more. Visit https://thedoreanprinciple.org/ Join the facebook group to show your...