Publications

Papers

Sudan Case Study

Download Sudan Case Study by Connie Champeon, Ian Lindsley, Richard Presley.


Examining the Effectiveness of Formative Training Processes in Developing Theological Understanding and Translation Skills Among New Believers in Sudan: Church-Based Bible Translation (CBBT) relies on competent, ethical exegesis of scripture during the translation process in order to produce an accurate, trusted, trustworthy text, which raises the question on whether the CBBT approach will work in an area without an established Christian tradition. unfoldingWord and partner organizations were able to overcome this challenge by integrating theological formation with training in Bible translation principles and practices. Training and technology have significantly reduced reliance on outside consultants making it possible for the Sudanese to translate the Bible for themselves in areas closed to Westerners…

Living and Active

Download Living and Active by Jennifer Holloran, David Reeves, Sam Harrell, Tim Jore.


The People of God and the Word of God in the 3rd Millennium: Bible societies and translation organizations were established by the church to steward the Bible on its behalf and have largely succeeded in increasing access to Scripture across languages. As the church has expanded globally and taken on more responsibility for its own translation needs, the model of external stewardship is being reconsidered. Rather than diminishing their relevance, this shift calls for these organizations to focus on equipping the church for deeper Scripture engagement. Such engagement leads to transformation, which in turn fuels greater demand for translation and access. By exploring new ministry models and embracing global collaboration, these organizations are positioned to serve the church in even more impactful ways in the years ahead.

The Equipping Servants of the Early Church

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The New Testament portrays the early church as a complex network that functioned as an extended family and was capable of rapid multiplication. In this model, pluralities of elders shepherd local networks of house churches which are, in turn, connected by the translocal ministry of influential leaders who moved between churches to strengthen, encourage, and equip believers for the work of ministry. Several of these leaders are referred to in the New Testament as “servants” (diakonoi) and are depicted in service to multiple localities of churches. These “equipping servants” serve interdependently with elders, ensuring the church’s unity, stability, and ability to rapidly multiply disciples. Many ecclesiastical traditions have overlooked this translocal leadership function, partly due to translation choices in most Bible translations that distinguish between an assumed “office of deacon” and the people explicitly referred to as “servants” (or “ministers”). This study addresses this misunderstanding, highlighting the biblical function of the “deacon” (diakonos) as a translocal equipping servant. The paper advocates for a return to the original meaning of the term and the restoration of the critically important function of the equipping servants of the church.

When the Church Translates the Bible

Download When the Church Translates the Bible by Tim Jore.

Dynamics and Implications of Church-Centric Bible Translation. This paper presents “Church-Centric Bible Translation” as a theologically formative and capacity-building paradigm of Bible translation. Through multilingual and multimodal interaction with the Scriptures, shaped according to biblical patterns of church and mission, the church that speaks a given language progressively builds their biblical understanding, theological maturity, and translation experience. This iterative process aligns the church’s production of a Bible translation with their growing capacity, ensuring that the pace of the process is commensurate with their ability to reliably and confidently assess the trustworthiness of their translation of the Bible.

unfoldingWord Grand Strategy

Download unfoldingWord’s Grand Strategy overview–including Whole Bible for the Whole Nation®.

unfoldingWord exists to see the Church in every people group and the Bible in every language. We catalyze and equip church networks so that they are empowered and successful in reaching the least reached. This Grand Strategy focuses on reintegrating church expansion with theological formation and Bible translation to strengthen church-expanding movements. By building capacity within the Church and providing open-licensed resources, unfoldingWord catalyzes church networks to take ownership of Bible translation and to reach the least reached in their nations.

Duplication of Effort?

Download Duplication of Effort? by Tim Jore.

The Inevitability of Multiple Bible Versions in Multiple Language Variants (and Why This is a Good Thing). As more church networks around the world begin translating the Bible into their own languages, the concern is raised about “duplication of effort.” Perhaps there is already a Bible translation in that language, or a translation project already underway. This paper considers where the assumption of “one Bible translation per language” came from and how this sets up the value of avoiding “duplication of effort.” It then describes some of the reasons that the church in a given language may see things differently. The paper proposes that the multiplication of Bible translations in a given language is actually a good thing and that what we are seeing is merely the alignment of external perceptions of the need of Bible translation with the actual Bible translation need of the church. Finally, the paper suggests practical ways in which we might support the church in meeting every Bible translation need without delay.

Dichotomies in Bible Translation

Download Dichotomies in Bible Translation by Connie Champeon, PhD.

