This spring the United Church of God received a letter from an Iraqi national now living in Bonn, Germany, who offered to translate our booklet The Middle East in BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. ProphecyA prediction of events to come. "A discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; esp[ecially] by foretelling future events" (Revised Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, "Propheteia"). into Arabic.
Peter Eddington, from Media and Communications Services, asked Paul Kieffer, UCG pastor and coordinator in Germany, to contact the man and determine whether his offer was genuine.
June 2 Mr. Kieffer met with the man. His English is excellent, and he has already translated five books from Arabic into English. Mr. Kieffer asked him why he wants to translate our booklet. He said he has been reading The Good News for some time now. He mentioned that he couldn't find anything wrong in our literature compared with the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.. He said the booklet provides excellent insight into the background of the Middle East situation that needs to be made available to Arabic readers.
He agreed to translate the booklet introduction for us to evaluate and, upon getting the green light, he would do the rest of the booklet. He said he believes by translating our booklet for free he would be helping to promote peace. Mr. Kieffer was surprised the next day to receive an e-mail with the completed translation assignment. It has now been proofread and checked for doctrinal accuracy. Since then, two more chapters have been translated and are now being proofread.
Many factors have to be considered in expanding into another language, such as whether the Church has the expertise and resources to answer questions and maintain contact with Arabic speakers who may respond to the message. And doing professional booklet layouts in Arabic will be a challenge. There are millions of Arabic-speaking Christians in the world, so your prayers about this are appreciated. UN
