Your Bible
Understanding the Book in Your Hands
So Many Bibles!
Wow, there are so many Bibles available! If you want to read and study God’s Word, it can be overwhelming to choose one. A quick glance at a bookstore or online sites like Christianbook.com or Amazon shows a vast selection of translations, types, covers, colors, and sizes. How do you make a choice? How do you find the right one?
A word of hope! Just about any Bible you pick up will be a good one. It will be the Word of God. While there are a few bad translations of the Bibles such as The Passion Translation, or the New World Translation, and those which are not real translations but one person’s paraphrase claiming to be a translation like the Message, the vast majority of Bibles you would pick up would be good for studying and reading, using during worship or in a group Bible study. Even with all the different wording in the vast number of translations, the true meaning is still the same. This doesn’t mean some translations aren’t “better” than others. But you don’t need to be anxious about what Bible to buy.
The best place to start is with your church and pastor. What is the translation he uses? It can be very helpful to be able to follow along in your own copy of the Bible translation your preacher is reading from. Yet, it is also good to have other translations to compare with in your private study and reading time. So, talk to your pastor, Bible study leader, deacons, or other Christians about what they use.
In this series of posts, we will give you some basic information we hope will help you wade through the ocean of choices and get you on your way to finding the best Bible for you. In this series we will not cover the various translations but the array of editions which are available. More on translations will come in future posts. But most importantly: start reading and studying your Bible NOW even if it isn’t the “best” one or your “dream one”. Don’t let growing in your faith wait until you’ve done the research and have found the “perfect” Bible. DO BOTH, get into God’s Word now and look for the Bible which really fits you!
Fun Facts
The Bible in World Languages
- Per Wycliffe.net, as of the end of 2020, there are 7,360 languages used by the 7.8 billion people in the world.
- 704 languages with a completed Bible – 5.7 billion people
- 1,551 languages with a completed New Testament (some also have Old Testament portions) – 815 million people
- 1,160 languages with just portions of the Bible translated – 458 million people
- 3,415 languages have a least a portion of a Bible translation. These languages are used by 7 billion people
(Keep in mind back in 2000 the number of languages with at least a portion of a Bible translation was only 2,233. Thus, this is an increase of 1,182 languages with a portion of the Bible since 2000. Those people now have a portion of the Bible in their native tongue! This is amazing progress, a true work of God. This still leaves still 3,945 languages with no Scripture affecting 255 million people. This is less than 3.3% of the world! At the same time, it should be noted many of these people will have some or all of scripture in another language they also speak.)
- 738 languages have work in progress – 65.4 million people
- 1,193 languages are not used enough to plan translation work – 20.8 million people (Keep in mind almost all of these people are multilingual thus these languages are not their only avenue to a translation of the Bible).
- 2,014 languages need translation (or preparatory work) to begin – 167 million people
- In 2017, the app “YouVersion” celebrated making Scripture available in over 1,100 languages.
- The “JESUS” film is available in over 1,500 languages.
What an amazing God we have!
Sale and Distribution of the Bible
- The Bible is still the best-selling Book of all time. The bestseller each year. So much so it is not included in any best-seller list since it would always be number one.
- According to the Guinness World Records, 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold and distributed. 20 million Bibles are sold each year in the US alone.
- Surveys show the average American Christian owns 9 Bibles and wants to purchase more.
- There is a massive upswing in Bible apps in use today. Preachers are using electronic devices and congregations are following along on their phones.
- Gideons International currently distributes over 80 million Bibles annually.
So, while we concentrate on English Bibles in this blog, let us not forget the amazing and gracious work God is doing the world over.
Bible in English Language
- It is important to understand the English translation is vital to the work of spreading God’s Word around the world. Getting God’s Word out to the world centers on English translations because so much of the world, even in areas which do not have their own written language, speak English as a second or third language. Some English translations are even done specifically for persons for whom English is a second language. English translations become the basis for other translations where the missionaries are not strong in original language skills, so they translate the English Bible into indigenous languages. Also, the work of translating the Bible into various languages is underwritten through the sales of some English translation we buy.
- Now no one is able to give an exact number of English translations of the Bible that have been crafted since the first Old English works on portions of Psalms or the Gospels were done. Some early translation work simply no longer exists. Others are not known due to the private nature of the work and/or limited production. It is also difficult to determine what should be counted as a new translation. Does one count only the first version of a translation or do we count the original and each major reversions? What about minor updates? Do paraphrases count as a translation?
- Yet, even with these difficulties, it may blow your mind to know nearly 1,000 translations of the Bible have been done in English.
- Since 1900, it has been estimated over 400 English translations have been made.
- In 2020, there were a number of revisions to major translations.
- The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) came out with a minor revision in 2020.
- The New American Standard Bible (NASB) did a major update in 2020. The first revision of the NASB since 1995.
- 2020 even saw at least one new translation, the Literal Standard Version (LSV).
Even this year, 2021, has seen a new translation of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) a revision of the NASB. The whole bible is expected in the later part of this year.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg