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by Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance In his keynote address at the recent Global Missional AI Summit, SIL data scientist Dan Whitenack showed a photo familiar to anyone who has ever been around Bible translation: a translator at a project site working on a laptop, using Paratext. Then he showed a picture representing fears of how artificial intelligence will change Bible translation. The photo showed a room full of supercomputers, with no humans in sight. This, he said, does not represent the future of Bible translation aided by AI. “It will not be a computer popping out a Bible,” Whitenack said. “It will look more like this.” And he showed the original picture again — “A Bible translator doing Bible translation with new, advanced tools that come along beside translators and consultants and help them.” Big themes The summit, held 12-14 April at Wycliffe USA in Orlando, Florida, brought together Christians working on the future of AI as it relates to the global church. Sponsors included SIL, Every Tribe Every Nation‘s Innovation Lab, Biblica, American Bible Society, Global Media Outreach and Christian Vision Global. During a week when it was easy to get lost among futuristic thinking, tech jargon and Star Wars references, these were some recurring themes: AI could drastically reduce the time needed to translate a high-quality Bible — maybe by more than half. It could serve as a valuable assistant before, during and after language projects. It could allow translators to see past their own cultural contexts in translating Scripture. AI also could benefit the church with well-designed Scripture engagement tools stocked with incredible amounts of data, offering vast resources in many languages. AI also could cause deep spiritual damage, leaving thousands of languages behind and enabling poorly designed Scripture engagement tools, which could leave Christians lazy and confused with mangled theology. Kind of like a library with no librarians and with all of the books on the floor. Christians need to be involved in developing AI platforms and their underlying ethics. If we are not, these systems could be inherently biased against a biblical view of the world. A reliable guide Elizabeth Robar, founder and director of Cambridge Digital Bible Research, sees AI’s potential to be a reliable guide, pointing translators and consultants to the most-useful resources, quickly. The ideal tool, she said, will be “fully aware of a translation team’s workflow and available resources.” For example, it would know which resources translators commonly consult after drafting. It would be aware of other teams’ related work. And it could make recommendations on how to modify workflow for greater efficiency. “During drafting, the ideal system would be able to look over the shoulder of a translator and provide prompts for necessary decisions,” she said. For instance, it could ask questions during the lookup and checking processes. “If we have an analysis of a text, say, the message of a Psalm, is that message being drawn out?” she said. “These are the emotions that should happen. Do you see that happening in your text? In some ways, this is having a virtual translation consultant.” But always, she emphasised, the technology serves the human translation team – not the other way around. In fact, AI could be built right into a future version of Paratext, which then would serve as the central source that links all of those resources. More ways AI can help SIL’s Whitenack mentioned more things AI will be able to do. Help optimise the order in which books and verses are translated. Rather than simply beginning with chapter 1, verse 1 of a book, for instance, a “golden path” emerges as keywords and phrases are translated. With each subsequent verse and chapter, AI assistance will get better. Give suggestions. As the user is typing and working in a certain verse, they get a pop-up suggestion for translation or reference, based on previous work. This is similar to what Microsoft Word or Google already do, but optimised for Bible translators and embedded in Paratext. Better, faster lookup systems. Whitenack likes the term “copilot” because “it implies that there’s a pilot. There’s still a human at the (controls).” “Translators are good at translating,” he said. “They do this all day long. … But then they get to a point of, What is an ephod? And then it’s just a blocker. They have to stop and search through maybe 17 panes of different resources. So we want a better lookup system for that.” For instance: a translator could ask: “Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Ninevah?” A copilot system under development gives an accurate answer and citation—in this case, the Tyndale Study Notes. Developers envision a near future when AI can translate resources like this into many languages. Pairing existing quality assessment methods with AI. “Radiologists are already being paired with image analyzers to help analyse medical imagery and make diagnoses,” he said. “We should be able to do a parallel thing with AI pair reviewers, where we are able to pick apart a draft and understand various qualities about that draft, missing or added information, clarity or naturalness issues.” Digital publishing and Scripture engagement in many languages simultaneously on websites and social media pages. SIL is working on a chat platform called M2, in which an organisation could add numerous languages to the same bot (which “chats” with the user — like many retail or travel websites do). “This is a foundation for interacting with many different language communities without the operational burden of having to clone 33 bots, connect all the data analytics together, copy all the rules over, manage all the translations,” Whitenack said. “All of that is taken care of here. So you can quickly create a bot that you can run on 33 different Facebook pages, engaging people in 33 languages.” More about SIL’s AI work Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance

Why did God eventually destroy Nineveh? Nahum 1:14: “The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: ‘You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.’” Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, an ancient Mesopotamian civilisation located in present-day Iraq. Rich and powerful, the Assyrians were also known for their cruelty and idolatry. God demonstrated his mercy to the Ninevites by sending Jonah to preach repentance to them (around 760 BCE). At that time, they responded to Jonah’s message, repented, and were saved from destruction. However, the Ninevites did not remain faithful to God, and various prophets, including Nahum, prophesied that they would one day face judgement. Nineveh eventually fell to the Babylonians in 612 BCE, a reminder that while God is merciful, he is also just.

