Sunday, January 20, 2013

Bible translators target smallest language people groups

The Seed Company has set its sights on translating Scripture into languages with 10,000 or fewer native speakers.

MNOnline reports that the project is receiving support from The Bolthouse Foundation.

While Bible translation projects often focus on the largest language groups first, the two organisations felt a shared concern for the 2,000 remaining Bible-less language groups.

The language groups being prioritised by the initiative are located within the Amazon, Africa, Papua and parts of the Pacific.

They can be hard to reach so the organisations are asking Christians to pray for strategic contacts within the people groups who will be able to help identify needs and get the Bible translation projects started.

“As we’ve been doing research, we’ve discovered that many of these 2,000 Bible-less people groups have very few speakers - maybe as few as 1,000 to 2,000 speakers," The Seed Company's Doug Kogler was quoted by the website as saying.

"So we’re concerned that they not be left behind. We believe that every language on the face of this earth should have access to God’s Word.”