After Controversy, AG World Missions to Continue Wycliffe Translation Partnership

AG World Missions has announced their decision to continue its longstanding working relationship with Wycliffe Bible Translators. The unanimous decision of the AG World Missions Executive Committee was made Friday after Wycliffe and its sister organization, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), accepted recommendations by a subcommittee of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) regarding the use of familial terms in Scripture translations.

At issue was Wycliffe’s consideration of replacing specific biblical references to Father, Son and Son of God with other terms in certain circumstances when attempting to communicate to specific cultures. In its review of the issue, the WEA recommended that “when the words for father and son refer to God the Father and to the Son of God, these words always be translated with the most directly equivalent familial words within the given linguistic and cultural context of the recipients.”

After the recommendation was released, Wycliffe/SIL responded with this statement: “We welcome the panel’s instruction on translation standards, monitoring, evaluation and accountability. We will correct practices that are found to be out of compliance with the recommendations in the report. The independent review panel has done us a great service. The panel’s recommendations have been adopted as SIL’s standards for the translation of these familial terms when referring to God the Father and to the Son of God.”

On behalf of the AG World Missions Executive Committee, Executive Director Greg Mundis said, “We greatly appreciate the WEA subcommittee and its chairman, Dr. Robert Cooley, for their many hours of diligent work in reviewing this important issue. We are thankful that a resolution to this process has been reached and that AG World Missions can continue its longstanding working relationship with Wycliffe Bible Translators, as so many millions wait for the Word of God in their languages.”