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Oral Bible Translation (OBT) is a mother-tongue, speaker-centered approach to Bible translation in which both translation and quality assurance processes are carried out mostly orally, with the end result being an oral Scripture that is trustworthy, appropriate, intelligible, and appealing.
A BIBLE READ ALOUD
IS NOT
AN ORAL BIBLE
When the text of a written Bible translation is read aloud and recorded, the result is simply an audio product, not an oral Bible.
An Oral Bible is the recorded audio of a Bible that was translated using orality-based methods and tools. Someone renders an internalized passage by heart, and their voice is recorded.
Unpacking the Definition
- Some people from a bibleless group express a desire to orally translate a passage or a book of the Bible into their mother tongue.
- A small team, from a missionary agency or from a church, teams up with the aspiring translators to support them. The team has been previously trained on how to facilitate an oral translation and on how to train the new translators.
- Because the translators and their community communicate much better through orality than through print, the whole process of translation will be carried out mostly orally.
- This way people from the community can have active roles in the translation and can exert leadership in the project, regardless of their literacy status.
- Facilitators also learn to operate orally, so their participation does not disrupt the oral dynamics of the translation process. They internalize passages so the whole exegesis can be done orally using a conversational approach.
- During translation sessions, facilitators use a bridge language and a variety of orality-based resources to help translators with exegesis and internalization of each passage. Then translators produce and record an oral translation draft of each passage in their mother-tongue language.
- The recorded draft is checked for quality assurance by other translators, by members of the community, and by mentors and/or consultants.
The translation team receives feedback and continues to improve their oral draft until the translation of the passage reaches approval by all involved parties. - The approved translation is recorded and officially validated by the appropriate body (it can be the local church, a translation agency, a local Bible society, or a committee chosen by the community).
- The recording is produced and is now regarded as the authoritative oral translation of that passage of the Scriptures in that language and is distributed to the community for their engagement with the Word of God.
Why Holistic?
ho.lis.tic [hō-lĭs′tĭk] adjective relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of or dissection into parts.
We want to see the team members’ whole person being addressed and impacted during the translation project. We want to be sensitive to their reality and needs beyond the project, and we are committed to doing translation as discipleship.
We want to see the teams having a whole experience with a biblical passage during the translation sessions; not only an intellectual experience of understanding the text in their mind, but a fully embodied experience, encompassing their whole being. Thus we are committed to a Heart, Mind, and Body methodology.
We want to see the teams operating from a whole language perspective. Language is a complex and intricate manifestation of our God-given identity as His image. When we reduce language to a mere object of structuralist analysis, we miss a lot of its communicative power. Thus we are committed to creating an environment where translators are freely operating from the tacit knowledge of their language, without being primed to dissect or analyze it.
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your being: all your heart, all your mind, and all your body.”