No book in the history of the world has been so often copied, printed, translated, read, and studied as the Bible. It stands uniquely as the object of so much effort devoted to preserving it faithfully, to understanding it accurately, and to proclaiming it widely.[1] As someone said, “Here flows the fountain of life, because God himself speaks in it.”[2]

But the Bible didn’t just drop out of heaven and into our hands. The Bible we hold is the result of a long process. It comes to us through a long line of authors and through a long line of translators. Many people suffered and died to give us the privilege of reading the Bible in our own language.

Today is Bible Translation Day. It’s a day to celebrate the work of Bible translation and appreciate the privilege of having translations of the Bible in our own language. So I’d like to consider several things that we ought to know about the Bible, the process by which we received it, and what we should do with it. There are several words or concepts related to Bible translation we should understand.

[1] Wurthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, p. 121. Edited.

[2] Wurthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, p. 121.