Victor* and Linda* are members of Wycliffe Singapore based in Canada, working on the Bible translation software, TBTA (The Bible Translator’s Assistant). The TBTA team currently comprises about 25 people, mostly part-time, from Canada, US, UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines and, soon, Australia. A few volunteers started work on the project about 12 years ago, but a concerted effort was launched 2 years ago in concert with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We asked them to share about their work. What is TBTA and How Does It Work? TBTA is a computer software that aims to help speed up the process of Bible translation. It does this by combining templates of the text of the Bible with grammatical analysis of the target language to produce a good first draft. This draft is then edited and polished by mother tongue translators (MTTs, native speakers of the target language) for naturalness before testing and eventual publication. The process can be divided into roughly 4 stages: Stage 1: Prepare templates for the text of the Bible. Linda and her team prepare these templates which express the meaning of the Bible text using simple words. This makes it easier to translate the meaning into a target language. They also put in detailed linguistic information. For example, in Acts 8:22, the word “repent” is explicated as: You(Simon)(imp) change your(Simon’s) thoughts and your(Simon’s) actions [so that your(Simon’s) thoughts and your(Simon’s) actions please God]. All these explicated words and sentences are checked by a translation consultant to make sure that the templates remain true to the original text. Victor and his team then encode all the linguistic information for each word in the TBTA program database. About 35% of the templates have already been completed. The New Testament books that have been completed include the gospels and Colossians, with Acts targeted to be done by end-2023. The Old Testament books completed include Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs, Ruth, Jonah and several others. The aim is to complete the templates for all the 66 books of the Bible in the next two-and-a-half years. Once prepared, these templates can then be used with any target language. [Stages 2-4 will have to be done for each target language.] Stage 2: Analyse the grammar of each target language, and compile a lexicon of words found in the Bible. A team, usually comprising a linguist and a MTT, will use everyday sentences to work out the grammar rules of the language. They also compile a lexicon of all the words that are used in the Bible. These grammar rules and vocabulary items are then also entered into the TBTA program. This is already being done for some languages. At present, 24 languages of wider communication (LWCs) have been identified, such as Tagalog, Indonesian Malay, Hindi, Swahili and Khmer. The grammar rules of these LWCs can be tweaked relatively easily for groups of related languages, speeding up the process even more. Stage 3: Generate first drafts. TBTA will produce first drafts using the templates, the grammar rules and the lexicon. At first, the linguist will continue to add to and fine tune the grammar rules of the target language. Eventually, TBTA should be able to generate good drafts without any additional assistance from the linguist. Stage 4: Edit and polish the drafts. The first drafts are edited and polished by the MTTs to make them sound natural. This will also involve various rounds of testing and consultant checking before eventual publication. Sounds Good, but How Well Does It Work? Initial tests with groups of translators have shown that the first drafts produced by TBTA are as good as those produced by experienced MTTs. The MTTs were relieved from the work of producing the initial drafts, and so were able to focus on community testing and naturalness. Ayta Mag-indi, Philippines: The Tagalog grammar rules were tweaked for use with this language. TBTA then produced drafts for the books of Jonah and Ruth. Pastor Dino Abuque, an Ayta Mag-indi translator, said, “[Before TBTA] we would translate the word of God from Tagalog into our language, and it was a long process. Not like now where right away it is in our language and we just have to make it good.” Hear this project: https://youtu.be/GI27Ifo_4dM Gichuka, Kenya: After a few months of online grammatical analysis, the TBTA team visited the MTTs on the field to test run the TBTA generation of a Bible passage. TBTA generated a draft that was so good that Jacob Njagi, a Kenyan Bible translator with 20 years’ experience and who has used other computer-aided translation tools, was amazed. He said that the generated text was “far beyond a first draft”. He judged it to be 90-95% accurate! Hear what Jacob Njagi said: https://youtu.be/q3Xa_n5vNtw A Gichuka MTT (left) working remotely with a TBTA team member (right) on grammatical analysis. (Photo: https://alltheword.org/) Key Benefits of