“Who says it is a translation?” Issues of community ownership and global responsibility

Abstract

We are living during the era of the greatest acceleration of Bible translation (BT) in history. It seems legitimate to raise the question within the BT community of practice: is there an obligation to recognize all translations as legitimate translations? While we are usually confident that if a translation is sponsored by a local community or denomination and published by a recognized BT agency, then we know that the BT program went through appropriate drafting and quality control protocols. But what about other situations, such as that of a single translator or a small group of individuals who work alone and without sponsorship? They intend to publish on their own and at the time when they say it is suitable. Or perhaps a mission agency declares unilaterally that a translation they sponsored is acceptable for a language community. In light of unprecedented acceleration, “Who says it’s a translation?” is a relevant question for BT practice and process. We must find a shared understanding about how to discern a proper balance between community ownership of the task and global responsibility in reporting overall progress and the size of the remaining task.