12 What makes you think that you can compete with multi-million dollar lishers? (World English Bible Translation)
Description
This article is from the World English Bible Translation FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
12 What makes you think that you can compete with multi-million dollar lishers? (World English Bible Translation)
Indeed, throwing another Modern English translation into the "market"
to "compete" with solid translations like the NIV and publishing giants
like Zondervan sounds as silly. It sounds like that, perhaps, until you
consider that the primary target for the WEB is royalty-free
distribution of the Holy Bible in unlimited copies made by many people
using many computers, tape recorders, photocopiers, and presses all over
the world. This is a "market" that the "giants" have excluded themselves
from. Indeed, if they change that policy (don't hold your breath waiting
for them to), we win, anyway. If we win this area, that is enough to
justify this effort. If we do an excellent job, the WEB might possibly
start competing in more conventional areas (like printed Bibles in
bookstores), but not because of any significant effort or marketing on
our part. After all, the bookstores have lots of Bibles in Modern
English, already.
Once you look at the whole picture of what is going on, the
multi-million dollar publishers and Bible translators really don't have
much of an effect on us, nor do we have much of an effect on them. The
result of the combined efforts of both is simply more complete
availability of the Holy Bible in Modern English.
Of course, it does take considerable effort to pull off a decent Bible
translation -- even a language update like the WEB. Fortunately, there
are lots of people willing to volunteer some time to help with this
cause, and the Internet helps bring those people together.
The real bottom line, though, is that this is God's project, and He is
fully capable of providing everything that we need to accomplish His
goals.
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