What is a centurion? and other translation complexities

 Jesus and the Centurion by Paolo Veronese, 1571

Here's a little taste of the complexities of Bible translation. We'll start with a simple verse like Matthew 8:5. "When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him." Sounds easy, right?

Here are some of the questions that I would ask while checking the Jita translation of that verse.

1. Who is "he" referring to? The closest referent is the leper from verse 4. But "he" actually refers to Jesus. Is this clear in the Jita translation?

2. What is Capernaum? A person, a country, a building? It's actually an inhabited settlement. But is it a town, a city, or a village? Should we include a map in our translation?

3. How do we spell Capernaum in natural Jita? The Jita language has no letter "c" by itself. And Jita has rules about every syllable having one consonant and one vowel (sometimes a long vowel). Finally, every Jita word ends with a vowel. Therefore, we get [Kaperinaawumu].

4. What is a centurion? It's a Roman military officer commanding about one hundred men who ranks under a tribune. This concept is totally foreign to Jita language and culture. How do we communicate the intended meaning? We could transliterate the Greek hekatontarkes. But that's not very helpful. We could use the entire long definition. But that breaks the flow of the passage. Maybe we should use a short phrase that captures the meaning. If we do that, should we also include a footnote with more explanation? Should we include an entry in the Glossary?

5. Some Bible versions put the words "appealing to him" in verse 6. What should we do?

6. I think the most interesting phrase is "came forward to him." The Jita language captures this meaning with one word, [^naamujaa-ko]. Literally it means, "and then he went to him there." The little ^ symbol in front of the word is a tone marker. Without the tone marker, the meaning would be "I went to him there this morning."

...and many, many more questions.

In the end, here's the verse in Jita,
Omwanya gunu Yeesu :eengiiye mu‑musi gwa Kaperinaawumu, omwangarisi umwi wa abhasirikare bha Echiruumi ˆnaamujaa‑ko.

Pray that the Jita people will read and understand this story about Jesus and the centurion. Pray that they would trust Jesus as the one who has power over sickness and power to grant salvation to everyone who has faith in him...even the Jita people!

Jesus Messiah for Jita kids

We just finished translating a gospel comic book for kids called Jesus Messiah!  When we tested the translation in Jita villages, the children loved looking at the pictures and hearing the story of Jesus in their own language. I love the subtitle that the translators chose for this book, "The Man who Changes People's Hearts." Now we're praying that Jesus would change the hearts of many Jita children as they see and hear the gospel in this book. We're also praying that this book will help Jita children become more familiar with reading the Jita language so that they are ready to read the New Testament when we print it in a couple years.

Helping the Zinza team

The Zinza chose the picture of Paul with hair while the Jita chose the picture of bald Paul!

Praise the Lord that now the Zinza people have access to more Scripture!!

Do you remember when Ben helped the Jita team publish their translation of 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, and Titus last year? We're so thankful that the Jita people can read and enjoy those beautiful portions of God's Word. Because of that recent experience, Ben was asked to help the Zinza team publish the same books. The Zinza people live in Tanzania, not too far from the Jita people.

The process of printing a portion of Scripture requires a ton of detail work and organization. Ben was communicating with the translators, the translation advisor, the linguistic consultant, the typesetter, the printer, the budget-holder, and the proof-reader.

Finally, the books were printed and delivered to the Zinza people. They had a special dedication service to celebrate the occasion.

And no celebration is complete without a little dancing.

Pray that the Zinza people will be comforted, convicted, and strengthened in their faith as they read God's Word in their own language.

Exciting progress for the Jita translation

Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! --Psalm 98:1

We're so excited about the progress that we are making in the Jita translation. We're thankful that God has enabled Ben to continue working with the translators even while he is in America. They just finished the final check of the book of Mark. Now they are preparing the book of Matthew for typesetting and eventually publication. We've also reached a significant milestone in the Jita translation. We are now working in every book of the New Testament! We can see the finish line closer than ever. Please keep praying for us!

Why we filtered our water in Tanzania

Hey everybody,
Check out this new video about why we filtered our water in Tanzania. When you enjoy clean, pure drinking water in America, say a prayer for us.

Early mornings to finish the book of Mark

Thank you for your prayers for Ben and the Jita team as they finished the final check on the book of Mark. We're thanking God that Ben was awake and alert at 4:00am everyday and that the technology worked marvelously.

The team worked really hard to make sure that the meaning of Jesus' words in Mark 2:17 came across accurately and clearly, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Then they had to be very careful with the parable of the sower and the soils in Mark 4. The Jita word for "sower" is omubhibhi, and the Jita word for "evil person" is omubhiibhi. We need to make sure that we spell it correctly!

We're excited that the Jita people can now read about
Emisango ja Ekisi ja Yeesu Kirisito, Omwana wa Nyamuwanga
"the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1)

Jesus is with the Jita people

We're thanking God that we finished the final check of the book of Matthew in the Jita language! Please pray for us as we prepare the book to be published. We want every Jita person to trust Jesus as the one who has "all authority in heaven and on earth," and who promises, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:18+20).

a revision of Ruth

Praise God that we finished the revision of the book of Ruth in Jita!

It was first printed back in 2012, but since then we've sold all the copies, and we've also finalized our alphabet and spelling rules for Jita. Therefore, we updated the text to make sure that everything is correct and consistent, and then we printed the book again. Now it's ready to be a blessing to the Jita people....again!

So that all the Jita people may give glory to God

Praise God that Ben finished checking the first draft of the book of Romans in the Jita language! Now it's ready for a community check in the village and then a final Consultant check. It was fun to discuss the beautiful doxology in Romans 11:33-36, Nyamuwanga akusibhwe akajaanende koone. Aamina. To God be the glory forever. Amen.