Problems in Bible Translation

● No other book has been translated into more languages than the Bible. At least one book of the Bible has been translated into 1,084 different tongues. How many more tongues are there that do not have the Bible yet? About 2,000. But these are mostly tribal tongues spoken mainly in New Guinea, Africa, Southeast Asia and among the South American Indians. So the remaining tongues are not spoken by many, probably by much less than five percent of the world’s population. To bring the Bible to people who speak these tribal tongues often presents big problems to Bible translators. There are just not enough words in these languages to make literal translation possible. Local idioms, often amusing and odd to English-speaking people, must be used. According to an official of the American Bible Society the Gbeapo people of Liberia have no word for “prophet”; the word has to be translated “God’s towncrier” to be understood. The word “worship” in the language of the Cuicatec Indians of Mexico becomes “wagging one’s tail before God.” And in the tongue of the Chokwe tribe in South Africa the phrase “he smote his breast” has to be phrased “he beat his head.” This is because smiting one’s breast, to these tribesmen, is a gesture meaning approval. So if the phrase were translated literally, it would mean just the opposite of what is intended—it would convey the meaning expressed in English by the phrase “he patted himself on his back.”