French translation of Hebrew and Greek texts of the Psalms

 Ce produit pourrait être très utile aux traducteurs et conseillers de la Bible!: 

https://www.editionsbiblio.fr/etudier/traduction/le-premier-livre-des-psaumes-texte-hebreu-et-grec

(ht: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

Le Sycomore: disponible en ligne

For our French-speaking readership (or those interested in the francophone world!), you may be interested to know that a few Cameroonian colleagues have recently published in the latest issues of Le Sycomore. If you are interested, you can now read (in French) about:

• the benefits of discourse analysis (in Numala) 
• the history of the term "tax" in Ezra 4:13, and/or 
• the practice of writing book introductions in Bible translation project(s)  

Ps. In the past, we were required to purchase hardcopy, paper editions of this revue, but I am thrilled to see that they are now making it available online for free. What a gift to the translation community in particular, and to the church (esp. the French-speaking church), in general.

Together for the Gospel En Français!

A thrilling new development for the French-speaking world...

On Oct 21st, D.A. Carson, a French-speaker himself having been born in Quebec, announced that the The Gospel Coalition launched a French-language website.  This now puts many resources in the hands of French-speakers all around the world!

Excerpted from Carson's announcement:

We are merely providing the technical support; the French-speaking editors control the content. They do not propose to simply translate English resources into French. Instead, they hope to highlight and assist the French-speaking church by producing and distributing thoughtful, faithful resources from a variety of sources, including materials they write themselves.
Two men in particular have been and will be instrumental in guiding the Évangile 21 initiative (which is the name given to the Euorpean French version of The Gospel Coalition; the Quebec French organization is called Sola). Aurélien Lang, who currently serves at the Foyer Evangélique Universitaire de Grenoble, will oversee the site while Mike Evans, director emeritus of l'Institut Biblique de Genève, will serve as publication manager. Joining them on the editorial team will be Matthieu Giralt (graphics and video) and Fadi Akl (technical assistance and conference registration). Lang and Evans will oversee a growing group of translators and collaborators committed to the sufficiency of Scriptures and the doctrines of grace. On the background and need for the site, Evans remarks:

In 2012, Don Carson, John Piper, and Henri Blocher were the keynote speakers at a conference held in Geneva based on the theme of gospel-centered ministry. Ever since we have been under pressure to launch a website and continue with regular conferences. We are aware of a keen and increasing sense of interest among the new generation of Christian leaders for resources that will inform and stimulate gospel-centered ministry. It's taken time to get everything on course because we're dependent on the enthusiastic commitment of volunteers. Our debut is modest, but we are aiming to progressively increase the content of the Évangile 21 site in the coming months.

HT: Thanks, Mom!

All Men Seek Happiness...

Blaise Pascal was the French mathematician and philosopher who correctly noted and wrote:

Tous les hommes recherchent d’être heureux; cela est sans exception; quelques différents moyens qu’ils y emploient, ils tendent tous à ce but. Ce qui fait que les uns vont à la guerre, et que les autres n’y vont pas, est ce même désir, qui est dans tous les deux, accompagné de différentes vues. La volonté ne fait jamais la moindre démarche que vers cet objet. C’est le motif de toutes les actions de tous les hommes, jusqu’à ceux qui vont se pendre.

Or in English, if you prefer:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. (Pensées [New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958], 113, Thought #425) 

Francophone Week

10 words are chosen each year as part of a week of celebrating the French language. This year, they chose words largely borrowed from the French and used in other languages: bouquet, coup de foudre, vis-à-vis, cachet, savoir faire, unique, atelier, équipe, protéger, voilà.

How many of the 10 do you recognize?  Beware of the faux amis (false friends)!

Some statistics cited in an article about this week include:

• 220 million speakers of French globally
• 80% of them are in Africa
• Speakers of English outnumber speakers of French 20:1