Claim OwnershipWorking for the Word - a Bible translation podcast
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© Andrew Case
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It's been said that people don't want to know: 1) how sausages are made, 2) how bibles are translated. In this podcast we bravely talk about the latter, go deep into biblical studies, and seek to treasure and understand the Bible together. It's for people who want to get nerdy about Scripture and for those who want to understand how their translations came to be. Everything from history to Hebrew, we're on a quest to learn more and make beautiful translations of God's Word. We believe the Bible is a unified, God-breathed, God-centered, hope-giving book, sweeter than honey, pointing to Jesus.
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Last year at the Bible Translation conference Kris and Susan Toler presented a paper titled Breaking the Literate Bias: Exploring the Sufficiency of Oral Bible Translation. In it they examine Oral Bible Translation (OBT) as a rigorous and sufficient alternative to traditional written methods, specifically for oral-preference communities. They argue that a deep-seated literacy bias in missions often leads people to incorrectly view spoken Scripture as inferior to printed books. But they demonstrate that OBT utilizes the same high standards of accuracy and naturalness as written translations. The paper provides evidence that audio-based Scripture fosters better engagement, deeper comprehension, and intergenerational participation within cultures that prioritize oral communication. Given the very nature of the topic, it would be best to present this in audio to you, the listener. Once again, because I’m a dad with babies, I’m relying more on NotebookLM to help me present some of this information, not simply because it saves incalculable hours of time, but also because it often does such a superior job, even in spite of occasional imperfections. In this particular recording there will be some pronunciation mistakes regarding the name of the Central Pame people group, but if you can overlook that, you’ll glean some very valuable insights, challenging ideas, and healthy food for thought.Read the paper.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
We’ve talked about the Key Terms of the Old Testament (KTOT) project in the past, but in this episode I wanted to reintroduce it to those who are unfamiliar, and allow one of the contributors to share their work on one key term in their own voice. So let me introduce you to Ayala Wing. She was raised in Israel, in a Christian family, and she’s an OT translation consultant with Wycliffe. She and her husband currently live in Luxembourg, Germany, and hope to move back to Israel in God’s timing. She wrote the KTOT article on root YDH in Hebrew, which typically is rendered as to give thanks, and in its nominal form TODAH, is typically rendered as thanks or thanksgiving. But she’s offering a challenge to this traditional understanding. Her article on this term is freely available in Translator’s Workplace and in the KTOT addition to Paratext. Read her article.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
First, I have a new podcast that’s extremely eclectic that summarizes interesting books of all kinds, from theology to travelogues and everything in between. If you’re at all interested in seeing some of the things I’m learning about or want to highlight for others, and don’t have time to read tons of books, these are usually about 30 mins long each. It’s a fun one.Second, the expanded and revised edition of my book on the Divine name is out now, so you can get a free copy. It's free on all the ebook platforms. If you want a paperback, it's available at cost for a little over six dollars on Amazon. If you don't have time to read it, I've already recorded the audio for it and will be releasing it here on the podcast as I edit it. This will effectively replace the series I did a few years ago. Also, the book is public domain, so feel free to make your own version or translate it into another language. I'll be translating it to Spanish and Portuguese soon, Lord willing. Third, I want everyone to know that there’s a free book out called God Spoke, and it has been dedicated to the public domain. The author wanted something modern and comprehensive to be available freely to everyone about the transmission of the text of Scripture–in essence, how we got the Bible. I’ll link that in the description as well: God Spoke by Matthew Mangum.Fourth, there’s a new text of the GNT coming out soon, which will also be public domain. I recently interviewed one of the guys behind it on the Selling Jesus channel. Whether or not you agree with his choice of textual tradition for the Greek New Testament, Dwayne Green and his colleagues are setting a refreshing, biblical example of freely giving their work of ministry. It represents countless hours of labor for the Church. If you want to learn more about their work and why they believe the Byzantine Text is better than the Critical Text, check out the following videos:Reason 1 - Conjectural Emendation: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 1Reason 2 - Geography: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 2Reason 3 - Accounts Best for the History of MSS and the Church: Why the BYZANTINE text is the BEST 3
We’re going to go a bit meta in this episode. Since Jeff and Judy talked about AI in the last episode, we’re going to feed their paper into NotebookLM and see how it does presenting their ideas. Why do this? First, because it’s kind of funny. Second, because their message is important enough to listen to again from another angle, so that you can internalize it better. Third, because NotebookLM actually does a fantastic job at this kind of thing, and I hope it inspires more people to consider using it to generate exegetical summaries for translators to listen to in different languages of wider communication.
