Use of Computer Software in Translation

Use of Computer Software in Translation

In the last third of the 20th century, original language biblical texts were digitized and made available in an electronic format. Eventually every word from the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts was morphologically analyzed and digitally tagged with this information. This allowed scholars to do comparative analysis of word usage and grammatical constructions with a speed, complexity, and scope not previously possible. It has also provided powerful resources for Bible scholars working in the original languages. These digital systems allow various translations to be compared and lexicons, dictionaries, and grammars to be linked for quick consultation and cross-reference.

The use of Bible software was supplemented by computer-based linguistic tools allowing field translators to do analysis of target languages more efficiently. Linguistics on the software level assumes that translating the Bible into a new language is similar to any translation from a source language to a target language. The development and use of these tools has reduced the time commitment of translating the Bible into a new language from a lifetime to a decade or less. Technology allows for near-immediate results when a translation is finalized, printing from electronic sources at the site rather than expensive and time-consuming typesetting at a remote location.

Mark S. Krause and Douglas Mangum, “Translation of the Bible, Critical Issues,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).