Why would a church that finally has a Bible translation in its heart language keep using a language of wider communication Bible that many people in the pews cannot follow? Dr. Wayne Dye, professor emeritus at Dallas International University and longtime Scripture Engagement consultant with SIL Global, takes up that question with host Dr. Tim Hatcher, who also counts him as a mentor and friend for over 17 years.

This episode continues a series on the theological questions the global church asks about Bible translation. Earlier conversations looked at the symptoms: preferences for harder-to-understand translations and the use of Scripture as a protective object (talisman or fetish).

Here the discussion turns to diagnosis, using anthropology to ask why believers may approach the Bible as ritual rather than as a text to understand.

It also asks what Bible translation organizations owe the communities they serve once a translation is finished, and why translation training may need to address the purpose of translation as well as the method.

• How worldview and the search for spiritual power shape the way people receive a sacred text
• Why sacred texts tend to stay fixed while spoken language changes
• Ritualistic reasons a language of wider communication can seem more fitting for worship
• Church services as ritual, and the difference between ritual with meaning and ritual without it
• How cross-cultural teaching can discourage people from reading Scripture for themselves
• Hierarchical cultures and the question of who may interpret the text
• Scripture Engagement courses and the translation movement's responsibility beyond delivering a text
• Training translators in why to translate as well as how

• Five Questions the Global Church Asks about Bible Translations that Bible Agencies Neglect - Timothy Hatcher
• The Power of Understanding the Word of God - Scripture Engagement Catalyst training module
• The Role of Meaning – T. Wayne Dye
• The Perspicuity of Scripture – Wayne Grudem
• ScriptureImpact.org

Dr. Wayne Dye is professor emeritus at Dallas International University and served for many years as a Scripture Engagement consultant with SIL International. He is regarded as a catalyst for the beginning of Scripture Engagement as an academic discipline and an area of ministry focus within the Wycliffe family of organizations.

Wayne and his wife, Sally, lived in Papua New Guinea, in a village on a lake, where they raised their children. His interest in Bible translation grew from his studies at the University of Michigan, where he met Kenneth Pike and other Wycliffe personnel, and from his early engagement with anthropology.

On many buses across Ethiopia, Kenya, and beyond, you will find a Psalm painted along the side panel, not for decoration, but because many drivers and passengers believe the Bible verses offer protection from accidents, serving as a talisman. This picture, more common than most Western Christians realize, opens a wide-ranging conversation between Dr. Tim Hatcher and Bishop Grant LeMarquand about the many ways ordinary believers actually use Scripture, apart from what Bible agencies assume.

Bishop LeMarquand's widely cited article, "The Bible as Specimen, Talisman and Dragoman in Africa," provides the framework for this conversation. Drawing on Edwin Yamauchi's taxonomy and years of pastoral and academic experience across Kenya and the Horn of Africa, LeMarquand walks through three distinct ways people relate to Scripture: as a specimen to be studied critically, as a talisman with magical power, and as a dragoman, an Arabic term for guide, that helps believers navigate life. He also proposes a fourth category, the sacramental use of Scripture, that explains practices honoring the Bible without collapsing into manipulation. For Scripture Engagement practitioners and Bible translation leaders, this conversation offers a vocabulary for understanding behaviors that field personnel encounter regularly but rarely name with this kind of precision.

• Introduction to the series on theological issues affecting Scripture Engagement

• Story of Grant LeMarquand's life in Alberta and his path to ministry in Kenya and Ethiopia

• Origins of the "specimen, talisman, dragoman" framework

• The Bible as talisman: Bibles under pillows and Psalms painted on buses

• Justin Ukpong's field research on popular Bible use in Nigeria

• Stephen Niyang's critique of manipulating Scripture as a sacred object

• Proposing a fourth category: the sacramental use of Scripture

• Digitizing Scripture, the APO New Testament, and Bibles under persecution

• Literacy, oral Bible translation, and why communities ask for a "real Bible"

• Drama, art, and the Jesus film as ways to engage oral learners

• James Watts' iconic and expressive dimensions of sacred texts

• The Bible as dragoman: Scripture as a guide for life

• What Western believers can learn from African biblical scholarship

• The Bible passages most studied by African theologians

• Mother tongue translation examples from Kikuyu, Dinka, and Nuer communities

• Multilingual worship in Ethiopia

The Right Reverend Doctor Grant LeMarquand has spent decades bridging Western theological scholarship and the life of the African church. In the 1980s he taught New Testament at Saint Paul's United Theological College in Limuru, Kenya, and later served for fourteen years as professor of Biblical Studies and Mission at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

From 2012 to 2018 he served as Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa, overseeing approximately 150 churches and mission centers across Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia, and played a key role in expanding the church's presence in the Gambela region. He is the author of numerous books and academic articles on African biblical interpretation and now resides in Alberta, Canada.

• Article: "The Bible as Specimen, Talisman and Dragoman in Africa" by Grant LeMarquand

• Book: Global Voices: Reading the Bible in the Majority World, edited by Daniel Carroll R. and Craig S. Keener

• Edwin Yamauchi's Evangelical Theological Society presidential address, "The Bible as Specimen, Talisman and Dragoman"

• Book: An African Introduction to the New Testament (Fortress Press)

• Book: Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright

• Book: Knowing God by J.I. Packer

• Scripture Impact SE Catalyst workshops