Church-Centric Bible Translation (CCBT) builds BT into the church planting movement strategy to equip and grow the church — both majority-language churches and minority-language churches. We will examine three case studies of majority- language church networks, which have been engaged in CCBT resource creation for two years and engaged with minority language translation for three to nine months (at the time of drafting), to see how they are intersecting and engaging these paradigms in new ways.

Equipping the Global Church

Download Equipping the Global Church to Translate the Bible in its Own Language by Perry Oakes, PhD.

We are living in a new age. Enormous advances in information storage, access, and communication directly affect Bible translation and distribution. These advances have been accompanied by profound changes in levels of worldwide education and multilingualism, in the relationships between cultures, and in the composition of the worldwide Church.

In light of all of these advances, it is time to reconsider our approach to Bible translation.

From Unreached to Established

Download From Unreached to Established by Tim Jore.

From Unreached to Established describes the current reality regarding Bible translation by contrasting two different paradigms. The dominant paradigm of Bible translation in recent decades has been focused on the delivery of a quality product. The paper argues that this “Bible-centric” paradigm is becoming misaligned with the needs of the rapidly growing global church and is also facing a crisis due to lack of personnel to fill key quality assurance roles. The emerging “church-centric” paradigm integrates Bible translation into the process of establishing strong churches, providing improved scalability and alignment with the global church’s needs. This paradigm is shown to be facing its own crisis, due to lack of accessible resources. The paper concludes by showing how Bible agencies can help resolve this crisis by collaboratively creating these resources and training the trainers of the global church, but that doing so will require a transition from the objectives and metrics of the product-oriented, Bible-centric paradigm to the capacity-building, church-centric paradigm.

Letting Go

Download Letting Go by Tim Jore.

Letting Go describes how the rapid expansion of the global church has created an urgent need for Bible translations and biblical content that lead to sound interpretation of Scripture and formation of faithful theology in every culture and people group. The most effective means of meeting this immense need is by the collaboration of the global church in an interdependent and highly scalable manner. This requires minimizing the legal friction intrinsic to the default “all rights reserved” licensing model, by making the needed content available under open licenses. This paper addresses many of the concerns that are raised by those desiring to open license resources and describes a strategy that equips the global church for freedom.

Seven Big Rocks of “Church-Centric” Missions

Download Seven Big Rocks of “Church-Centric” Missions by David Reeves.

Something changed as we moved into the 21st century. There is a growing awareness that many of our missional activities aren’t as aligned with each other as they could or should be. There are efforts underway in several domains to integrate and collaborate, but will this be enough? What are the keys that would guide us to the singular focus of the early church? I believe that focus can be rediscovered by being “church-centric.”

Unrestricted Original Language Resources

Download Unrestricted Original Language Resources by Jesse Griffin and Todd Price.

This paper now has been published in the Hiphil Novum journal.

The unfoldingWord project exists in a new paradigm of Bible translation that has dual needs of access to content in Gateway Languages and the legal freedom to use, translate, and modify them to suit their context. The benefit of providing original language materials in the Gateway Languages is that it removes the barrier of needing to learn English to deepen one’s understanding of the text. This paper investigates whether or not restricted texts provide the legal freedom that Church-Centric Bible Translation (CCBT) needs, whether “All Rights Reserved”, Creative Commons NoDerivatives, or Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses. The only adequate public licenses for an original language resource to be translated are CC0, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), or possibly the Free Translate license.

The Gateway Languages Strategy

Download The Gateway Languages Strategy by Tim Jore.

The Gateway Languages Strategy is a missiological model that leverages 21st century opportunities to provide all content, training, and tools needed for effective translation of biblical content in the smallest number of Languages of Wider Communication that covers 100% of the languages spoken collectively by the global Church through patterns of multilingualism.

Trustworthy and Trusted

Download Trustworthy and Trusted by Tim Jore.

Trustworthy and Trusted describes the difference between the trustworthiness of a Bible translation and the trust that the element of the global church that speaks the language has in it. It examines the means by which trust can be established, as well as the two key milestones through which every translation goes to arrive at trustworthiness. It considers historical precedents and suggests that while excellence must always be the goal, ongoing revision of Bible translations is to be expected, not avoided. It then describes the various means by which the church determines the trustworthiness of a Bible translation and considers how a systematic and comprehensive checking model could both improve the faithfulness of a translation and accelerate the process of achieving it. Finally, it proposes collaboration in the provision of resources and tools that implement the model.

