{"id":6528,"date":"2022-12-03T20:10:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T17:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=6528"},"modified":"2022-12-03T20:10:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T17:10:50","slug":"jehovahs-witnesses-reaching-the-heart-through-bible-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/jehovahs-witnesses-reaching-the-heart-through-bible-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Jehovah’s Witnesses: Reaching the heart through Bible translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Northwest, Ohio, resident Malagros Maldonado would read in English, she had to translate the words in her head to get the meaning. \u201cBut you can\u2019t translate feelings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jehovah’s Witnesses are translating the Bible into languages of the readers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She was overjoyed when the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish was released in 2019. \u201cInstead of trying to figure out words,\u201d she said, \u201cI feel like I can just open the Bible and start a conversation with God. It\u2019s like he\u2019s talking to me in my language. I know the meaning of what he is telling me, what he requires of me and how he views me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maldonado resonated joy as she reflected, \u201cI don\u2019t have to rely on anyone to tell me what God wants. I can grasp it in my own language and learn how to be close to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expressing further appreciation, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s also easier to share with others. When it\u2019s not in the language of your heart, it\u2019s hard to communicate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While perhaps best known for their public ministry, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have pioneered the work of Bible translation and translating Bible-based literature for decades. For example, their official website jw.org is available in more than 1,065 languages, making it the internet\u2019s most translated site. However, the organization\u2019s most complex translation effort has been the Holy Bible, which has been translated into some 238 languages as of mid-2022.One of the recent Bible translations released was in Bislama, a pidgin language from the remote Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, native to only about 10,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cProducing Bible translations in so many languages involves an enormous amount of time and resources,\u201d said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for the organization. \u201cWe provide these translations free of charge because our goal is for everyone on the planet to have an easy-to-understand translation of Scripture that reaches their heart in their mother tongue.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, the Witnesses established more than 400 translation offices worldwide \u2014 facilities where volunteer translators live and work in areas where the language is widely spoken.<\/p>\n

Translation of the Bible cannot be done through artificial intelligence. \u201cMost of us who use a translation app realize its limitations,\u201d said Hendriks. \u201cThis effort needs to be spearheaded by dedicated people who speak the language and live among people who speak it as their primary language. This accounts for why our translations are among the best available anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2022, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses announced the release of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in the S\u2019gaw Karen language.<\/p>\n

Hsa Taw, who immigrated to Omaha, Nebraska, in 2016, after spending years in a refugee camp on the Thailand-Myanmar border, learned to speak fluent Burmese in school. Still, she says, S\u2019gaw Karen is her mother language. Taw said she and fellow Karen speakers in her community \u2014 still unable to find a reliable dictionary in their native language \u2014 were thrilled to receive the scholarly New World Translation in S\u2019gaw Karen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we felt \u2014 I don\u2019t know how to describe it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taw has seen her volunteer Bible ministry change for the better in the months since the translation\u2019s release. \u201cWhen I tried to explain the Bible to others in Burmese, it wasn\u2019t the same,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when we read it in Karen, we\u2019ve got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweeter still, said Taw, is her deepened friendship with God. \u201cBecause I have the Bible in my language, I know God is kind and impartial to all nations and ethnic groups,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has not forgotten us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 translation activities, their history and beliefs, visit their official website,\u00a0jw.org<\/a>, with content available in more than 1,000 languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Northwest, Ohio, resident Malagros Maldonado would read in English, she had to translate the words in her head to get the meaning. \u201cBut you can\u2019t translate feelings,\u201d she said. She was overjoyed when the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-jw-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions\/6530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}