Rethinking Anthropology for Quality in Bible Translation

Current anthropology contributes to quality in Bible translation by providing new ideas, approaches and methods. We start with a theologically engaged anthropology, which takes biblical texts and spiritual realities seriously. We then look at reflexivity, the critique of culture and the turn to ontology. These anthropological developments permit us to move away from a structured approach that studies culture to one that focuses on people and communities, and more specifically, the different actors involved in Bible translation.

More practically, we propose that we should not assume what quality is, but rather research what specific audiences understand by it. The better we know the different people involved in Bible translation, the better quality we can hope for. We should not only study biblical characters, their environments and a text’s original audiences, but also research translators’ backgrounds, the audiences’ human environments and consider other people who are involved in translation, including administrators and consultants. When it comes to project planning and translation procedure, we should also draw on anthropology to understand people’s work preferences and the ways they make decisions, for example.

For every activity that contributes to Bible translation, we need to start with people and understand how they think, act and live in community. This, we argue, should form the basis of taking each other seriously and of working together to achieve the kind of quality in translation that all involved in translation can approve.