Wycliffe Bible Translators

The power of God’s Word

By Eva McMaster  |  Wycliffe Today Spring 2024  |

My daughter Marlena recently asked me, ‘What makes the Bible so special?’ It was a great question and reminded me of a sermon from the late pastor and theologian Tim Keller titled ‘Labouring for a God who fights for us’. Keller said:

Outside of God’s grace that saved us, the Word of God is the most precious (and powerful) gift in our lives.

I thought to myself: Do I truly believe that? On what basis can we make this claim and, if true, how should this truth impact our lives?

The Bible is unique. Its 66 books span stories that occurred over at least 4000 years of human history. It was written by potentially 36-40 different authors. It is both a divine and a human book, written in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, set in its linguistic, cultural and historical context, on three different continents. It is really a collection of writings with many different styles and genres.

The Bible is also the most translated book in history. Of the 7,394 languages in the world, 4,007 languages have at least some Scripture translated. There are currently 776 languages with full Bibles translated, 1,798 New Testaments and 1,433 portions of Scripture. But what makes this book so special? Why has it continued to endure? (2025 update)

Consider this for a moment: a book so precious that people are willing to risk their lives to protect it and ensure that its message continues to reach as many people as possible. Bible translators like William Tyndale lost their lives to translate the Scriptures. Prior to the Reformation, Latin was the only acceptable language for printing the Bible and other translations were seen as heresy.

Before Tyndale, there were only handwritten manuscripts of the Bible in Middle English – the work of John Wycliffe from 130 years earlier. William Tyndale’s desire was to make biblical truths about sin, Christ’s sufficiency and salvation by faith plain to all. These convictions drove him to finish the New Testament translation into modern English and in 1536 it brought him a death sentence ordered by the king and the bishop of London. Tyndale understood the risk and was still willing to pay the ultimate price because he believed that the Word of God is the most precious gift of all as it points us to Christ, ‘the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29).

God’s good and sovereign plans are accomplished through his Word that goes out. In Isaiah 55, God’s Word is described like rain that waters the earth, producing life. Verse 11 says: ‘It shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it’. The Lord’s sovereign plans among the nations will be accomplished as his Word changes history, transforms whole societies and language groups.

How should we then live according to God’s Word? If Jesus, the Son of God, was completely immersed in the Word of God, then we should follow his example. Jesus was always quoting Scripture. He believed that every word was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself fulfilled more than 300 prophecies that were written at least 500 years before he arrived on earth as the Messiah.

Following Jesus’ example, we also should put our lives completely under the authority of God’s Word.

Struggling? Go to God’s Word. Tempted? Go to God’s Word. Facing a health or financial crisis? Go to God’s Word. Needing peace or direction? Go to God’s Word. Wanting to share the good news of Jesus with someone? Go to God’s Word.

It is certainly time well spent to read, meditate on, and feed our souls on God’s eternal, living Word!

Gospel Coalition, Keller, T. ‘Laboring for a God Who Fights for Us’ (Tim Keller speaks on Nehemiah 3–4 at The Gospel Coalition’s 2014 National Women’s Conference in Orlando, Florida).https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/laboring-for-a-god-who-fights-for-us/ Accessed 20 August 2024.

Bible beginnings in the back of Burke

By John Tan

Boorong was the first known Indigenous Australian to have substantial exposure to the Bible. She was sick with smallpox in 1789 when Governor Philip’s men took her to Sydney for treatment. Rev Johnson and his family looked after her for 18 months. Boorong saw the clergyman’s family reading and studying the Bible, and heard him preach from the ‘buk’ on Sundays.[1]

Boorong, like other Aboriginals in that era, encountered the Bible as colonisers tried to educate and ‘civilise’ their communities. Christian missionaries brought the King James Bible into their society, together with other products of European civilisation. Indigenous Australians learned the Bible as they learned English.[2]

The Bible Society started in Australia in 1817, making the Bible available to the public [3]. For non-English readers, they brought in Bibles in Welsh, Hindi, Scottish Gaelic, Russian, Chinese and other languages[4]. They desperately also wanted to get the Bible into indigenous languages.

Lancelot Threlkeld, together with Aboriginal translator Biraban, finished translating Luke’s Gospel into the Awabakal language in 1831. [5] This could be Australia’s first Indigenous Bible translation.[6]

The list of Indigenous languages grew slowly in the 1930s and 1940s.[7] In 1942, when Wycliffe Bible Translators began in the USA, CMS missionary Len Harris and his best students, Grace Yamambu and Bidigainj, translated Bible passages into the Wubuy language of Arnhem Land[8]. Madi, who heard it read at a campfire, was excited that to realise that ‘Jesus speaks Wubuy’[9].

Wycliffe Australia started in 1954, with some of the first translators sent to work in languages overseas in places like the Philippines and PNG. Others formed AuSIL (Australian Society for Indigenous Languages) and worked in the languages of Bandalang, Burarra, Kuku Yalanji and Wik Mungkan.[10]

Translation efforts picked up in the 1960s and 1970s. The most significant result of this was the Kriol Bible, the first full Indigenous Australian Bible. This Holi Baibul was published in 2007, after about 30 years of work by people from Wycliffe, AuSIL, the Bible Society and the CMS.[11]

[1] The Bible in Australia, p43
[2] Ibid, p46
[3] Ibid, p122
[4] Ibid, p126
[5] https://www.abc.net.au/religion/a-new-story-for-an-old-land-200-years-of-the-bible-society-in-au/10095998
[6] https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/on-display-one-of-the-first-bible-translations-in-an-aboriginal-language/
[7] The Bible in Australia, p323
[8] Ibid, p322
[9] https://www.eternitynews.com.au/in-depth/jesus-speaks-my-language-hes-not-only-the-god-of-the-white-man/
[10] The Coolamon Kids, p8-9
[11] Ibid, p9

Thanks for your patience...

Waiting is hard, isn't it. But imagine waiting 2000 years for Scripture in your language! Thanks for your patience. And thanks for your generous support which will help bring the long wait to an end...