Bridging the Gap: The Bible Aquifer and Bible Well

Mission: Bible Translation Accessible to Everyone 

ETEN’s Innovation Lab seeks to accelerate progress toward the All Access Goals, ensuring everyone has access to the Bible in their own language. Their key strategies include empowering the global church to do translation by accelerating and expanding access to robust biblical and translational resources.  

Historically, Western Bible translators have relied on unfettered access to rich libraries of reference materials, both offline and online, to ensure accurate translations. The shift to Church-Based Bible Translation (CBBT), however, presents a stark contrast. Lacking access to those vital resources, non-English teams face an uphill battle. Offline and online libraries remain scarce, often further hindered by licensing restrictions, resulting in slower progress and concerns about translation quality.  

In response to this challenge, the Innovation Lab envisioned the Bible Aquifer.

Aquifer: Empowering Translation Teams 

The Bible Aquifer serves as a repository of resources that empowers translation teams in three ways: 

• Unlocks biblical content in familiar languages:
  This makes it easier for teams to work with existing translation resources and adapt them for their specific needs. 

• Promotes free use through open licensing:
  This removes barriers to access and encourages collaboration among translation teams. 

• Simplifies resource access through seamless integration: Aquifer catalogues, structures, interlinks and publishes the most critical translation resources in one place, making it
  easier for teams to find what they need. 

Building a Collaborative Reservoir 

To bring Aquifer to life, the Innovation Lab partnered with BiblioNexus and leveraged existing open-licensed content from organizations such as SRV, Tyndale, UBS, berean.bible, Biblica, unfoldingWord and more. This ongoing collaboration now includes contributions from Wycliffe Global Partnerships, SIL and other entities, all working together to support the All Access Goals. 

Imagine the Bible Aquifer as an expansive, deep underground library brimming with knowledge. Instead of raindrops, a steady stream of translated Scriptures, insightful commentaries and other resources seeps through the soil.  Gradually, they reach the bedrock, accumulating to form a concealed pool. This isn’t just water, but living, breathing content — the original languages meticulously preserved, enriched by layers of study notes, lexicons and dictionaries.  

Accessible Knowledge, Powered by Technology 

This knowledge isn’t locked away but becomes accessible through drilled deep “wells” that tap into the reservoir. These wells are equipped with user-friendly interfaces, as well as APIs or “doorways“ that allow developers to connect their own apps. The first such well is the Bible Well, which acts as a central reference. With multilingual support, it offers immediate access to the content and fast-tracks developers into developing their own versions of this app. It’s a springboard for translation teams worldwide to draw from the depths of biblical knowledge and craft tools tailored to their specific needs.  

Balancing Speed and Trustworthiness 

The Bible Aquifer faces the delicate balancing act of getting valuable resources to users quickly but also ensuring their accuracy. It must deliver fresh translation resources for immediate use, empowering translators to study Scripture and create trustworthy versions in other languages. Yet, it must also make every effort to achieve the utmost reliability and trustworthiness for those relying on these resources. To address this, the Aquifer team is building a verification system slated for future implementation. 

A Vibrant Collaboration 

In essence, the Bible Aquifer is a vibrant collaboration. Church leaders, translators, tech experts and publishers join hands to overcome barriers and make Bible translation accessible to all. It’s a testament to the power of working together for the greater good.  

Get Involved 

If you are interested in contributing to the Bible Aquifer project, here are some ways you can do so:  

• Pray: Pray for God’s provision of resources and technology to complete the project. 

• Provide Resources: Copyright owners can greatly accelerate completion by releasing biblical content under open licenses (like CC BY-SA). Suitable resources will help build out the repository. 

• Get Connected: Contact the Lab at lab@eten.bible with questions, comments, or ideas. 

• Visit the Product Pages: Explore aquifer.bible and well.bible and share with your colleagues.