How AI is Being Integrated into Church-Based Bible Translation
- ETEN Innovation Lab
- Oct 7
- 3 min read
Where translation, AI, and the church meet.
Over 627,000 chapters of Scripture (across more than 3,000 languages) remain to accomplish ETEN’s All Access Goals. The current trajectory, if unchanged, would see the goals completed in 2041. As we collectively narrow that accessibility gap, pursuing ETEN’s All Access Goals by 2033, we do not face a choice between trustworthiness and pace. Instead, what lies ahead is the exploration of how to best combine trustworthiness and pace in Bible translation.
Among the ETEN Innovation Lab’s current strategic priorities is the exploration of Assisted Translation Technologies (ATT), including the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to assist translators. The Lab is also exploring flexible/scalable Quality Assurance (QA) methodologies to serve emerging translation approaches like Church-Based Bible Translation (CBBT).
At first glance, AI and CBBT might seem to promote opposite perspectives. But we’ve discovered they are complementary strategies.
Church-Based Bible Translation (CBBT) ensures the local church is at the center of the decision-making, resourcing, and quality assessment process of Bible translation. AI is a technology that assists human Bible translators by accelerating their work, improving consistency, and strengthening translation quality. Together, CBBT and the use of technologies like AI offer a pathway where churches can lead the translation process at a faster pace.
Guiding Principles for AI in Church-Based Bible Translation
Adapted from Humans in the Loop: The Design of Interactive AI Systems, these key design principles guide how AI can best support CBBT:
Value human agency: Designing AI systems that harness human preference, taste, and judgment. AI should support translators, as the local church remains the decision-maker at every stage.
Granularity is a virtue: A ‘Big Red Button’ approach, where a technology that reliably delivers the right answers while hiding the process that leads to them, is an all-or-nothing affair that offers little granularity of control. Instead, breaking up the task incorporates human interaction.
Interfaces should extend us: Building tools (things we can learn to use) instead of ‘oracles’, which give us the right answers but withhold an explanation.
How AI Best Supports CBBT
Based on these design principles, AI is most helpful for CBBT to the extent that:
It equips leaders to work in their own language and through the languages of wider communication they understand.
It serves as a tool to strengthen the community’s ability to engage, understand, translate, and check translated Scripture.
It remains available for the community to review and revise their translation after it is finished.
Church and community leaders understand how they can guide and train the AI to improve its results.
It is not aiming for total automation (a.k.a. the ‘Big Red Button’ approach) since this reduces user control. Flexibility is critical for creativity and is fundamental to being a tool.
Humans determine when and how to use the system (or not). Humans can defer to the system whenever they may choose to do so, and can stop the system if they also choose to do so.
It recognizes humans as critical decision makers and more than data gatherers (which does not build up local experience or expertise).
And when AI tools are designed for church-based adoption, they are more likely to be embraced if they:
Do not require technical knowledge to operate.
Are accessible offline (even in a reduced form).
Allow multimodal input and output.
Consider security concerns for difficult contexts.
What This Looks Like in Practice
As technology continues to evolve, multiple AI tools and platforms in Bible translation that align with these principles are in varied stages of exploration (see the appendix for an overview of the stages of exploration and their definitions):
*Fluent is expected to launch by November 2025.
Integrating AI with Church-Based Bible Translation is about equipping the church to lead. By applying these principles and tools, translation teams can move faster without compromising trust or quality.
As we work toward achieving the All Access Goals by 2033, we invite teams to explore how AI and CBBT can work together in their specific context. To learn more or connect with the Innovation Lab, email lab@eten.bible.
Appendix
Stages of Exploration
a. Approaches to ways forward across all Lab priorities may fail or pause at any stage prior to utilization.
b. The Lab's goal is to move approaches to utilization, then influence to see it scale.
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