Why Bible Translation?
Matthew 28:19
The Great Commission Assumes the Task of Bible Translation
You can’t make disciples of the nations if those disciples can’t access God’s word in the language they understand best.
Romans 10:14 also assumes Bible translation: “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” You can’t preach the gospel in a compelling, clear way unless you use the language that people group understands best. A translated Bible enables that kind of preaching to flourish and impact hearts with power.
Spiritual growth, sound doctrine, healthy churches, theological education, humble and knowledgeable leaders, fighting heresies like the prosperity gospel–all depend on having access to a Bible that communicates clearly and accurately in someone’s heart language.
Some Astonishing Stats
The Need
Language groups on every continent are yearning for the complete Bible, which means they want the Old Testament too (which we like to call the First Testament). Hundreds of people groups only have access to the New Testament, and they need the First Testament desperately. Can you imagine being a Christian without any Psalms in your Bible? Or without Genesis?
It's Time for a Paradigm Shift
Give Hebrew
Many translators who want to learn Hebrew through a communicative method, instead of the grammatical method that most non-westerners find intimidating. But for years they’ve had to go to Israel to do that, which is one of the most expensive countries in the world (more even than the U.S., U.K., or Denmark). This means teachers there are forced to charge or raise a lot of money just to cover the expense of their programs, and the translator has to leave home and family for months. Sometimes it’s also required that they speak English. They may be extremely intelligent, but just can’t afford it. Others may be offered scholarships, but can’t leave their farm, ministry, or family.
Enter our free method, available everywhere. We hope more people will join us in employing a model unencumbered by copyrights and paywalls.
Cheap and Scalable
At Aleph with Beth we believe that biblical Hebrew training has to be 1) scalable, 2) affordable, and 3) available. To meet the massive need to train more than 10,000 translators, we need something that can be copied digitally and spread easily to thousands of people. In-person training is ideal, but it’s a luxury that can’t scale to reach the global need, so it shouldn’t be the only option. Our videos provide an alternative that has no limit to how many people can use them to learn, because they’re publicly accessible with no barriers, and they’re monolingual (which means people don’t need to know another language like English to learn). They’re affordable, because they’re FREE. And they’re available anywhere on the planet if someone has a device to watch them, even where there’s no internet.
By creating this resource we also hope to empower and equip teachers who want to teach this way locally in any part of the world. They can use our videos to guide people through the learning process, and answer questions in the local language.
יָבֵ֥שׁ חָצִ֖יר נָ֣בֵֽל צִ֑יץ וּדְבַר־אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יָק֥וּם לְעֹולָֽם׃
-Isa 40:8
Free Hebrew → Whole Bibles → Whole People
While the New Testament is wonderful, it’s impossible to understand without the First Testament, the Bible that Jesus and the apostles read and loved. When God first said, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3), He wasn’t talking about the NT. So giving the ability to read and translate the First Testament is a way of giving life. We’re thrilled that you’ve taken the time to learn more about our vision and the global need! If you think this is an initiative worthy of investment, we’d be honored if you would partner with us in prayer! Only God can give us strength and provide for our needs as we seek to build these resources for the global Church, for Bible translation and beyond.