Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast

Since the time of the Reformation the word holiness among orthodox protestants has been understood mainly as purity and transcendence. Throughout this series we’ve seen that, on the contrary, holiness carries the core connotation of absolute devotion or consecration to God. And for God to be holy means that he is completely devoted to his people and his name . But today we want to address a couple...

Why is God called holy three times in Isaiah 6? Why does the Holy Spirit have “holy” in his name instead of “loving” or “powerful”? We’re going to try to answer these questions and continue searching out a more biblical way of understanding the Hebrew root qadash , which is where our word “holy” in English comes from. Once again, we’re going to see that the core meaning of holiness has nothing to...

Last time we began an in-depth look at what it means for someone to be holy , and we saw how there has been a lot of confusion around the concept of holiness for centuries. Since a word’s meaning is the sum of its contexts, we’re going to continue looking at the broader contexts in Scripture that reveal that for God to be holy means that he is totally devoted to his people and his name .  Pet...

The word holy is firmly embedded in our western consciousness with certain connotations. We think we know what it means, but most of us never stop to think where our idea of the meaning of holiness came from and whether it’s consistent. The standard understanding of God’s holiness is usually described as “separation”, “transcendence”, or “infinite purity.” But does it really mean that when we are...

God’s communication with humanity was intended from the beginning for “every nation, tribe, and language.” While all languages are equally competent in expressing the message of the Bible, each language has particular and sometimes unique capacities to communicate certain biblical messages in exceptionally enriching ways that other languages cannot. But where can the average person get a window in...

The Legacy Standard Bible is a new revision of the NASB that's in the works right now led by people from the Master's Seminary in California. When new English translations come out there tends to be a lot of different rhetoric and assumptions that get thrown around, and it's not always clear and helpful to the average person. So let's sit down together and join a roundtable discussion that the LSB...

Dr. Aaron Shryock currently serves at UnfoldingWord and has also served as the Director of the Tyndale Center for Bible Translation at the Master’s Seminary. Prior to that he spent several years in Africa involved in linguistic research, lexicography, and translation. In this episode he joins us to talk about the life and impact of William Whitaker, one of the lesser-known reformers who had a lot...

What if we lost all of our copies and manuscripts of the New Testament? Would we still be able to reconstruct all of it with the quotations in the writings of the church fathers? Dr. Andrew Blaski joins us today to explain the origins of this popular myth and how we can think more carefully about the church fathers and their handling of Scripture. Get ready for a fascinating discussion of a lot of...

Isaiah 26:13 says, "O Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance." What are some other key verses in Scripture where a title substitute for God’s name turns out to be awkward or inadequate? In this last episode on the divine name we’re going to soak up a lot of Bible as we survey passages where a translation just makes more sense when a...

What is the Arlington Statement on Bible Translation , why is it important, and what does it have to do with the divine name, especially in the NT? And did the NT writers try to make a distinction between Yahweh and Jesus? In this episode linguist, Bible translator, and former Mormon Seth Vitrano-Wilson joins us to talk about those things, offer some perspective on Bible translation in Muslim cont...

I think the title says it all!  This episode draws largely from The Murderous History of Bible Translations by Harry Freedman. Make sure to get a copy for yourself! Worth every penny. my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

I had the privilege and pleasure of talking to Dr. Peter Gurry about his book Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism . Enjoy getting to meet one of the guys who's doing quality work for the Kingdom in an area many people overlook or don't know exists! The clip towards the beginning comes from this excellent introduction to NT Textual Criticism by Daniel Wallace . It's worth watching...

"I failed miserably my first go around using a traditional Hebrew grammar." Have you heard or experienced something like that before? Sadly, it's all too common. Here are some further thoughts on the status quo of learning Greek and Hebrew, what the best research has shown, and what we can do about it.  Sound clip of Stephen Krashen taken from this clip , and Steve Kaufmann from this clip . m...

It was an honor and delight to interview Dr. Carmen Joy Imes about her dissertation on the Name Command in Exodus 20:7, which you can check out here . She's produced a less technical version called Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters . For those who have an intermediate level of Hebrew, she's published an illustrated edition of Exodus in Hebrew . Make sure to subscribe to her YouTube chann...

Ready to have your language learning assumptions shattered? At Aleph with Beth we’re working hard to use the new technology God has given us to teach Hebrew to the world in a way that works for them. But why do we teach this way in this format? Is there serious science and intentionality behind it? Should biblical language teaching remain in the status quo? We tackle this question in this episode,...

It's a joy to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Robar to the podcast and hear about all the exciting stuff she's up to. You can read some of her articles here .  Elizabeth has loved languages ever since she first discovered she could teach herself Latin from her mother’s college textbook. First came philology (the traditional comparative study of a family of languages), then came linguistics (the modern...

In this episode we dive into Psalm 107 and talk about its connection to Lamentations 3:32, and how it helps translators understand better the range of meaning of hesed in Hebrew (steadfast love). I forgot to mention that Lamentations 3:32 also speaks of God's hesed in the plural, just like the end of Psalm 107. And Lamentations is like a longer vignette of Psalm 107 in the sense that Israel finds...

How can video games help us understand and translate the Bible better? That's what we're going to talk about in this episode!  If you want to watch the discovery tour of Assassin's Creed: Origins , click here . For Odyssey , click here . Enjoy! my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

In this episode we conclude our discussion of the "all rights reserved" copyright mentality and talk about what the future might look like if we were to adopt the "free and open" paradigm for the sake of the global Church. Once again, I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore. my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

In this episode we continue our discussion of the "all rights reserved" copyright mentality and tackle the final hindrances/objections to embracing the open licensing of biblical content and resources. Once again, I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore. my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

In this episode we continue our discussion of the copyright mentality and tackle two more common hindrances/objections to embracing the open licensing of biblical content and resources. In this episode I quote and paraphrase primarily from Letting Go by Tim Jore. my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

Hardly anyone is talking about this, so I was compelled to dedicate several episodes to the subject. The global Church needs biblical resources and the tools to do sustainable Bible translation, but our Western, paternalistic copyright laws are keeping many people in a state theological famine. In this episode we take the time to begin carefully thinking through the implications of open licenses t...

Julia Woods kindly joins us in this episode to talk about the exciting things going on in remote places you may never get to see. Even if for nothing else, listen to this episode to experience the samples of Siberian throat-singing! my books | free Scripture prayer apps | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

Get a free copy of my novel as an audio book here .  In this episode we talk about a verse you may never have noticed in the KJV that seems to have translators scratching their heads.  We also discuss some of the inflammatory history of the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament.   Book quoted: The Murderous History of Bible Translations my books | free Scriptu...

In this episode we have the pleasure of meeting Brian Kelly , to have a conversation about oral Bible translation and how we can change our paradigm to reach oral communities. You can also watch a video presentation from Brian about oral translation strategies here . Don't Throw the Book at Them by Harry Box The Network of Biblical Storytellers The International Orality Network my books | fre...