TBTA Reduces the time needed to complete Bible translation for language groups still waiting for God’s Word in their heart language. Enables the MTTs to work more independently. Reduces translation consultants’ workload, enabling translated materials to be consultant checked and published more quickly. In the future, TBTA could be used to help create other materials in minority languages such as literacy tools and health booklets. Victor and Linda’s Future Plans? Victor and Linda are open, when the right time comes, to move on to work on a grammatical analysis of one of the identified LWCs or some other language that is in need of translation. They have some knowledge of one of the identified LWCs, so that is a possible future assignment. Victor completed a Master of Arts in Linguistics at the Canadian Institute of Linguistics to be equipped for Bible translation. Linda* pursued a Certificate in Biblical Studies with a focus on Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) at Trinity Western University. They live and work in Canada with their teenage son who is attending a local public school. *Not the real names. Related articles: Innovation for Minority Languages: The Bible Translator’s Assistant Wycliffe Canada leads software development to speed Bible translation

Storying Training for Sunday School Teachers (February-April 2023) You probably hear and tell stories every day. Young or old, adults or children, we all tell and retell all sorts of things. Some of these stories may be very ordinary, while others may be about things that are important to us. Some stories should be told as accurately as possible because they tell of things that are of great importance. These are also the stories that need to be told clearly to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Are there benefits to telling stories orally, as opposed to writing them down? Certainly, the written word is more permanent, and can be edited and revised until the author is satisfied that it conveys the information clearly and accurately. However, reading a written story does not have the intimacy of hearing someone tell the story in person. Telling a story orally becomes a shared experience between the teller and the listener. And listening to stories told orally may be preferred by many people, including non-believers and children. What about Bible stories? How should we pass them on? Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." The messages of Bible stories are so great that they must be told and retold. Not only do these stories need to be told naturally, clearly and accurately, but they need to be told repeatedly and across generations, because they carry life and power, for they are the very Word of God. Reading stories directly from the Bible is of course one way, but the written word is more formal than the spoken word and may not sound as natural. This past February and March, Wycliffe Singapore organised a four-part training to help Sunday School teachers, who regularly tell stories to their students, level up their story crafting and storytelling skills. Honestly, though, all of us would benefit from improving our storytelling skills – pastors, missionaries, cell leaders, and parents. After all, isn't it also the commission of every Christian to tell stories about God? Here are some points I learned during the training: Firstly, listen to the Bible story, preferably in different available translations, and then try to retell it. After retelling it, internalise the story by taking it into your heart and remembering the details you think are important. You can then interact with the story by creating a storyboard or acting out the story. Secondly, keep in mind who your audience is. Will you be telling it to a group of 3-year-olds, or a group of adults? How much do they already know or understand? What ideas do they already have about the people or the circumstances of the story? Try to identify the parts or words that your audience may not be familiar with, such as places and names in the Bible. You can also think about what additional background information or explanation your audience may need, and how much they are able to understand. After thinking these things through, you can begin to build the story, deciding which parts you think need to be kept or removed, replaced, explained, etc. while staying true to the main messages in the story. Thirdly, ask yourself some important questions: What do you like about the story? Which parts of the story do you have problems with? What can you learn from the story? What are some practical applications of the story? It is important that you, as the storyteller, first learn from the story and allow the Word of God to impact your own heart before telling the story to others. If you want to improve your storytelling skills even more, you can join with others to form a Storying Fellowship Group and work on crafting, internalising and telling your stories together!

