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Community Built Translation

Over 1.5 billion people do not have the Bible in their own language. Communities all over the world are responding to this overwhelming need by translating the Bible into their own languages for their own people. In 2021 two of these communities realized that their translators needed resources. These translators were experts in their own language and culture, but came from oral communities and did not have high levels of literacy. FIA was created to help these translators access information about the Scripture they were translating.

Today, over 500 translation teams use FIA in over 13 countries. Our goal remains the same: To make Scripture accessible to everyone.

We create our resources specifically to serve oral communities — people who prefer to learn through narrative, experience, and community. Our resources, however, are as accessible as possible. FIA is available in both audio and text formats and is being translated in 18 gateway languages. FIA is also open source, allowing translation teams to access and use FIA however best fits with their translation process.

FIA Content

"FIA" stands for Familiarize, Internalize, and Articulate. Every FIA resource seeks to fulfill one of these core components:

  • Familiarize — People familiarize themselves with the information they need to understand the overarching biblical, geographical, literary, cultural, and chronological significance of a biblical passage.
  • Internalize — People internalize the passage and understand its scenes, setting, characters, actions, causality, and emotions. This helps them identify and absorb the meaning of the passage.
  • Articulate — People begin to articulate the passage in their own language. They start to think through specific translation choices for words and phrases, and create a first draft of the passage.

Book Introductions

FIA Book Introductions give translators the overarching context of each book in the Bible. Each Introduction gives translators the historical, cultural, literary, linguistic, canonical, and geographical context of an entire book. Translators then use this overarching understanding to better translate passages within the book.

FIA Glossary

The FIA Glossary explains key biblical terms, phrases, and concepts through descriptions, activities, and media available in both text and audio formats. The Glossary helps translators fully grasp the context and meaning of key terms so they can decide how best to communicate those terms in their own languages.

FIA Media

Each passage is accompanied by relevant FIA media. This media helps translators visualize key objects, geography, and places in the Bible. Our clear, accessible maps help translators visualize the geography and movement in a passage. Our photos and illustrations help them visualize biblical objects and places, and our Video Bible Dictionary gives translators a frame of reference for objects, places, and geography through short videos.

Six FIA Steps

FIA provides context for each passage in the Bible through six steps, available in both text and audio formats:

  • Hear and Heart: Translators experience the passage by listening to or watching it in several translations and discussing it as a group.
  • Setting the Stage: Translators familiarize themselves with the passage and examine its historical, geographical, cultural, literary, and linguistic context.
  • Defining the Scenes: Translators define the characters, setting, and scenes of the passage and begin to visualize it.
  • Embodying the Text: Translators identify the action and emotion in the passage through dramatization.
  • Filling the Gaps: Translators revisit key terms and ensure all knowledge gaps are filled.
  • Speaking the Word: Translators practice speaking or signing the passage in their language, working together to refine their initial translation choices.

Together, the six FIA steps are often referred to as the "FIA process." Dive deeper into each FIA step through the in-depth descriptions below:

Hear and Heart/Head and Heart

The first step, "Hear and Heart" or "Head and Heart," familiarizes translators with a passage. The team listens to or watches the passage multiple times in as many translations as possible, preferably in one or more languages of wider communication. They discuss the passage using six questions:

  1. What did you like about this passage?
  2. What did you not like or not understand about this passage?
  3. What did this passage teach us about God (or Jesus)?
  4. What did this passage teach us about people?
  5. How does this passage apply to our lives?
  6. Who needs to hear this passage?

These questions help translators explore the meaning of the passage as a community.

Setting the Stage

The second step, "Setting the Stage," familiarizes the team with the context of the passage. It places the passage within the wider biblical metanarrative and provides exegetical information about the cultural, linguistic, historical, and geographical context surrounding the passage. Teams begin to consider key concepts through discussion questions, activities, and media.

Defining the Scenes

The third step, "Defining the Scenes," frames the passage by describing its scenes, setting, and characters. This step describes discourse features and emphasizes the flow of thought, action, or narrative logic in the passage. The team creates dioramas, storyboards, or drawings to internalize and embody the passage in this step.

Embodying the Text

The fourth step, "Embodying the Text," helps the team identify the actions, emotions, and causal relationships in the passage. The team acts out the passage twice. The first time they focus on embodying the passage's action or flow of logic. The second time, the team exegetes the emotions and causal effects at play and considers how those emotions might affect meaning. This step is especially important for teams creating oral Bible translations.

Filling the Gaps

In the fifth step, "Filling the Gaps," translators fill in any remaining knowledge gaps. They listen to or watch extended explanations of key terms and are referred to the FIA glossary for more information. In this step, the team moves from considering the wider metanarrative of a passage to thinking through specific translation choices for key terms and concepts in a passage.

Speaking the Word/Signing the Word

The sixth and final step is "Speaking the Word" or "Signing the Word." In this step, the team practices speaking or signing the passage in their own language. They begin to communally make decisions on how to translate words and phrases. They focus on word accuracy, flow and understandability, naturalness, and attractiveness of language. In this step, the team reminds each other of exegetical information from earlier steps and prepares a first draft of their translation.