Translators are usually the first theologians in any language or community. They have to grapple with all the complex problems arising out of the need to express the ancient and eternal message of the Bible in their own language. They face the challenge of how to translate Biblical concepts, ideas, practices, festivals, rituals, spiritual beings, cultural artifacts, metaphors, beliefs, etc. in terms that make sense in the local vernacular. How to do this meaningfully, accurately, faithfully, clearly and with native genius and natural rhythms is the challenge that faces every translator. In so doing the translator is a pioneer who enters new territory, names it, demarcates it and thereby delimits to a certain extent the nature of biblical discourse in the local language. No wonder translation is too important to be left to translators alone!
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