Like Elves in Santa’s Workshop, Scholars are Preparing Life-Changing Gifts at the JAARS Center in North Carolina
These Bible Scholars Prepare Tools that Enable the Bible Translation Process
For more information, contact:
Arthur Lightbody
JAARS Media Relations Officer
1-704-843-6048
arthur_lightbody@sil.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WAXHAW, N.C. — December 12, 2000 — This is the season of hope for two billion Christians around the world. They are reminded of the birth of Christ their savior as they read popular Bible passages in their homes and churches. Regrettably, three thousand language groups in the world—about 250 million people—do not even have one verse of Scripture in their language.
These Bibleless people cannot read or hear the Gospel of Luke account of the angel appearing to shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem, telling them, “Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
A dedicated group of 38 Bible translators and linguists at the JAARS Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina, south of Charlotte is helping to change that. JAARS is largely known for the technical support services that JAARS provides for the efforts of Wycliffe Bible Translators and others worldwide. Little is known about the efforts of the scholars at JAARS who work in association with the academically oriented SIL International Center in Dallas, Texas.
One of the scholars is Ellis Deibler. Deibler and his wife Katherine went to live with the Alekano people in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1959. The group numbered only 6,500 people at that time, but today number about 25,000 as tribal warfare is now almost nonexistent.
Deibler says, “I attribute most of their current condition to the influence of the Gospel, although the better health services and peace and order brought by the Australian government also had a significant part in it.”
JAARS Executive Director Jim Akovenko and his wife Sue will accompany Mrs. Townsend.
Within a couple years of their arrival among the Alekano, the Deiblers started translating for this largely non-literate group. In 1974 the New Testament was available for the Alekano in their language. The first edition was eventually sold out.
“Unfortunately,” Deibler says, “interest in their own language was significantly diminished by the time a revision of the New Testament was completed in 1987. Local churches and individuals prefer to use the national pidgin language known as ‘Tok Pisin,’ which is based on English.”
In addition, younger people are not learning the language from their parents. Deibler says, “Tok Pisin does not have the richness of their own vocabulary and the Tok Pisin Scriptures are literal, not expressing ideas clearly in Alekano terms.”
But Deibler sees a change coming. He has created a book and accompanying cassette tape called, “Learn to Speak Alekano.” He hopes they will spur interest in the Alekanos’ use of their mother tongue again.
The Deiblers went to Papua New Guinea earlier this year to work with the Alekano in recording the Alekano Gospel of Luke soundtrack to go with a video reenactment of the entire book of Luke. He says, “The Alekanos who worked on the Luke video are so excited they can hardly contain themselves!”
Since the videos are arriving in time for Christmas showings on the many video players now scattered around Alekano villages, the birth of Christ should take on new meaning for the Alekanos. The purpose of Christ’s coming as foretold by the angels to the shepherds outside Bethlehem will be clear to them.
Katherine and Ellis Deibler have not stopped with providing God’s Word for the Alekano. Their efforts are now focused on two fronts: the 1,095 languages where Wycliffe translators work, and the 3,000 languages of the world that do not yet have a single verse of Scripture. The Deiblers travel worldwide to places like Australia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Central and Southern Asia to check Scripture translation and teach translation principles.
But when not traveling, the Deiblers work as part of JAARS’ Language and Translation Department where along with four other translators they prepare “Semantic and Structural Analyses.”
These Bible book helps provide translators with paragraph-by-paragraph, sentence-by-sentence and even thought-by-thought analyses to spell out the meaning of the Bible simply, making clear passages that would otherwise be difficult. Using a computer, Katherine creates charts showing the new translation and how all the parts relate to each other.
Designed for speakers of English these series of books have become one of the key tools for Bible translators worldwide. Agutaya translator Steve Quakenbush in the Philippines reports by e-mail, “I always always use the translation helps!”
In addition to producing Bible tools for Wycliffe translators, the Deiblers and others in the JAARS Language and Translation Department desire to speed up the Bible translation process and enable national and mother tongue translators to translate the Bible more effectively.
Wycliffe and its translation partners feel it will take 100 to 150 years to provide Scriptures in all the world's languages at the current rate. However, by enabling others and partnering with them, the vision is that a Bible translation effort will have begun in all languages by 2025.
Deibler is preparing a meaning-based New Testament translation in clear English that can be used by translators around the world who translate Scripture into their mother tongue and for whom English is a second language.
Another couple at JAARS with a passion for enabling mother tongue translators is Willis and Becky Ott. They completed a New Testament translation in 1981 for the Ignacianos who live in the central grassland area of Bolivia. After completing that New Testament they lived in Kenya from 1984–1997 and consulted Wycliffe and national translators in seven countries.
Ott writes and edits a series of guides called “A Consultant’s Notes for Translators” to help those who are translating into their own language. It provides instructions in a style easily understood by speakers of English as a second language.
Jo Shetler with Doming and Loree LucasiDelighted new users of this series are Doming and Loree Lucasi, Balangaos from the beautiful rice-terraced Northern Philippines.
As a young man Doming began helping Wycliffe translator Jo Shetler, now a Waxhaw North Carolina resident, translate the Balangao New Testament. Shetler moved to Balangao. Jo recalls that the first thing she translated was the Christmas story, which was re-enacted by the Balangaos. Doming’s father played Herod.
The Balangao New Testament was completed in 1982. After focusing an a discipleship ministry among the Balangao and neighboring mountain groups, last year the Lucasis changed their focus to translating the Old Testament into Balangao. In addition, they are helping people from other languages in the Northern Philippines with Old Testament translations.
The sacrificial and legal systems described in the Old Testament are similar to those existing in many ethnic communities. These are the very systems from which Christ provides freedom. Doming passionately told how the Old Testament translation is important at a recent meeting at JAARS. He reported that he now understands that, “Having a New Testament is like having a sword without the handle.”
The dedicated task group of 38 workers in their second floor offices in a back corner of the JAARS Language Services Center building and in their homes scattered around the Carolina countryside are helping to provide both that handle and the sword. These are gifts more precious than any that Santa could deliver.
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