JBTM Perry Oakes35powering the global church to do most of the work of translating the <strong>Bible</strong> for themselves. Thisincludes managing the quality of the content.As with translation, in the area of quality control we are seeking to provide training, tools,and processes. There will be guidelines on how to check Scripture in translationAcademy. Thereare also several tools built in to the website and to the process. We have designed our systemof quality control to have three levels through which the translation will need to p<strong>as</strong>s in orderto be used <strong>as</strong> a gateway translation source text. At Level One, the translators certify that theydid their draft in accordance with the unfoldingWord doctrinal statement and the translationguidelines. They also certify that they used the notes and other translation tools. The translationis then clearly marked <strong>as</strong> a Level One. If it is a translation of OBS, it can be moved fromDoor43 over to the unfoldingWord website and made publically available, still clearly marked<strong>as</strong> Level One. If it is Scripture, it h<strong>as</strong> to p<strong>as</strong>s Level Two before it can be made public.At Level Two, the translators need to certify that they have checked the translation withmembers of the community for clarity and naturalness. We provide a list of comprehensionquestions for OBS and for each chapter of the <strong>Bible</strong> that they can use for this purpose, <strong>as</strong> well<strong>as</strong> checking guidelines to follow. They also need to have three p<strong>as</strong>tors or leaders of local churchnetworks check the translation for accuracy who will also sign off on the translation. Theseshould be leaders of different church groups or denominations—the wider the representationof the church in the language community, the better. At each stage, when a problem issurfaced, the translation needs to be revised. When Scripture p<strong>as</strong>ses Level Two, it can be madepublic on the unfoldingWord website, marked <strong>as</strong> Level Two. At this point, anyone from thelanguage community can post comments and suggestions. The translation can also be freelydownloaded or printed, or turned into audio or video.At Level Three, the translation needs to have been thoroughly reviewed and checked by representativesof three different church networks or denominations, or by one representative of adenomination and someone from a <strong>Bible</strong> translation entity, such <strong>as</strong> a professional <strong>Bible</strong> translationconsultant. Those who do Level Three checking need to be other than the people whodid Level Two checking. Then it will be marked <strong>as</strong> Level Three. The personnel who will do thechecking will vary with the size of the language community and the size of the church in thatcommunity. In communities where there is no church or it is very small, this can be problematic.In that c<strong>as</strong>e the translators will need to have recourse to some external church bodies.Even at Level Three, we do not expect the translation to be problem-free. Every <strong>Bible</strong>translation needs subsequent revision. The language and church community can continue tomake suggestions. If the translation committee or church authority structure agrees with thesuggestions, the translation can e<strong>as</strong>ily be changed multiple times, even continually, at no cost.That’s the beauty of the digital age. Can you imagine going back to your publisher and saying,“Throw out that l<strong>as</strong>t print run of five thousand copies. We need to reprint. There w<strong>as</strong> an error.”The publisher would, of course, refuse, unless you came up with a lot of money. But we canchange it digitally and move on with no problem.This happened several times <strong>as</strong> we were developing OBS. People who were translating thempointed out some problems with the text. We agreed, so we changed it. It just took a few
JBTM Perry Oakes36minutes, and now it is better. It is not <strong>as</strong> big of a deal <strong>as</strong> it used to be. Versions on smartphonescan be continually and automatically updated. Even if some copies have been printed, it isnot a big expense to replace them. With print-on-demand, print runs can be small and ongoing.Also, every change to the text is marked with a version number, like software, so that it isimmediately apparent which version of the text the reader is looking at. Of course, everythingonline is the latest version. Even so, every change that h<strong>as</strong> been made on Door43 or uploadedfrom translationStudio is saved. To see what h<strong>as</strong> been changed in the latest version, all onewould have to do is to look at the change log on the website.ConclusionWe think that it is time for the Western Church—to whom much h<strong>as</strong> been given—to make<strong>Bible</strong> translation tools available to the rest of the Church, free of restrictions. We must not givein to the fear that drove the medieval Church to try to stamp out the <strong>Bible</strong> translators of anearlier era—that if they put the <strong>Bible</strong> into the hands of the common person, he or she wouldmishandle it. Let’s give them the tools to handle it well. Copyright owners also need to examinetheir motives for holding back <strong>Bible</strong> translation resources. Is maximizing profit from the<strong>Bible</strong> and related materials really the purpose God intended for his Word? The “linguisticallyle<strong>as</strong>t of these” have been left with nothing, and they deserve better. Let’s collaborate to putwhat we have on the internet in a coherent way to make it known to the global church and say,“Come and get it!”
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