Oral Bible Translation Tools OBThelps.org

Overview Story (OS): The OS is a reproducible narrative which contains a shortened telling of the basic story of the book or part of the book in question. The overview stories relate the story in a way that translators can internalize it easily and quickly. These overviews can be used in a devotional context to give the translators a good mental picture of what is happening and to aid in connecting emotionally with the narrative. The overview also briefly mentions connections of the particular book to key Biblical concepts to help the translators understand how the KCS relate to this book.

Book Introduction/Background Information (BI): The BI is a short commentary on a book or section of the Bible, told in a question-and-answer form. It is different from the overview story in that it is not intended to be used in a devotional context and is not told in an oral fashion with a plot, characters, etc. The content consists of the answers to the following questions:

The purpose is to give the translators an opportunity to interact with each other and the translation advisor around various topics, to expand their biblical literacy, and to help the translators understand the book, its context and various details which may aid in their understanding as they seek to relate the contents of the book to their audience.

Translation Drafting Questions and Answers (Drafting Q&A): This resource is similar to a podcast and is not meant to be devotionally processed. The content consists of an interaction by a translation team that recently drafted the passage in question. They discuss the translation issues they wrestled with in their oral version. The purpose is to introduce and cover topics not found in the other products (such as language-specific issues) and go into greater depth and specificity on a topic, fleshing out some of the translation challenges and options for a particular passage. In addition, it lets teams know that drafting is hard.

Key Concept Stories (KCS): The KCS are reproducible narratives that can be used in a devotional context. The content consists of details on a specific topic and provides the broader narrative of this concept as seen in the Biblical context. They are to function across multiple books of the Bible in any place where this concept occurs. The content should complement the information provided in the Overview Story. The purpose is to give the translators a good mental picture of what is happening and to more fully understand the concept and aid in connecting emotionally with what is happening as well as encouraging discussion.

• Who is the author?
• Who was the Biblical audience, the people who first heard this passage?
• What do we know about why the author wrote this?
• What is the time and place of writing?
• What was the political and religious situation at the time?
• What are some of the themes?