By Matt Taylor —
Recently some of the Nukna people were reading through the translation of Colossians with me, checking for accuracy and naturalness. After one particular passage, I noticed one of the Nukna men smiling and chuckling to himself. When I asked what was going on, he replied, “It’s just that for a minute there I forgot it was a translation. It’s like Paul knows the Nukna language and is speaking directly to me!”
Moments like these greatly encourage us to persevere in the task God has given us, to partner with the Nukna to translate the good news of Jesus into their heart language. It’s a long and complicated process, and there are no shortcuts to achieving a high-quality translation that speaks to the hearts of the Nukna while also remaining faithful to the original text.
Recently the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians and 1 & 2 Timothy have been checked by a translation consultant and given final approval for publication. Our translation team has also completed several stages in the translations of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Titus and Philemon. These books are now ready to be consultant checked as well. Our hope is to publish these 10 Pauline epistles later next year, in both printed and audio formats.
This originally appeared on the PNG Experience blog here
