Bible Orthography

Some friends of ours are working with Wycliffe Bible translators in Africa with a people group who do not currently write or read the language that they speak.

Our friends described the people’s excitement and amazement at seeing their language, which they had spoken for as long as anyone could remember, written and read for the first time.

It must be a wonderful witness to such people that our friends and others would travel across the world, learn their language and work out how to write it down, all so that the people can receive the Word of God in their mother tongue. The Word of God must matter very much and these missionaries must have great love for them.

I was reminded of Calvin’s response to Gregory the Great’s argument that idols (or images) are the books of the uneducated. Calvin simply said that if they can’t read we must start schools and begin teaching them! Bible orthography projects take that to a whole new level.

Calvin’s case also points the way to an education system that is oriented towards discipleship and away from idolatry.