November 2024
Translating a document as immense as The Urantia Book is a humbling notion. Transferring this English text into the word symbols of Chinese must be downright overwhelming. Richard Zhu discovered this text around 2009 and within five years, translating it into simplified Chinese became a mission that will probably be lifelong. Richard joined us on a Zoom call recently to tell his story of leading this translation effort. Georges Michelson-DuPont, who heads translations for Urantia Foundation, has often said it takes thirty years to do a truly strong translation of The Urantia Book into another language. Richard admits that after ten years of work he believes his team is only halfway done with getting this translation to the level of perfection it deserves. But Richard is in it for the long haul, and we’re grateful. 1.6 billion people read simplified Chinese and will now have access to this revelation in a familiar text. You’ll see in the interview a few samples Richard sent us of how his team translated few terms, as well as a comparison of “simplified” and “traditional” Chinese. The latter, read by the 30 million people of Taiwan and other countries, is also underway.
Getting inside the mind of the individual revelator’s thought process is part of the “art” of doing a translation. This notion appears in Chris Wood’s article on “Soul Growth” in which he offers playful exegesis on a Solitary Messenger’s effort to expand our understanding of that thing we call life. In pretty much every study group I’ve been in there’s laughter at some of the wry phrasing the revelators throw our way, and Chris has an uncanny ear for these things. His presentation of this document at the Baltimore reader conference last March was downright entertaining, and hopefully his wit comes through in his article.
In two other articles we talk about a new, pervasive voice within our movement––a virtual one. Artificial intelligence intersects with many readers’ studies of The Urantia Book, and we’re interested in its use and abuse. In the article “Artificial Intelligence and The Urantia Book” we obtained multiple reader critiques of Chat GPT’s response to “What does The Urantia Book say about democracy?” Becoming a critical consumer of this tool is vital, and I appreciate the students who offered their opinions on how Chat GPT responded. Particularly intriguing is Gabriel Rymberg’s thoughts since he has been working on the technology with his project, The Center for Unity. And Neal Waldrop has some wisdom about the very notion of “does The Urantia Book say anything?”
Michael Zehr follows this article with some insights gleaned from his years of working with AI and ways we can profitably employ these tools in our study of the text.
A new item in this issue comes from Mark Blackham, previous Chief Editor of the Journal. His Urantia-themed crossword puzzle is fun and challenging (think NY Times Wednesday or Thursday crossword level of difficulty) and we hope to make this a regular feature. Mark also gives us a survey of the phrase “Verily, verily” and its 19 occurrences in The Urantia Book, all from quotes by Jesus. We usually do not publish a series of quotes, but this is a particularly intriguing set that yields a comprehensive sampling of Jesus’ teachings and interactions.
One last thing, you’ll see another new feature, “Reader Comments.” We love to hear from readers and to publish thoughts, both complimentary and critical, on the articles appearing in the Journal.
Enjoy this edition, and we look forward to hearing from you.