I See What You Said: Moving OBT to Print

The exponential growth of oral Bible translation (OBT) projects in the past few years has resulted in numerous testimonies of life transformation in communities around the world. With this growth the desire of language communities to have their oral translations written down in the form of a printed Bible also arises. Reasons range from language preservation and reinforcing language identity, appealing to the literate younger generation, and using Scripture in literacy initiatives. However, moving OBT to print has implications beyond simply transcription and requires an understanding of the different modes of communication involved. It demands the same attention to quality as do the translations on which it is based. It involves a consideration of contextualization in developing oral-to-print projects. This paper draws attention to the reasons for the need to move oral translations to print and offers some principles to be followed to present communities with faithful print versions of OBT. It discusses the relationship between intended use, process and product. Three pilot projects are highlighted, and learnings from these projects are presented with the goal of treating felt needs from language communities with fairness and integrity.