It can be exciting and challenging when it happens.
I refer to those times when, for those of us who have been reading the Bible for many years, God takes a long-familiar verse and brings its meaning to life for us in a new way, deepening our understanding of him, of his Word, and of his love for us.
If this experience is powerful for those of us who are reading something we’ve read many times before, try to imagine what it’s like when you’re moving from reading the Bible in your second or third language, to experiencing it in your first language for the first time.
Northern Nigeria
Margaret Mado, who is the administrator of the Linguistics and Translation Department of the Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN), talks about how John 15.15 came alive for her in a new way when she read it for the first time in her language, Berom.
Margaret, who speaks very good English, had heard Jesus’ words in John 15.15 – ‘I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you’ – in English before, but it was only when she heard it in Berom that the full force and meaning of Jesus’ words impacted her heart and soul.
‘Friend’
‘The word friend in Berom means you have a relationship with someone and you are free and open with that person to talk and discuss together. You listen to each other, eat from the same dish, visit each other, work on each other’s farmland, and respect each other,’ Margaret explains. ‘When I heard the passage in Berom for the first time I truly understood the meaning of what Jesus was saying – that he invites me to be not a servant but a friend.
‘That means I can grow and learn a lot when I spend time with Jesus, and I no longer have to be afraid of him. I used to be so afraid of God and Jesus. My fear now comes from a heart of reverence for who God is. Knowing that Jesus is my friend has changed a whole lot about the way I live, and knowing that helps me to learn to relate with others better, as he teaches me more about relationships. When I was growing up my father had a friend I used to think was his brother; they had a beautiful relationship, and I remember when he came to visit they would sit together and talk for hours, and eat together and even then, as a girl of ten, I could see the joy and contentment they had. Now that is the picture I see when I hear Jesus calling believers his friends. There is joy and contentment in knowing Jesus as a friend.’
This is such a beautiful story of how God uses his Word – and the necessary work of Bible translation – to communicate his heart to people like Margaret. And God is using it to communicate to me as well – after hearing Margaret’s story, whenever I now read John 15.15 I picture her father and his friend relaxing together and enjoying each other’s company – and that deepens my own understanding of Jesus’ words and of the joy and contentment that comes from calling Jesus my friend.
Nigeria – most needy
This is just one story about how God uses having the Bible in people’s own language to bring his Word alive for them in a way that leads to a deeper understanding of who God is and his relationship with us.
Margaret now works at a college that trains people from Nigeria – which is one of the countries with the most languages still needing translation – to translate the Bible. Training translators in their home countries is a significant part of the Bible translation work that Wycliffe is involved in and Wycliffe sponsors some of the students currently studying at TCNN – you can read more about a number of these students in the current issue of our magazine Words for Life at wycliffe.org.uk/wordsforlife, or explore more about how you could sponsor a student at wycliffe.org.uk/projects
