ETEN and the Economics of Bible Translation: An Inquiry into Values

“It was a truly excellent translation …but nobody really used it.”

No one wants this as the epitaph of their work and yet sadly many translated scriptures have been underused, some to the point of being unused. We have known about this for decades, and sought to understand and mitigate some of the factors.

This paper looks at the quest for quality, not only in Bible translation but in the relationships, and understanding that facilitate the use and impact of translated Scripture. The author takes an engaging journey through the last 40+ years of archives looking at the history and development of Scripture Engagement in the context of a rapidly changing Bible Translation landscape with a multitude of new technologies, techniques, and participants.

Current perceived priorities are accompanied by some exciting and/or unnerving possibilities, yet much of what seems obvious today was once fresh insight, much of what we learnt on the way needs looking at with fresh eyes and appreciation of earlier pioneers and their vision as we explore a range of current concerns and (often overlooked) wisdom from the past.