The Bible for Muslims–A Difficult Strategy
The current issue of WORLD magazine has a feature article “The battle for accurate Bible translation in Asia” which interviews Fikret Bocek extensively. Fikret is concerned with Western missions organizations not being patient enough with work being done among Muslims and therefore, they are making Bible translations more “palatable” to Muslim readers and loosing some of its truth. This is a great article that sheds light on the current struggles to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the Muslim world. May we continually pray for the Spirit to work in the hearts of those that are lost and turn the offensiveness of the Scriptures into sweet, sweet words of God to their souls.
If the name of Fikret Bocek sounds familiar to you that is because the WHI interviewed him on our October 23, 2011 program. The audio of that show is below:
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February 23rd, 2012 at 2:01 pm
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February 24th, 2012 at 8:34 am
World Magazine is once again at the forefront of another Bible translation controversy. In their first go round they accused the TNIV of having a feminist bias. Although the ensuing debate displayed the brutal ignorance of a lot of “christian leaders” with respect to NT Greek and the simple use of a lexicon, I’m still looking for the feminist bias.
Even though a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, I have zero use for World’s reporting on a Bible translation.
February 24th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Paul, so I guess the squirrel found the acorn? If that’s the case, don’t let your dislike of the magazine shadow what may be a very important story for many of us Christians in the West to know. This is particularly true if we are supporting institutions which contribute to bad Bible translations.
It seems to me that what we must hold with greatest care and transmission is the text of Scripture. We who care for translators to give us a good and reliable translation of Scripture should care for what is handed to others where less literature is available. I would definitely want Christians to be concerned for the Bibles I receive if I lived in a place with little Christian literature. We should do unto them, as we would want done unto us.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
The link to the World article is back to this article. I want to send this along but would appreciate the correction if possible. Thanks.
February 25th, 2012 at 9:58 am
>>>>Paul, so I guess the squirrel found the acorn?<<<<
World Magazine has found someone who doesn't like the translation methodologies of Wycliffe. Bocek's take is that they don't need anyone trying to improve upon the translation he already has. Instead, we just need patience.
So who is right? Well obviously it is Bocek and World. Bocek has seen fruit with the version he already has. Therefore, there is no longer a need for further translations. It's that simple!
February 28th, 2012 at 11:10 am
[...] to continue to live and act like Muslims. This teaser clip speaks to the issue we brought up last week concerning the removal of offensive words in Bible translations being produced for [...]