What is a Bible Translation Consultant?

Or, what in the world do you actually do, Rosie??

Ever looked at a few different Bible versions and wondered why they differ in places? Well, each translation team probably followed a slightly different method in translating the Bible from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into English. Our translation philosophy means that we want the Bibles we translate to be as clear, accurate, natural, and acceptable as possible.

After a mother tongue translator has translated into his own language, translation consultants like me who know Greek and Hebrew work carefully with them. We help them make sure that their translation says everything that the Greek or Hebrew texts say--no more, no less. This is what I will be doing!

I will work in South Carolina throughout the year to check the text of the Tat New Testament and then go overseas to meet up with the translation team several times a year. We will go over any questions or problem spots in their translation during workshops.

Here's an example: a few years ago during my training, I participated in a checking workshop with the Chairos (pseudonym) translation team in South Asia via Zoom. As we checked their translation of 1 Kings, we came to Solomon's dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8:27, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" (ESV) In Chairos, there is no word for contain, so they had translated the phrase as "heaven and the highest heaven is not sufficient for you." Unfortunately, this is not a good translation. It's close, but sufficient misses the idea of size and substitutes the idea of quality. When I asked the translation team whether there was another way they could include the idea of size, even without having the word contain, they were able to come up with a more accurate translation: "Heaven and the highest heaven does not have sufficient space for you." This question and tweaking in the wording of a verse is just an example of what Bible translation consulting workshops are like.