New York, NY – January 21, 2015
The Divine Familial Terms Oversight Group, a group of independent experts facilitated by the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), has now given feedback to Wycliffe Global Alliance and SIL International about technical guidelines for Bible translators. Formed in April 2014 upon Wycliffe and SIL’s request, the group met in Oxford, England, last month to finalize their first report to the two organizations.
The Oversight Group’s mandate is to independently review how Wycliffe and SIL are implementing the ten recommendations made by the independent Bible translation review panel in their final report in April 2013. These recommendations focused on theologically acceptable translation methodology, particularly in Muslim contexts, for translating the words for “God the Father” and the “Son of God”.
“Although the group found it to be demanding and rigorous work, we are fully satisfied in knowing that we can contribute value to Wycliffe and SIL in their ongoing efforts to do translation with the guidance of the highest standards possible,” said Dr. Cooley, who chairs the Oversight Group.
“Wycliffe and SIL have worked diligently and faithfully to execute the terms of the report. They created processes and procedures to ensure the compliance of translation teams with the recommendations made by the original translation review panel,” he added.
In addition to technical guidelines for translators, the team gave input to SIL about how to bring projects into compliance with panel recommendations. The Oversight Group will continue to review translations to ensure ongoing compliance.
The Oversight Group included the following members who were selected based on their expertise, experience and personal skills:
- Dr. Robert Cooley (Chair), President-Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA
- Dr. Donald Fairbairn, Professor of Early Christianity and Historical Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA
- Dr. Atef Gendy, President, Evangelical Theological Seminary and Professor of New Testament, Cairo, Egypt
- Dr. Ida Glaser, Director of Academic Research, Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford University, United Kingdom
- Dr. Ekram Lamie Hennawie, Professor of Comparative Religions, Moderator, Presbyterian Synod of the Nile, Egypt
- Dr. Mark Hausfeld, Director, Global Initiative, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, USA
- Dr. Scott Moreau (Vice Chair), Professor of Intercultural Studies, Wheaton College, USA
- Dr. Roland Werner, Secretary General, YMCA of Germany and Expert African Linguistics and Theology, Germany.
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