My Experiences with the Spanish Revision

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Jaime Rey, Bogotá, Colombia

The Urantia Book came into my life in late 2007, when I was 53 years old and after following a 35-year trajectory of spiritual searching and doctrinal studies. Born in a Catholic family, with three years of seminary, one in an esoteric sect, and 35 years of service in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was stunned by its table of contents and the wealth of information provided. But I promised myself not to judge the book until I finished reading it.

While my personal foundation of truth was greatly challenged, the Spirit of Truth testified in my mind and in my heart about the book’s veracity. I began to feel obligated to share this wonderful revelation with my family and friends, especially with spiritual truth seekers.

I continued studying it many times in a row, read a history of its origins, and concluded that its content defended itself and that everything else was irrelevant. I began giving talks for Urantia Association in Colombia and organized serious efforts to disseminate the teachings, including two in-person study groups, multiple online study groups, several courses, and videos on YouTube.

During this time, I met Flor Robles, who joined me in producing and presenting over one hundred online videos and courses. We developed our own methodology and tools to study The Urantia Book. We were soon joined by Paula Padilla from Mexico and Javier Martinez from Spain.

Our efforts have borne fruit beyond our expectations. Our videos have been seen by close to half a million people on YouTube. We are grateful that our efforts have led to the emergence of new leaders and instructors who have, in turn, created their own and diverse groups in Bogotá, Miami, Peru, and Canada.

A couple of years ago, I was invited to join the Spanish revision consulting group, a focus group of experienced readers that provided feedback on the revised text of El libro de Urantia, then in the making.

It was a great blessing and privilege to see the quality of work done by the revision team, a group of experienced readers led by Carmelo Martínez. The group’s feedback was provided via the translators and revisers website, which contained the original English papers, the 1993 text, the European edition, and the suggested revised text.

Using standard and translation dictionaries such as the Royal Spanish Academy of Language, Merriam-Webster, the Cambridge Dictionary, and the Oxford Dictionary, each member of the focus group read a series of sample papers and made recommendations. Our compiled comments were returned to the team of revisers and their professional copyeditor. My personal experience providing feedback on 20 revised papers was thrilling. My primary motivation throughout this effort was being aware that many students will soon start using the new, improved revision.

When this new and unified text of El libro de Urantia comes out later this year, we will continue to support the efforts of Urantia Foundation. After all, the revelators were very clear that this book will be for the next thousand years and that what we are doing is planting the seeds and preparing future instructors.

Our goal is to motivate new and old students to use the new translation and understand and recognize the substantial effort made by Urantia Foundation to provide us with a translation that reflects Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.