local languages clarifies the Christian message for a given people, Sanneh notes: “Scriptural translation rested on the assumption that the vernacular has a primary affinity with the gospel, the point being conceded by the adoption of indigenous terms and concepts for the central categories of the Bible.”57 In the early Christian period, these languages included Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Georgian, and Ethiopic. Nevertheless, the church needed to translate Scripture into other local
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