Is Bible Translation Necessary?

Don’t most people in the world know English? Why can’t they just read the Bible in English? These are good questions. And there are answers.

The Solos Bible translation team in 2013

Recently, Larry Doyle traveled to Buka Island to participate in team/adviser checking for the Solos Bible translation team. This is a team Larry helped start when the Doyle family lived on Buka from 2011-2013, and he continues to serve as adviser from their home on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.

As they were reviewing text from Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, Larry found some verses mistranslated. Together, the team dug deeper into the original meaning, including going back to the Psalms, from which Peter quoted.

“After we had it corrected,” Larry wrote, “the Senior Pastor on the team made an innocent little comment. ‘I've preached on this passage many times, and heard many other sermons on it, too. We've always gotten this wrong.’

“He preached his first sermon in 1981, which is the year I was born. He is extremely well-educated for a pastor in our region, and he has excellent English skills, but he's always missed the real meaning of this little segment of Peter's sermon because of the way it reads in English….

“This episode convinced me more than ever that the Solos people need access to God's Word in their language.”