Jacob Bullock has spent his career in service of the global Church and working towards the elimination of Bible poverty. He and his wife Juliann worked in Papua New Guinea for over a decade supporting the work of Bible translation in PNG. During this time, he served as a course instructor at the Pacific Institute of Languages, Arts, and Translation (PILAT), a joint venture between SIL-PNG and the Bible Translation Association of Papua New Guinea. His published research explores the intersections of linguist and literary pragmatics, global theology, biblical interpretation, and translation theory. Currently, Jacob is part of the SIL NLP Team supporting innovative applications of emerging technologies to Bible translation.
Keeping the Edges Rough: How to Translate the Obscene, Vulgar, and Profane parts of Scripture to Foster Human Thriving
Abstract
At times, Biblical literature is shocking, embarrassing, or grotesque. Yet the most offensive passages often communicate theological truth with the most poignancy and urgency. Integrating cognitive science, communication theory, and theology this paper argues for preserving rough edges in translation and proposes a methodology for handling such texts.
About the Author
SIL Global