Stories from the Field, 2 May 2023 Speaker: Wendy Phung Wendy has served in Thailand and Myanmar since 2007, in a variety of different roles. In response to the need for trauma healing due to the Covid pandemic and other recent events in the region, she joined SIL and the Trauma Healing Institute in 2020 and has been facilitating Bible-based trauma healing groups since then. How Do You Heal a Wounded Heart? When hearts are overwhelmed with intense fear, hopelessness, and horrors, they can be severely wounded. These hurts can hinder them from seeking God, receiving the Word of God, or engaging with the community. Wounded hearts are held captive by the events that caused their trauma, and relive their experiences over and over again. Sadly, most wounded hearts retreat to lonely and dark places. Some people use drugs and alcohol to escape their pain. Some release their hurts by hurting other people. Many times, they find it difficult to engage in their communities as they tend to be jumpy, angry, and quarrelsome. What they need is a safe space for their wounded hearts to take refuge, but often, they may not find such a place. Our society tells us that men are supposed to be strong and keep their feelings to themselves. Christians are not supposed to dwell on their heartbreaking experiences. Well-meaning advice may be: “Pray, and you’ll be okay.” Others advise them to forget the past and move on. In a Zoom event held in May, Wendy Phung shared about Healing the Wounds of Trauma, a resource widely used around the world, developed by a group of Bible translators, pastors, counsellors, and African evangelists in 2001. The book comprises six core lessons which explore these pressing questions: If God loves us, why do we suffer? What are the wounds of the heart? What can help our hearts’ wounds heal? What happens when someone is grieving? How do we bring our pain to Jesus? How can we forgive others? The aim of these questions is to help the wounded hearts find their healing in God and the Bible. They also help the wounded understand and build their identity in Christ. The book has been translated and adapted into 157 languages so as to reach more cultures, and translation into even more languages is ongoing. Wendy highlighted that an important part of the healing process was to be honest about heart wounds. The Bible teaches us to express our feelings openly just as Jesus, Peter, Hannah and the psalmists poured out their feelings in prayer and laments. A wounded heart can never heal on its own. And so, Wendy described how participating in healing groups enables those who are hurt to openly express their tiredness, sadness, irritability, and even worse traumas. These groups are a safe space where the wounded can do all the talking they need to. But more importantly, it is where their wounded hearts can receive help and support, reconnect with God through his Word, and find healing.

Who was Asherah, and what were Asherah poles? Micah 5:14: “I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles when I demolish your cities.” Asherah was a goddess of fertility worshipped by the Canaanite tribes. The Israelites were strictly warned in Exodus 34:13 to “cut down their (the Canaanite’s) Asherah poles” when they entered the Promised Land. However, the worship of Asherah persisted, and warnings were issued repeatedly, with 40 mentions of Asherah in the Bible! Asherah was usually portrayed by a carved tree trunk planted in the ground, hence the name “Asherah pole”. They were often placed on hilltops or in woods, sometimes referred to as “high places” or “sacred groves”. Smaller figurines were placed on altars in homes and worshipped as well. Despite countless warnings from the prophets and the actions of a few God-fearing kings, Israel never completely eliminated the worship of Asherah, and this idolatry was one of the sins for which Israel was judged and exiled.

