Lost in the Translation

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a Bible translator in Central America and she told me that they have only translated the New Testament to this point (and she has been there over 20 years). I looked into this further and found that this is pretty much the case across the world. If you had to translate a part of the Bible as quickly as possible with maximum effectiveness, of course you would focus on the NT.

However, they are finding out that the Old Testament is more than just a luxury - these cultures are begging for the whole story, for a number of reasons:

1. They feel that they've picked up the story in the middle. Why the need for a Messiah? Where does He fit into the Big Picture? What about the beginning? Where are the frames of reference for all that is happening? If Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law, the final Sacrifice, what does that even mean? There is so much missing if you just pick it up in the Gospels.

2. Many of these cultures have a great understanding of the OT culture. They get why the genealogies are so important. They understand the Law better because their societies are similar in how they function. Even the agricultural concepts are more familiar to them than to us. The OT makes sense to them.

3. They miss the incredible stories of faith. Read David and Goliath like you're reading it for the first time. Or Joseph, Elijah, Daniel, Nehemiah. . . . . these are people who believed that God would actually move and act in wonderful ways. Because they're so familiar to us they can lose their emotional impact. Imagine reading the story of Joshua crossing the Jordan and taking down Jericho for the first time. You would think anything was possible with God. (What an amazing thought!) The verses and doctrine of the NT come to life with the stories of the OT.

Read the whole Bible and be thankful that you can.