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JW.org now in 1000+ languages


The Librarian

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It's quite an accomplishment. No reason not be proud of an accomplishment, especially by those who participated more directly. Leading a translation department from a committee of the Governing Body l

https://www.christianlingua.com/into-how-many-languages-has-the-bible-been-translated/

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Why are they jumping like that? Tell them to settle down.

The trick is not to boast over such a thing. The trick is to charge with malpractice anyone claiming Christianity that has not gone this way. After all, if you are really serious about getting a united Christian message out there, of course you will have such a site. It is in itself overwhelming evidence that when it comes to declaring “this good news of the kingdom” per Matthew 24:14, Jehovah’s Witnesses are the ones to watch:

“And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” 

It harkens back to a thread a few years prior: When your car needs service, do you take it to the shop content to operate with duct tape, vice grips, and WD-40? Or do you take it to the shop that cares enough to equip itself with every conceivable tool, even it the count should number 1000?

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It's quite an accomplishment. No reason not be proud of an accomplishment, especially by those who participated more directly. Leading a translation department from a committee of the Governing Body likely helped a lot.

And I'm sure it's not a goal that will end at around 1,000. There is a site that discusses why the Mormons have not gone much above 175 languages. At the time it was written, the Seventh Day Adventists did some work in over 900 languages, but only published their literature in 372 languages. This was back in 2011 when JW.ORG was already at about 429 and climbing.

There are some interesting statistics and ideas that seem about right that you can pick up from that site: https://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=view_other_articles&story_id=453&cat_id=30

[Emphasis mine]

Translating Church Materials into Additional Languages

In October 2011, Ethnologue.com listed 6,909 living languages spoken worldwide[1] whereas the LDS Church reported that there were 166 languages which had at least one LDS material translated.[2]  . . .

Of the approximately 155 distinct languages with LDS materials listed on the Church's online store at store.lds.org, 44 have fewer than one million native speakers (28%) and 18 have fewer than 100,000 speakers (12%).  LDS materials are available in the first language of approximately 4.6 billion people which account for two-thirds of the world's total population. . . .

With only a handful of exceptions, the LDS Church has not actively pursued the translation of church materials into additional languages for over a decade.  Some previously "unreached" languages which recently had their first LDS materials translated include Georgian, Uzbek, and North Sotho (Sepedi).  Dismal progress translating LDS materials into additional languages appears attributed to a lack of church planting vision, policies which forego translation projects until a sizable body of Latter-day Saints speak a language, the slow, arduous translation process, and uncoordinated communication between capable local member translators, area presidencies, and the Church Translation Department.  Expanding the number of languages with LDS materials available and the number of translations of LDS materials in these languages is essential for accelerating church growth and a lack of translations of LDS materials in additional languages over the past decade appears to have contributed to the worldwide slowdown in membership and congregational growth.

Other missionary-focused Christian groups have more rapidly translated literature and into more languages than the LDS Church.  Jehovah's Witnesses have basic online information about their beliefs and a system for interested individuals to provide their contact information for a visit by representatives in 429 languages.[19]  Witnesses regularly translate literature in additional languages and added ten additional languages to the website in October 2011.  Many of the hundreds of languages with translations of Witness literature that are without translations of Latter-day Saints materials are native to the former Soviet Union, Africa, Mexico, and East Asia.  Many of these languages have between 50,000 and one million speakers.  In 2011, the United Bible Societies reported that the Bible in its entirely was translated into over 450 languages and that select books or passages of the Bible were translated into over 2,500 languages.[20]

In 2009, the Seventh Day Adventist Church performed missionary outreach in 901 languages and published literature in 372 languages.[21]  Adventists have utilized creative, thrifty approaches to meeting language needs such as performing radio outreach throughout the world through its Adventist World Radio.  The radio station broadcasts through shortwave transmitters, AM/FM radio, and on the internet to specifically target populations residing in areas where Adventists cannot send missionaries due to political, legal, geographical, and cultural restrictions.[22]  Shortwave radio transmissions are utilized to broadcast Adventist radio programs in the most populous, least Christian areas of the world such as China, India, and the Middle East.  This area is located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator and dubbed by many missionary-minded Christians as the "10/40 window."  Podcasts are produced by Adventists in 92 languages providing opportunities to reach anyone in the world with an Internet connection.  Of the 92 languages with Adventist podcasts available, most have no or only a few translations of Latter-day Saint materials available.  Adventist radio studios have been constructed in areas geographically closed to nations with restrictions on religious freedom, such as in Ceuta, Spain where Adventists reach North Africans in approximately half a dozen commonly spoken languages.[23] 

 

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1 hour ago, Matthew9969 said:

Thanks, good link:

According to Ethnologue, there are 7,097 known languages in the world. The complete Bible has been translated into approximately 700 languages, while the New Testament has been translated into well over 1,500 languages. Smaller portions of the New Testament have been translated into over 1,000 languages. At least one part of the Bible has been translated into 3,312 of the 7,097 languages.

Wycliffe Associates is an international organization that has made significant advancements in Christian translations of the Bible. They have several collaborative translation workshops called Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation (MAST). These workshops have significantly reduced the time it takes to translate the Bible into new languages. For example, a team of translators can translate the New Testament in only a few months. In early 2018, Wycliffe announced its intention to translate the Bible into 600 languages. The organization has stated that more than 7,000 languages in more than 70 countries still need the Bible translated into their languages.

Makes me wonder if the LDS link I quoted had claimed 2500 simply by adding the 1500 and the 1000. This would be very inaccurate since there would be a lot of overlap in the 1,000 OT with the 1500 NT.

The NWT is now in 160 languages, at least in part.

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