Personal Reflection: Following the Teaching of the Story

Take a moment to allow this story to evaluate your own life and to consider how God would have you respond. After this reflection, use the quality checking questions to check your translation draft among the translation team.

Journal Reflection

Prayerfully think about the following personal reflection questions. Write/Record your answers and/or discuss them as a group.

1. How can we express gratitude and praise to God for his work of creation?
2. How is your present experience in the world different from what the world was originally created to be?
3. When you hear about how the world was originally created, what kinds of longings and desires do you have for that perfect world?
4. What kinds of hopes, desires, and longings do you have for the world? What are the ways you wish the world could be?
5. How should you live your life differently now that you know how and why God created humans?

Team Check

The following activity will help you check the clarity, accuracy, and naturalness of your draft. Read the passage aloud and discuss the checking questions with other members of your translation community. You might need to reread portions (or the whole) of the biblical passage multiple times as you answer each of these questions. Record answers to these questions below.

Team Checking Questions

Use the following questions to check your translation draft for accuracy, clarity, and naturalness.

1. Accurate: Has anything been added to your translation of this passage that is not a part of the meaning of the source text? If additions exist, are they only added to clarify meaning (such as implied information)?
2. Accurate: Is anything missing from your translation of this passage that is a part of the meaning of the source text? If some part of the meaning is missing from your translation, add it.
3. Accurate: Does any meaning in your translation of this passage appear to be different than the meaning of the source text? If the meaning is different, try changing your translation so that the meaning remains the same.
4. Natural: Does anything sound unnatural to how you would say it in your language? If portions of the passage sound unnatural in your language, try to make them sound the way you would say them in your language while staying true to the meaning of the source text.
5. Clear: Is anything unclear or confusing in your translation that confuses the meaning of the source text? If portions of the passage are unclear or confusing, revise them to clearly communicate the meaning of the source text.
6. Consistent: How consistent is your translation within the passage and with other passages? If portions of the passage need to be made consistent or if you need to revise translations of other passages, make these adjustments.

Record Feedback

After discussing the checking questions above as a translation community, record any feedback on your translation draft. Pay attention to parts of your translation that are translated well and parts of your translation that need correction.

Discuss and Revise

After gathering feedback on your draft, discuss it together with your translation community and make appropriate revisions to your translation.

Record Translation Decisions

As a community, discuss some of the most noteworthy translation decisions in your draft. Summarize each decision and explain the reasons your community decided on that translation. You should update these decisions each time you check your draft with various groups of people.

You should measure the quality of your translation draft. You can record translation decisions to make it clear why you translated things a certain way. Translation decisions can help your translation team and the surrounding community be a part of the translation process.

How can you know the quality of your translation?

1. Measure the translation by marks/standards of quality (i.e., clear, accurate, natural, church-approved)
2. Test the translation with others and record feedback and conversations from in the field (i.e., church and community check)
3. Compare and contrast the translation with the source text (i.e., meaning of text and notes) and alternatives (i.e., other translation choices)
4. Explain the reasons why you translated a particular portion of the text.

Example Sentences That Help Explain Your Translation Decision Use the following example sentences to help explain your translation decisions:

1. The original text literally says/means, so we translated the term in this way…
2. We originally decided to translate the biblical term with this term, but we changed it because…
3. When our translation team discussed the biblical term, this is what we talked about…
4. The term is [clear, accurate, natural, consistent] because…
5. The community understands this term to mean…
6. We considered these other terms. We did not use these terms because…
7. When we checked this in the church, we learned…
8. When we checked this in the community, we learned…

Example of Translation Decision

In OBS 01-07 we decided to translate blessed like this: [actual translation]. We decided on this translation because of these reasons:

1. The word [actual translation] means to cause good things to happen to someone or something. This term is used when a person desires someone or something to prosper or flourish. This term does not refer to magic or witchcraft.
2. When we checked this word with other believers, they said it describes God showing his kindness and favor on someone or something. These are some of the terms that we did not decide to use…
3. Many of our people will understand this word. When we discussed this phrase with the surrounding community, we discovered it was a natural way to describe God causing good and beneficial things to happen.