The relationship between common grace and Bible translation

The relationship between common grace and Bible translation hinges on a fundamental theological question: whether human cultural work—including the linguistic labor of translation—reflects divine enablement or human responsibility before God.

Common grace represents God’s benevolent action extended universally, enabling sinful humans to develop knowledge and cultural achievements[1]. Within this framework, Bible translation appears as a divinely-supported human endeavor. Translation serves as an initial step in fulfilling the Great Commission and constitutes a form of teaching itself[2]. More specifically, the Holy Spirit’s work—which empowered Peter to communicate across linguistic barriers at Pentecost—continues blessing God’s word even when transmitted through translation[2].

However, we reveal a conceptual tension worth noting. Some theologians propose reframing common grace as a “theology of cultural wisdom” to avoid misleading connotations inherent in the grace terminology[3]. The distinction matters: wisdom development—what humans create from creation’s order—represents work for which they remain accountable to God[3], rather than primarily a divine accomplishment. Applied to translation, this suggests translators bear genuine responsibility for their linguistic choices, not merely as conduits of grace but as stewards of meaning.

Since translations are rarely perfect and meaning is nearly always lost in the process, believing scholars must continually return to original languages to improve translations over time[2]. This ongoing refinement reflects both the limitations inherent in human linguistic work and the legitimate expectation that translators exercise careful stewardship. Rather than viewing translation as passively receiving common grace, the relationship might be better understood as human craftspeople laboring within a divinely-sustained order, accountable for fidelity to the source text while acknowledging that perfect equivalence remains impossible.

[1] C. Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 24–25.
[2] John Frame, “Bible Translation,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018). [See here, here, here.]
[3] William A. Dyrness, The Facts on the Ground: A Wisdom Theology of Culture (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 26–27.