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Editorial, Walter F. Wolbrecht

Concordia Theological Monthly

Expatriate missionaries in Ogoja province in Nigeria record and record again spoken words and phrases and discourses in tribal languages and area dialects. Wycliffe translators in Middle America invest countless hours in inventing an alphabet or devising a syntax. Bible society linguistic experts in the Philippine uplands or in New Guinea mountain enclaves search ceaselessly for idioms and equivalents as they reduce a language to writing and begin one more distinguished translation task. All these and many others are tackling endemic illiteracy as a formidable barrier in the preliterate or simply illiterate society to the full communication of the Gospel …