Translating 1 John

This year, I've been checking colleagues' Plain English Version (PEV) drafts of 1 John and sections in Luke and Matthew that hadn't been translated. One day, I'd finished checking emails and opened up the computer program where I do the translation checking, and I was delighted to realise I was back to Luke, as I had caught up to my colleague working on 1 John. Translating narrative/stories is always much easier than any other type of writing. Luke is somewhat complicated because we are working on stories that are also in other books in the Bible, so we have to compare the Greek in the two stories and check what we did there. But 1 John is much harder, because John is expressing so many abstract thoughts!

1 John 3:23-24 PEV (draft)

And this is what God tells us to do. We have to believe in God’s son Jesus Christ, and we have to love each other, just like Jesus told us to do. If anyone does those things, they are joined up with God, and God is joined up with them. Yes, God put his spirit in us, so we know for sure that God is joined up with us.

1 John 3:23-24 NIV

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps Godʼs commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

It's a great encouragement when people thank us for the PEV and ask when more will be ready, but if often feels very slow getting there.

Give thanks for continued translation progress, and pray for more!