Waiting for the second signed Bible

In 1998 my family arrived in Kenya, sent there by Wycliffe Bible Translators Canada. A year later, Wycliffe declared Vision 2025: an ambitious goal to start a translation of Scripture in every language that still needed one by the year 2025. I grew up hearing about this audacious goal and catching wind of the occasional challenge to raise donations for the cause: “Race to 2025!”

Now that it’s 2025, does every language have a translation? Not yet. For one thing, the number of known languages has grown since then, but in reality it was always an impossible goal meant to galvanize effort. There are at least 7,300 known spoken or signed languages in the world, and even though translation is happening in over 4,150 languages worldwide (Wycliffe is working with just over half of these),  833 don’t have any translation work. When it comes to signed languages (like American Sign Language), there are an estimated 400 different sign languages and less than half of them have translation projects.

How quick is translation, really?

“Race to 2025” sounds fast, but translation is anything but. Today, the only complete signed Bible is in American Sign Language, a project that took 38 years to complete. It became available in 2022. 

You can find the ASLV on the Deaf Bible Web App (as well as partial translations in other signed languages). Each chapter is a video clip that can be downloaded. The signer changes from book to book (there are 53 translators total) and sometimes they dress for the era: the signer for 1 Kings is in a full head covering and robes! “Not unlike how the Bible was the first book printed on a modern printing press or the creation of the first Braille Bible in the 20th century, the availability of an ASL version of the Bible demonstrates a turning point in the culture toward normalizing sign languages,” said Deaf Missions CEO, Chad Entinger.

Chris Evans, Board Chair of DOOR International, a Deaf ministry, is hopeful that translation work is gaining momentum: “After two millennia, all the pieces are here to accurately translate God’s word into sign languages, to distribute that word rapidly and inexpensively to anyone who wants it, and to plant flourishing churches among Deaf communities around the world.”

The Book of Jonah on a USB drive

DOOR was founded in America in 1983 with a tagline of “Deaf Reaching Deaf for Christ.” They started working in sign language translation in 2006, and work with teams from 16 language groups. Deaf translation teams had to start from scratch, translating the resources their hearing colleagues could access easily. Many organizations partnered to build a resource bank: today the Translation Resources Project has 30 hours of signed content and the Sign Language Translation Tool (SLLT) adapts translation software to sign language sensibilities.

Stuart Thiessen is a sign language translation consultant with DOOR International and is himself Deaf. He gave an interview to Wycliffe Global Alliance, explaining how SLTT is streamlining the process. Previously, translation teams would send their videos to a consultant on hardware – a USB drive or DVD – or, internet bandwidth permitting, would upload it to Google Drive. The consultant would video a response, edit it and return as feedback. Each step took many weeks, and “translation teams were often in silos, unaware of what other translation teams were publishing unless someone had a copy of another team’s DVDs or knew what website they had created.”

‘I had become their Bible’

Thiessen trained for nine years to hold the consultant credentials he now has; before, he was a Deaf church planter. He couldn’t avoid the limitations of a written Bible: “I realised that I had become [the congregants’] Bible, but they couldn’t take me home to read during the week.”

Thiessen says there’s a language deprivation factor that sets Deaf apart from other linguistic minorities, even when it comes to their heart language: 90 percent of Deaf children have hearing parents who can’t teach them sign language: “Deaf people might not achieve a reasonable fluency in their own sign language because there are not accessible sources to learn their sign language or they were not exposed to it early enough in their lives – or their parents, teachers, doctors, etc. actively discouraged acquisition of their sign language.”

Being isolated in the room and “the last to know,” Thiessen said, is a regular Deaf experience. That’s why last year’s release of the Jesus film in ASL was that much more powerful for Marisa Sorenson.

Deaf Missions, which has a presence in over 100 countries, released Jesus last year as the first all-ASL feature film to debut in theatres. Joseph Josselyn, producer, said “This film is for Deaf, by Deaf.”

Sorenson, who works in DOOR’s communications, says she was enthralled: “even though I myself am Deaf, I learned a lot about my own culture and community from this movie. . . I realized I had never seen anything like this. . . Deaf cultural values are prevalent in every frame of Jesus.”

Sorenson encourages hearing people to watch Jesus too: it’s not in a theatre near me but I’ve played the trailer at least five times. With no words, I find myself watching the faces closely. Sorenson commented on that: “Deaf cultures around the world deeply value facial expressions because, once again, our eyes are our gateway to the world. What we see informs what we understand. While watching this film, you will notice the depth and range of facial expressions on the actors’ faces.”

Stronger collaboration

There are other new technologies in the works: in August 2024, Wycliffe Associates launched an app for seven sign languages in Benin, Cameroon-Anglo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Togo. (You can search for: “Sign Language Bible” on a smartphone or app store.)

Adan Burke, a sign language partnership specialist at Wycliffe Bible Translators USA, explained a new technology called Chameleon, which converts a person signing into a digital avatar. Adan, who is Deaf, is one of the translators featured in the ASL Bible. “People know me as the guy who signs for Jesus,” he commented. “Using an avatar removes connection to the individual and instead highlights the message. This removes the risk that a signer’s lifestyle, choices or beliefs could ever compromise, and therefore devalue, the Bible’s message.”

Chameleon has been in development for over 10 years, and many partners have contributed to it. “So often, being the last to know has a downside,” Thiessen reflected. “It puts Deaf people at the mercy of those who know this information. Sometimes, that creates a context where people can use that ‘power’ to ‘do for’ Deaf people. . .  It is refreshing for Deaf people when they experience someone who wants to do things with/in partnership with them. Having that relational connection builds stronger collaboration and trust.”

It’s an encouraging direction for the future of sign language and for Deaf communities around the world.