"On January 4, 2012, Biblical Missiology sponsored an online petition called “Lost In Translation: Keep ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ in the Bible” on change.org. This petition asked Wycliffe, Frontiers and SIL to commit in writing to preserve the terms “Father,” “Son,” and “Son of God” in the text of their Bible translations. In response, Wycliffe sent a document to their staff, as well as to some of the signatories of the petition, rejecting the assertions of the petition. The following is a response by Biblical Missiology, with input from current and former staff of these agencies, global pastors, translators, linguists, missiologists and theologians with significant experience on the issue..."


Download the PDF response here.

A new online petition has been created, asking Wycliffe, SIL and Frontiers to commit their agencies to keeping Father,Son and Son of God references  intact in translation work. The petition reads:

To Leaders of Wycliffe, Frontiers and SIL:
The agencies you represent have a heritage that the entire Christian community can rightly be proud of. However, your good name is at risk. According to your own statements in publications such as Christianity Today and World magazine, your agency is responsible for the production of Bible translations that remove “Father,” “Son” and/or “Son of God” from the text of Scripture. This must stop. With this petition I am asking you to commit in writing that your agency will not support any translation that removes or replaces “Father,” “Son” or “Son of God” from the text, when referring to God the Father or God the Son. 

Deuteronomy 4:2 says, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” Taking away “Father” and “Son” from God’s own words changes our understanding of God and his ways. In particular, doing so obscures the eternal Sonship of Jesus and the good news that “the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). 

Further, these translations compromise the essence of the gospel itself: the self-sacrifice of God the Son on our behalf, and the offer of an eternal relationship with God. 1 John 4:15 says, “whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” How can those in need of the gospel respond to the promises of God, if they don’t know him as Father, Son and Spirit? 

When faced with obstacles to the gospel as great as any Christians face today, the apostle Paul declared, “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2). Translations that remove “Father” and “Son” from the text tamper with God’s word. With this petition, I am asking you to explicitly pledge not to produce such translations. 

And thus may the truth of God’s word continue to be an “open statement” to all in need of the gospel. 


Please add your name to the growing list of those calling Wycliffe, SIL and Frontiers to put an end to this practice by signing the petition.

Here is a PDF chart which shows how The Lives of the Prophets/Stories of the Prophets (the first part of a Wycliffe Bible Translation project termed, "An Audio Panoramic Bible For the 10/40 Window") eliminates filial language from the audio text in its account of Jesus Christ's life.