Local Ownership, Community Consensus and Quality in Bible Translation: A Case Study from West Asia

An acceptable translation wins support and use by local leaders when it is perceived as authentic, doctrinally correct and in an appropriate style, and when key biblical terms are widely agreed (Larsen 2001; Dye 2009). But what happens when, despite years of engagement with these leaders and approval for publication, the level of acceptability still varies widely across key stakeholders? And when this variety is driven by different, even contradictory positions across multiple parameters? This paper draws from a case study to survey a decade of input from church leaders and expat workers into a national language translation. It discovers a set of interconnected parameters which inform the acceptability of translated text, and explores these with examples from across the New Testament. These parameters include:  contextualised versus clean break with regard to the audience’s religious affiliation  allegiance to various supranational and langua-cultural blocs  appropriate register for sacred texts  theology of church denomination, including views about appropriate source texts  national mission strategy  style of relationship-building and use of power Since these parameters generate feedback and activity which transcend questions of accuracy, naturalness and clarity of the translation, attention is also given to consensus-building strategies additional to simply redrafting the text. The Bible translation process can then offer a meeting point for the speech community to develop and harmonise its own indigenous theology, hosting dialogue (Rodriguez 2018) and providing a rich menu of possibilities for theological expression.