THE PREPARATION PHASE

The preparation phase took two years and included two major steps:

The first step: the planning and organization of the project. During this time an organizing committee was formed which approved the methodology, the translation team as well as the work schedule of the Albanian Old Testament project. The translation team interacted with local pastors and other church leaders all over the country, sharing information and spreading the word about this project. The promotion of the coming Albanian Old Testament translation was successfully carried out by organizing several national pastors’ conferences in different geographical regions of the country, where the main translator Dr. Vladimir Dervishi exposed the church leaders to Bible Translation processes, techniques and the methodology to be applied in this project. The translation team is fully aware that the Albanian Old Testament project will be a success only with the prayers and support of the local and national evangelical church of Albania and Kosovo.

The second step of the preparation phase had to do with decision related with the source languages and the source text, the target language, the outcome product, the time schedule of the project. The source text will be the Masoreti text as found in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the source language will be the Biblical Hebrew. The target language will be standard literary Albanian language. The outcome product will include the Albanian translation of the Old Testament, the study notes, a concordance, a topical index and a theological synopsis. Meanwhile the team will be working on producing a Biblical-Albanian Interlinear version of the Old Testament and an extensive Hebrew-Albanian glossary of the Hebrew words as they appear in the Masoretic text of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

THE TRANSLATION PHASE

The translation phase will include:

I. Preparing the first draft. After a careful and exegetical study of the meaning of the source text, the main translator will produce the first draft translation. The translator(s) will render into Albanian twelve verses per day, will translate the study notes, will build the Biblical Hebrew-Albanian glossary, will alphabetically list the translated words in the concordance and at the same time work on the topical index. The first draft will then be thoroughly checked again together with the linguist-exegete and with other team members.

II. Preparing the second draft. After a careful checking, the first draft will be sent to the reviewers who are based inside the country. In order to have an effective revision of the first draft, the reviewing work will be done through personal interaction as the translator(s) and reviewers meet together to discuss the translation and exchange comments for improvement. The comments generated by the discussion with the reviewers will be carefully and thoughtfully analyzed and considered by the translation team. After the reviewers’ comments have been incorporated in the first draft, then the translated text will be ready for the translation consultant. Someone other then the translator, i.e. another Albanian native speaker will make a back-translation of selected verses. Then the team will check the back-translation and exchange comments with the translation consultant and with other Albanian native speakers. After all this is done, we’ll have a second draft ready for final checking.

FINAL CHECKING AND PREPARATION FOR PUBLICATION

Illustrations and maps: All the illustrations and maps will be translated and edited and prepared for publication at this point. The entire translation team will be involved in this process.

The translator(s) will check for consistency in translation. This will include checking that all proper names of people and geographical places are spelled consistently, that all key biblical terms are, where appropriate and depending on the context, translated consistently. The team of translators will check for consistency in handling numbers, money amounts, weights and measures, as well as the translation of features such as rhetorical questions, figures of speech etc. At this point all the chapters, verse numbers and cross-references will be checked as well as the layout and the format.

A number or pre-selected checkers from various local churches will read through the translation for clarity and naturalness. Meanwhile the translation team will do a final check before the translation goes to the publisher. At this point, the team will check prepublication requirements and be ready for the typesetting phase, which will be carried out together with the computer typesetting specialist.

All that is stated above represents only the surface of the work. There is much more that goes on in a Bible translation project. Much prayer, traveling, sickness, many heartbreaks – and much joy and blessing too, go into the making of a Scripture translation. The translators bring this project before the Lord, praying that our Heavenly Father will bless each step all the way to the finish. We are asking anyone reading this outline to continuously and unceasingly pray for the translators, encourage and support them throughout this project.