Big milestone for me, I just completed the first pass of my translation of the New Testament. You can read it here: TransliteralBible.com
I started this project on Feb 2019 as a way to learn Greek and to dive deeper into the Bible. And this has turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Honestly, when I started on this project, I was in a very dry place. All sermons were boring to me, personal Bible study was boring, and prayer was boring. Preachers seemed to be teaching the same things over and over. Bible study materials did not go very deep.
Doing this has been a journey that has affected me in ways that I would not have ever expected. But, one thing I can honestly say now is I love the law. I have such a greater appreciation and awe of the Bible that really only people who have dug deep can understand. And ironically, I feel I’ve only scratched the surface. There is so much to dig even further.
Doing this has transformed how I view the Bible, how I walk out the Christian faith, and even improved my marriage! Now, whenever someone is willing to listen to me, I say if they want to transform their Christian walk, they should write their own translation of the Bible.
It’s not as hard as it sounds, though it does require effort. We have so many tools now to look into the original languages that one doesn’t really need to know Greek or Hebrew. I started just using Blue Letter Bible. Really that’s all one needs to write their own translation.
As for the tools I use, three years ago, I got introduced to VS Code at work, which really makes composing the text easier. And also around that time, I started playing with Python which allowed me to automate some of the translation work. Last December, I discovered a fantastic Bible study program called UniqueBible.app. It made my translation work go much faster and it also allows me to publish my translation on the web.
I’ll now go through the second pass of the NT and also start translating the OT, which will take much longer. But I’m not too concerned about how long it’ll take. It’s the journey that has been transformational. And I encourage anyone to start this journey for yourself to dramatically increase your love of God and the Bible.