Bible Translation

At Wycliffe NZ, our God-inspired passion is to provide universal access to the Scriptures in the language that people understand best. We want to make the life-giving love and truth of God’s Word available to everyone.

This passion has been shared by many Christ-followers throughout history. It is due to one, or many of these people that you have the privilege of reading the scriptures in your language.

Cameron Townsend was born in the United States in 1896.

In 1917 he traveled to Guatemala and it was here, among the Kaqchikel Maya people, that he realised that many Kaqcikel Maya people were monolingual and couldn’t read the Spanish Bibles available in the country. They also couldn’t read signposts, official documents and many other important writings.

Those who could read Spanish, the language of power in the country, only spoke it as a second language and couldn’t understand many things as well as those for whom Spanish was a first language. All of this disempowered the individuals and community as a minority culture.

Cameron was inspired to help translate the Bible into the Kaqchikel Maya language, and to also help set out their language in writing and start literacy projects. He was concerned with the whole person and saw Bible translation and its accompanying fruit as the ideal way to serve the needs of the community, both spiritual and practical. He then went on to set up the systems and infrastructure to do the same throughout the world in what we now call Wycliffe Bible Translators.

The beginning

The work continues

We, along with our partners around the world are continuing this work.

Where a minority language has a local representation of the Body of Christ, we come alongside them to assist in literacy, translation and scripture engagement. Where there is no local Body of Christ, we come alongside the local community and through working together in literacy and Bible translation, we endeavour to establish a local community of Christ followers.