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Article on Bible Gateway: Recreating Pentecost – A Close Look at the Language of Acts 2:2-4

I would like to take you on a little multilingual stroll through a well-known text of Scripture that marks the beginning of one of the most important days in the history of the Christian church: the story of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

Let’s begin with verse 2:1 in the scholarly and masterful 1999 German translation by renowned New Testament scholar Klaus Berger and leading translation scholar Christiane Nord (back-translated from German into English):

On the fiftieth day after Passover, on the Jewish Pentecost festival, all the apostles and the female disciples were sitting together with Mary and the male relatives of Jesus.

English Bible readers are likely more familiar with this translation from the NIV — “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” — but they are both translations of the same text.

How is this possible?

You find the rest of this article right here .

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Article on Bible Gateway: Finding the Full Meaning of Scripture in the Treasure Chest of Bible Translation

“English readers are blessed when it comes to Bible translations.”

This statement on its own could mean several different things. It could mean that Bibles translated into English are better than those translated into other languages. Another possible meaning could be that English as a language is more qualified than other languages to express the meaning of the Bible. Or it might mean that there are a lot more translations in English than in any other language.

It might be disappointing for some to hear it, but the first and second explanations are simply not true. There are excellent English translations of the Bible, and there are excellent translations in other languages. English is equally equipped to translate the original languages — and equally limited in finding just the right words — as other languages around the world.

The third explanation is true, though. No language has produced as many different translations of the Christian scriptures as English. Bible Gateway has dozens of the most popular English versions — and even that barely scratches the surface of the 900 or so partial or complete English translations.

In addition to this embarrassment of riches, yet another resource for readers of English ties in with the first and second reasons to emphasize how our cup overflows.

See the rest of this article right here .

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Lectionary in The Christian Century: Genesis 45:1–15; Psalm 133

It echoed throughout my childhood: my mother’s exasperated voice, entreating my brother and me to stop our constant fighting before it cut years from her harried life. She was right on one of those assertions and wrong on another: my brother and I did indeed fight a lot, but he and I will gather peacefully in Hamburg, Germany, this year to celebrate her 80th birthday with her, so she was happily wrong about the life-shortening consequences of that bickering.

Having siblings can be a uniquely rich experience, but growing up with those same siblings can be hard. Very hard.

In many languages, including English and biblical Hebrew, the same word is used for biological siblings as for those who are deeply united in a cause, such as fellow Israelites serving the Lord or fellow Christian believers in the New Testament. The biblical text contains ample testimony to both the pitfalls and the thrills of forging that outward union into an inward unity.

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” The first line of Psalm 133—likely sung as people from across Israel made their way to Jerusalem for the High Holy Days—can evoke either jubilation about a unity and togetherness that is firmly in place or a pleading reminder that much needs to be done to achieve that unity.

Either way, the rewards the psalmist mentions are tremendous.

It’s like the soothing, healing, fragrant oil from above that runs down the hair, through the beard, and onto the robe of Aaron, where it pools on his chest plate containing the 12 stones that represent Israel’s tribes. (In both Spanish and Catalan Sign Language, Aaron’s name is signed by pointing to where the stones on his chest plate would be.) It’s also like the metaphoric covering of the whole land with life-giving, refreshing moisture, all the way from Mount Hermon in the far north to Jerusalem in the south.

Complete unity. Oneness, given from above.

See the rest of the lectionary with data from the Translation Insights & Perspectives tool right here.

For another perspective on the same text see Forgive and Forget?

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Reading Plan on YouVersion: Holy Week Through the Eyes of the Languages of the World

“This devotion that is intended to accompany you from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday presents Jesus as he approaches his death and is glorified in his resurrection in a way you might not have encountered him: Through the words of languages from around the world. Find out how other cultural norms and concepts find their expression in Bible translation and how that can have a deep impact on your own appreciation and understanding of God’s love for you.”

Subscribe to the 7-day reading plan on YouVersion right here.

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The Language of Faith: Bible translation throughout the centuries (article in MultiLingual magazine)

As a working translator, I knew that a “perfect” translation is neither a goal nor a possible reality. I knew that complete and linear transfer of form and meaning between two languages is not achievable, no matter how closely languages might be related. Like all translators, I knew that there is always something “lost in translation” (the favorite trope of journalists writing about anything related to translation). But I also knew that successful translation is still possible because so much can be gained in translation as well.

It’s in the balance between the two that a translation is successful. Since linear and complete transfer from one language to another is unattainable and therefore not a desirable goal, translators try to generate a text that becomes equivalent in its expressive force and meaning by transformation, by inevitably adding changed and new elements.

