Jehovah’s Witnesses’ JW.ORG Reaches 1,000 Languages, Including 100 Sign Languages

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Central Committee has announced that its work to help people become Christian disciples has reached a new milestone. According to the announcement, the total number of articles and audio files on JW.ORG has reached 1,000, of which 100 are in sign language. The source also says the site has a total of 1,000 downloadable languages, and that its home page and other pages can be converted into 821 languages, the most translated in the world.

The source describes a history of translation work for the organization that it dates to the end of the 19th century, saying the effort has made great progress in recent years. Brother Grit Lesch, an older member of the Central Committee, is quoted as describing that history. In a separate statement, Brother Jeffrey Jackson, another older member of the Central Committee, said that in January 2013 the organization had published 508 languages and that, in the following seven years, the total had almost doubled to 1,000.

In August 2010, according to the source, Brother Samuel Hudd, a member of the Central Committee, announced the launch of an Italian sign language edition of a publication that the source calls the “Greek Book of the New World,” available on JW.ORG.

The source states that the translations are done by trained volunteers, many of whom work in remote translation. Brother Ezhak Mare, who serves at the organization’s World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, United States of America, is identified as supervisor of translation services. He said that translating and publishing books in so many languages is not easy and that the work involves many particular problems. He cited cases where the organization wanted to publish in a less widely used language but lacked computer characters for it, so characters and graphics had to be created. He said that after years of effort, hundreds of books and publications had been printed, and that similar difficulties had to be overcome in making them available on JW.ORG.

Brother Clive Martin, supervisor of MEPS programming, described the technical challenge of presenting the same article in hundreds of languages, both in text and layout. He said 21 of the languages are written from right to left and that about 100 are sign languages, for which special page designs were made to make content easier for deaf readers to read. The source also contrasts the organization with commercial websites, which it says usually offer only a few languages for their own benefit, and states that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ goal is to make the Bible available to everyone who wants to hear it in a simple and attractive way. The organization says it praises the Lord for helping “All Nations” become Christians and expresses confidence that it will receive the strength and resources needed to share the good news of the Kingdom with those who seek the truth around the world, until the Lord says the work is done. The source adds that JW.ORG also offers practical Bible-based advice for people from different backgrounds.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Mandarin Chinese)