Wycliffe Associates has released a new translation of the New Testament in a new concept-based language that deaf and blind people across the globe can begin learning in less than a week.
The new notation is called SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation) and it is a symbolic representation of the words in Scripture developed by Wycliffe Associates, a prominent Bible translation organization, over the course of the last four years. SUN aims to provide a pathway to Christ for millions of deaf and blind people who have no other way of effectively communicating with the world.
“This is the first that I have seen or heard of anything like this in Bible translation,” SUN Program Director Lori Jenkins told The Christian Post. “Basically, what we have done is taken the New Testament and broken it down into the main concepts of each of the verses and each of the chapters. For each concept, we have created a symbol.”
The SUN New Testament, which was finished last year, was publicly announced during a late February dedication ceremony in Orlando.
So far, Jenkins said, Wycliffe Associates has printed copies of the SUN New Testament that can be read by deaf people. It is working on producing a 3D version that can be read by those who are both deaf and blind.
According to Wycliffe Associates, SUN has the potential to reach about 56 million people with the Gospel who may not otherwise be able to access it. SUN was developed by a former volunteer named Emily Wang, who was inspired after finding out that over 600,000 people worldwide are both deaf and blind.
Wycliffe Associates estimates that there are 70 million people in the world who are born deaf and about 80 percent of them can’t communicate in their local sign language.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith
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