Books

The Christian Commons

Download the updated second edition (2015) of The Christian Commons in PDF, EPUB, or MOBI formats.

Click here to learn more about The Christian Commons.

Only in the last 100 years has world missions been built on a foundation of “all rights reserved.” This model is both legal and ethical, but it has limited reach. The missions task is immense, and millions of people in thousands of people groups are still waiting to receive even one biblical resource in their own language.

There is another way to equip the global church for spiritual growth. Christians all over the world can use 21st century technology to openly collaborate in the creation of unrestricted biblical content in any language. These unrestricted biblical resources—the Christian Commons—can be legally translated, adapted, built on, revised, redistributed, and used, by anyone, without hindrance, today. Unrestricted biblical resources can reach more people, in less time, with less expense, more effectively.

Other Publications

Audio Engineering | Audio File Naming Standards

Download Audio File Naming Standards in PDF format.

Learn more about unfoldingWord Audio Engineering.

Audio Engineering | Audio File Quality Standards

Download Audio File Quality Standards in PDF format.

Learn more to learn more about unfoldingWord Audio Engineering.

CCBT: Getting Started

Download the Church-Centric Bible Translation: Getting Started document in PDF format.

Click here to learn more about getting started with Church-Centric Bible Translation.

Do you want your church to grow and mature but you realize that they need Biblical content in their language if they are going to understand God’s Word better? Do you wonder how to get started, how to get trained, and how to make a good translation? If so, this document is for you!

We make it our goal to equip people like you to translate the Bible and other biblical content from a language you know into your own language. We have trained and helped translators in hundreds of translation projects. We are creating translation training materials, translation helps, source texts, and computer programs that will help you in this process.

This document is a quick guide to help you know how to start on your translation project and continue it on to completion. We recommend you read all the way through this document, ignoring the links, to get an overview of the process, then come back later to follow the links as needed for more detail. For a more thorough treatment of these subjects, please read translationAcademy.

Free Translate License

Download the Free Translate 2.0 International Public License.

unfoldingWord is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Distribution of this public license does not create a lawyer-client or other relationship. unfoldingWord makes this license and related information available on an “as-is” basis. unfoldingWord gives no warranties regarding this license, any material licensed under its terms and conditions, or any related information. unfoldingWord disclaims all liability for damages resulting from its use to the fullest extent possible.

Definitions:

Licensed Material means the literary work to which the Licensor applied this Public License.

Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.

Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License.

You means any individual or entity now and in the future who exercises the rights granted under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Licensor grants you the right to:

  • Translate — Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, Licensor hereby grants You a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, irrevocable license to Translate the Licensed Material, in whole or in part into any different language(s).

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must attribute the source of the translation in a reasonable and noticeable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Notices:

1. No royalties. To the fullest extent permitted by law and equity, Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme.

2. Perpetual. Licensor may not revoke this license as long as you comply with the license terms and conditions.

3. Copyright of Translated Material. The Licensor grants You ownership of all copyright and similar rights in your translations from the Licensed Material, including the right to license your translated works.

4. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is connected with, sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor.

5. No trademarks. Licensor’s trademarks and Licensed Material’s branding are not licensed under this Public License.

Language Identification

Language Identification, or “Using IETF Language Subtags to identify every language, dialect, and variant in the entire world.”

Languages in the unfoldingWord digital publishing system are identified using Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) language tags. IETF tags provide an abbreviated language code that uses modern computing standards and is backward compatible with ISO 639 language codes but provides a standardized means of identifying additional information, including language variants and scripts.

In the IETF standard, macro languages are identified using two-letter codes (from ISO 639-1) while all other languages use the three-letter “Ethnologue code” (ISO 639-3) where this code exists. The language tags are comprised of subtags separated by hyphens. The IETF standard also provides a flexible means of adding new language variants, through the use of “-x” to indicate a private use tag (not in the official registry).

These are examples of language tags:

  • hi: Hindi language
  • aaa: Ghotuo language
  • en-AU: English language, as written and spoken in Australia
  • az-Latn-IR: Azeri language, written in the Latin script, as used in Iran
  • ttt-x-ismai: Tat language, Ismaili variant (for private use only)

IETF language tags are used in many protocols, including HTTP (the browser can indicate the user’s language preference to the server, the server can indicate to the browser the language and script in which the content is served) and XML (through the xml:lang attribute).

More information:

Software libraries:

Python

JavaScript/Node