Ninety percent of people worldwide have at least a portion of Scripture available in their mother tongue. Another factor to give attention to is how Scripture reaches people: (1) in a mother tongue (2) in a near language or cluster language (where no mother-tongue translation exists) (3) in an intercultural language (or lingua franca) or (4) in any given second language. Therefore, language percentages indicating either translation progress or deficiency have to be examined in context. There are approximately 7,000 languages worldwide, but they obviously do not all have an equal number of speakers. Additionally, the size of the world’s languages must also be taken into consideration. It is important to view translation deficiencies through these three lenses in order to gain a more accurate depiction of the situation. īible translation is typically measured in three ways: availability of full Bibles, New Testaments, or portions (normally the gospels, but can be any published book of the Bible). For example, the databases of the American Bible Society, the United Bible Societies, and Wycliffe Bible Translators contain many languages listed by different names, making it next to impossible to clearly define the progress of Bible translation in those languages. However, it is challenging because of the nature of that task: defining and tracking progress across 7,000+ languages can be burdensome. Defining the progress of Bible translation might seem on the surface like a relatively simple undertaking, considering the plethora of resources made available by numerous organizations who have a similar heart for the task. The Commitment states that the church must “hasten the translation of the Bible into the languages of people who do not yet have any portion of God’s Word in their mother tongue” and includes a statement regarding making the Bible widely available orally. The Cape Town Commitment discusses Bible translation under the heading “unreached and unengaged peoples” as one of the many challenges facing eradicating “Bible poverty” in the world. Helpful indicators of actual progress for some of the topics referenced, however, are much easier to pinpoint. Many of the salient points of the Cape Town Commitment are difficult to measure tangibly: love, faithful witness, and discipleship, among others.
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