Good news for the polyglots amongst us. In a collaboration between over 150 Bible Societies, publishers and organisations, the YouVersion Bible app now comprises 1,000 Bible versions in over 700 languages. That means 70 per cent of the world’s population could find a version of the Bible in their language, on the free app.
Bobby Gruenewald, co-founder of the YouVersion app, says “it’s unprecedented in history having so many Bible versions in the palm of your hand – something we never imagined was possible even a few years ago.”
Several of the languages now available on the app are only spoken by a tiny number of people: Huilliche for 2,000 Chilean brothers and sisters, and Ama for 480 speakers in Papua New Guinea. The 1,000th digital Bible translation was Deftera Lfida Dzratawi, a New Testament translated by Wycliffe into Hdi, a language spoken by nearly 45,000 people mostly in Cameroon and Nigeria.
With over 7,100 languages spoken in the world today, this accomplishment represents less than 10% of all spoken languages. United Bible Societies report that of these, 4,455 still have no Scriptures at all, 1,295 have only the New Testament, and 844 have just portions of the Bible. So there’s more work to be done.
Bible Society Australia is supporting the 100 Bibles in 1,000 Days project in 2014 in collaboration with United Bible Societies, supporting three of the translation projects, assisting Bible Societies in the South Pacific, Côte d’Ivoire and Bolivia. The 100 Bibles project has the potential to reach over 500 million people with the word of God. Find out more, here.
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