1Jeff and Judy Heath join us in this episode to talk about their recent presentation at the Bible Translation conference called The Privilege of the First Draft, which critically examines the technical and ethical implications of using Artificial Intelligence tools, specifically Scripture Forge, to generate initial drafts of Bible translations. The paper highlights that AI-drafted texts in their target language demonstrated numerous problems. They explore the limitations of AI, such as its inability to understand meaning, its dependence on limited training data for minority languages, and the risks of cognitive offloading for human translators. Ultimately, the paper concludes with a strong recommendation that the essential "privilege of first draft" should be reserved for in-culture, first-language speakers to preserve the human, spiritual, and cultural integrity of the translation process.Write to judy_heath@sil.org for a copy of the unpublished paper.Bibliography for further study.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
Read the thesis.Listen to the SEB version of Jonah.I recently came across this new master’s thesis out of Dallas International University by Christine Doi on differences between oral and written English. It’s fascinating, but I know most people won’t have time to read all 166 pages of it. So I went ahead and generated a NotebookLM summary of it for you, and it turned out to be amazing. I hope you find it as useful and engaging as I did.Abstract: This thesis explores differences between spoken American English and written American English through a comparative analysis of two written translations of Jonah withan oral translation of Jonah. The author outlines research elements of analysis pertaining to the academic fields of orality studies, emotion studies, and prosody studies. Additional relevant elements regarding discourse analysis and contextual background of the source material are also covered. The author outlines the methodology of the analysis resulting in a two-part comparative analysis: a data analysis of features, and a qualitative analysis comparing the translations side-by-side. Included in both parts of the analysis are small-scope prosodic analyses of features of interest. The author observes, as a result from this analysis, differences in word and clause length, emotional coding, explication, and verbdiversity among other findings. These findings contribute evidence to the discussion regarding differences between oral and written language.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode we conclude our journey through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone.The Problem with Creative Commons SharealikeGet a free copy of Abolish the Jesus Trade"Interesting Book Summaries from Andrew Case" podcast"Libros Importantes" podcastwebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections:Marginal referencesItalics and other modes of marking supplementary wordswebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections:Cases in which a translator is liable to be misled by the English BibleAlternative renderings, explanations of proper names, etc.Marginal referenceswebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
This past week I presented two talks at Doreancon 2025 on the Stewardship of Scripture, where we launched a historic statement I would invite you to consider signing and sharing. This is the first talk that I presented. You can find an unfinished draft of the talk and others here.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
This past week I presented two talks at Doreancon 2025 on the Stewardship of Scripture, where we launched a historic statement I would invite you to consider signing and sharing. This is the second talk that I presented. You can find an unfinished draft of the talk and others here.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
What do you do when you’ve finished translating a portion of the Bible and want to print it? How do you typeset it? Do you have to pay an outside expert thousands of dollars to make it look beautiful and professional? Or is there another option? My guest in this episode explains how he has spent years of his life making this step painless and free for everyone–from the most low-tech person in a hurry to the most artistic and meticulous perfectionist. PTXprintPretorewebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections:On the translation or representation of the biblical names for GodOn the transference or translation of the word baptizeOn diversities of dialect and style; and on honorific titleswebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode we continue working our way through the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We cover the following sections of chapter 1:§ 2.- 0N METHODS OF TRANSLATING; WITH REMARKS ON SOME EXISTING VERSIONS.§ 3. - THE RECEIVED TEXT TO BE FOLLOWED; ON THE USE OFALTERNATIVE READINGS.§ 4. - 0N ACCURACY AND CONSISTENCY IN THE TRANSLATION OF RELIGIOUS TERMS.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
Watch this video to get the full story."Abolish the Jesus Trade": https://sellingJesus.org/bookIt’s a dark day for Bible translation, and my heart is made heavy by a recent experience I had with one of the largest organizations in the movement. I posted a video about the whole thing which you’ll find linked in the description if you’re interested in finding out what happened.In light of the sad reality I was made painfully aware of, I’d like to start a new series. I’ll be walking through translation principles so that this section of the podcast can be a place where people can get the fundamental training they need in the discipline and art of translation. But this will only come from sources that are either public domain or openly licensed. Because I highly value the past and those who have gone before, even when linguistics was a fledgling field of study compared to the present day, I want to begin with the 1877 book Suggestions for Translators, Editors, and Revisers of the Bible by the Reverend R.B. Girdlestone, who was a superintendent of the translating and editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
