In Depth:  Wycliffe

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New Bible record set

Wycliffe

The Bible has been translated into its 700th language.

The milestone is indicative of the acceleration that is happening in the work of Bible translation, to the extent that it is impossible to state which translation was actually the 700th, as there were several dedications of physical Bibles as well as several being made available online and via apps, all at about the same time.

Benin: tech breakthrough in translation

Benin: tech breakthrough in translation

Wycliffe

A team of Wycliffe Bible Translators has developed a keyboard that will help people interact with the Bible in the Mbelime language.

The Mbelime language is a minority language spoken in West Africa by around 100,000 people. Mbelime speakers are largely monotheists, and interest in Christianity has been slowly rising over the last two decades. An estimated 10% of Mbelime speakers now attend a local church.

Kenya: thousands buy Bibles

Kenya: thousands buy Bibles

Wycliffe

In December, the Samburu New Testament and accompanying dictionary were launched at the Maralal Stadium in Samburu County in the Rift Valley, attended by about 3,000 people.

Until now, the Samburu have tended to use the Maasai translation. However, there are issues with comprehension, and some of the Maasai words are offensive or derogatory to the Samburu. This has been a huge contributing factor to the Samburu not fully understanding the Christian faith and therefore mixing it with traditional religion.

Chad: Bible translation

Chad: Bible translation

Wycliffe

Two linguists serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators have taken the first steps of translating the Bible into two languages in Chad that have no writing system.

Dorothea Reuter and Maria Gustafsson will be researching the linguistics of the languages to provide the foundation for translation and literacy work. They have started by creating a draft alphabet chart for each language.

Wycliffe in Wales

Wycliffe in Wales

Wycliffe

Wycliffe Bible Translators opened its new Wales office in Bridgend on 14 September.

Carwyn Graves, Wycliffe’s Wales Team Leader, spoke about the long history of Welsh mission workers, who often pushed for mother-tongue Bibles and literacy programmes where others ignored them. Yet, he also focused on the future, and how churches in Wales can still be meaningfully involved in world mission today through praying, giving and going.

Resources for refugees

Wycliffe

A new website, new-neighbour-bible.org, was launched in May to support refugees in Europe.

Sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators and overseen by Wycliff Germany, it highlights many languages spoken by refugees of different countries. It also provides links to Scripture resources, such as online text Bibles, audio Bibles, and powerful Bible-based films. Initially focussed on the languages of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, over time the site will be expanded to cover a wider area and other languages spoken by people coming to Europe as students, workers or refugees.