How Broken Is the Bible Translation Industry? A Response to an Article

Back in 2021 an article entitled "Just How Broken Is the Bible Translation Industry?" came out on MinistryWatch. People keep asking me what I think about it. I've waited a long time to let the organizations critiqued in the article have a chance to speak for themselves and respond to the article, but they never did. This episode is my summary and thoughts on the article, and an encouragement to the leaders of the big BT orgs to set the record straight and clarify any misunderstandings that might exist.
Read the article here: ministrywatch....
The MAP forum post and responses mentioned: map.bloomfire....
illumiNations: illuminations....
A note written by me on the forum:
Regarding raising a child: it's a good point, and most people would say that raising children well doesn't cost millions of dollars. In fact, if you introduce too much money into raising a child, you'll probably ruin your child. I wonder if that's the concern in this article. If I went around to churches telling them that I needed to raise 10 million dollars to raise my kid well, I would only raise eyebrows. I think that may be the message coming across to many like the author: that Bible translation is no longer just hard; now it's exorbitantly expensive. I think military spending may be a good analogy here. I learned yesterday that if one toilet gets clogged on the new US aircraft carriers, it costs $400,000 to unclog it. So the question is: should it really cost that much? We all know that BT has a high cost in energy, time, stress, trauma, etc., and that should be expected. But our orgs usually require us to de-emphasize those costs and give a chipper façade to donors. All the donors see is the marketing and begging for high dollar amounts, without understanding where it's going. So it's no wonder people might start to suspect that it's being thrown at ridiculously expensive ways to "unclog toilets." Is Bible translation spending money for the sake of spending money in some areas? Are they raising money for job security because they don't know what else they would do? As long as donors are ignored and not given clear answers to these questions, we remain suspect and a target to more articles like this one. In my experience, the big orgs ignore these kinds of articles and leave everyone with question marks, instead of humbly and clearly responding with wisdom and detailed honesty. I can only pray that leaders take this seriously and actually respond publicly instead of hiding behind silence. I would genuinely welcome any leader to come on my podcast "Working for the Word" and respond to this article.
Listen to this episode without video here: spotifyanchor-...
Check out the podcast at workingforthew...

[@workingfortheword]

Listen to this episode without video here: spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/xwxmRZYkhyb
Check out the podcast at workingfortheword.com

[@volublepiano]

Great content Andrew!
Do you think financial concerns have a large impact on how particular texts are translated in new versions of the Bible (for example, scholars being restricted in how they translate based on worries that donors might stop funding their work if a passage is translated a certain way)? Are you familiar with Robert Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible? I found it interesting to read a translation produced by an individual, rather than a donor-funded committee (although both have their pros and cons).

[@SeanRhoadesChristopher]

The Church has its own immune system, and when disease sets in, it goes into action!

[@RevolutionDebates]

Great information. I am working on an Urdu bible, Khmer bible, and am about to release a KJV update, all are TR based. I often wonder where all the money goes with many of these Bible societies.