It's a pleasure to feature the work of veteran Bible translator Nico Daams in this episode. In this paper he seeks to show that the name YHWH ’Elohim is used in rather unique contexts, and this in turn will suggest that the meaning of this name is more than just the sum total of the two parts YHWH and ’Elohim.Read the paper.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
An invitation to unite in one conviction: Scripture is the Word of God, and he has authorized his people to use, copy, distribute, and adapt it regardless of man’s consent.Read the statement: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12DwWu4BZpAu-Ys0Pbg0jDrK7tthzVZFEfaxpZOWEA1c/edit?usp=sharingSend feedback: https://forms.gle/67jLjk6xecJP4QMU7https://www.doreancon.org/#doreancon 2025The Stewardship of ScriptureOctober 7-8Hosted at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church, Sunnyvale, Californiawebsite | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
The Solid Rock Hebrew Bible represents a significant step forward in the ongoing effort to recover the most accurate possible form of the biblical text. Unlike many standard editions in circulation today—which are largely based on a single medieval manuscript—this volume offers an eclectic Hebrew text informed by the insights of modern textual criticism. The goal: to move closer to the original wording of the Scriptures as they were first composed.This edition moves beyond the limitations of diplomatic editions—texts that follow a single manuscript while relegating alternative readings to the margins. Instead, the Solid Rock Hebrew Bible integrates thousands of textual decisions directly into the text, reflecting the editor’s judgment regarding the most probable original forms.That said, this is not a critical edition in the traditional sense. Readers will not find an exhaustive apparatus detailing the textual variants or the evidence behind each decision. Rather, this is a curated edition, transparently offered as the editor’s best effort, subject to revision and open to critique. It is a scholarly but accessible resource that welcomes engagement from others in the field.Another notable feature is the adoption of the Tiberian vocalization system—commonly used in medieval manuscripts—while also making reasoned deviations where warranted by linguistic, exegetical, or historical considerations. The divine name, for instance, is presented as יַהְוֶה (Yahweh) throughout, except in Chronicles, reflecting both historical pronunciation and sensitivity to textual tradition.Importantly, this edition is also open-access. It’s freely available in electronic format and released under a Creative Commons license, making it a valuable tool for students, teachers, pastors, and scholars around the world, regardless of institutional access or financial means.Download the SRHB and view the notes.Explore other projects from Stephen.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
What if Mother Teresa or Billy Graham lived and worked — and nobody knew their names? What if one of the church’s most influential missionaries went almost unnoticed?Meet Katharine (Katy) Barnwell. Within Bible translation, she’s a legend. Outside of Bible translation, few have heard of her. But not even Billy Graham holds a candle to what God did through Katy.From hiding as a child from Nazi bombing raids, fleeing civil wars, and remaining calm under terrorist attacks and armed gunmen, to utterly revolutionizing every field she touched, Barnwell’s life proves there is no need to treat the missionary hall of fame as if its ranks are closed. On the contrary, her kingdom labor reveals that God is still in the business of raising up contemporary “greats” who are willing to face danger, go the distance, lift up God’s Word in unprecedented ways, and see the lost turn to Christ in droves. In fact, there may be no “great” in all of church history who matches Barnwell’s level of influence. All around the world, hundreds of millions of new believers read and hear Scripture in their own language because of Barnwell’s work, books, and language training. By some estimates, about 3,000 completed or in-process Bible translations swim directly downstream of her work. Since she rebuilt The Jesus Film Project’s methods, more than 300 million viewers around the world have become followers of Jesus. Author Jordan Monson joins us in this episode to talk about his new book on Barnwell's life. You can get your copy here.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
In this episode, we dive into the captivating and complex history of Bible translation in Thailand. Our guest, Doug Liao, has spent a lot of time studying the history of Bible translation into Thai, and helps introduce us to the pioneers who brought the Scriptures to this unique cultural landscape. In this lesson from history we'll be reminded of how messy and controversial Bible translation can be, in spite of the best intentions.Doug Liao is a PhD Candidate at Fuller Seminary, studying the history of the first translations of the New Testament into Siamese in the nineteenth century. However, in the last year, he has written several articles about the history of the 1971 revision of the Thai Bible, including one for the Bible Translator journal, which we’ll be discussing in this interview. Doug lives on the west coast of Canada with his wife, Joy.website | books | twitter | music | Hebrew | articles | facebook | contact | download all episodes for offline
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great dedicated and delightful work for the word there, Andrew, me a translation consultant with sil, endorse your effort, bro.