I have been involved in helping with the translation of the New Testament into the language of Mixtec, in southern Mexico, since 1986. That was when I first met Sebastian, whose amazing story I will share in a future blog post.

Being involved in the translation of the Scriptures into another language has presented me with a unique and exciting opportunity: a window into seeing Scripture in ways I might have missed when only looking at it through the eyes and worldview of our my language and culture. I feel especially blessed that my “work” involves intensive Bible studies, pouring over verses with people who speak a different language and who are looking at the Scripture through new eyes, as well as with a different worldview. As we discuss each verse, I gain new insights which I had not gleaned in my previous Bible training, both from seeing it from their fresh perspectives, as well as dealing with the semantic and linguistic requirements of their language which the Hebrew and Greek languages, and in my case, English, do not have.

In fact, the name of this blog is also the name of a paper I gave at the 2009 Bible Translation Conference in Dallas, Texas. In that presentation, I shared what I consider are some really interesting insights into the use of “we” in 2 Corinthians and also a different perspective on 1 Corinthians 13. These insights came as a direct result of seeing the text “through the eyes of Mixtec.” In future blogs I will share what those insights are, as well as new ways of looking at many other Scripture passages.

Please note that my “seeing anew” these passages will be my own personal reflections, and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization I have ever worked with. I invite you to look with me at different Scripture passages over the coming months and see if there is something new about that passage which we have never thought of before when reading it just in English, or even Greek. God bless.