By Katie O’Malley

Iran (MNN) — AI is helping translate the Bible into Iran’s ethnic languages faster, at a lower cost, and with less risk to translators. This is exciting news because speed matters.

“The race really is to get ready for an open Iran,” says Lana Silk, president and CEO at Transform Iran, “because we are fully anticipating that God is going to shake that nation further and open it up to the gospel in a way that it has never been before.” 

You may have heard that Iran has one of the fastest-growing churches in the world. But Silk says it is mostly happening among Farsi speakers, who have access to Scripture in their language. Today, dozens of languages spoken in Iran have no Scripture available in them.

There’s a real Bible poverty happening across these other [ethnic] people groups,” Silk says. “And the evidence is seen in the impact of the gospel.” 

She says they envision having Bible translations completed and Bibles printed and ready for distribution within Iran — before Iran opens up. 

“I believe it will be too late for the regime to fall, and then for the Church to say, ‘Oh, we want to go into Balochistan. We want to go into Kurdistan. Oh, let’s get a Bible. They don’t have a Bible.’ That will be too late,” says Silk. “By the time we have organized ourselves, we will have lost that prime time window of opportunity to establish the church and to reach the lost when they’re really open to it.”

Transform Iran’s new AI tool is projected to shorten the time needed to complete a New Testament from 18 months to one year. Silk says AI alone could do it in six months, but the ministry is allowing more time. 

We want humans to be involved in the process and make sure that the end result is something that will serve church planting and church formation, and not just be a translation that would sit on a shelf.

One more strength of Transform Iran’s AI tool is that it can be used without internet access. That helps translators in dangerous areas protect their safety and privacy. 

Will you help prepare for an open Iran by investing in Bible translation today? Silk says a few translation teams already have funding and are underway, “but we have several other New Testaments that have teams ready to go that are waiting for enough of a funding boost for us to be able to bring them together and get going.”

Because of AI-driven streamlining, the cost of translating one verse of Scripture has dropped from $35 to $15.

“I invite listeners to consider how many verses could you sponsor to get translated,” says Silk. 

Read how Siroos’ life was transformed through the Word of God

Read more about our Bible Translation work

Visit transformiran.com to learn more and join these translation efforts.

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Aliata Karbaschi via Unsplash.

Inset image stock photo courtesy of Javad Esmaeili via Unsplash.

Originally published on: Mission Network News