by Adan Burke with Melissa Paredes, Wycliffe US In 2020 an exciting milestone was reached in the world of Bible translation when the American Sign Language Version (ASLV) of the Bible was completed! After nearly 20 years of work, Deaf Missions and partner organizations finished the complete translation — making ASL the first sign language to have the whole Bible.* With only one full sign language Bible complete, the Deaf represent the largest unreached people group in the world. Today there are more than 350 sign languages known around the world representing 70 million signers. Of this population, less than 2% have encountered Jesus in a language and format they clearly understand. With only one full sign language Bible complete, the Deaf represent the largest unreached people group in the world. But God is on the move, and technology is being developed that could change the landscape of Deaf Bible translation for sign languages around the world. Adan Burke is a sign language partnership specialist at Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. His life was changed when he encountered Jesus through Scripture in a language and format he could clearly understand: ASL. Today Adan plays a vital role in Deaf Bible translation. Read on and learn from Adan as he shares about this exciting new technology called Chameleon! Chameleon: Changing the Way the Deaf Community Discovers Jesus When I was two years old, my parents discovered I was Deaf. With Christ at the center of our home, it wasn’t long before they found a Deaf church for me to attend — ensuring I had access to God’s Word at a young age. By the age of seven, I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, thanks partly to this community of Christian signers. In my work with the global Deaf community, I’ve discovered that less than 2% of the Deaf identify as followers of Jesus. But new technology offered by Wycliffe Bible Translators and our global partners is trying to change that. A new form of motion capture technology can now transform the way we present Scripture to a person who is Deaf. Dubbed “Chameleon” by its creators, the technology features a digital avatar — or animated character — who signs the Bible to the viewer. Sign language Scriptures are delivered in a video format, with someone signing the translated message in the unique sign language utilized by individual people groups. The Chameleon technology captures the movements of a person signing Scripture and converts their appearance to an avatar. Groundbreaking for the global Deaf community, Chameleon is digital, changeable and protects the translator’s identity. Since the invention of sign language, people have been signing to one another in the Deaf community. Unfortunately, in the work of Deaf Bible translation, the person presenting the sign language is automatically associated with the Scripture they are depicting. Using an avatar removes connection to the individual and instead highlights the message. This removes the risk that a signer’s lifestyle, choices or beliefs could ever compromise, and therefore devalue, the Bible’s message. No human is visibly attached to the Scripture verse. The Chameleon technology captures the movements of a person signing Scripture and converts their appearance to an avatar. For years, I have worked as a signer in Deaf Bible translation. People know me as the “Jesus guy” or the guy who signs for Jesus. In fact, the Good Friday passage is one of the most viewed ASL Scripture, and I’m the Jesus guy telling the story of His crucifixion and resurrection. But my goal is for viewers to focus on what the Bible is saying, not on me. Chameleon offers that. Chameleon’s avatar technology also transcends race and culture. As a white man, if I sign the book of Mark, for example, and present it to another culture, I don’t want that culture to assume the Scripture is merely the “white man’s beliefs.” Chameleon’s avatar technology removes that notion, allowing the viewer to convert the avatar to one presenting as from their own culture and nationality — making the translator’s appearance anonymous but identifiable. Using an avatar also protects the translator from incrimination. Some Christians live in places hostile to the gospel. Filming someone in one of these countries while they are signing the Bible can be dangerous. The avatar allows sign language to be presented in countries unfriendly to the Bible while protecting the person responsible for the translation. A win for the Deaf community, Chameleon has taken Bible translation to the next level. Deaf Bible translation requires capturing the intricate details of a rich, visual language as signers are filmed providing the translation. Each gesture and facial expression must accurately and authentically convey the message of Scripture. Any mistake or adjustment currently requires another round of filming, and the process goes on until a passage is approved. But with Chameleon, changes can be made and digitally applied in multiple passages! This is similar to the ability to selectively replace a single word or phrase in Microsoft Word across an entire document. Chameleon allows similar editing and revision. Chameleon now provides the opportunity to get God’s Word into the hands of one of the most unreached people groups across the globe. The core of Chameleon, the avatar, has been in the works for more than 10 years by multiple groups and partners, so it’s not entirely new. As a steward of the technology, Wycliffe has helped it across the finish line. Moving forward, the goal is to have the system in use worldwide. The Deaf community has not always been prioritized in terms of technology until recent years. The global effort that led to the development of Chameleon now provides the opportunity to get God’s Word into the hands of one of the most unreached people groups across the globe. Philippians 2:11 reminds us that one day “every tongue [will] declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NLT). Chameleon advances this truth allowing a previously sidelined group more immediate access to the God of the ages who changes lives. This