Wycliffe Bible Translators, a leader in the field of Bible translation for decades, is reporting remarkable progress toward the goal of making the Bible available in every language on Earth.
“Our focus is how do we see God’s word come to these languages that have never had scripture in their own language and that is our heart passion and that’s what we’ve been about for these 80-plus years,” John Chesnut, president of Wycliffe Translators told CBN News.
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Of the world’s approximate 7,300 languages, Wycliffe has translated 750 full Bibles and another 1,700 New Testaments.
The group is deeply pursuing Vision 2025, a goal established in the late nineties to implement translations in every language by the year 2025.
At the time, it was believed they would need to begin programs in 3,000 translations over that span to reach the goal.
That number recently fell below 1,000 – an unprecedented victory in the translation space.
“As of today, it is about 888 remaining languages that are on our list anyway, so it’s been huge, huge progress since 1999,” explained Chesnut.
He credits the success to Wycliffe’s partnerships with local churches in distant countries.
“The new thing that we’re seeing God do is that he literally is raising up his church around the world and taking on this effort,” said Chesnut. “They’re owning it now. They’re the ones that are doing it. And more and more, our role is coming alongside of these groups to say, ‘Can we help you accomplish what God has placed on your heart?'”
Artificial intelligence is also playing a role.
“God’s using it for his glory as well. So, we have a new tool that just has been out here for probably about a year or so that if a New Testament has been translated they can use the material from the New Testament to load into the software and it will draft an Old Testament in just a few days.”
Translators also have access to equipment that can help create an alphabet in places where none exists.
“We have another AI tool that, where there’s nothing written, no scripture yet at all, that will gather words from the community and then it uses that to teach the machine on how to draft translation too. So, that’s where there’s nothing started to help accelerate that as well,” Chesnut said..
It is innovation he believes could pave the way to fulfill the Great Commission sooner than ever imagined.
“This is the first generation that can look and say, ‘This could happen during our lifetime.’ And I mean, it’s an incredible day to be part of what God’s doing around the world.”