What if, I imagined, I could build a database to document those changed and new elements that have made their way into some, and maybe eventually all, of the 3,000+ languages into which the Bible has been translated? What if I could collect a listing of those fascinating terms, phrases, and constructs, and then go a step further to associate each with an explanation or a story or a back-translation into English so that they were actually accessible?

See the rest of this article in MultiLingual magazine right here.

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Article in Christianity Today: Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians

A visitor coming to Bible Gateway to look up John 3:16 has 63 options of English translations. For Christians, reading the same verse with an unfamiliar word or changed-up syntax—or in a more contemporary or lyrical version—can illuminate a biblical principle in a fresh way or strengthen the resonance of the passage.

Jost Zetzsche noticed this effect—but to an even stronger degree—when he began watching sign language translations. Zetzsche, a linguist, is the curator of United Bible Societies’ free Translation Insights & Perspectives (TIPs), an online tool that gathers insights from Bible translations in nearly 1,000 languages, including many sign languages. Zetzsche initially believed that adding these languages was just another part of his TIPs assignment.

“But as I began studying the recorded sign language translations,” he said, “I was astonished at how much I as a hearing person could learn from those languages that I had never experienced in others.”

He recently spoke with Ruth Anna Spooner, the lead translator on the American Sign Language Chronological Bible Translation team since 2019 and a trainer for Deaf-translation teams worldwide, to discuss the power of watching these sign language translations as a hearing person.

Read the rest of this article in Christianity Today right here .

The article is also available in

Spanish: https://es.christianitytoday.com/2025/01/lenguaje-senas-biblia-traduccion-mateo-15-marcos-2-es/

French: https://fr.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/tips-ubs-traduction-langues-signes-fr/

Portuguese: https://pt.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/lingua-sinais-traducao-biblia-mateus-15-marcos-2-pt/

Russian: https://ru.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/zhestovy-yazyk-biblia-perevod-surdoperevod-matfey-15-mark-2-ru/

Ukrainian: https://ua.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/zhestova-mova-bibliya-pereklad-surdopereklad-matviya-15-marka-2-ua/

German:

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Article on Bible Gateway: What Do Donkeys, Palms, and Psalms of Praise Have in Common?

Palm Sunday is here — the day in many churches when Sunday School children parade into church waving palm branches (or here in the cool Pacific Northwest, fern branches), much to the older church members’ delight.

It’s a lovely tradition, though its cute factor may not fully represent the intensity of the day it commemorates — Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem — just a few days before his brutal crucifixion. Jesus himself, of course, was only too painfully aware of the contrast, and that the jubilant crowds would turn on him in a matter of days.

To understand the nuances as Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem unfolds, let’s have a look at how different languages portray this day in the Bible. These examples come from the freely available Translation Insights & Perspectives (TIPs) tool, an interactive library of data that gives us a deeper understanding of how people from around the world talk to and about God.

Many sermons have explained that the donkey Jesus chose to ride symbolizes both victory and humility as laid out in Zechariah 9:9. And most of us know the stereotypical characteristics of a donkey, like their long ears and proverbial stubbornness. But reading the story in languages from cultures where donkeys are an integral part of daily life can help us understand deeper layers to the story.

For example, when Jesus sends two of his disciples to find a “colt that had never been ridden” in Luke 19:30 and Mark 11:2, this lengthy descriptive phrase in English comes from an equally lengthy phrase in Greek (“pōlon eph’ hon oudeis oupō anthrōpōn ekathisen”).

Why?

Because neither language has a single term to describe such an animal. Speakers of Kalmyk in Southern Russia, however, do have a specialized word — “arkhlata“ — for exactly that concept: “a colt that has never been ridden.” Through their precise language and cultural experience, the 80,000 speakers of Kalmyk therefore have a much easier way to immediately visualize the unpredictability and unruliness of Jesus’ never-ridden young donkey.

See the rest of this article right here .

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Article on Bible Gateway: The Gift of the Prince of Peace

As we approach Christmas and look back at this long year, “peace” may not be the first word most of us will associate with the last twelve months. Still, I — and I suspect many who read these words — long for exactly that: peace.

The Many Meanings of Peace

If we take time to ponder this longed-for “peace,” we quickly realize its very broad range of meanings.

There is the absence or cessation of strife or war. There’s the inner peace that, similar to the first meaning, is also the absence or cessation of struggles, but within a single person. Google surprisingly offers the “peace greeting” used in many Christian churches as the third possible meaning of “peace.”

Read more right here .