is the heart of the Great Commission. Every people group worldwide deserves the opportunity to access and engage with the gospel; the Deaf are no exception. I am excited to share this innovative technology with the global Deaf community and witness more people come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because of it. *This is based on the translation standards established by the Forum of Bible Agencies International. The American Sign Language Bible was completed by Deaf Missions in collaboration with partners like American Bible Society, Seed Company, DOOR International, Deaf Bible Society, Pioneer Bible Translators and Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. Chameleon is an innovative technology that has the potential to change the landscape of Deaf Bible translation! Watch this demo video for a glimpse behind the scenes of Chameleon, and join us in praying that God would utilize this technology to accelerate the pace of Deaf Bible translation around the world. Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe US

Bible translation projects don’t just stop at translating and distributing the Bible. Every translation project also involves “Scripture Engagement” or “Scripture Use” elements: enabling and encouraging people to meet God and deepen their relationship with Him as they understand and interact with the Scriptures. This is not limited to the printed form only; with modern technology, the materials are often in audio or video form. The projects supported by the R200 Programme aim to produce a range of different Scripture-based materials and promote their use in the communities and local churches. One project in produces Sunday school materials, Bible storybooks, Big Books, audio CDs with original Christian songs, still picture videos, etc. They also train and equip neighbouring language groups to do the same. A video prepared for children: Jesus restores a demon-possessed man (Luke 8:26-39) Another project has produced Bible story books like this: Jesus calms the storm (Luke 8:22-25)

by Alfred Thompson, Wycliffe UK ‘Forgive me for getting a bit emotional; I just couldn’t believe that your colleagues would spend many years working on a Nastaliq-style Arabic digital font with the hope that Scripture might be translated into this language one day. The devotion, commitment, and sacrifices are what we won’t be able to find in our business and social enterprise. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for what your team has done for our Father and his kingdom! Thank you!’ So said a potential new funding partner in the middle of a meeting in Asia last year. The font she was talking about is called Awami Nastaliq, and it was developed by the Writing Systems Technology team of Wycliffe’s main partner, SIL International. Awami Nastaliq is an Arabic-script font specifically intended for a wide variety of languages of Southwest Asia. Awami is an Urdu word meaning ‘of the people’ and Nastaliq is the name given to the sloping style of Arabic writing which is based on a centuries-old calligraphic tradition and, because of its beauty, has sometimes been called the ‘bride of calligraphy.’ Its sloping beauty (see the image, right) means that it is a much more complex font to render on computers than the flat Naskh-style Arabic font. Peter Martin, who is based in Scotland, was the type designer for Awami Nastaliq, working alongside programmer colleagues Sharon Correll (USA) and Martin Hosken (Asia) to produce the correct shaping for the slope of the font, while avoiding any overlapping of dots and diacritics – no small task. ‘When people start typing the first letter it starts on the base line, but then when the second letter is typed, the first one gets pushed up in the air so the second character is on the base line,’ Peter explains. ‘And that dancing effect continues as the word gets longer. It is bamboozling the first time you see it, but as you work on it, your eye adapts to it and you realise the beauty of it.’ A flat Naskh-style Arabic character usually needs around four shapes to enable it to be typed, but a Nastaliq character typically has more than 20 shapes as it is so fluid and complex. ‘For me as a designer,’ Peter notes, ‘it was very, very daunting. It is by far the most complex project I have ever worked on.’ Peter explains why he does this work: ‘We see font development as primarily a critical component of Bible translation and literacy. However, it is also a service to the wider community in that it is enabling that culture to have a voice in communications – you can’t print books or newspapers, use a mobile phone, or email, or have a website in your language if you don’t have a font for it.’ The Writing Systems Technology team give away for free the fonts they develop, to fulfil this service to the wider community. ‘A number of our fonts have been added to the Google fonts library which gives them huge exposure,’ Peter notes. ‘People download an unbelievable number of our fonts – hundreds of thousands of times. So as well as Bible translation, our fonts are being used for tens of millions of webpages around the world to enable communication that otherwise couldn’t happen in that language.’

How was casting lots used in the Bible? Jonah 1:7b, 12: “They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. … ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.’” Many modern-day Christians frown on casting lots as they regard it as a form of gambling. However, in the ancient world, casting lots was widely used as a way of discovering the will of the gods/God. God instructed the Israelites to cast lots for various reasons – assigning temple duties, assigning land, etc. (Joshua, Numbers, 1 Chronicles). Those who relied on casting lots believed that the result was controlled by God (Proverbs 16:33). In Jonah’s case, he and the sailors all accepted that the result reflected God’s decision, and he offered himself to be thrown into the sea. However, post-Pentecost, Christians need not cast lots to discern God’s will as we have the indwelling Holy Spirit as well as the written scriptures to guide us.